Robert Edward Lee was born on January 19, 1807, at Stratford in Westmoreland County son of Colonel Henry Lee and Ann Hill Carter. Col. Henry Lee, called "Lighthorse Harry", was one of George Washington's best cavalry officers and he also served three terms as the governor of Virginia. Stratford had a spacious house, stables, mill, waterfront, fruit trees, gardens, and fields. Lee's early years there must have had a happy influence on the man he became. In 1810 Lee's family moved to Alexandria, VA, where the family fell on hard times. In 1813 Col. Lee went to Barbados for his health, but passed away in 1815 never to see his family again. Because Lee's father had passed away while he was young he was forced to mature quickly. When Lee was 19 he entered West Point, and graduated four years later second in his class with no record of disobedience or demerits during the whole four years. Shortly after his graduation, Lee returned home to see his mother. She passed in 1829, but got the chance to see her son in his new 2nd Lieutenant's uniform. In 1831, Lee married Mary Custis, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, and only heiress to the Arlington Home. Lee's military career began with assignments in Georgia and Virginia. Although military duties took him away much of the time, he was devoted to his wife and children. In 1859, Lee attracted national attention when he successfully suppressed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, VA. As the 1850's drew to a close, Lee was deeply concerned about the dangerous sectional antagonisms gathering momentum and threatening to disrupt the nation. Dreading the thought of Civil War, he frequently hoped solutions could be found to the issues that troubled the country. However, when the secession crisis developed in 1860-61, and the war between the North and the South became imminent, Lee, compelled by his great sense of duty, resigned from his commission and followed his native Virginia out of the Union. In making this decision, he declined President Lincoln's offer to command the federal armies. Lee would have preferred to serve the Confederacy in a non-military capacity, for he had no wish to wage war against men who had been his friends in the U.S. Army. But the South needed Lee's military experience and he was placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Later he commanded all the Confederate forces. He led the army through the difficult years of the war, and surrendered only when he realized the further conflict was futile and would result in more bloodshed and more laying waste to an already defeated South. The end of the war brought dramatic change to Lee's life. The Custis-Lee fortune was greatly reduced and Arlington was lost. In the Summer of 1865, Lee accepted the position as president at Washington College. He thought that he would further embarrass the already small struggling school. However, he did just the opposite. The college grew in size and enrollment under his leadership. On October 12, 1870, Lee died in the President's house at Washington College and he was entombed in the campus chapel building. Soon the college honored Lee and changed its name to Washington and Lee college. Today, the school is known as Washington and Lee University.
 

Definition of a Gentleman

The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman. The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly -- the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light. The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.

He Lost a War and Won Immortality
by: Louis Redmond
 

Even among the free, it is not always easy to live together. There came a time, less than a hundred years ago, when the people of this country disagreed so bitterly among themselves that some of them felt they could not go on living with the rest. A test of arms was made to decide whether Americans should remain one nation or become two. The armies of those who believed in two nations were led by a man named Robert E. Lee. What about Lee? What kind of man was he who nearly split the history of the United States down the middle and made two separate books of it? They say you had to see him to believe that a man so fine could exist. He was handsome. He was clever. He was brave. He was gentle. He was generous and charming, noble, and modest, admired and beloved. He had never failed at anything in his upright soldier's life. He was a born winner, this Robert E. Lee. Except for once. In the greatest contest of his life, in the war between the South and the North, Robert E. Lee lost. Now there were men who came with smoldering eyes to Lee and said: "Let's not accept this result as final. Let's keep our anger alive. Let's be grim and unconvinced, and wear our bitterness like a medal. You can be our leader in this." But Lee shook his head at those men. "Abandon your animosities," he said, "and make your sons Americans." And what did he do himself when his war was lost? He took a job as president of a tiny college, with forty students and four professors, at a salary of $1500 a year. He had commanded thousands of young men in battle. Now he wanted to prepare a few hundred of them for the duties of peace. So the countrymen of Robert E. Lee saw how a born winner loses, and it seemed to them that in defeat he won his most lasting victory. There is an art of losing, and Robert E. Lee is its finest teacher. In a democracy, where opposing viewpoints regularly meet for a test of ballots, it is good for all of us to know how to lose occasionally, how to yield peacefully, for the sake of freedom. Lee is our master in this. The man who fought against the union, showed us all what unity truly means.