Who was General Robert E. Lee?

Answer 1

Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a career U.S. Army officer and the most celebrated general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War.

Answer 2

A Confederate General,

Answer 3

Born in 1807, the son of a Revolutionary war hero, graduate of the USMA at West Point, officer in the Army Corps of Engineers, worked on the Des Moines River to try and improve navigation, Served on the staff of General Scott in Mexico, made two very risky reconnaisance missions to scout out Mexican positions, was the officer in command of the unit of the 2nd. US Cavalry that captured John Brown after the raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859
Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War, close military advisor to President of the CSA Jefferson Davis, was not tried as a traitor after the war, but was in difficult financial straits for a while, accepted a position as president of Washington College, in Virginia. This institution is now Washington and Lee University. He died in 1870.

Answer 4

Ol' Bob was the most notable Confederate commander of the Civil War, and a figure of mythic proportions. Son of "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, a Revolutionary War hero who had fallen into financial and personal disgrace.

In 1829, Lee graduated West Point with a perfect conduct record (and a reputation as the most handsome man in the army) and embarked on a long career as an army engineer.

In 1831, he married Mary Custis, daughter of George Washington's adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, and moved to the Custis plantation at Arlington, near Washington, D.C.

In 1861, at the apex of a distinguished army career, including service in the Mexican War and a tour as superintendent of West Point, Lee was offered the most important command in the Union army after the lower South seceded. Instead, choosing to align himself with his state and his slaveholding class, Lee resigned his commission to ally his fortunes with the Confederacy. Confederate President Jefferson Davis valued him, and made Lee his military advisor. When General Joseph E. Johnston was badly injured in battle in June 1862, Davis placed Lee in charge of the Army.

After the war, Lee went on to become president of Washington College (later renamed Washington and Lee College) in Lexington, Virginia.

Answer 5

THE General for the Confederates, if he had gone with the Union, the Civil War would have been over sooner