Robert E. Lee Day – January 19, 2027

History of Robert E. Lee Day

Robert Edward Lee came from a blue blood Virginia family, many of whom were legends in the U.S. military. Lee certainly seemed to follow in the family’s footsteps, joining the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduating second in his class in 1829.

For a long while after this, his career with the military did not involve any direct action whatsoever. That is, until the U.S.’s 1845 war with Mexico. He met with and worked with several soon-to-be high-ranking officials across the army, including George Pickett, Ulysses S. Grant, and Winfield Scott. Lee was also serving on the staff to Scott when Mexico City was captured in 1847. Lee greatly impressed his superiors and peers alike with his operations during this war, and he earned promotion after promotion, going from titles of major to lieutenant colonel, and later, to colonel.

Thereafter, America went into the grip of a devastating civil war, with the entire nation divided into two main sections — the Union Army and the Confederate Army. Lee’s reputation as one of the U.S. Military’s best had earned him a recommendation to command the “Union Army” in April 1861 by none other than Abraham Lincoln. However, Lee declined this post, instead of resigning his command and going home to Virginia, where the civil war was just beginning. He supported his home state, acting as the adviser to Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, and later, joining the newly formed “Confederate States Army” as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. He remained in this post until his surrender three years later.