Robert E Lee Research Paper

It must run in the family because Robert E Lee was the son of Revolutionary War Hero Henry Lee, or as some referred to him as “Light-Horse Harry”, in January of 1807 at Stratford Hall in Virginia. Growing up with an absentee father, Robert E Lee was able to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point later graduating second in his class in 1829. After his graduation, Lee served seventeen years before he was placed on a battlefield during1846 in the war with Mexico. Prior to the war he was an officer in the Corps of Engineers as an inspector and supervisor of the construction of the nation’s coastal defenses. In the war with Mexico Lee was a member of General Winfield Scott’s staff, where he earned three brevets for gallantry …show more content…
The Battle of Cheat Mountain on September 11, 1861 was his first military clash of the Civil War. However the North came out victorious Lee remained unscathed both physically and in statues.
Lee was the military advisor to President Jefferson Davis and commanded General Joseph E. Johnston’s troop in Virginia, renaming them the Army of Northern Virginia. From this army came several of the Confederacy’s influential military personage including Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet and J.E.B. Stuart. Lee used these distinguished men to defeat the North and even at the expense of the Northern generals even when they were outnumbered.
Lee knew that a defeat on northern soil was needed; in September of 1862 under his command, his troops invaded Maryland hoping to lead the fighting away from home. A major blunder happened when the Union discovered the plan to invade Lee and his army lost their edge of a sneak attack, leading to the Battle of Antietam. Lee was still able to hold off McClellan and his troops to a standoff, however this became known as the bloodiest one-day battle of the war. Lee retracted with his men on September 17, 1862 only to be put on the defensive again at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville later in

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