Military Commander Robert Edward Lee: Triumphs and Defeats
Robert Edward Lee was an enigmatic and controversial historical figure defined by his actions during the American Civil War era. However, there is little focus or even teachings on Lee’s life prior to the Civil War. Popularly known for his strategies, tactics, and various exploits and battles during the Civil War, his military prowess before the Civil War began gave him the skills and fortitude to serve as the leader of the Confederate Army.
Born on a plantation in Stratford Falls, Virginia, Lee’s family had historical ties with the American military and political system, as his father was a commander that fought in the Revolutionary War and his mother was a widow to a governor. Following the family’s military tradition, Lee entered West Point around 1825 when he was just 18 years old. During his time at West Point, Lee studied engineering, trained in various combat strategies, finished second in his class, and given his studies, became part of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Graduating in 1829 around the time of his mother’s death, Lee was first stationed in Georgia at Fort Monroe. Shortly before beginning his service, Lee married a woman by the name of Mary Curtis, who later changed her name to Mary Lee after she joined Robert in 1831. For the next 30 years of his career, Robert E. Lee distinguished himself as a man of prowess and determination, serving in high regard during the Mexican-American War, and after many battles on the frontier, eventually returning to West Point to run the academy. The focus of this paper only will review Robert E. Lee’s life from the beginning of the American Civil War to the eventual surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
This paper seeks to understand Lee’s career as a military commander throughout the Civil War and understand how he became a legendary general. Lee’s first commission during the Civil War was as commander of the Virginia forces in the Confederate Army. His first battle commanding Confederate forces was at Cheat Mountain in Western Virginia. Faced with difficult circumstances, the battle was an utter failure for the Confederate Army. After the Battle at Cheat Mountain, Lee was tasked with defending Savannah, Georgia. Lee built his defense of the city by leveraging the military garrisons at Fort Pulaski and Fort Jackson. Additionally, utilizing his engineering knowledge, Lee had his army dig moats around the city as well as stationed multiple batteries of men at river entrances. Despite numerous Union Ironclads ships and other naval forces, Lee’s tactics prevented the Union’s military forces from reaching Savannah until 1864. Even though Lee was successful in preventing the Union from capturing Savannah, once Fort Pulaski was captured by the Union army, Confederate leadership became unimpressed at Lee’s leadership and mocked his use of trenches around Savannah as “unnecessary.”
Lee was next assigned to lead the Confederate forces of Northern Virginia, as the prior commander, General Joseph E. Johnson, suffered destruction to Union Army George McClellan. Upon taking the opportunity, Lee renamed the division “The Army of Northern Virginia.” The first major battle for The Army of Northern Virginia was the Seven Days Battle, which took place between June 25 and July 1, 1862. His nickname was “Granny” for his timid nature, Lee’s tactics led his army to defeat the Union. He kept the momentum at the Second Battle of Bull Run, pushing Union forces almost 82 miles back. This allowed Lee to push his Army forward and invade Pennsylvania and Maryland. However, Lee’s push was met with resistance, specifically at the Battle of Antietam, where the Confederate and Union forces fought to a bloody stalemate. As a result, the Confederate Army moved back into Virginia.
After the Battle of Antietam, the Union Army replaced General McClellan with General Ambrose Burnside, who then led his army towards what would be known as Fredericksburg, Virginia. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Lee experienced good fortune as the Union Army’s approach was delayed. Lee used this opportunity to make Fredericksburg impregnatable and as a result, was able to succeed in pushing back the Union Army and holding the city. In one of the most-sided battles of the Civil War, there were 12,600 Union casualties to a few thousand Confederate losses After this victory, Lee reportedly said, 'It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it. At Fredericksburg, Lee's best-known quote was 'spirit of war, where destructiveness took on its own beauty.'
After the bitter defeat at Fredericksburg, President Lincoln named Joseph Hooker commander of the Army of the Potomac. In May 1863, Hooker maneuvered to attack Lee's army via Chancellorsville, Virginia. However, Hooker was defeated by Lee's daring maneuver, where Lee divided his army and sent Stonewall Jackson's corps to attack Hooker's flank. Lee won a decisive victory over the larger Union but suffered heavy casualties, including Jackson, his finest corps commander, who was accidentally killed by his own troops.
After Lee's convincing victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville, the decision was made to move north in May to June of 1863 rather than head west. The western front was crumbling, as multiple, uncoordinated Confederate armies were unable to handle General Ulysses S. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg. The brass Confederate military advisers wanted to save Vicksburg, but Lee persuaded Davis to overrule them and authorize yet another invasion of the North. The immediate goal was to acquire urgently needed supplies from the rich farming districts of Pennsylvania; a long-term goal was to stimulate peace activity in the North by demonstrating the power of the South to invade. Lee's decision proved a significant strategic blunder, cost the Confederacy control of its western regions, and nearly cost Lee his own army as Union forces cut him off from the South.
In the summer of 1863, Lee marched his army through western Maryland and into southern Pennsylvania. His army encountered Union forces under George G. Meade at the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. With some of his subordinates being new and inexperienced in their commands, J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry being out of the area, and Lee being slightly ill, Lee was less than comfortable with how the battle started. While the first day of battle was controlled by the Confederates, General Ewell failed to take key terrain. As the battle raged on into its second day, the Confederates were unable to break the Union position, resulting in the Union Army taking up better battlefield positions. On the third day and against the judgment of his best corps commander General Longstreet, Lee decided to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line. Known as Pickett's Charge, the attack was repulsed and resulted in heavy Confederate losses. The general rode out to meet his retreating army and proclaimed, 'All this has been my fault.' Lee was compelled to retreat. Despite flooded rivers that blocked his retreat, Lee escaped Meade's ineffective pursuit. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Jefferson Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request. That fall, Lee and Meade met again in two minor campaigns that did little to change the strategic standoff. The Confederate Army never fully recovered from the substantial losses incurred during the three-day battle in southern Pennsylvania. The historian Shelby Foote stated, 'Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having Robert E. Lee as commander.” Lee was never able to recover from his defeat at Gettysburg. After Gettysburg, the armies engaged in battles throughout 1864, with the Confederate Army either fighting to a deadlock or suffering minor defeat.
As the war continued, the Confederate Army experienced a manpower problem and the issue of arming the slaves became paramount.
As the Confederate army was devastated by casualties, disease, and desertion, the Union attack on Petersburg succeeded on April 2, 1865. Lee abandoned Richmond and retreated west. Lee made an attempt to escape to the southwest and join up with Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. However, his forces were soon surrounded, and he surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, at the Battle at Appomattox Court House. Other Confederate armies soon followed right after.
The day after his surrender, Lee issued his final address to his army. Lee resisted calls by some officers to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war. He insisted the war over and energetically campaigned for inter-sectional reconciliation. After the war, Lee was not arrested or punished, but he did lose the right to vote as well as some property. Lee's ancestral home, the Custis Lee mansion, was seized by Union forces during the war and turned into Arlington cemetery, and his family never compensated until 10 years after Robert E. Lee had passed away. Robert E. Lee was a figure like no other and he lead a life that was filled with action, triumph, and some defeat as well. However, his life and military experience shaped the South for decades and is well known throughout the land as someone to be revered.
