Biographical Notes
Robert Edward Lee
Lee's farewell address is thought to have been written by a member of his staff - Charles Marshall. The sentiments expressed in General Order No. 9, however, were those of Lee himself.
"After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.
I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained stedfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them.
But feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that would compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a Merciful
God will extend to you His blessing and protection.
With our increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous considerations for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."
After the surrender formalities were concluded at Appomattox, Lee joined his wife in Richmond and on April 20 wrote to President Davis:
"A partisan war may be continued and hostilities protracted, causing individual suffering and the devastation of the country, but I see no prospect by that means of achieving separate independence. . . . To save useless effusion of blood, I would recommend measures be taken for suspension of hostilities and the restoration of peace."
Lee was well received by the people of Richmond and the owner of the house that he and Mary were living in, John Stewart, explained that he need not pay rent for as long as he wished to stay. Lee insisted on paying the rent so Stewart insisted on his paying it in Confederate currency as required in the lease. Immediately after Appomattox Lee's legal status was that of a paroled prisoner of war. President Lincoln had been assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 15 and many in the North began crying for retribution against the principal architects of the recent Civil War. Both President Davis and Robert E. Lee were on the short list of men that many northerners wanted to try and hang for treason. President Davis was captured on May 10 in Georgia and subsequently jailed at Fort Monroe, Virginia. On June 7 Lee was indicted for treason by a federal jury in Norfolk, Virginia. On June 13 Lee wrote to Grant and he immediately went to President Andrew Johnson and threatened to resign as general-in-chief of the Army unless Johnson agreed that the terms of surrender at Appomattox precluded trials for treason. On June 20 Grant wrote to Lee saying that he would not be tried for treason. On June 28 Lee moved his family to the country for a short time before moving on to Lexington, Virginia, where, on October 2, 1865, he was elected president of Washington College. That same day he signed an oath to support the Constitution of the United States as had been required for him to have the rights of U.S. citizenship restored to him. He sent the signed and notarized document on to Washington, but no one took any action on it and it was lost in the files for over a century. (It was finally discovered in 1970 and Lee was made a citizen by an act of Congress that was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on August 5, 1975.)
Lee built Washington College into a successful institution and urged his fellow Southerners to accommodate to the new order of things as quickly as possible. On February 17 he appeared before a Joint Committee of Congress to answer questions about relations between Virginians and the United States. He explained that he was living a very retired life and did not know many politicians, nor did he have any knowledge of financial matters. On the subject of the proposed amendment to the constitution that would permit blacks to vote, Lee expressed the view that he did not think that they would be able to vote intelligently and therefore proper intelligent people would not be elected to public office. On the subject of Northerners working in the South Lee advised that Northerners confine themselves to their own business and not interfere or provoke their neighbors. He spoke in favor of President Johnson's policies vis-a-vis the South and when asked whether he would in time of war with a foreign power support secession he answered: "I have no disposition now to do it and I never have had." In January 1867 Lee was sounded out as a possible candidate for the position of governor of Virginia. He declined saying that he feared that his election would attract hostility toward the state. In May 1867 President Davis was released from prison. Shortly thereafter a grand jury in Richmond met to consider his status. Lee was summoned to appear at the hearing and contributed to Davis being released without charge. On Christmas Day 1868 a general amnesty was declared and a formal abandonment of the indictment for treason was issued on February 1869.
During the summer of 1868 Lee took Mary to the hot springs at White Sulfur Springs Resort in the Virginia mountains. At the request of William T. Rosecrans, Lee invited a number of his former military associates to attend a meeting during which Rosecrans presented a paper designed to assist the Democratic Party in the forthcoming elections. Lee and a number of the other guests signed the document that became known as the White Sulfur paper. The authors complained that at the close of the war Southerners had attempted to restore their relations with the United States, but their rights under the constitution were being denied them. The paper went on to say that racial relations in the South were damaged by influences that stirred up the passions of the negro race. "..at present the negroes have neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to make them safe depositories of political power." The White Sulfur paper did not help the Democratic Party in the elections of 1868 - Grant was elected president and the Republicans retained control of Congress. On May 1, 1869, Lee visited Grant in the White House, but nothing of substance came out of the relatively short meeting. Grant had become increasingly more radical in his feelings about reconstruction. As he saw it, Southerners like Lee were blocking the advancement of blacks throughout the South.
In the last years of his life Lee was increasingly troubled with increasingly serious health problems that were not properly diagnosed. He traveled rather extensively seeking medical advice and visiting friends. On September 28, 1870, while dining with his wife he suffered a stroke. He subsequently contracted pneumonia and died on October 12, 1870. He was buried a few days later at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.
