Robert E. Lee

Born January 19, 1807, into Virginia's Lee family, he graduated top of his class at West Point and spent thirty-two years as a U.S. Army officer and military engineer, distinguishing himself in the Mexican-American War and later serving as Superintendent of the Military Academy. He opposed slavery philosophically but held hundreds of slaves and supported its legality. When Virginia seceded in 1861, he turned down a senior Union command and followed his home state. He took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862, drove McClellan from Richmond in the Seven Days Battles, won at Second Bull Run and Chancellorsville, but saw both northern invasions fail - Maryland ending at Antietam, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg in July 1863. Grant's spring 1864 campaign ground him down through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and the Siege of Petersburg until he surrendered April 1865 at Appomattox Court House. He became president of Washington College that year, accepted the end of slavery, opposed racial equality, and died October 12, 1870.