Today in History
October 12, 1870
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Last Battle Ends
Robert Edward Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, dies in Lexington on October 12, 1870. Lee, a West Point graduate who resigns his U. S. Army commission to lead Confederate forces during the Civil War, earns a reputation as a brilliant general. His invasions of the North at Antietam and at Gettysburg, however, are ultimately thwarted. When Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant takes control of Union forces in 1864, he tightens the reins on Lee’s army. Surrounded by federal soldiers in 1865, and cut off from supply lines, Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9.
Today's Feature History Article
Making Sense of Robert E. Lee
"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."
— Robert E. Lee, at Fredericksburg.
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