Robert E. Lee

Rather solemn - in fact, he told his men to stop cheering.

He could feel that it was a historic moment, and it brought out the noble side in what was normally a very plain character.

He gave remarkably lenient terms to Lee - no jailings or hangings, on condition that his men handed in their weapons and signed the pledge not to take up arms against the USA.

Yes. Of the greatest American generals ever, Lee may not be in a class by himself, but it does not take long to call the roll.

Lee was always outnumbered, had only slender resources to work with, was greatly hampered by numerous difficulties, of supply and transportation, lack of arms and equipment, and food. At times thousands of his soldiers were barefoot.

But even against the odds and working against all these difficulties, Lee not only survived but won battles, and came near to winning the war against a determined foe.

Lee originally proposed the invasion of Pennsylvania to Davis as a means of siphoning troops away from the Siege of Vicksburg. He believed, perhaps erroneously, that he needed to win an offensive campaign on Northern soil in order to frighten the Northern politicians into suing for peace. He was also spurred on by his incredible victory at Chancellorsville to take incredible chances to achieve victory.

Lee had been acting as Davis' military advisor when Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Oaks. Lee accepted the command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Only in the last year of the war did he accept overall command of the southern forces, possibly because he felt he had no other choice.

He was in command of his own Army - the Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, (Virginia) on April 9, 1865

Custis, she was descended from Martha Washington's family. Arlington, their estate, was her ancestral home.

Lee actually did this twice, during the Antietam campaign of 1862 and the Gettysburg campaign of 1863.

In 1862, the Union forces had enjoyed an unbroken string of successes during the first half of the year, and it looked as if the war might soon be over. In the east McClellan had his huge Union army at the very gates of Richmond, so close his men were setting their watches by the church bells in town. Lee took command of the southern army opposing him June 1, 1862, and by hard fighting over the next two months drove the Yankees away and transferred the "seat of war" nearly one hundred miles northward, where the Confederates won another victory at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run). The question was what to do next. Though the Confederate army had occupied this area for a few months in the summer of 1861, their supply situation had always been precarious, as they depended on one single-track railroad to bring supplies from the south. Now this railroad was destroyed, so they could not stay more than a few days at Manassas. If they withdrew to the south, it would look like a retreat, when they had just won a smashing victory. If they went west to the Shenandoah Valley, there were foodstuffs, but this would take them away from the war and open the path back to Richmond to the Union army. To the east was Washington DC, now heavily fortified and ringed with imposing earthwork forts, and probably invincible. The only remaining move was north, over the Potomac. At this time Great Britain and France were considering official recognition of the Confederate government. Had they recognized the Confederacy, this probably would have insured Confederate independence. So moving north was risky because it meant taking Lee's army even further away from dependable sources of food and ammunition, and because if they had to fight a large battle in northern territory, and lost, they might cost the Confederacy its chances of international recognition. And, if they lost badly enough that their army was destroyed, then there would no longer be any Confederate force in the east to prevent the Union forces from going anywhere they wished. As they moved north a copy of Lee's orders fell into McClellan's hands, and he moved to resist the Confederates. Lee refused to leave Maryland without fighting, so the Battle of Antietam took place. It was a narrow thing, but McClellan fought poorly and missed a chance to destroy Lee's army and end the war then, in September 1862. Lee's army escaped back to Virginia, but the result was enough to cause Great Britain and France to withhold recognition of the Confederacy at that time, and they never came close to doing so again. Lincoln had been waiting for a Union victory to afterward announce his Emancipation Proclamation, and Antietam was close enough. This helped to insure that Great Britain and France would never recognize the south, as this would make them appear to be pro-slavery, in the wake of Lincoln's Proclamation.

In 1863 the Confederates again faced a decision on their next move. They had won another stupendous victory at Chancellorsville in early May. Lee's army could have stayed where it was, but, if they did, there was a powerful block in the southern government and army who thought that if Lee was not going to be actively campaigning, he should detach a large portion of his army as send it to Mississippi, where Grant was tightening his siege of Vicksburg. Lee was very reluctant to see his army so reduced in strength, when the Yankees always had larger forces to begin with. If the Yankees had tried again to attack after he had sent reinforcements west, he might not be able to stop them again. So Lee was able to prevail in the southern strategic council sessions and gain approval for another invasion of the north. Reasons given included taking the war away from the farmers of Virginia so they could get in a harvest, and instead impoverishing the farmers of Maryland and Pennsylvania to feed his army and the Union force (any army nearby was very bad news for farmers), and Lee also boldly hoped to be able to badly defeat the Union forces on their own soil and "conquer a peace". There was no real hope of foreign recognition by this time. Lee realized, though, that simply continuing to await Yankee onslaughts in the south would eventually use up all southern manpower. If they were to win the war, they had to do something dramatic to cause the Yankees to give up. This was very risky on several counts. A Civil War army without a supply line had to keep moving, "living off the land" (robbing farmers). To "forage" (rob farmers) the army had to spread out over a wide path as it moved. If the enemy appeared in force, the army would have to concentrate and remain in one spot, and thus would be unable to forage for food. The Confederates would also have no reliable means of resupplying their ammunition. So, if Lee was unable to "conquer a peace" while his army was in northern territory, SOONER OR LATER THEY WOULD HAVE TO RETURN TO VIRGINIA. When they did, it was going to look like a retreat. Retreats were always demoralizing to the people and the army. In this sense, the Gettysburg campaign was more a gigantic raid than a true invasion, because more than likely, sooner or later the Rebels would have to pull back. Also going into the north involved a decision NOT to send reinforcements to Vicksburg. The day after Gettysburg ended, Grant captured Vicksburg, and the Union gained complete control of the Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two.

cause he can take advantage of LEEs army and take him as condfederacy prison

Richard Henry Lee was a great uncle to Robert E. Lee. Verified thru geocities.

Robert E. Lee, when he had to surrender the Civil War to Ulysses S. Grant, April 9 , 1865.

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It was from a quote by Robert E. Lee in his final battle leading a Confederate Army. Told that there was no way to fight their way out of Appomattox, he reportedly said, "Then there is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths."

Shortly thereafter, he wrote to Grant and the two met at a nearby residence, where Lee surrendered his forces. This marked the effective end of the US Civil War.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had confronted General McClellan during the Peninsula campaign in June of 1862. He was well aware of his talents and his weaknesses. Lee was also aware of the fact that McClellan had been reinstated as the commander of the Army of the Potomac. Despite all of this, Lee believed that McClellan was an able general, but a very cautious one.Lee had just badly beaten the Army of the Potomac in the second Battle of Bull Run, when it was led by the now deposed Union General Pope. It was Lee's belief that he had ab advantage in that his forces were in high spirits and that McClellan's Army of the Potomac had to be demoralized and disorganized after its recent defeat at Bull Run. He was confident that his raid into Maryland would yield positive results.

That would be Thomas Jonathan Jackson, also known as "Stonewall Jackson"

When Stonewall dying due to infection due to losing his left hand at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Lee Sent a message saying "Give General Jackson my affectionate regards, and say to him: he has lost his left arm but I my right"

Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S.Grant on April 9th 1865. This effectively ended the Civil War. It took a few weeks for other Confederate forces to also surrender.

Robert E. Lee joined the Military after he graduated from West Point in

1828.

Robert Edward LeeJanuary 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870 (aged 63)

He was a Confederate general

As the top man, he has to be blamed.

Other factors:

His closest colleague, James Longstreet, did not feel wholehearted about the campaign in general, so he was in low morale.

Cavalry leader Jeb Stuart had been absent for most of the battle, so Lee could not be briefed on the enemy's position.

Also Lee's health was starting to fail, and he was not feeling well during the three days of the battle.

Robert E. Lee thought that it wasn't right, but he was still with the Confederates. This was because he didn't want anything to happen to his precious Virginia. So He wasn't that bad of a guy just fought for the wrong team

The Land Ordinance of 1785 was used to separate the slave states or "southern states from the non-slave states or "northern states." Hope this helped. From your friend.... Raven Xerxes.

No. Gettysburg was fought on July 1-3, 1863 and he didn't surrender until April 14, 1865. General Lee realized that he could not continue to fight not support his troops while they were in Pennsylvania, so he retreated back to Virginia. General Lee did not resign after the battle. Lee's army escaped and managed to return to Virginia.

a lot of people got killed

Before the war in a letter to his wife he described himself as "very solitary" writing that his only true companions were his "dogs and cats". According to the lonely calvary officer, his dog went with him to his office each morning and lay down "from eight to four without moving".

During his U.S. army days Lieutenant Colonel Lee once crossed the "narrows" between Fort Hamilton and Staten Island, New York.Halfway over the body of water he spied a female dog with its head partly above the waves. He rescued her, named her Dart, and took her home with him.

One of her puppies once jumped out high window to join the family at church. Lee was so impressed by the dogs valor that he allowed him to "go into the church afterwards, whenever he wished".

The only animal Lee ever took to war however was a hen named Nellie who followed him on every one of his campaigns. Legend has it that the hen would lay one egg under Lee's cot each morning, providing him breakfast.