Born to a prominent but financially troubled Virginia family, Robert E. Lee graduated second in his class at West Point and served with distinction in the Mexican-American War before famously declining Lincoln's offer to command Union forces in 1861. He instead led Confederate armies for four years, becoming, for many Southerners, the war's most enduring symbol.
Robert Edward Lee was born on January 19, 1807, at Stratford Hall, his family's grand but debt-ridden estate in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father, Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, had been a celebrated cavalry officer during the Revolutionary War but died financially ruined, leaving young Robert to grow up amid genteel poverty and the weight of a fading family name.
Lee attended West Point, graduating in 1829 without a single demerit, and went on to earn distinction as an engineer and officer in the Mexican-American War under General Winfield Scott. By 1861, he was considered one of the finest officers in the U.S. Army, and Abraham Lincoln offered him command of Union forces. Lee refused, citing loyalty to his native Virginia, and instead accepted a commission in the Confederate Army.
Over the next four years, Lee's tactical audacity — at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, and elsewhere — made him the Confederacy's most celebrated general, even as his invasions of the North ended in defeat at Antietam and Gettysburg. He surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. His postwar legacy remains deeply contested: revered by Lost Cause mythology as a paragon of honor, and increasingly recognized by historians as a defender of a slaveholding order.
Key people: Robert E. Lee, Henry Lee III