Robert Edward Lee

Robert E. Lee
Lithograph by Strobridge & Co Lith, created between 1860 and 1870

Robert Edward Lee (born January 19, 1807 on the Stratford Hall Plantation , Virginia ; † October 12, 1870 in Lexington , Virginia) was Colonel in the US Army and the most successful general in the Confederate Army until 1861 . His most important command during the American Civil War (1861-1865) was the supreme command of the Northern Virginia Army . Finally, in January 1865, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Confederate Army. He established his fame with numerous victories, which he achieved with inferior forces mostly by shifting focus.

After the Civil War he campaigned for reconciliation between the warring parties and was President of what is now Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Lee is still partially revered as a hero today, not only in the southern states .

Family life

Parental home, childhood and youth

Lee came from a long-established and respected family in Virginia. His father Henry Lee , called Light-Horse Harry , had distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War and won the recognition of George Washington . He was also a temporary member of the US Congress and Governor of Virginia. For financial reasons Robert Edward Lee could not study at Harvard like his brother , but was taught at private schools in Alexandria , Virginia and specifically prepared for the appointment to the military academy in West Point , New York , which took place in 1825.

Marriage and children

In 1830, Lee met Mary Anna Randolph Custis , a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington , while on home leave . Her father, George Washington Parke Custis , was skeptical of the relationship because he knew the Lees' financial misery and feared that Lee would not be able to offer his daughter the usual standard of living on a lieutenant's salary. The marriage nevertheless took place on June 30, 1831. Lee lived with Mary and her father at the Custis Mansion ( Arlington House ) on the banks of the Potomac in Arlington , Virginia, across from Washington, DC The marriage had four daughters and three sons.

Mary fell seriously ill with rheumatic osteoarthritis in 1850 and was unable to accompany her husband to his various locations. The marriage was considered happy and the two spouses were believed to be loyal to each other. Mary moved with the daughters to Richmond during the Civil War and followed her husband to Lexington after the war. She died there in 1873 and was buried next to her husband.

Lee's eldest sons served in both the U.S. Army and the Confederation Forces: George Washington Custis Lee and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee as major generals of the cavalry, and Robert Edward Lee Junior as captain of the artillery . GW Custis succeeded his father as President of Washington College in 1871.

Since five of the seven children remained childless, there were only 20 direct descendants of Robert E. Lee in 2002.

Career in the US Army

West Point and the time with the pioneers

During his studies at the military academy, Lee met the later Confederate General Albert S. Johnston and the later President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis know. His classmates included the later Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston , whom he was to succeed as Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Virginia Army during the Battle of Seven Pines . Lee's performance at the academy was outstanding. He graduated in 1829 as the second best of his class and had not received any blame for improper behavior in the years of his training.

After graduation, Lee was promoted to lieutenant and, thanks in part to his good performance at the academy, was assigned to the US Army Engineer Corps. After 17 months at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island in the Port of Savannah , Georgia , Lee was transferred to Fort Monroe , Virginia.

From 1834 to 1837 Lee served on the staff of the Inspector of the Pioneers - assistant in the chief engineer's office - in Washington, DC In the summer of 1835, he helped establish the state line between Ohio and Michigan . In 1837 he finally received his first independent command.

Major Robert E. Lee
Von Frank Moorem in: ed. Portrait Gallery of the War. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1865.

As first lieutenant of the pioneers, Lee oversaw the work on the port of St. Louis and the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers . In recognition of his work there, he was promoted to captain . In 1841 Lee was transferred to Fort Hamilton, in New York City Harbor , New York, and assumed responsibility for building the fortifications.

Mexican-American War

During the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, Lee distinguished himself on the staff of General Winfield Scott . Several victories were the result of his educational work; z. B. he used artillery in places that the Mexican General Santa Anna had described as impossible. During the course of the war, Lee was distinguished by extraordinary skill and bravery. He earned the long-standing trust of Scott, who held the young officer in high esteem and admired him. Lee fought in the battles of Chapultepec , Contreras, Cerro Gordo and Churubusco , was wounded once and received three certification promotions in recognition of his achievements .

Director of West Point and Texas Service

After the Mexican-American War, Lee spent three years building Fort Carroll in the port of Baltimore , Maryland . In 1852 he was appointed director of the US Military Academy at West Point and dedicated himself to improving the buildings and courses as well as personal interaction with the cadets, including his eldest son George Washington Custis, who graduated from the school in 1854 as the best of his class . A year later, in 1855, Lee became a lieutenant colonel and deputy commander of the newly established 2nd US Cavalry Regiment , with which he defended settlers on the Texan border from attacks by the Comanche and Apaches . The regimental commander was Colonel Albert S. Johnston; many later Confederation generals were members of the regiment, e. B. William J. Hardee , Earl Van Dorn , Edmund Kirby Smith , John Bell Hood or Lee's nephew Fitzhugh.

These were not Lee's happiest years as he was reluctant to be apart from his family for long periods. When his wife seriously ill in 1859 and Lee was in the holiday in Arlington, the radical abolitionist raided John Brown the arms factory of the US Army in Harpers Ferry , (now West Virginia ). Lee was ordered to arrest Brown and restore order. After this he returned to his regiment in Texas and was ordered back to Washington, DC after the defection of Texas in early 1861 by the Union. There Lee was promoted to colonel and appointed commander of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment.

Lee's attitude to secession and the slave question

Lee came from a federal family and was politically close to the former Whigs and thus did not belong to the supporters of the sovereignty of the individual states. According to a report from 1884, he had told a friend in early 1861 that he did not believe in a constitutional right of secession. His nephew Fitzhugh Lee, on the other hand, wrote in his biography of the general published in 1894 that Lee was convinced of the law of secession. Robert Edward Lee himself wrote in a letter to his son on January 23, 1861, that he would sacrifice everything but honor to preserve the unity of the nation.

"But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union .... I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation."

But Lee also agreed with the southerners that they were extremely affected by the abolitionist measures taken by the north . In a letter to his son on December 14, 1860, however, he rejected the policy of the "cotton states", especially against the "border states", to persuade them to apostate from the Union with threats.

“I am not pleased with the course of the 'Cotton States', as they term themselves. In addition to their selfish, dictatorial bearing, the threats they throw out against the 'Border States,' as they call them, if they will not join them, argue [sic] little for the benefit. "

In the letter quoted first, he called the secession a revolution, but was ready to take all the right steps to make amends.

“I feel the aggression, and am willing to take every proper Step for redress…. Secession is nothing but revolution. "

It was only logical that he further stated that a union that could only be held together by swords and bayonets was not attractive to him.

"Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, ... has no charm for me."

He also wrote to his son that if the union were dissolved and the government split, he would return to his home state, share the needs of the people and never fight anyone again unless he had to defend himself.

"If the Union is dissolved, and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none."

This decision to remain neutral in the event of a conflict was already made in January 1861. Even so, the final decision to quit was not easy for him. He emphasized this in his negative response to the offer to take command of the US Army on April 20, 1861.

Asked by the Virginia Convention on April 23, 1861 to take over the leadership of the Virginia militia and to build up new armed forces, he dutifully accepted this task against his original will. In a letter dated April 25, he expressed a wish, which also guided him through the civil war, to pursue a defense-oriented policy in order to withstand the attacks, so that over time the anger could subside and reason could prevail.

"I think our policy should be purely on the defensive, to resist aggression and allow time to allay the passions and permit reason to resume her sway."

Lee had grown up as a member of the Virginia upper class. He was familiar with dealing with slaves . In 1857 he inherited 63 slaves from his father-in-law - men, women and children. One of the conditions of the will was that these slaves were released from slavery as free colored people at the latest after five years. Since Lee had to pay for his father-in-law's debts, he decided to rent out the slaves and raise the money he needed. When three slaves fled in 1859 and were caught again, they were flogged under Lee's supervision and their mangled backs rubbed with brine , according to two anonymous letters to the editor in the New York Tribune (a third, also anonymous letter to the editor contradicting the first two representations). According to the will, Lee released the slaves into freedom in 1862.

In a letter Lee wrote to his wife on December 7, 1856, his attitude towards slavery is clear. In it he admitted that slavery was a "moral and political evil", but stated overall:

“It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it, however, a greater evil to the white than to the black race, and while my feelings are strongly interested on behalf of the latter, my sympathies are stronger for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially, and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their instruction as a race, and, I hope, will prepare and lead them to better things. How long their subjection may be necessary is known and ordered by a wise and merciful Providence. Their emancipation will sooner result from a mild and melting influence than the storms and contests of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. [...] While we see the course of the final abolition of slavery is onward, and we give it the aid of our prayers and all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands, who sees the end and who chooses to work by slow things, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day. "

“It is useless to go on about their drawbacks. But I think it is a bigger evil for whites than for blacks. And even if I have great pity on the latter, my sympathies are with the former. Blacks are immeasurably better off here [in North America] than they are in Africa, morally, socially, and physically. The painful discipline to which they must submit here is useful for the further development of their race and, I hope, will prepare and guide them for better times. How long their submission is necessary only knows and can only be determined through wise and gracious foresight. Their liberation is more likely to succeed through mild and gentle influence than through stormy arguments and quarrels. This influence, though slow, is certain. [...]. While we see that the abolition of slavery is on the way and we support it with our prayers and all legal means, the process and its outcome remain in the hands of the one who knows the end, who works slowly and for the thousand years are only one day. "

His plan, proposed on February 18, 1865, to release slaves from slavery and then let them fight for the south, probably had nothing to do with his attitude to slavery as such, but was probably a last "straw" to the rapidly dwindling To restore the strength of its armies.

American Civil War

Decision for the south

On April 18, 1861, four days after the shooting at Fort Sumter , the influential politician Francis Preston Blair Lee offered command of the Union army on behalf of President Abraham Lincoln . Lee turned down the offer because of his ties to his home state of Virginia, which had since left the Union. He returned his officer license on April 23, said goodbye to his friends in Washington, DC, and returned to Virginia.

Shortly afterwards he was appointed Commander in Chief of the Virginia Army. When it became part of the Confederate Forces, President Davis promoted Lee and four others to brigadier general . The other four received troop commands, Lee had to organize the defense of the capital. After the first Confederate victory at Manassas , the rank of full general (four-star general) was created and Lee was promoted to this as the third soldier of the Confederation after Samuel Cooper and Albert Sidney Johnston. But he never wanted to wear the badge of a Confederate general (three stars in an oak wreath) - he wore the badge of a colonel in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS) - three stars, equivalent to his earned rank in the US Army.

First commands in the Confederate Army

Lee received his first command in the fall of 1861 in western Virginia. His offensive on Cheat Mountain failed on the one hand because of the unusual way he gave orders, and on the other because of the mistakes of his subordinates. At least he succeeded in preventing the Union troops from advancing eastwards; western Virginia remained under the control of the north and split off as West Virginia in 1863.

After a brief stint as the military in command of the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida Military Area, Lee was appointed to Richmond , Virginia by President Davis in 1862 as Military Adviser - Secretary of War with no competences . After Joseph E. Johnston was seriously wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on June 1, 1862, he took command of the Northern Virginia Army. Since Major General McClellan was at the gates of Richmond (see also Peninsula Campaign ), Lee used the soldiers of the Northern Virginia Army to improve the fortifications of the capital. The soldiers, who found the burying to be unworthy and dishonorable, ridiculed him as the "King of Spades" . (Spatenkönig / English word play with “King of Spades”) Later, however, this mockery turned into a name of honor when the soldiers realized that digging in saved lives and helped to victories, especially during Grant's overland campaign.

From the Chickahominy to the Antietam

Lee succeeded with his new command, where Johnston had previously failed. In the Seven Day Battle he drove McClellan off the Virginia Peninsula with heavy losses on both sides. This victory greatly reduced the chance that the city of Richmond would be conquered by the Northern States. Lee's victory was not as complete as he had hoped, however, as the conduct of the fighting had suffered from the sluggish execution of his assignments by his subordinates. In order to improve the coordination of his army, Lee therefore divided it into two large "wings" (later corps ), whose commanders James Longstreet and Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson became. Meanwhile, Major General John Pope and his Virginia Army threatened a new threat from the north . Lee marched with his army against Pope and inflicted a devastating defeat on him in the Second Battle of the Bull Run .

General Robert Edward Lee, Commander in Chief of the Northern Virginia Army
Photograph of an engraving by John C. McRae, published in New York by T. Kelly, circa 1867

These two great successes seemed to have turned the tide within two months. Lee, in turn, took the offensive and marched north into Maryland. His aim was to persuade the residents of the slave-owning state of Maryland to leave the Union, to enable farmers in northern Virginia to bring in their crops without interference, and to win England and France to recognize the confederation. The latter would have forced the Union to conclude peace. Before the Battle of Antietam , he showed his tactical skills in the battles of South Mountain and Harpers Ferry . Outnumbered, he was then attacked by General McClellan and his Potomac Army on the Antietam and could only hold his own with difficulty. The heavy losses forced him to retreat to Virginia.

Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville

Lee had a new opponent after the Battle of Antietam - Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside became the new Commander in Chief of the Potomac Army. Burnside ordered an attack over the Rappahannock near Fredericksburg . Delays in the delivery of pontoon bridges and Burnside's inability to develop a different plan of operations gave Lee the time to prepare the defense. The attack of the Potomac Army carried out on December 13, 1862 ended with heavy losses in a defeat of the Northerners. Lee commented on the opponent's high losses with one of his most famous sayings:

"It is well that war is so terrible - we should grow too fond of it!"

"It's only good that the war is so terrible - otherwise we might enjoy it."

After this defeat, Lincoln appointed Major General Joseph Hooker commander in chief of the Potomac Army, who in May 1863 intended to bypass Lee on the right and attack his left flank at Chancellorsville . Lee thwarted this intention by deciding to split the Northern Virginia Army and in turn attack Hooker's right flank. It was an overwhelming victory for the South over the stronger forces of the North, for which Lee had to pay a high price - in addition to the higher percentage losses, he also had to get over the loss of Stonewall Jackson, who had been his most capable subordinate in the months before and which he said he lost his "right arm" with him .

The Gettysburg campaign and the fight against General Grant

General Robert E. Lee, 1863
Photographer: Julian Vannerson

After winning at Chancellorsville, Lee believed his soldiers were invincible. He therefore wanted to defeat the Potomac Army on Union territory, supply his Northern Virginia Army from Pennsylvania's rich supplies, enable the farmers in Northern Virginia an undisturbed harvest, and with a victory convince the weary MPs in Congress to stop the fighting .

Still enraged by the looting of Fredericksburg by the Northerners, Lee issued General Orders No. 73 and ordered that all forms of looting and ill-treatment of the civilian population be stopped. Lee marched into Union territory a second time unnoticed by the Potomac Army. At Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , he was initially forced against his will to a three-day battle due to insufficient education , which he accepted on the morning of the second day. The Potomac Army, now under Major General George Gordon Meade , repelled all attacks. Here, too, it was significant that on the evening of the second day Lee complained bitterly about the inability of his subordinates to carry out his assignments as he imagined. Lee suffered heavy losses and was forced to move to Virginia. As after Antietam, the Northern Virginia Army was not pursued with enough force this time. On August 8, 1863, Lee sent President Jefferson Davis to resign because of the lost battle. This rejected Lee's request.

In early 1864, Ulysses S. Grant , the victor of Vicksburg and Chattanooga , was appointed the new Commander in Chief of the US Army . He set up his headquarters in the field with Meade's Potomac Army, with which he wanted to destroy Lee's army. Lee succeeded in stopping Grant's every advance, but he stuck to his war goal and had enough soldiers to repeat the attacks again and again in other places. In the Wilderness , at Spotsylvania Court House and at Cold Harbor , bloody battles took place, each time with the same result: Grant was fought off with great losses on both sides, but did not evade, but a little later attacked the Northern Virginia Army again elsewhere.

Siege of Petersburg and end of the war

After the defeat at Cold Harbor, Grant decided to attack the Northern Virginia Army at the important railway junction in Petersburg , Virginia. The capture of Petersburg by the Union armies failed, however, and the siege of Petersburg ensued , which lasted from June 1864 to April 1865. During this time Grant took advantage of his numerical superiority and expanded his lines ever further. Lee, commander in chief of the entire Confederate army since January 31, 1865, was forced to thin out his lines.

Lee saw the end of his army and the Confederation. At the beginning of 1865 he urged the adoption of a plan, which had been put forward several times, but had hitherto been rejected, that would allow slaves to serve in the Confederate army. In return, they should be able to retain their freedom as an incentive. While this plan came into effect in the short time that remained to the Confederation with the federal law signed by the President on March 13, 1865 , it remained meaningless. Only Virginia had previously passed a similar law and set up two companies. These soldiers should not be given freedom. After Lee's Northern Virginia Army was worn out in months of fighting, Union forces took Petersburg on April 2, 1865. Lee gave up the defense of Richmond and tried to join General Joseph E. Johnston's Tennessee Army in North Carolina . His troops were surrounded by the united Union armies (see Appomattox campaign ) and he capitulated to General Grant on April 9, 1865 in the village of Appomattox Court House , Virginia.

During the surrender, Lee declared on his honor and his soldiers never again to raise his hand against the United States. In return, Grant guaranteed them not to be prosecuted by the US authorities as long as they kept their word of honor and the applicable laws. Lee then went home; when after the war there were calls to bring him and other high-ranking Confederates to justice, this was thwarted, among other things, by the promise given by Grant.

post war period

Until death

Robert Edward Lee at the end of the war

All members of the Northern Virginia Army initially had the status of released prisoners of war. On April 29, 1865, President Johnson made it possible for them to regain their civil rights by swearing an oath of allegiance to the Union. Like many others, Lee applied for this amnesty . It was never granted to him, however, since the then Secretary of State William H. Seward put the application directly on file; he presumably assumed the case was already being processed. Lee interpreted the lack of a response to mean that the government would reserve the right to try him at a later date. The mistake was only cleared up when the document was found decades later. Lee's example of applying for amnesty was an encouragement for many other Confederates to accept the outcome of the war and become citizens of the United States again.

Before the war, Lee had lived with his wife in their family home, the Custis-Lee Mansion. The property was confiscated by Union troops during the war and converted into a cemetery in 1864 and is now part of Arlington National Cemetery . In 1882, after Lee's death, the Supreme Court ruled that the expropriation was illegal. Lee's son, GW Custis, then sold the property to the US government for $ 150,000.

On October 2, 1865, Lee became President of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University ) in Lexington, Virginia. Under his leadership, Washington College became one of the first in the United States to offer courses in business , journalism, and Spanish . Robert Edward Lee died of heart disease in Lexington on October 12, 1870.

In 1970, an employee of the National Archives found the transcript of Lee's oath of allegiance. Because of this, President Gerald Ford posthumously pardoned Robert E. Lee in 1975 and restored him full civil rights.

Lee as a general

Because of his military decisions and actions, Lee is considered one of the great generals in history. Though hindered by lack of material and political constraints, his actions were always daring and he never hesitated to take serious risks. This concept usually worked, but failed at Gettysburg. On the battlefield, he was energetic in attack and tenacious in defense. He was popular with his soldiers. Lee dominated the action on the battlefield and his superior skills were expressed in the final hopeless battles of the war.

A specialty of Lee was managing with orders . This was not common in the American armed forces then, as it is now, so it took his subordinates some time to adjust to the freedoms that came with it. This resulted in some campaigns to defeat: During the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, he ordered the Commanding General of II Corps. Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell to attack, when a "favorable opportunity" ( opportunity ) should give. Ewell should create such a situation. He waited, however, to see if it did. There are more examples of this in the Seven Day Battle. However, was mutual understanding established, e.g. B. in the Maryland campaign or during the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, there were impressive victories against the Northerners.

Lee's strategy and tactics are still taught today at military academies as a prime example of how a poorly equipped army, inferior in terms of personnel and material, can withstand an overpowering enemy.

Honors

CSS Robert E. Lee

Relief on Stone Mountain

Already during the Civil War, 1862, a blockade breaker was named after Lee ( CSS Robert E. Lee , formerly the British paddle steamer Giraffe ). The American Army later named the M3 Lee / Grant tank after him and his opponent in 1864/65, while the American Navy named the SSN 601 nuclear submarine with the name USS Robert E. Lee . Lee's and Stonewall Jackson's birthdays are celebrated in Virginia with Lee Jackson Day each year . Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi also have holidays to commemorate him, and Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day on January 19th, Lee's birthday. There are monuments and memorials in Lee's honor all over the south, and in 1970 the world's largest bas-relief was completed on Stone Mountain . It shows three personalities from the Confederate States of America: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson and Jefferson Davis.

literature

• United States. War Dept .: The War of the Rebellion, a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies . Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1880-1901.
• Elizabeth Brown Pryor : Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters , Penguin 2008, ISBN 978-0143113904 (received the Lincoln Prize )
• Thomas L. Connelly: The Marble Man. Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1977, ISBN 0-394-47179-2
• Fitzhugh Lee: General Lee. A biography of Robert Edward Lee. Da Capo Press, New York 1994, ISBN 0-306-80589-8 ( Fitzhugh Lee was Lee's nephew and himself Major General of the Confederation)
• Douglas Southall Freeman : RE Lee - A Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York / London 1934. (standard work)
• Walter H. Taylor: General Lee, His Campaigns in Virginia 1861-1865. With personal reminiscences . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1994, ISBN 0-8032-9425-5 ( Walter Herron Taylor was one of Lee's staff officers)
• Ezra J. Warner: Generals in gray; lives of the Confederate commanders . Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1978, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5
• Scott Bowden, Bill Ward: Last Chance for Victory. Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign . Da Capo Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-306-81261-4
• Brian Holden Reid , Robert E. Lee. Icon for a nation . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2005, ISBN 0-297-84699-X (British military historian)
• Emory M. Thomas: Robert E. Lee. A biography . WW Norton, New York and London 1995, ISBN 0-393-03730-4
• Falko Heinz, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant. A comparison of the most important generals in the American Civil War. Publisher for American Studies, Wyk auf Föhr 2003, ISBN 3-89510-091-9 .
• David J. Eicher: Robert E. Lee. A Life Portrait,  Guilford: Rowman & Littlefield 2020, ISBN 9781493048083 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Robert Edward Lee  - Quotes

Commons : Robert E. Lee  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Robert Edward Lee in nndb (English)
• Literature by and about Robert Edward Lee in the catalog of the German National Library
• Robert Edward Lee in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Complete text of Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee
• The War of the Rebellion: Official reports of the civil war (English)
• The Civil War: Son of the South

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Emory M. Thomas, Robert E. Lee , pp. 187ff.
2. ^ Battles and Leaders of the Civil War , Volume 1, p. 36
3. ^ Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee , p. 82
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Douglas S. Freeman Vol I p. 420f: Letter from Lee to his son dated January 23, 1861
5. ^ Douglas S. Freeman Vol I p. 417: Letter from Lee to his son dated December 14, 1860
6. ^ Fitzhugh Lee p. 88: Lee's reply of April 20, 1861
7. ↑ Confederate Military History, Volume 1: Excerpt from Lee's letter to his son of April 25, 1861
8. ^ Emory Thomas, Robert E. Lee , p. 178
9. ^ Fitzhugh Lee p. 64: Letter from Lee to his wife, December 27, 1856
10. ↑ James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , p. 836
11. ↑ Douglas S. Freeman Vol II p. 86f Spatenkönig
12. ^ Douglas S. Freeman Vol II p. 462 No pleasure in war
13. ^ Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand-General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 20, Page 716: Jackson's Death
14. ↑ James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom , p. 837
15. ↑ Paroling Gen. Lee: Dismissed on my word of honor
16. ↑ On his assessment as a general cf. also: John Keegan , The American Civil War , p. 66.
17. ↑ Dennis Denenberg / Lorraine Roscoe: Fifty American Heroes Every Kid Should Meet , 2001, p. 66

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 18, 2006 in this version .