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Robert was the son of Major General Henry Lee III, who had previously served as the 9th Govenor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter.
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Lee studied engineering while attending the academy. He graduated second in his class in 1829.
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Assigned to Cockspur Island, Georgia.
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Robert Lee married Mary Custis at his Arlington House on the grounds of what is now Arlington National Cemetary.
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Lee worked as a civil engineer and lived in Washington D.C. During this time, he worked around the United States, including jobs in Ohio, New York, Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri. He continued this career into the early 1840's.
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As a captain of engineers, Lee spends months in St. Louis channeling the river back to the city, allowing a major river port to remain open.
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Lee began working as a reconnaissance officer and was promoted to the rank of Colonel by the end of the war. During the war, he met and worked with Ulysses S. Grant.
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He would serve in the position unitl 1855.
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Lee is forced to clean up the financial mess left behind at the Arlington Estate when his father-in-law, George Washington Curtis, passes. The 195 slaves, promised freedom upon Curitis' death, refuse to keep working to settle debts. Lee pays to have runaways captured and punishes insubordinate slaves.
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The raid was an attempt by white abolitionist John Brown to start an armed slave revolt by seizing the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee.
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Lee declines the appointment, refusing to fight against his home state of Virginia, which had seceded the day before.
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After resigning from the US army, Lee takes command of the Southern army.
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After losing his command in West Virginia, he is called back to Richmond.
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Lee's gains his first major victory agains the Northern troops, dividing them and driving them back from their approach on Richmond, VA. The battle costs the Confederate 20,000 casualties.
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With relentless attacks, Lee turns the tide of the war in favor of the South.
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The declaration greatly raises the stakes of winning the war for both sides.
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Lee's bold tactics fail due to miscommunication, as three days of battle leave 23,000 Confederate casualties and deal a blow to the South's confidence about winning the war.
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Davis refuses the letter, saying no one can replace Lee.
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In a ceremony at the courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia, Lee signs a surrender document.
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Lee overhauls the curriculum of the school, located in in Lexington, Virginia. It is now Washington and Lee University.
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The body is laid to rest under this statue in the Church of Washington and Lee University.
