Born Jan. 19, 1807; died Oct. 12, 1870
April 10: Appomattox Court House, VA: Robert Lee, General–in–Chief, Confederate States of America.
“So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South.”
Britannica –
“Confederate general, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, the most successful of the Southern armies during the American Civil War (1861–65). In February 1865 he was given command of all the Southern armies. His surrender at Appomattox Courthouse April 9, 1865, is commonly viewed as signifying the end of the Civil War.
Robert Edward Lee was the fourth child of Colonel Henry Lee and Ann Hill Carter. On both sides, his family had produced many of the dominant figures in the ruling class of Virginia…With all his aristocratic connections, Robert still lacked the advantages of wealth…
Unable to afford a university education, Lee obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his high aspirations and native gifts produced what a fellow cadet, the Confederate general Joseph Johnston, called his natural superiority. Always near the top of his class, he won the appointment to corps adjutant, the highest rank a cadet could attain, and was graduated second in his class in 1829. With handsome features, a massive head, and superb build, he combined dignity with kindness and sympathy with good humor, to win, as Johnston said, ‘warm friendship and command high respect.’
The time came on Sunday, April 2, when his defensive lines were stretched so thin that the far right broke under massive assaults, and Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg and at last uncover Richmond. When the survivors of his army pulled out of the trenches, an agonizing week of a forlorn retreat began for him; his men fell out from hunger, animals dropped in the traces, and units dissolved under demoralized officers. At Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, his way west was blocked and there was nothing left except to bear with dignity the ordeal of surrender, which was made less painful for him by Grant’s considerate behavior.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, (accessed November 13, 2008)