Robert E. Lee
In 1861, on the eve of civil war, President Abraham Lincoln tapped I, Robert E. Lee to take command of the United States Army. being The fifty-five year old silver-haired veteran that had graduated second in my class at West Point, served valiantly during the Mexican War under General Winfield Scott, and had, with his forces, put down the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, capturing abolitionist John Brown. By all accounts, i was the man to lead the Army, as renowned for his gentlemanly character as for his military skill and sense of duty. It came as no surprise however, that following the secession of his home state, Virginia, Lee declined the
Appointment and resigned. He had written to his family, .With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen; I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home... Although opposed to secession, he would .return to [his] native state and shares the miseries of [his] people, and saves in defense. Draw [his] sword on none. His home, his relatives, and his children, all were rooted in a Virginia that had grown strong from the seeds planted by the American Revolution. Two of his ancestors had signed the Declaration of Independence. His father had eulogized George Washington as .first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen... (The actions of both men left indelible marks on Lee’s character. His debtor
Father embodied the traits he would shun; Washington. Duty bound, disciplined, and humble.he sought to imitate.)
On April 9, 1865, Lee and his men faced certain defeat in the misty dawn at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. He had commanded the Army of Northern Virginia since the beginning of the war. He had been appointed General in Chief of the Confederate States Army in February. His ragtag veterans, depleted corps once 70,000 strong, had tenaciously held. And at points, advanced. The line for four years against Union forces. Lee refused a persistently defensive posture. They had waged a bold, scrappy, underdog war, exacting victories at Seven Days, Chancellors Ville, Fredericksburg, and Cold Harbor. There had been staggering losses on both sides. Gettysburg handed them their most devastating defeat. (.It was my
Fault, Lee humbly declared in the aftermath.)
Now, they were hunkered down an...
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...red rations. It was a generous and gentlemanly agreement, one that would allow agnation ravaged by war to begin to bind up its wounds.
Lee stayed in Appomattox for the laying down of arms. He stayed long enough to commend his army’s unsurpassed courage and fortitude, and explain his desire to .avoid the useless sacrifice. Of more confederate lives. He bid an .affectionate farewell... With great weariness and sadness he was escorted part of the way back to Richmond. He received a hero’s welcome along the way.
Later indicted for treason (a charge that was never pursued), and passed over for a pardon during his lifetime, Lee nevertheless remained a great man in the eyes of both the North and South. By deciding to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee had single-handedly set in motion the events that would signal the end of the war, the end of his military career, and the beginning of peace andreunification.Many years later, Woodrow Wilson voiced the widely-held view: .We use the word .great. Indiscriminately. But we reserve the word .noble. Carefully for those whose greatness is not spent in their own interest.
That was the characteristic of General Lee’s life...
Sears’ thesis is the Union could have won the war faster. McClellan was an incompetent commander and to take the initiative to attack an defeat the Confederate army. The Army of Northern Virginia, under...
President Abraham Lincoln demanded a decisive victory. He was tired of his military leadership’s inability to decisively engage and defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Allowing the war to drag on was to the Confederacies advantage. Lincoln was so frustrated that he relieved General George B. McClellan for failing to defeat Lee at Antietam, and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside, who proved to be very conservative in battle against General Lee. Knowing that General Lee was a student of Napoleonic warfare, Burnside feared that Lee always had a large Corps in reserve waiting to flank should he be decisively engaged from the front.
Lee had supreme confidence in his army, and believed that it could accomplish whatever he asked of it. This confidence sometimes led him to ask too much, such as in the case of Picket’s charge during the battle of Gettysburg. In Lee’s mind he was first and foremost a Christian, and a gentleman. These facts, although not bad, certainly caused Lee to be less aggressive, and to fight the war in a very old-fashioned manner. This was not so with Grant, who seemed to believe in a more modern type of total warfare. Perhaps because this war, as many contend, was the first modern war, it was impossible for the South, and it’s leaders to adapt to the situation.
...as the turning point of the American Civil War. The battle proved to show the most casualties of any battle throughout the war and resulted in a crushing and demoralizing defeat of the Confederates. Coming off of his “perfect battle”, Lee’s overconfidence proved to be a downfall as his expectation for his men greatly exceeded the reality of his army. Added to this, his disorganization and lack of coordination led to numerous disjointed attacks that failed and in turn exhausted his men. Finally, Lee ultimately knew less about his opponent throughout the entire battle, which was a huge switch from previous meetings between the two sides. He was forced to fight arguably the most important battle of the Civil War with insufficient intelligence of the enemy, its positions and its intentions. All of these factors are what caused the Confederates to fail at Gettysburg.
One of the best commanders in the Confederate army was Lee still; the Union stood at a better standpoint during the battle. “Perhaps the most significant lesson from July 3, 1863, concerns the method of decision-making. Though he may not have seen it as such, Lee’s decision to attack was at best a close call.” (Gompert 2006, pg.7). The battle of Gettysburg did not happen intentionally, planned however Lee did an astounding job and his best to defeat the Union army. Ultimately Robert E. Lee was responsible for the South’s loss
General Lee admired loyalty as a character trait to be respected as he was intensely loyal himself. When confronted with a choice at the beginning of the war, Lee chose to stay loyal to his home state of Virginia and resign his commission with the Union army. “He considered himself an American. He hated secession, as he hated slavery. Above all though, he was a Virginian” (Marrin 33). Lee’s loyalty to Virginia meant he fought for the very beliefs he disagreed with, slavery and succession. Unfortunately, Lee’s loyalty resulted in one of his greatest personal failures as he ended up on the losing side of the war. Confronted with the reconstruction of the United States under one flag, Lee refocused his loyalty and “urged former Confederates to become loyal Americans” (Marrin 192). Once he made a decision, Robert E. Lee embraced the change to the focus of his loyalty but never wavered in his passionate approach toward his allegiance.
General Lee knows that we have inexperienced men and aims at improving the quality of the troops. He upgrades the quality by tightening command and discipline, improving morale, and convincing the soldiers that the confederacy was in full command of the situation. Lee knew that we are lacking, and devised initiatives to nullify the Union’s superiority in manpower, armaments, and supply by destroying their prearranged plans.
During the War Between the States there were two large-scale, decisive battles fought near the town of Manassas, Virginia. This will be a guided look at the second of those two occurring at the end of August in 1862. There were several great leaders from both sides of the war involved in the 2nd of Manassas, however I am going to focus on the attitudes, maneuvers, and decisions of the four primary generals; General Robert E. Lee, Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Major General John Pope, and Major General George B. McClellan, as it was these men who, ultimately, shaped the actions and outcome of the battle. Following the Seven Days Battle, Maj. Gen. McClellan’s armies were camped on the banks of the James River, 20 miles from Richmond1 (Debelius 1998) and Gen Lee had just taken control of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 12 (Hennessy 2005). Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was a subordinate commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. Pope was inbound to “assist” Maj. Gen. McClellan in securing the area of Northern Virginia for the Union high command. This study will focus on the mind-sets, maneuvers, and decisions these men made throughout the course of the battle that led to the defeat of the Union forces under Maj. Gen. Pope’s leadership.
On the final day the Union soldiers were told that “if they hurried this was the day they could finish everything” although that inspired them, they were also promised that once they reached Appomattox Station rations would be handed out. Many of the men later admitted they did so “because they figured it was the quickest way to get breakfast.” After a small skirmish near Appomattox Station Lee decided to surrender his army right before the Union carried out their attack.
The Civil War is one of the defining wars in the history of this great nation. The Battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in American history, and a turning point in the four year war. At the time, Gettysburg was a small, quiet town generally unaffected by the war. General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America and General George Meade of the Union converged in Gettysburg, and a conflict quickly arose. After three long days of battle the Union pulled away with a victory, though not an easy one. This essay will outline the six themes of history; in essence the who, what, when, where, why, and who cares of this infamous battle.
The Battle of Fredericksburg falls in a long list of failures of the Army of the Potomac during the first year of the American Civil War. Following the Battle of Antietam the Northern Army had the opportunity to defeat Lee’s army. However, Northerners, were shocked by Lee’s escape following this battle on 17 September 1862, and were further upset by Major General George B. McClellan’s procrastination in pursuing Lee and allowing General J.E.B. Stuarts daring cavalry raid into Pennsylvania around Gettysburg (10-12 October 1862). McClellan’s failure to pursue Lee’s Army is mainly due to his own lack of confidence, believing that he doesn’t have enough men or material in order to defeat the Army of Virginia. President Lincoln had finally had enough; he fired McClellan for the second and final time, and replaced him with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, whom he had initially offered the job. No military officer in the Civil War resisted promotion more assiduously than did Major General Burnside during 1862. On three separate occasions that year, President Lincoln asked Burnside to assume command of the Army of the Potomac, and each time the general demurred on the grounds that he was not competent to handle such a large force. Once General Burnside took command he immediately set forth after General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
In conclusion, confederate military leadership was superior to that of the Union’s. General Lee is more pragmatic, realistic, and has better interpersonal skills. He is smart, quick, knows how to apply experience, and boosts the moral of his troops. Lee’s boldness and self-reliance combine with his other strengths made him the superior leader when compared to General Grant of the Union. Satisfying that this is true, the confederate could have won the war due to unsurpassed leadership if only they had the amount of supplies and soldiers the Union possessed.
In Lincoln’s speech The Gettysburg Address he talked like the war was needed to keep this country running and Lee wrote in Letter to His Son that the war was not necessary act and we shouldn’t be fighting just for the heck of it. You can clearly see the logic on both sides and it is hard to decide on what side is actually correct. Lincoln was not completely for the war, but he can find the benefits of doing it. “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.” So he is saying I know it might be hard, but this was necessary to keep the country as one nation. Lee was not at all for the war and could not see the benefits of it. “But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country that a disso...
Bruce Catton highlights many differences between two significant military officers, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, from the American Civil War in his essay, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts.” Although Catton compares the two generals and illustrates the disparity between their personalities and backgrounds, he allows the reader to see what Grant and Lee had in common. The two men were army generals who were also “marvelous fighters” with “fighting qualities” that “were really very much alike” (Catton 370). According to Catton, Grant and Lee had “the great virtue of utter tenacity and fidelity” (370). These two military officers also possessed this “indomitable quality” that showed how they both refused to give up during trying times
Robert E. Lee was the best General for the South, and out witted every Union General that was put against him. To Southerners, General Robert E. Lee is like a god figure to them. He inspired southerners even when the North dominated on the battle field, and is still praised by some radical believers in the confederate states. To the North, Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United States and even lost his citizenship. Although he lost the war, Robert E. Lee is still a major face in history.