Robert E. Lee
Copyright Michael D. Robbins 2005
Astro-Rayological
Interpretation & Charts
Quotes
Biography
Images and Physiognomic Interpretation
Robert E. Lee—Commander of the Confederate Forces in the American Civil War
January 19, 1807, Stratford, Virginia, 23:45 LMT. (Source: speculative from Marc Penfield.
A question may exist concerning whether Lee was born very late on the 19th or very early, after midnight on the 19th; this would change his Moon position from Taurus—early on the 19th—to Gemini—late on the 19th.
Died, October 12, 1870, Lexington, Virginia.
(Speculative Ascendant, Libra; Sun in Capricorn conjunct Jupiter in Capricorn, with Mercury also in Capricorn; Venus in Aquarius conjunct the Sun in Capricorn; Mars in Virgo; Saturn and Uranus in Scorpio, H1; Neptune in Sagittarius; Pluto in Pisces)It might be said that Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate Army because of duty rather than preference. With Sun in Capricorn in the fourth house of the chart, it was his patriotic (H4) responsibility (Capricorn) to return to the South, and offer his military services (Mars in Virgo). No doubt this was a terrible decision (Libra rising), and was decisive for the direction of his life.
His reputation is as a gentleman, refined, polite, reserved, dignified. We see the stamp of the seventh ray and the influence of Libra on the Ascendant. Defeat at the hands of the North was bitter, but he maintained his dignity under the most trying circumstances, and remained impressive in the eyes of his conquerors.
Was the first ray also an important part of his energy system? Perhaps. But the impression which remains is that of the rectitude and propriety of the seventh ray.
A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.
Duty is the sublimest word in the language. You can never do more than your duty. You should never wish to do less.
Duty, then is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.
I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.
I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it.
In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.
It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.
Let the tent be struck.
My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable and beneficial, abstinence from spirituous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health.
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.
The devil's name is dullness.
The education of a man is never completed until he dies.
The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.
We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.
We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.
What a cruel thing is war... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.
What a cruel thing war is... to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.
Whiskey - I like it, I always did, and that is the reason I never use it.
• In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength
• It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it
• Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one."
• We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing."
• The education of a man is never completed until he dies."
• I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself."
• Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
• Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character."
• Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."
• A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others."
• I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink it."
• My chief concern is to try to be an humble, earnest Christian."
• We have fought this fight as long, and as well as we know how. We have been defeated. For us as a Christian people, there is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation."
• What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. - letter to his wife, 1864
• Let the tent be struck."
• I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving."
• The devil's name is dullness."
• Whiskey - I like it, I always did, and that is the reason I never use it."
• My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable and beneficial, abstinence from spirituous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health."
• It is good that war is so horrible, or we might grow to like it."After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Norther Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.
I need not tell the brave survivors of some many hard fought battles who have remained steadfast to the last that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them.
But feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from a consciousness of duty faithfully performed; and I earnestly pray that a Merciful God will extend to you His blessings and protection.
With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."
R.E. Lee
Genl. farewell address, April 9th, 1865)"
was known as an exemplary military commander when Abraham Lincoln asked him to command the Union army in 1861. Lee had graduated with distinction from West Point, served on Winfield Scott's staff during the Mexican American War, modernized the West Point curriculum in the early 1850s, and led the recapture of the Harpers Ferry arsenal from John Brown and his army in 1859. Though he opposed secession and favored an end to slavery, Lee declined Lincoln's appointment to head the Union army, instead supporting Virginia and the Confederacy. Under his leadership, Confederate forces scored important victories, despite the superior numbers and richer resources of the North. And even after Ulysses S. Grant began his final assault in 1864, Lee's troops held on for nearly ten months before the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. Brady photographed Lee on the porch of his home in Richmond shortly after the surrender. As he recalled in 1891, "It was supposed that after his defeat it would be preposterous to ask him to sit, but I thought that to be the time for the historical picture. He allowed me to come to his house and photograph him on his back porch in several situations. Of course I had known him since the Mexican War when he was upon Gen. Scott's staff, and my request was not as from an intruder".
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a career army officer and the most successful general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. He eventually commanded all Confederate armies as general-in-chief. Like Hannibal earlier and Rommel later, his victories against superior forces in an ultimately losing cause won him enduring fame. After the war, he urged reconciliation, and spent his final years as a progressive college president. Lee remains an iconic figure of the Confederacy to this day and an important educational leader.
Early life and career
Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the fourth child of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee ("Lighthorse Harry") and Anne Hill (Carter) Lee. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1825. When he graduated (second in his class of 46) in 1829 he had not only attained the top academic record but was the first cadet (and so far the only) to graduate the Academy without a single demerit. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Lee served for seventeen months at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, Georgia. In 1831, he was transferred to Fort Monroe, Virginia, as assistant engineer. While he was stationed there, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1808–1873), the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, at Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, where she had been born. They lived in the Custis mansion, which today is a National Memorial on the banks of the Potomac River in Arlington, just across from Washington, D.C.. They eventually had three sons and four daughters: George Washington Custis, William H. Fitzhugh, Robert Edward, Mary, Agnes, Annie, and Mildred.Engineering
Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington from 1834 to 1837, but spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the state line between Ohio and Michigan. In 1837, he got his first important command. As a first lieutenant of engineers, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbor and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. His work there earned him a promotion to captain. In 1841, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton in New York Harbor, where he took charge of building fortifications.Mexican War, West Point, and Texas
Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican War (1846–1848). He was one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Veracruz to Mexico City. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer; he found routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable.
He was promoted to major after the Battle of Cerro Gordo in April, 1847. He also fought at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec, and was wounded at the latter. By the end of the war he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel.
After the Mexican War, he spent three years at Fort Carroll in Baltimore harbor, after which he became the superintendent of West Point in 1852. During his three years at West Point, he improved the buildings, the courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets. Lee's oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during his tenure. Custis Lee graduated in 1854, first in his class.
In 1855, Lee became Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Cavalry and was sent to the Texas frontier. There he helped protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and the Comanche.
These were not happy years for Lee as he did not like to be away from his family for long periods of time, especially as his wife was becoming increasingly ill. Lee came home to see her as often as he could.
He happened to be in Washington at the time of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859, and was sent there to arrest Brown and to restore order. He did this very quickly and then returned to his regiment in Texas. When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Lee was called to Washington, DC to wait for further orders.Lee as slave-owner
As a member of the Virginia aristocracy, Lee had lived in close contact with slavery all of his life, but he never held more than about a half-dozen slaves under his own name—in fact, it was not positively known that he had held any slaves at all under his own name until the rediscovery of his 1846 will in the records of Rockbridge County, Virginia, which referred to an enslaved woman named Nancy and her children, and provided for their manumission in case of his death. [1]
However, when Lee's father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis, died in October 1857, Lee came into a considerable amount of property through his wife, and also gained temporary control of a large population of slaves—sixty-three men, women, and children, in all—as the executor of Custis's will. Under the terms of the will, the slaves were to be freed "in such a manner as to my executors may seem most expedient and proper", with a maximum of five years from the date of Custis's death provided to arrange for the necessary legal details of manumission.
Custis's will was probated on December 7, 1857. Although Robert Lee Randolph, Right Reverend William Meade, and George Washington Peter were named as executors along with , the other three men failed to qualify, leaving Lee with the sole responsibility of settling the estate, and with exclusive control over all of Custis's former slaves. Although the will provided for the slaves to be emancipated "in such a manner as to my executors may seem most expedient and proper", Lee found himself in need of funds, and decided to make money by hiring out the slaves to neighboring plantations in eastern Virginia during the five years that the will had allowed him control of them. The decision caused dissatisfaction among Custis's slaves, who had been given to understand that they were to be made free as soon as Custis died.
In 1859, three of the slaves—Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin of theirs—fled for the North. An 1859 letter to the New York Tribune and an 1866 interview with Wesley Norris record that the Norrises were captured a few miles from the Pennsylvania border and returned to Lee, who had them whipped and their lacerated backs rubbed with brine. After the whipping, Lee forced them to go to work in Richmond, Virginia, and then Alabama, where Wesley Norris gained his freedom in January 1863 by escaping through the rebel lines to Union-controlled territory.
Lee released Custis's other slaves after the end of the five year period in the winter of 1862.Civil War
Mathew Brady portrait of Lee in 1865
On April 18, 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, through Secretary of War Simon Cameron, offered Lee command of the United States Army (Union Army) through an intermediary, Maryland Republican politician Francis P. Blair, at the home of Blair's son Montgomery, Lincoln's Postmaster-General, in Washington. Lee's sentiments were against secession, which he denounced in an 1861 letter as "nothing but revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the Founders. However his loyalty to his native Virginia led him to join the Confederacy.
At the outbreak of war he was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, and then as one of the first five full generals of Confederate forces. Lee, however, refused to wear the insignia of a Confederate General stating that, in honor to his rank of Colonel in the United States Army, he would only display the three stars of a Confederate Colonel until the Civil War had been won and Lee could be promoted, in peacetime, to a General in the Confederate Army.
After commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, and then in charge of coastal defenses along the Carolina seaboards, he became military adviser to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, whom he knew from West Point.Commander, Army of Northern Virginia
Following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, his first opportunity to lead an army in the field. He soon launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against General George B. McClellan's Union forces threatening Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. Lee's attacks resulted in heavy Confederate casualties and they were marred by clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, but his aggressive actions unnerved McClellan. After McClellan's retreat, Lee defeated another Union army at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He then invaded Maryland, hoping to replenish his supplies and possibly influence the Northern elections that fall in favor of ending the war. McClellan obtained a lost order that revealed Lee's plans and brought superior forces to bear at Antietam before Lee's army could be assembled. In the bloodiest day of the war, Lee withstood the Union assaults, but withdrew his battered army back to Virginia.
Lee mounted on Traveller
Disappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln named Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside ordered an attack across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Delays in getting bridges built across the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, and the attack on December 12, 1862, was a disaster for the Union. Lincoln then named Joseph Hooker commander of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker's advance to attack Lee in May, 1863, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, was defeated by Lee and Stonewall Jackson's daring plan to divide the army and attack Hooker's flank. It was an enormous victory over a larger force, but came at a great cost as Jackson, Lee's best subordinate, was mortally wounded.
In the summer of 1863, Lee proceeded to invade the North again, hoping for a Southern victory that would compel the North to grant Confederate independence. But his attempts to defeat the Union forces under George G. Meade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, failed. His subordinates did not attack with the aggressive drive Lee expected, J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry was out of the area, and Lee's decision to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line—the disastrous Pickett's Charge—resulted in heavy losses. Lee was compelled to retreat again but, as after Antietam, was not vigorously pursued. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request.
In 1864, the new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant sought to destroy Lee's army and capture Richmond. Lee and his men stopped each advance, but Grant had superior reinforcements and kept pushing each time a bit further to the southeast. These battles in the Overland Campaign included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. Grant eventually fooled Lee by stealthily moving his army across the James River. After stopping a Union attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia, a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg. He attempted to break the stalemate by sending Jubal A. Early on a raid through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington, D.C., but Early was defeated by the superior forces of Philip Sheridan. The Siege of Petersburg would last from June 1864 until April, 1865.General-in-chief
Lee with son Custis (left) and Walter H. Taylor (right).
On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to be general-in-chief of Confederate forces. In early 1865, he urged adoption of a scheme to allow slaves to join the Confederate army in exchange for their freedom. The scheme never came to fruition in the short time the Confederacy had left before it ceased to exist.
As the Confederate army was worn down by months of battle, a Union attempt to capture Petersburg on April 2, 1865, succeeded. Lee abandoned the defense of Richmond and sought to join General Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina. His forces were surrounded by the Union army and he surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lee resisted calls by some subordinates (and indirectly by Jefferson Davis) to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war.Lee after the Civil War
Following the war, Lee applied for, but was never granted, the official postwar amnesty. After filling out the application form, it was delivered to the desk of Secretary of State William H. Seward, who, assuming that the matter had been dealt with by someone else and that this was just a personal copy, filed it away until it was found decades later in his desk drawer. Lee took the lack of response either way to mean that the government wished to retain the right to prosecute him in the future.
Lee's example of applying for amnesty was an encouragement to many other former members of the Confederacy's armed forces to accept being citizens of the United States once again. In 1975, President Gerald Ford granted a posthumous pardon and the U.S. Congress restored his citizenship, following the discovery of his oath of allegiance by an employee of the National Archives in 1970.
Lee and his wife had lived at his wife's family home prior to the Civil War, the Custis-Lee Mansion. It was confiscated by Union forces, and is today part of Arlington National Cemetery. After his death, the courts ruled that the estate had been illegally seized, and that it should be returned to Lee's son. The government offered to buy the land outright, to which he agreed.
He served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia, from October 2, 1865. Over five years he transformed Washington College from a small, undistinguished school into one of the first American colleges to offer courses in business, journalism, and Spanish. He also incorporated law into the academic curriculum -- at the time an odd concept, because law was seen as a technical rather than intellectual profession. He also imposed a sweeping and breathtakingly simple concept of honor — "We have but one rule, and it is that every student is a gentleman" — that endures today at Washington and Lee and at a few other schools that continue to maintain absolutist "honor systems." Importantly, he focused the college on attracting students from the north.Final illness and death
On the evening of September 28, 1870, Lee fell ill, unable to speak coherently. When his medical doctors were called, the most they could do was help put him to bed and hope for the best. Although not diagnosed by his doctors, it is almost certain that Lee suffered a stroke. In his last few years, he had complained about chest pain (probably angina pectoris) and often complained about pain in his right arm, which he said often felt numb. Likely he was developing arteriosclerosis or a type of cardiovascular disorder, and it would gradually weaken him the rest of his life. In his last year of his life, an aged and weak Lee confided to friends that he felt like he could die any moment. The stroke damaged the frontal lobes of the brain, which made speech impossible, and made him unable to cough or expectorate, which would prove a fatal problem. He was force-fed food and liquids to build up his strength, but some of these liquids found their way into his lungs, and pneumonia developed. With no ability to cough, Lee died from the effects of pneumonia (not from the stroke itself). He died two weeks after the stroke on the morning of October 12, 1870, in Lexington, Virginia, and was buried underneath the chapel at Washington and Lee University.
1807
January 19. was born at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia: Parents, Henry Lee ("Light-horse Harry" Lee) of Leesylvania, and Ann Hill Carter of Shirley.
1811
Removed to Alexandria with his family.
1812
His father received injuries in Baltimore riot from which he never recovered and which necessitated his leaving Alexandria for a warmer climate. He died six years later, at Cumberland Island, Georgia, March 25, 1818. Robert was reared by his mother. He spent his holidays and vacations at Stratford and Shirley.
1818
His father died while Lee was in the midst of his schooling.
1825
Entered West Point.
1829
Graduated from West Point second in his class. His mother died at Ravensworth, Virginia. He was assigned to duty at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
1831
June 30. Married Mary Randolph Custis of Arlington.
1834-37
Served as Assistant to Chief Engineer of the Army.
1837
Took charge of improvement of Mississippi at St. Louis.
1838
Made Captain of Engineers.
1841
In charge of defense at Fort Hamilton, New York.
1844
Appointed Visitor to West Point.
1846-47
Rendered distinguished services in Mexican War.
1848
January to June. Stationed in Mexico.
1849-52
At work on the defenses of Baltimore.
1852-55
Superintendent of West Point Academy.
1855
April. Appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Cavalry.
1855-59
Saw service against Indians in Texas.
1856-59
October. Suppressed the John Brown insurrection.
1860
February. Took charge of Department of Texas where he stayed one year.
1861
March 1. Returned to Arlington to his family.
March 16. Appointed Colonel of First Cavalry.
April 16. Offered command of United States Armies.
April 20. Resigned commission in army.
April 23. Accepted command of Virginia forces.
May - July. Organized troops and advised President Davis in Richmond.
August - October. Was in charge of abortive campaign in Western Virginia.
November. Had charge of coast defense in South Carolina and Georgia.
1862
March. Became military advisor to President Davis.
June 1. Assumed command of Army of Northern Virginia.
June 26 - July 2. Commanded Confederates in Seven Days' fighting around Richmond.
August 30. Defeated Pope at second Manassas.
September 5. Crossed the Potomac. Began advance into Maryland.
September 12. Drew Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg. Abandoned campaign of invastion.
December 13. Won a victory over Burnside at Fredericksburg.
December. In winter quarters until March.
1863
May 2 - 3. Won a victory over Hooker at Chacellorsville.
May 10. His great liutenant, "Stonewall" Jackson, died.
June.. Began movements leading up to second invasion of the North.
July 1 -3. Defeated at Gettysburg.
July 4 - 13. Made a masterly retreat and recrossed the Potomac.
October - November. Conducted the ineffective campaign of Mine Run.
December. Lay in winter quarters on the Rapidan until April.
1864
May 5 - 6. Fought the Battle of the Wilderness against Grant.
May 8 - 18. Conducted fighting about Spotsylvania Courthouse.
May 21 - June 1. Conducted operations on interior lines.
June 2 - 3. Fought a fierce battle at Cold Harbor.
June 18. Joined Beauregard at Petersburg. Siege of Petersburg began.
July 30. Fought the Battle of the Crater.
1865
February 9. Issued his first general order as Commander-in-Chief.
April 2. Retreated from Petersburg. End of the siege.
April 3. Richmond fell.
April 9. Surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.
April 10. Issued his Farewell Address to the Army of Northern Virginia.
June 13. Applied for Pardon.
August 4. Elected President of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia (now Washington and Lee University.)
1867
February 4. Declined to be a candidate for the governorship of Virginia.
1870
March - April. Visited Georgia in seach of health.
October 12. died at Lexington.
