(b. January 19, 1807; d. October 12, 1870) Leading Confederate General during the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee was the most notable Confederate commander of the Civil War, and a figure of mythic proportions. Son of "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, a

General Robert E. Lee.

Revolutionary War hero who had fallen into financial and personal disgrace, Lee was born at the family plantation named Stratford, in the tidewater region of Virginia. When Lee was four, his father fled the country, plunging his family into impoverished dependence on relatives. In 1829, Lee graduated West Point with a perfect conduct record (and a reputation as the most handsome man in the army) and embarked on a long career as an army engineer. In 1831, he married Mary Custis, daughter of George Washington's adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, and moved to the Custis plantation at Arlington, near Washington, D.C.

In 1861, at the...