Robert E. Lee

(Robert Edward Lee)

Born: January 19, 1807 in Stratford Hall, Virginia

Died: October 12, 1870 in Lexington, Virginia

Military Rank (CSA): General

• Considered the war’s finest general
• He opposed slavery, but left the US Army to fight with his home state of Virginia after the secession.
• He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1829.
• He fought in the Mexican-American War.
• He became military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
• He took command of the Confederate Army in 1862 when Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines.
• He is considered a better general than Grant, and it is said that with proper supplies, he would have led the Confederacy to victory.
• After the war, he became president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.
• He died of heart disease.