Robert E Lee Essay Research Paper Biography

Robert E. Lee Essay, Research Paper

Biography of Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee was born in Stratford Hall, near Montross, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. He grew up with a great love of all country life and his state. This stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was a very serious boy and spent many hours in his father’s library. He loved to play with some his friends, swim, and he loved to hunt. Lee looked up to his father and always wanted to know what he was doing. George Washington and his father, “Light-Horse Harry Lee,” were his heroes. He wanted to be just like his father when he grew up. In the 1820’s, the entrance requirements for West Point were not close to as strict as they are now. It still was not that easy to become a cadet. Robert Lee entered the United States Military Academy at West Point where his classmates admired him for his brilliance, leadership, and his love for his work. He graduated from the academy with high honors in 1829, and he was ranked as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers at the age of 21. Lee served for seventeen months at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, Georgia. In 1831, the army transferred him to Fort Monroe, Virginia, as assistant engineer. While he was stationed there, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis who was Martha Washington’s great-granddaughter. They lived in her family home in Arlington on a hill overlooking Washington D.C. They had seven children which were three sons and four daughters. Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer’s office in Washington from 1834 to 1837, but then he spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the boundary line between Ohio and Michigan. In 1837, he got his first independent important job. As a first lieutenant of engineers, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbor and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. His work there earned him a promotion to captain. In 1841, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton in New York harbor, where he took charge of building fortifications. When war broke out between the United States and Mexico in 1846, the army sent Lee to Texas to serve as assistant engineer under General John E. Wool. All his superior officers, especially General Winfield Scott, were impressed with Lee. Early in the war, Lee supervised the construction of bridges for Wool’s march toward the Mexican border. He then did excellent work on scouting trips. Lee later was helping General Winfield Scott plan a great battle. The Army was about to attack Vera Cruz, a large Mexican town on the sea. The attack began. Soldiers fired huge guns at the walls of Vera Cruz. One of the men at the guns happened to be Robert’s brother, Smith Lee. When he could, Lee went to stand by his brother’s gun. “I could see his white teeth through all the smoke of the fire”1 Lee said, in a letter to Mary. The Mexicans soon gave up Vera Cruz. General Scott thanked Lee for his work. Now the Army could move on to the Mexican capital. The march to Mexico City would be hard. General Scott asked Lee to find the best way to go. And he asked him to see what Santa Anna, the Mexican general, was doing. To get news for Scott, Lee went behind the lines of enemy soldiers. This was dangerous work. Once when Lee was behind enemy lines he heard voices. Mexican soldiers were coming to drink at a spring. Lee jumped under a log. More Mexicans came. They sat on the log and talked. Lee had to hide there until dark. Lee found out many things for Scott. Once he even found a secret road for the army. He was extremely brave. At Cerro Gordo he led the first line of men into battle. The Americans won. Lee then wrote to his son, Custis, “You have no idea what a horrible sight a field of battle is.”2 Then came the biggest battle of the war. The Americans attacked a fort outside Mexico City. Lee planned the attack. For days he worked without sleep. He found out where the Mexican soldiers were. He knew where to put the big guns. It was easy for the Army to take the fort. The American Army marched right into Mexico City. The war was now officially over. Lee’s engineering skill made it possible for American troops to cross the difficult mountain passes on the way to the capital. During the march to Mexico City, Lee was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to brevet colonel before the war ended. All of the official reports praised Lee highly. Scott said that his “success in Mexico was largely due to skill, valor, and undaunted courage of Robert E. Lee…the greatest military genius in America.”3 After three years at Fort Carrol in Baltimore harbor, Lee became the superintendent of West Point in 1852. He would have preferred duty in the field, instead of at a desk, but worked at his post without complaint. During his three years at West Point, he improved the buildings, the courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets. There was one cadet, Jeb Stuart, later served as one of Lee’s best cavalry officers. Lee earned a very good reputation during his service there as a fair and kind superintendent. In 1855, Lee became a lieutenant colonel of cavalry and was assigned to duty on the Texas frontier. There he helped protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and Comanche Indians. Once again he proved to be an excellent soldier and organizer. But these were not happy years for Lee. He did not like to be away from his family for long periods of time, mostly because of his wife who was becoming weaker and weaker every