HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROBERT E LEE

Robert E. Lee: Remembering An American Legend

America has always loved her heroes like: Baseball Legend-Babe Ruth, Golf Great-Ben Hogan, Movie Actor-John Wayne and…..
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, is the 204th birthday of General Robert E. Lee.

Young people will get a school holiday in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King whose birthday is January 15th. But, will anyone tell them that January 19th is also the birthday of Robert E. Lee?

Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910, quote

“The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.” unquote

Robert E. Lee…. who was born at “Stratford” in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on January 19, 1807. The winter was cold and fireplaces were little help for Robert's mother, Ann Hill (Carter) Lee.

Ann Lee named her son "Robert Edward" after her two brothers.

Robert E. Lee undoubtedly acquired his love of country from those who had lived during the American Revolution. His father, "Light Horse" Harry, was a hero of the revolution and served as Governor of Virginia and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Members of his family also signed the Declaration of Independence.

Lee was educated in the schools of Alexandria, Virginia. In 1825, he received an appointment to West Point Military Academy. He graduated in 1829, second in his class and without a single demerit.

Robert E. Lee wed Mary Anna Randolph Curtis in June 1831, two years after his graduation from West Point. Robert and Mary had grown up together. Mary was the daughter of George Washington Parke Curtis, the grandson of Martha Washington and the adopted son of George Washington.

Mary was an only child; therefore, she inherited Arlington House, across the Potomac from Washington, where she and Robert raised seven children.

In 1836, Lee was appointed to first lieutenant. In 1838, with the rank of captain, Lee fought valiantly in the War with Mexico and was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec.

He was appointed superintendent of West Point in 1852 and is considered one of the best superintendents in that institution's history.

General Winfield Scott offered Robert E. Lee command of the Union Army in 1861, but he refused. He said,

“I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children.”

Lee served as adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and then commanded the legendary Army of Northern Virginia.

After four terrible years of death and destruction, General Robert E. Lee met General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, and ended their battles.

In the fall of 1865, Lee was offered and accepted the presidency of troubled Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. The school was renamed Washington and Lee in his honor.

Robert E. Lee died at 9:30 on the morning of October 12, 1870, at Washington-Lee College.

He is buried in a chapel on the school grounds with his family and near his favorite horse, Traveller.

President Theodore Roosevelt described General Robert E. Lee as

"the very greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking peoples have brought forth."

By: Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer,
Author of Book “When America Stood for God, Family and Country”— cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net