5 paragraph essay on robert e lee

General Robert E. Lee Library of Congress. Robert E. Lee summary: Confederate General Robert E. Lee is perhaps the most iconic and most widely respected of all Civil War commanders. Though he opposed secession, he resigned from the U.

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Robert E. In February he was given command of all the Southern armies. On both sides, Robert E. His father, Col. Despite his aristocratic connections, Lee lacked the advantages of wealth as a boy. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, the most successful of the Southern armies during the American Civil War , and ultimately commanded all the Confederate armies. As the idol of the defeated Confederacy , Lee became an enduring symbol for people of the American South.

Lee spent several months recuperating from the physical and mental strain of the war and then, without income at age 58, became the president of Washington College later Washington and Lee University in Lexington , Virginia. A surprisingly progressive educator, he employed his lifelong practices in economy to put the institution on sound financial footing.

Robert Edward Lee was the fourth child of Col. On both sides, his family had produced many of the dominant figures in the ruling class of Virginia. Henry had been a cavalry leader during the American Revolution , a post-Revolution governor of Virginia, and the author of the famous congressional memorial eulogy to his friend, George Washington. With all his aristocratic connections, Robert lacked the advantages of wealth. His father had no aptitude for finance and, dying when Robert was a child, left in straitened circumstances an ailing widow with seven children.

Robert, the youngest boy, was the closest of the children to his mother and was deeply influenced by her strength of character and high moral principles. All reports of his childhood and youth stress that the pinched gentility of his formative years, in such marked contrast to the life on the great plantations of his kinspeople, was a strong influence goading him to excel at whatever task he was assigned.

Unable to afford a university education, Lee obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point , where his high aspirations and native gifts produced what a fellow cadet and future Confederate general, Joseph Johnston , called his natural superiority. Always near the top of his class, he won the appointment to corps adjutant, the highest rank a cadet could attain, and was graduated second in his class in Commissioned into the elite engineering corps, later transferring to the cavalry because of slow advancement in the engineers, he did the best he could at routine assignments and on relatively uninspiring engineering projects.

Not until the Mexican-American War —48 , when he was a captain on the staff of Gen. In October , while on leave at Arlington, Virginia, to straighten out the entangled affairs of his late father-in-law, he was ordered to suppress the slave insurrection attempted by John Brown at Harpers Ferry , Virginia now in West Virginia.

Although Lee put down the insurgency in less than an hour, the very fact that it was led by a white man made him aware of the gathering crisis between the North and the South. Lee was back at his command in Texas when, on February 1, , Texas became the seventh Southern state to secede, and, with the rest of the U. Army forces, he was ordered out of the state. Without a command, he returned to Arlington to wait to see what Virginia would do. On April 18 he was called to Washington and was offered command of a new army being formed to force the seceded states back into the Union.

Abraham Lincoln called on Virginia to furnish troops for the invasion. A Virginia convention, which had previously voted 2 to 1 against secession, now voted 2 to 1 against furnishing troops for an invasion and to secede, and Lee resigned from the army in which he had served for 36 years. He explained his decision in a letter to his sister Anne Marshall:. Now we are in a state of war, which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a state of revolution…and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed…I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native state.

With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the Army, and, save in defense of my native state, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.

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robert e. lee Essay. Words5 Pages. Robert E. Lee, who was considered to be the greatest soldier fighting for the Confederate States of America. Robert E Lee essays Robert E. Lee, who was considered to be the greatest soldier fighting for the Confederate States of America, descended from a long line of.

Even though Robert E Lee was a southern general, he was still a notorious general. Although General Robert E Lee was considered the most loathed general of his time, he had outstanding job skills, overcame a horrifying childhood, and most importantly had a magnificent moral upbringing, to make him into a notorious general. Robert E.

Robert E.

George Pickett was a U. A controversial figure during and after the Civil War, Pickett lived his later life as a farmer and insurance agent. He died in at the age of

Robert E. Lee

Lee wrote to The New York Times, seeking a correction. And he implied that he would free them within five years. The letter is one of many written by Lee that sheds slivers of light on his thoughts about slavery. Historians have clashed — and are clashing still — over the strength of his support for the system of forced labor that kept millions of people in bondage for generations. Now that statues of Lee and other Confederate leaders are the focus of an intensely heated national debate , the issue is an especially pertinent one. In his will, Ms.

General Robert E. Lee's "Lost Order" No. 191

Robert E. Lee came to military prominence during the U. Civil War, commanding his home state's armed forces and becoming general-in-chief of the Confederate forces toward the end of the conflict. Though the Union won the war, Lee earned renown as a military tactician for scoring several major victories on the battlefield. He went on to become president of Washington College, which was renamed Washington and Lee University after his death in A Confederate general who led southern forces against the Union Army in the U. Lee was cut from Virginia aristocracy. His extended family members included a president, a chief justice of the United States and signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Robert E.

Lee who was the commanding general of the Army of Northern Virginia during the war. He was known for leading a rag tag, under armed and poorly supplied army against a much larger foe and winning many battles. He was a graduate of West Point and one of the most highly regarded military minds when the war initially broke out.

What Robert E. Lee Wrote to The Times About Slavery in 1858

The Civil War. Lee realized there was little choice but to consider the surrender of his Army to General Grant. After a series of notes between the two leaders, they agreed to meet on April 9, , at the house of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. The meeting lasted approximately two and one-half hours and at its conclusion the bloodliest conflict in the nation's history neared its end. A running battle ensued as each Army moved farther to the West in an effort to out flank, or prevent being out flanked by the enemy. Finally, on April 7, General Grant initiated a series of dispatches leading to a meeting between the two commanders. Lee, Commanding C. The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant, Lieutenant-General" The note was carried through the Confederate lines and Lee promptly responded: "April 7th,

Click for details. Robert E. A copy of the order having been lost, was recovered by Union soldiers of the 27th Indiana on the Best Farm in Maryland. The order provided the Union Army with valuable information concerning the Army of Northern Virginia's movements and campaign plans. Upon receiving Lee's "Lost Order", Maj. George B. The citizens of Fredericktown being unwilling while overrun by members of this army, to open their stores, in order to give them confidence, and to secure to officers and men purchasing supplies for benefit of this command, all officers and men of this army are strictly prohibited from visiting Fredericktown except on business, in which cases they will bear evidence of this in writing from division commanders. The provost-marshal in Fredericktown will see that his guard rigidly enforces this order. Major Taylor will proceed to Leesburg, Virginia, and arrange for transportation of the sick and those unable to walk to Winchester, securing the transportation of the country for this purpose.