Robert E Lee

The topic I am doing my research paper on is Robert E. Lee. I chose Robert E. Lee because I feel he is a person worth mentioning and worth letting others know what he had done in his life,

Robert E. Lee was born in Stratford, Westmoreland County, Virginia, January 19, 1807, and died in Lexington, Virginia October 12, 1870. Robert E. Lee's father had been a cavalry officer during the American Revolution, and had been a close friend of George Washington. Most of the family's money had been gambled away by his father, who died in 1818. Robert had lived his youth in Alexandria Virginia.

Robert E.Lee went to West Point in 1825 were he exceeded in his scholastics and graduated with honors in 1829. After graduation, he joined the Corps of Engineers, and assisted in a variety of projects and construction of military bases and ports. In 1831 Robert E Lee married Mary Ann Randolph Curtis. In 1838, Lee was finally promoted to Captain in 1838 during the Mexican War. Lee gained a reputation during the battles of Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, and Chapultepec during the Mexican War. In 1852 he was a superintendent at West point, where he remained for 3 years until 1855, when he was made lieutenant colonel of the Second Cavalry. Lee was in charge of the force that suppressed John Brown at Harpers Ferry.

Robert E. Lee felt that his loyalty belonged more to the state than the Union. He declined an offer the lead a union army, and joined up with the south, offering his services to Virginia in the April of 1861. Jefferson Davis appointed Robert a General in the Confederate Army. While a general, he failed to stop the invasion of Virginia, and was put in charge of Coastal Defenses, after which he became an advisor to Jefferson Davis. During May of 1862, Joseph E. Johnston was wounded during the Peninsular Campaign. Lee was thrust into the command of the Confederate's strongest army, which he renamed the Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee then won a number of victories in the following months. In June of 1862, Lee drove the Union army away from the Richmond area in the Seven Days' Battle. Lee then drove the northern army back into Washington D.C. after the second Battle of Bull Run. Antietam soon followed on September 17, 1862, where he won a costly battle with northern general McClellan. Soon after, Lee began his withdrawal through Virginia, where again he won a costly battle on the Union at Fredericksburg in December.

In May of 1863, Lee staged a brilliant but costly victory over the Union at Chancellorsville, where he lost one of his most useful and bold commanders, Lieutenant Stonewall Jackson. During this battle Lee split his force into three parts to confuse and defeat a much larger union force, which he did successfully, but casualties were as severe on his own forces as they were to the northern forces.

Lee, although hindered by the loss of his most successful Lieutenant Jackson, began his second invasive maneuvers in the summer of 1863. That summer, he led his forces to Gettysburg Pennsylvania, where he engaged the north in the largest Battle of the war, and the turning point of the war. After this battle, he was forced back into Virginia in a series of bloody skirmishes. He was hindered by the loss of a number of his leading officers, such as James Longstreet, and J.E.B. Stuart.

In spring 1864, the new Union commander,