Born on January 19, 1807 in Westmoreland County, Virginia to a wealthy and prominent family, Robert Edward Lee graduated second in his class at West Point in 1829. He served seventeen years as an officer in the Corps of Engineers until the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846. Lee’s record during the war was distinguished; he received three brevets for gallantry, was wounded once, and emerged from the conflict in 1848 with the rank of colonel.

After three years as the Superintendent of West Point from 1852 to 1855, Lee left to take a position in the cavalry. He led the troops that put down John Brown’s abolitionist raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.

Because of his reputation as one of the finest officers in the United States Army, Abraham Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Federal forces in April 1861. Lee declined and resigned his officer’s commission when the state of Virginia seceded on April 17, arguing that he could not fight against his own people.

Robert E. Lee accepted a general’s commission in the newly formed Confederate Army. His first military engagement of the Civil War occurred at Cheat Mountain, Virginia (now West Virginia) on September 11, 1861. It was a Union victory but Lee’s reputation withstood the public criticism that followed. He served as military advisor to President Jefferson Davis until June 1862 when he succeeded the wounded General Joseph E. Johnston. Lee renamed his forces the Army of Northern Virginia and conducted a series of brilliant campaigns against the Union Army of the Potomac. After a masterful victory under Lee at Chancellorsville, Virginia in May 1863, the Confederate war effort reached its high water mark at the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania two months later. Lee took responsibility for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg and wrote Jefferson Davis offering his resignation, which Davis refused to accept.

After the simultaneous Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi, Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of the Federal armies. His sound strategic plan, combined with Southern shortages of supplies, men, and food, forced the Army of Northern Virginia into defensive actions for the remainder of the war. Lee did not become General-in-Chief over all the Confederate forces until February 1865. Only two months later, on April 9, 1865, he was forced to surrender his weary and depleted army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

Lee returned home on parole and eventually became the president of Washington College in Virginia (now known as Washington and Lee University). He remained in this position until his death on October 22, 1870 in Lexington, Virginia.