Robert Edward Lee (1807 - 1870)

Born 19 Jan 1807 in Stratford Hall, Westmoreland, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann Randolph (Custis) Lee — married 30 Jun 1831 in Arlington House, Arlington, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 12 Oct 1870 at age 63 in Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Robert E. Lee is Notable.

Native of Virginia

Robert E. Lee has English ancestors.

Early Life

Robert Edward Lee was the fifth child of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee and Ann Hill Carter.

Robert Edward Lee was born in Virginia on 19 January 1807 at Stratford Hall Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia. His parents were Henry Lee and Anne Hill Carter. His mother was the second wife of Henry Lee. Their home was a plantation with over 200 slaves. Robert's father was also known as "Lighthorse" Harry Lee. Henry Lee was an officer during the Revolutionary War as well as a member of Congress and former governor of Virginia. Robert Edward Lee was the 5th child. Soon after Robert’s birth, his father’s poor financial management forced the family to leave Stratford Hall. Robert's mother moved the family to Alexandria in 1810. When Robert was about age 5 war came to America with a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812. Robert’s half-brother Henry was commissioned major of the 36th Infantry and was ordered to the Canadian border.^[1]

Robert's father was injured in a riot in Baltimore in 1812 defending a friend. He was beaten and suffered severe injuries. The war finally came to affect Robert's home in Alexandria in 1814 on August 29th. The British fleet under Admiral Cockburn arrived with a squadron of 138 guns off the wharves of the undefended town forcing the people to surrender all naval stores, shipping, and merchandise being exported. ^[2]

For an unknown period, Robert attended a school at Eastern View in Fauquier County that was run by the Carters for their children. Robert's mother along with Bernard Carter petitioned the Virginia legislature in December of 1816 for permission to sell slaves per the will of Mildred Carter. This was for the benefit of the children of Anne Lee. ^[3]

Robert's father did not recover from his wounds. He sailed for the West Indies in an attempt to recover but later died on Cumberland Island, Georgia in 1818. He was buried there. Robert was then left with his widowed mother and several siblings. By 1820 young Robert was a student at Alexandria Academy, where he finished his secondary school education no later than 1823. He excelled in mathematics.

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Early Military Career

Robert E. Lee was appointed as a cadet at West Point on 1 July 1825 from Virginia. He graduated second in the class of 46 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. on 1 July 1829 in the Corps of Engineers. Robert was the first cadet to achieve the rank of Sergeant at the end of his first year.

While he was on leave he experienced the trauma of having his mother die in his arms in August of 1829.

Lee began his army career and the first army assignments were to help plan the construction of Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River in Georgia (1829–1831) and Fortress Monroe at Old Point Comfort in Virginia (1831–1834).

In 1831 Lee was transferred to Fort Monroe, Virginia, and soon married Mary Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, whom he had been courting since 1829. The wedding took place only after the Custis family relaxed their opposition to Mary's romance with the disgraced Light Horse Harry's son.

Marriage: 30 June 1831^[4]

Lee went in August 1834 to Fort Calhoun on the Rip-Raps in adjacent Hampton Roads and then in October to Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington. While in Washington he was promoted to 1st Lt. on 21 September of 1836. Robert then traveled to St. Louis in the summer of 1837 to superintend works protecting the harbor of the city from shifts in the channel of the Mississippi. Except for occasional visits to Virginia, Lee remained at St. Louis until October 1840. He found the improvement of the Mississippi intellectually stimulating, and it brought him useful experience in cooperating with civil officials. Meanwhile he rose to Captain on 7 July 1838.

War with Mexico

Captain Robert E. Lee entered Mexico on 12 October 1846 as a staff engineer with the column under Brigadier General John E. Wool. Captain Lee was ordered to join General Winfield Scott at Brazos, Texas in January of 1847. He was the chief engineer for General Scott in the planned invasion of the Mexican coast. Captain Lee found a way to get around enemy forces which was instrumental in providing U.S. forces with a victory in the battle of Cerro Gordo on 17–18 April. He was promoted to Brevet Major on 18 April 1847 as a result of that success. At Churubusco, Lee again found a feasible route skirting a lava bed known as the Pedregal, to permit another turning of the Mexican defenses. Again the outcome was swift American victory, at Contreras across the Pedregal and then at the main enemy position of Churubusco, both on 20 August. In reward, Lee received a brevet as Lieutenant Colonel.

Lt. Col. Lee was wounded at Chapultepec, Mexico 13 September 1847 while serving with General Winfield Scott. After his service in the Mexican-American War Lt. Col. Lee returned to Washington on 29 June 1848, Lee resumed duties at corps headquarters and on the coast defense board, whose business took him from Boston to Florida and Mobile.

West Point

Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee was given a new post in 1852 when he became the Superintendent of West Point Military Academy. He served in this position until 1855.

The eldest son of Robert E. Lee, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during the time his father was the Superintendent. George graduated in 1854 and was like his father in the Corps of Engineers.

Brevet Lt. Col. Lee was promoted to Lt. Col. of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry on 3 March 1855.

Texas and rattlesnakes

Lt. Col. Lee was sent to a new post at Camp Cooper in Texas in 1856. Camp Cooper, Texas was on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. It was established by the Texas legislature. The post was founded by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston in January 1856 and became headquarters for four companies of the Second United States Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. Lee. Col. Lee assumed command from Major Hardee.

The mission of the fort was to protect the frontier and to monitor the nearby Clear Fork Comanche Indian reservation. The area had been a campsite for three companies of the Fifth Infantry in 1851. This was Lee's first command of a fort. He remained in charge for fifteen months, from April 9, 1856, until 22 July 1857. Captains under his command included Earl Van Dorn and Theodore O'Hara. Although the camp initially had adequate military stores, it was plagued by severe weather, insects, dust, and irregular supply trains. Rattlesnakes were constant visitors.

Here Lee was far from his wife Mary and his children, but he wrote them quite often. He didn't like this so called "desert land," but he would have to live with it for nineteen months in what he called his "Texas home."

In one letter he wrote to his baby daughter, he said teasingly, "My rattlesnake, my only pet is dead. He grew sick and would not eat his frogs and died." Rattlesnakes made life hazardous around the post. Because of them, Lee had to build his chicken coop well above ground.

When he left the camp in 1857 for San Antonio, Maj. George H. Thomas took over.

Harper's Ferry

Lt. Col. Lee returned to Arlington, Virginia in 1859 on leave to attend to the affairs of the estate of his father in law. While at home on leave news came to the War Department of an attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Lee received orders to ride immediately for Harper's Ferry.

Robert was a Brevet Colonel in October of 1859 when John Brown led an attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry Virginia. Col. Lee was ordered to suppress the insurrection. He was in command of a force of United States Marines in the assault which yielded the capture of John Brown. J.E.B. Stuart was a young Lt. of Cavalry and was on the staff of Col. Lee. He was with Col. Lee at Harper's Ferry. He took the demands of Col. Lee to John Brown before the assault.

After these events were over Robert remained in Virginia until Feb of 1860. He then returned to San Antonio and his command in Texas. On 15 March he left San Antonio for Fort Ringgold and Fort Brown to pursue Juan N. Cortina.

The election of 1860 brought Abraham Lincoln into the office of President of the United States of America. With that came secession by South Carolina in December followed by 6 other southern states.

Lee was in San Antonio in June of 1860 and was recorded on the census there.^[5] His wife and children were at Arlington in Virginia. He returned home to Arlington and was recorded again on the census of 1860 with his family in August.^[6] Lt. Col. Lee was ordered back to Washington by General Scott in Feb of 1861. Texas seceded from the Union in February of 1861.

Lee had been promoted to Colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry on 16 March 1861.

After the formation of the Confederate States of America there was a demand for the surrender of all U.S. military forts within the Confederacy.

Lincoln would not surrender Fort Sumter and instead attempted to resupply the fort from the sea.^[7] On 12 April 1861 after negotiations failed, Confederate batteries under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter.

Lee's home state of Virginia, seceded on 23 April 1861. Abraham Lincoln offered Lee the command of the Union Army. Though he denounced Virginia's secession from the Union, Lee refused Abraham Lincoln's invitation to take command of the entirety of the Union Army, stating he would "...never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty."

He resigned from the United States Army on 25 April 1861.

War Between the Union and the Southern Confederacy

Colonel Lee returned to Virginia and to his home at Arlington on 10 May 1861. The Confederate War Department gave Lee command of its forces in Virginia. Lee was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Confederate Regular Army on 14 May 1861.

Lee saw his first campaign for the Confederacy end in defeat at the Battle of Cheat Mountain or Elkwater on 10–15 September, when Confederate columns failed to cooperate enough to drive the Federals from the mountain.

On 31 August 1861 Lee had been confirmed as a full General of the Confederate Regular Army, President Davis next sent him to try to shore up another crumbling front. Unluckily, Lee arrived at Charleston to command the South Atlantic coast defenses on 7 November, the very day that the U.S. Navy captured the defenses of Port Royal Sound in South Carolina.

On 2 March 1862 Davis summoned Lee back to Richmond to resume his duties as adviser. Lee made a decision on strategy to take the offensive against the Union. He arranged to reinforce Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Army of the Valley sufficiently to permit it to undertake the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 8 May–9 June 1862.

Soon Lee confronted that offensive directly. In March, McClellan had moved his main force by sea from Washington to Fort Monroe; then he began an advance toward the Confederate capital by way of the peninsula between the York and James rivers. On 31 May, General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate forces opposing him, was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines. The next day Lee succeeded to Johnston’s command, which he promptly designated the Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee applied his principles of concentrating force and seizing the initiative. He had Jackson join him with the Valley Army, and, thus reinforced, he conducted a series of attacks against McClellan just outside Richmond in the Seven Days Battles of 25 June–1 July 1862. This saved Richmond.

Second Battle of Manassas Also Known as Bull Run

On 29–30 August 1862, Lee defeated Pope’s army reinforced by part of McClellan’s, at the Second Battle of Manassas General Longstreet had launched a counter attack against Pope's army and crushed General Pope's forces with a a loss of 15,000 men.

After the success of Second Manassas and the Northern Virginia Campaign, General Lee pressed his advantage and launched an invasion of the North, crossing the Potomac into western Maryland on 5 September.

In taking his army across the Potomac River, General Lee had in mind strategic, logistical, and political factors. General Lee by moving north into Maryland would take pressure off of Virginia and allow the state to recover from the ravages of war. By moving north General Lee put his army northwest of Washington forcing the Federals to keep their forces between Lee and Washington. Maryland had been coerced by the Union to not join the Confederacy. Thirty-one secessionist members of the State Legislature, together with the mayor of Baltimore, had been imprisoned for several weeks during the autumn of 1861.

Bloody Antietam

Maryland had vast agriculture assets that could feed Lee's army, McClellan united his army with the Army of Virginia and marched a force of 87,000 Union troops northwest to block Lee’s invasion. On 17 September, on Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland, General McClellan attacked the 45,000 Confederates under General Lee. On the 18th September, both sides remained in place, too bloodied to advance. Late that evening and on the 19th, Lee withdrew from the battlefield and slipped back across the Potomac into Virginia. The bloodiest single day in American military history ended in a draw with over 27 thousand casualties.

Fredericksburg a Confederate Victory

After Antietam, President Lincoln replaced General McClellan with General Burnside on the 7th of November 1862. By mid-November, General Burnside had moved two advance corps to Falmouth, located on the north bank of the Rappahannock River across from Fredericksburg. In response, General Lee rushed his troops to dig in positions in the hills south of the Rappahannock before the bulk of Burnside’s army could arrive.

The river was too deep to ford so Burnside had to wait for pontoons to arrive before crossing. He crossed the river on 11 December with over 120,000 troops. On the 13th of December Burnsides forces launched a two-pronged attack on the right and left flanks of Robert E. Lee’s 80,000-strong Army of Northern Virginia at Fredericksburg. General Lee had offered only token resistance to the forces crossing the river giving General Longstreet's Corps and General Stonewall Jackson's Corps time to prepare defenses. Longstreet's Corps occupied Marye's Heights above the town of Fredericksburg. The battle resulted in 13,000 Union casualties to 5,000 Confederate casualties. Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Hooker in April.

Chancellorsville

May 1–6, 1863 General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia defeat Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The brilliant victory comes at great cost when Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is mortally wounded by friendly fire.

Gettysburg

Lee had brought the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania a force of 70,000 troops. His forces and that of General Meade fought a three day battle in which both sides suffered great casualties. July 1–3, 1863 - Union General George G. Meade defeats Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg, forcing the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to retreat toward Virginia.

Autumn 1863 - Following his defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee fails to maneuver Union General George G. Meade into another major engagement during the Bristoe Station Campaign.

Battle of the Wilderness

May 5–7, 1864 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee clashes for the first time with the new Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of the Wilderness during the Overland Campaign. Casualties are heavy for both armies, but unlike his predecessors, Grant refuses to retreat.

Spotsylvania Court House

May 8–26, 1864 - At the battles of Spotsylvania Court House and North Anna River during the Overland Campaign, Confederate General Robert E. Lee again clashes with Union General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. Grant continues to maneuver south.

Cold Harbor

May 31–June 12, 1864 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee stalls Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant's drive southward during the Overland Campaign at the Battle of Cold Harbor, where the Union suffers 7,000 casualties on the morning of 3 June alone.

Siege of Petersburg and Battle of the Crater

June 16, 1864–March 25, 1865 - The Union Army of the Potomac lays siege to Petersburg. The siege is characterized by 30 miles of trenches stretching Confederate defenses thin, and occasional pitched battles, including the Battle of the Crater on 30 July 1864, and the more-decisive Battle of Five Forks on 1 April 1865.

April 2, 1865 - After Union forces break through Confederate lines around Petersburg at the Battle of Five Forks a day earlier, Richmond is evacuated.

Battle of Sailor's Creek and road to Appomattox

April 6, 1865 - At the Battle of Sailor's Creek, a trapped and exhausted Army of Northern Virginia suffers more than 8,700 casualties, or about 20 percent of its men. Of those, 7,700 are captured, including Confederate General Richard S. Ewell.

Appomattox

April 9, 1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

April 10, 1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee's General Orders No. 9, his farewell address to the Army of Northern Virginia, praises his troops' "unsurpassed courage and fortitude." He also tells them they had been "compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources." Both arguments become fixtures of the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War.

Life After the War

Robert E. Lee lived in Appalachia. See Appalachia Project.

His home at Arlington had been taken from him and his family during the war. The land near his home was made a cemetery. Lee returned to Richmond and stayed there several months. The trustees of Washington College in Lexington, then looking for a new president, decided that Lee was the perfect choice. They offered him the position and he accepted. Robert E. Lee moved his family to Lexington, Rock Bridge, Virginia in September of 1865. He went to work improving the college. He and his family were living in Lexington in 1867.^[8]

General Lee and his Confederate officers in their first meeting since Appomattox, August 1869

General Robert E. Lee & his Generals

Lee worked tirelessly for the college and his health was affected. He had a heart condition that had been since the war. On 28 September 1870, he suffered a massive stroke. Two weeks later, on 12 October 1870 Robert E. Lee died in his home on the college campus.

Letter written by Mary to a friend, describing his last days:

. . . My husband came in. We had been waiting tea for him, and I remarked: "You have kept us waiting a long time. Where have you been?" He did not reply, but stood up as if to say grace. Yet no word proceeded from his lips, and he sat down in his chair perfectly upright and with a sublime air of resignation on his countenance, and did not attempt to a reply to our inquiries. That look was never forgotten, and I have no doubt he felt that his hour had come; for though he submitted to the doctors, who were immediately summoned, and who had not even reached their homes from the same vestry-meeting, yet his whole demeanour during his illness showed one who had taken leave of earth. He never smiled, and rarely attempted to speak, except in dreams, and then he wandered to those dreadful battle-fields. Once, when Agnes urged him to take some medicine, which he always did with reluctance, he looked at her and said, "It is no use." But afterward he took it. When he became so much better the doctor said, "You must soon get out and ride your favorite gray!" He shook his head most emphatically and looked upward. He slept a great deal, but knew us all, greeted us with a kindly pressure of the hand, and loved to have us around him. For the last forty-eight hours he seemed quite insensible of our presence. He breathed more heavily, and at last sank to rest with one deep-drawn sigh. And oh, what a glorious rest was in store for him!^[9]

Date: 12 October 1870

Place: Lexington, Rockbridge, Virginia^[8]

Find A Grave: Memorial #615 Robert E Lee

Family

Robert Edward Lee and his wife, Mary Ann Randolph Custis had the following known children:

1. George Washington Custis Lee b. 1832
2. Mary Custis Lee b. 1835
3. William Henry Fitzhugh Lee b. 1837
4. Anne Carter Lee b. 1839
5. Eleanor Agnes Lee b. 1841
6. Robert Edward Lee b. 1843
7. Mildred Childe Lee b. 1845

Legacy

Arlington County, Virginia is named in honor of General Lee's Arlington plantation estate. Eight other states have Lee County, named in the General's honor. These are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Lee County, Alabama was created in 1866 in honor of General Lee. Lee County Arkansas was formed on 17 April 1873, from parts of Crittenden, Monroe, Phillips and St. Francis counties. The county was named for General Robert E. Lee^[10]

Amnesty Oath

The Amnesty Oath of Robert E. Lee was found in 1970, an archivist at the National Archives discovered Lee's Amnesty Oath among State Department records (reported in Prologue, Winter 1970). Apparently, Secretary of State William H. Seward had given Lee's application to a friend as a souvenir, and the State Department had pigeonholed the oath.

In 1975, Lee's full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored by a joint congressional resolution effective 13 June 1865.^[11] A copy of this oath was added to his profile.

Slaves

Robert E. Lee's father in law owned slaves in Virginia at his Arlington home. His father in law, George W. P. Custis made his will in March of 1855. The following excerpt is from that will as it relates to Col. Lee. "And upon the legacies to my four granddaughters being paid, and my estates that are required to pay the said legacies being clear of debt, then I give freedom to my slaves, the said slaves to be emancipated by my executors in such manner as to my executors may seem most expedient and proper, the said emancipation to be accomplished in not exceeding five years from the time of my decease."

And I do constitute and appoint as my executors Lieut. Col. Robert Edward Lee, Robert Lee Randolph, of Eastern View, Rt. Rev. Bishop Meade, and George Washington Peter.

This will, written by my hand, is signed, sealed, and executed the twnty-sixth day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.

George Washington Parke Custis.^[12]

George W. P. Custis died in March of 1857 and he was buried at Arlington. Lee was on duty in Texas at the time. Lt. Col. Lee returned to Arlington, Virginia in 1859 on leave to attend to the affairs of the estate of his father in law. While at home on leave news came to the War Department of an attack on the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Lee received orders to ride immediately for Harper's Ferry. Lee was involved with his duties after the attack at Harper's Ferry and then war broke out in April of 1861.

Robert E. Lee in his capacity as executor of the estate of his father in law made a deed of manumission in which he set free all the slaves of his father in law George Custis in December of 1862. ^[13] Enslaved persons, per project protocol from the US Black Heritage: Heritage Exchange Portal project include categories, history, lists and other identifiers with sources and maintained on the Slaves of Robert E Lee project page. Included among the slaves primarily were those of all ages named in the 29 December 1862 R E Lee Arlington, New Kent and King William County Virginia Deed of Manumission, in Lee's role as Executor of his father-in-law, George W P Custis's estate, delivered in Spotsylvania, Virginia; Hustings Court in Richmond, Virginia, among others shown on the Slave of Robert E Lee project page.^[14][15]

Research Notes

A great source for insight into Robert E. Lee is found in this collection from Washington and Lee University.^[9]

Confirm source for the following: A Petition was filed in Charles City County, Virginia in 1816 in which Bernard Carter and Ann H Lee asked to be allowed to sell the slaves left by their sister Mildred in trust for the benefit of Anne and her children Carter Lee, Anna Lee, Smith Lee, Robert Lee, and Mildred Lee.^[16]

Sources

1. ↑ https://archive.org/details/releebiographyby01free/page/n57/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Henry
2. ↑ https://www.alexandriava.gov/1812
3. ↑ http://rosetta.virginiamemory.com:1801/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE2617033
4. ↑ R. E. Lee and Mary Custis were married at Arlington House. There seems to be no church nor any civil record of the marriage. A standard citation for the marriage is George Norbury and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, eds., "Colonial Families of the United States" (Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995), p. 315.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXFB-YRJ : 18 February 2021), R E Lee in entry for Ladveska Phillips, 1860.
6. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M41M-VQ8 : 18 February 2021), R E Lee, 1860.
7. ↑ http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sumter.htm
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1}
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Letters from Robert E Lee at Washington and Lee University
10. ↑ leecounty.arkansas.gov
11. ↑ https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/piece-lee
12. ↑ https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/will-of-george-washington-parke-custis-march-26-1855/
13. ↑ https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/lee-manumission-document.htm
14. ↑ Wetzel, Annette E, transcriber. Robert Edward Lee Papers. Museum of the Confederacy. Richmond, Virginia. Deed of Manumission: Arlington, New Kent, King William Counties. USGENWEB Archives. Accessed 29 September 2021. See also partial reproduction: Robert E Lee and the Custis Slaves. Citing Lee, Robert E. 2 January 1863. The Museum of the Confederacy Richmond, Virginia. For another, uncredited transcription: Lee. Manumission of 29 December 1862. Transcription on yumpu via Magazine Recommendation. Accessed 1 October 2021.
15. ↑ The Deed of Manumission is also discussed in: Robert, Joseph C. Lee the Farmer. Reproduced at LeeFamilyArchive.org from Vol 3. November 1937, Pages 422-440. The Journal of Southern History.
16. ↑ Petition, Charles City County, Virginia, 12 December 1816; Legislative Petitions of the [Virginia] General Assembly, 1776-1865, Accession Number 36121, Box 52, Folder 38; digital images, Library of Virginia

• Kelly, Dennis P. “The Battle of Shepherdstown.” Civil War Times Illustrated, Vol 20, no. 7 (Nov 1981): 8.
• Civil War Times Illustrated – November 1981

Bibliography

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (18 March 2020), R E Lee in entry for Ladveska Phillips, 1860.
• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (19 March 2020), R E Lee, 1860.
• The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family By Paul C. Nagel
• CivilWar.org
• Robert E. Lee Biography
• biography.com Robert E. Lee
• https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/QBC09
• https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth670304/
• http://txgenwebcounties.org/throckmorton/History/Camp.Cooper.htm
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/antietam
• https://catalog.archives.gov/id/593737PBS Grant and Lee
• History.com Robert E. Lee article has been removed (page not found, 24 July 2023). See the Wayback Machine's 16 June 2021 capture (accessed 24 July 2023).
• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (19 March 2020), Ro E Lee, 1870.
• The National Park Service: Memorialization of Robert E. Lee and the Lost Cause.
• https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-0400622
• Petition, Charles City County, Virginia, 12 Dec 1816; Legislative Petitions of the [Virginia] General Assembly, 1776-1865, Accession Number 36121, Box 52, Folder 38; digital images, Library of Virginia (See PDF image of document)
• https://leefamilyarchive.org/about-us/the-lees
• Robert Edward Lee Wikipedia article
• This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q165557, en:Wikipedia
• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 27 September 2020), memorial page for Robert E. Lee (19 Jan 1807–12 Oct 1870), Find A Grave: Memorial #615, citing Lee Chapel Museum, Lexington, Lexington City, Virginia.
• https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/piece-lee
• Source: S1659619117 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc
• https://www.virginiahistory.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-history-explorer/robert-e-lee-after-war

Acknowledgements

• Thank you to Adri Oldershaw, Michelle Brooks, Jeff Kenner, Mary Knox, Lynda Hull, Beverly Walth, Fontaine Wiatt, Cynthia McDaniel and others for their significant contributions.