Robert E. Lee

1807-01-19 – 1870-10-12

Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War.

military leadercivil warconfederate

Robert E. Lee was a career U.S. Army officer who became the most prominent Confederate general during the Civil War. Despite personal reservations about secession and slavery, he chose to fight for his home state of Virginia. Lee was a brilliant tactician who won several major battles against larger Union forces, including the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chancellorsville. However, his invasion of the North was turned back at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and he eventually surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the Civil War. After the war, he became president of Washington College and urged reconciliation between North and South.