Today, on his birthday, Americans pay tribute to General Robert E Lee, and the legacy he left for our country Robert E. Lee’s leadership in the Civil War still is studied at Military Schools around the World and his presidency of Washington College stands as a genuinely constructive contribution to the nation. The Man Robert E. Lee embarked on a new career as a college president at the age of 58. His family ties, temperament, educational background, and a lifetime of military experience made him a capable administrator and insightful educator. Childhood The youngest son of “Light-Horse Harry” Lee and his second wife, Ann Hill Carter of Shirley Plantation, Robert E. Lee was born on January 19, 1807, at his family’s home, Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The Lee and Carter families had been leaders in Virginia’s colonial government. Robert’s grandfathers both signed the Declaration of Independence. His father had fought under General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and the Lee and Washington families were friends after independence. Harry Lee served three terms as governor of the state of Virginia. As a boy, Robert attended Alexandria Academy, a school that had been established with George Washington’s financial support. West Point [1825-1829] and Marriage Lee received an appointment in 1825 to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. There, he consistently ranked second in his class and graduated with no demerits. He was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the elite Corps of Engineers in 1829. In 1831, Second Lieutenant Robert E. Lee married Mary Custis, the great-granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington, at her family’s estate, Arlington. With his marriage, Lee became part of the family of George Washington. U.S. Military Career [1829-1861] Most of Lee’s early assignments were to design and build East Coast fortifications. Between 1837 and 1840, his skill saved the port of St. Louis, opening the northern Mississippi River to navigation. During the Mexican War (1846–1848), Lee excelled as a tactical advisor to General Winfield Scott, who called him “the very best soldier I ever saw in the field.” In 1852, Lee reluctantly became superintendent of West Point, where he revised the disciplinary system. He requested a transfer from the Corps of Engineers in 1855. As lieutenant colonel of the new Second Cavalry, he defended the interests of Texas settlers. When called to defend the Harpers Ferry federal armory in October 1859, Lee and a detachment of marines put down a raid led by the abolitionist John Brown. Less than two years later, the day after Virginia seceded, Lee declined command of the U.S. Army in the belief that he must stand with his family, neighbors, and state. The Civil War [1861-1865] On April 23, 1861, Robert E. Lee assumed command of the military and naval forces of Virginia: “I devote myself to my native State, in whose behalf alone will I ever again draw my sword.” After serving as Jefferson Davis’s senior advisor, Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862. He launched an ambitious counterattack that embodied the essence of his generalship, seizing the strategic and tactical initiative. But nearly two years after defeat at Gettysburg, Lee’s forces were driven from Richmond and entrenched at Petersburg in 1865. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, citing “overwhelming numbers and resources.” Grant’s generous terms reflected Abraham Lincoln’s desire to begin a gentle process of Reconstruction, but Lee and his troops faced devastation at home. On April 15, he returned to Richmond and an uncertain future. Return to Civilian Life While privately wary of Reconstruction, Lee was conscious that he must set an example. He announced it was “the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country.” In June 1865, he formally applied for amnesty and a pardon. In August, Lee hesitantly accepted the presidency of Washington College. There, he acted publicly and prominently on his own advice, by encouraging former soldiers—many of whom followed him to Washington College—to seek new livelihoods through education and help rebuild the nation. In his private correspondence, Lee revealed himself as a devoted husband and father—a man whose understated humor, love of animals, and affectionate personal advice endeared him to his family and friends. The Lees had three sons and four daughters: George Washington Custis (who succeeded his father as president of Washington College), William H. Fitzhugh “Rooney,” Robert Edward Jr., Mary Custis, Anne Carter, Eleanor Agnes, and Mildred Childe. A demanding but caring father to his boys, Lee doted on his girls. He loved children and animals, aspired to be a farmer, and wrote proudly about his garden. Lee’s playful sense of humor was well known to his family but was often misunderstood by others, who looked to him more as a hero than a living figure. On the morning of October 12, 1870, Robert E. Lee died of pneumonia following a stroke two weeks earlier. The campus of Washington College was draped in mourning, and the chapel overflowed at the funeral service three days later. In his honor, the trustees immediately renamed the college he had transformed—Washington and Lee University. Honor and Civility The mid-1800s saw the development of honor systems at many colleges. Lee replaced the elaborate disciplinary rules of Washington College by a single standard: “Every student must be a gentleman.” He intended for the young men under his charge to acquire a sense of responsibility based on truth, honor, and courtesy. Lee also placed a premium on civility and spoke to each student as he passed him on campus, encouraging by his example the same show of respect between students. Today’s honor system, administered by students, has been a unique feature of Washington and Lee University for well over a century. It is based on the fundamental principle of mutual trust among students, faculty, and staff that students attending Washington and Lee will not lie, cheat, steal, or otherwise act dishonorably. With the rule of civility, exemplified by the W&L “speaking tradition,” Lee’s legacy of honor continues to permeate academic and social life at Washington and Lee University and serves as a model nationwide. Educational Vision “He found it a college, and left it a university . . . ” —Professor C. A. Graves, University of Virginia centennial celebration of Lee’s birth, 1907 Robert E. Lee’s educational vision, although interrupted by funding constraints and no longer at the forefront of innovation by the 1870s, was fulfilled in part in the early 20th century, as economic conditions and philanthropic opportunities improved. The W&L School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics was established in 1906, and the department of journalism was finally established in 1925. The W&L School of Law, which Lee incorporated into Washington College in 1869, has become one of the top 25 law schools in the country. Campus Construction As an experienced military engineer, Robert E. Lee immediately and intensely became involved with renewing the war-worn campus of Washington College according to the latest contemporary picturesque style, both in architecture and landscaping. Out of concern for the health of his students (often the veterans of combat), he planted trees and laid out walkways to encourage exercise on campus. Many of these improvements still exist. The President’s House Robert E. Lee and his family first lived in a small house on campus built in 1842 by the ninth president of Washington College, Henry Ruffner. His successor, George Junkin, also lived there until the Civil War with his family, including his son-in-law Thomas J. (later “Stonewall”) Jackson. In 1868, the trustees directed Lee to build a new president’s house, to better accommodate his family. Completed in late May 1869, the new president’s house reflected Lee’s progressive ideas in its contemporary Italianate style. C. W. Oltmanns, an architectural modeler at the Virginia Military Institute, based the Lees’ home on a pattern in John Ritch’s 1852 American Architect. Its modern features, including central heat and cistern-fed running water, reflected the comfort the Lees had enjoyed at Arlington. Lee added a wide porch so that his arthritic wife could view the campus from her wheelchair. A covered breezeway connected the house to a new stable for Traveller, and Lee wrote to a friend that he liked living “under the same roof” as his beloved horse. Traveller “Traveller is my only companion . . . He and I . . . wander out in the mountains and enjoy sweet confidence.” —Robert E. Lee, writing to his daughter Mildred, October 1865 Lee purchased Traveller, an American Saddlebred, from Captain Joseph M. Broun in 1861. Lee owned several horses, but Traveller—nearly 16 hands high—was his favorite, and he rode him throughout the Civil War. Traveller died of tetanus in the summer of 1871 and was buried along Woods Creek at the edge of the campus. Traveller’s bones were exhumed about 1875 and by 1912 were displayed in the university’s natural history museum in Robinson Hall. A history museum that opened in Lee Chapel in 1928 continued to exhibit Traveller’s skeleton until the 1960s. His remains were reburied in 1971, outside the Chapel’s side door, near the Lee family crypt. The doors of the stable at the president’s house (now called the Lee House) still remain open by tradition to let the spirit of Traveller “roam free.” Lee Chapel, At Robert E. Lee’s request, construction began in 1867 on a new college chapel, which was completed in time for 1868 graduation exercises. The lower level included administrative offices and a student center, which became the college library in 1869 and a museum in 1928, built upon a collection of paintings and objects donated to W&L by the Lee family. Today, the lower level gallery presents the exhibition Not Unmindful of the Future: Educating to Build and Rebuild a Nation. The upper level “audience room” remains Washington and Lee University’s largest auditorium, where most major academic events take place. In 1883, a two-story addition to the chapel was completed. Upstairs, a chamber houses Edward Valentine’s Recumbent Lee, commissioned by the Lee Memorial Association in 1870. The Lee family crypt, in which Robert E. Lee’s remains were interred in 1883, is downstairs. Lees Last Letter Lee regularly met visitors in his office and attended daily to his vast correspondence. In addition to letters to parents of Washington College students, he answered queries about the school and corresponded with his family and friends. In the last letter written from his office, Lee tells Samuel Tagart of Baltimore, whom he had met at White Sulphur Springs, “I am much better…my pains are less and my strength greater. In fact, I suppose I am as well as I shall be.” That evening, after attending a vestry meeting at Grace Episcopal Church, Lee suffered a stroke. Two weeks later, on the morning of October 12, 1870, he succumbed to pneumonia. Before the end of October, the Trustees renamed the school Washington and Lee University to honor Lee along with his hero George Washington. The faculty designated January 19, the date of Lee’s birth, as a day of annual commemoration. “Founders Day” continues to be observed today by faculty and students with an academic convocation in the chapel. —Transcript— Lexington, Va: 28 Sept. 1870. My Dear Mr. Tagart: Your kind note of the 26th reached me this [morning]. You see how easy it is “to inveigle me into a correspondence.” In fact when a man desires to do a thing, or when a thing gives a man pleasure, he requires but small provocation to induce him to do it. Now I wanted to hear how you and Mrs. Tagart were, what you were doing, & how you had passed the summer, & I desired to tell you so. That is the reason I write. In answer to your question, I reply that I am much better. I do not know whether it is owing to having seen you and Doctor Buckler last summer, or to my visit to the Hot Springs. Perhaps both, but my pains are less & my strength greater. In fact I suppose I am as well as I shall be. I am still following Dr. B’s directions & in time I may improve still more. I expect to have to visit Baltimore this Fall, in relation to the Valley R. R., & in that event I hope to see you, if you will permit me. I am glad to hear that you spent a pleasant summer. Colonel White and I would have had a more agreeable one had you been with us at the Hot, and as every place agrees so well with Mrs. Tagart, I think she could have enjoyed as good health there as at Saratoga, and we should have done better. No I could not see you at Saratoga, nor Long Branch either. In fact I saw nobody at either place. Give my sincere regards to Mrs. Tagart, & remember me to all friends, particularly Mr. Sam Smith. Tell Charlie Pitts his brother is well & handsome & I hope that he will study, or his sweethearts in Baltimore will not pine for him long. Captain White is well & busy & joins in my remembrances_ Mrs. Lee & my daughters unite with me in messages to you and Mrs. Tagart, & I am most truly yours R. E. Lee
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 17:50:58 +0000
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