Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was an American and Confederate soldier, best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army. A Richmond man donated acreage for the memorial. The association wanted a Southern designer, but, Harper’s noted, the South had few sculptors of eminence.
"I SHALL CARRY ME TO THE GRAVE THE MOST GRATEFUL RECOLLECTION OF YOU KIND CONSIDERATION, AND YOUR NAME AND FAME WILL ALWAYS BE DEAR TO ME. SAVE IN THE DEFENSE OF MY NATIVE STATE, I NEVER DESIRE AGAIN TO DRAW MY SWORD."- Robert E Lee.
Courtesy of Property Room
After the war, Robert E. Lee took a job as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. The college was later renamed Washington and Lee University. He was a progressive educator and awakened his students with the desire to rebuild their state with the goal of good citizenship in a nation that in time would become reunited. Lee was an symbol to the Southern people of what was best in their heritage. Before April 20, 1861, when he resigned from the U.S. Army to fight for the South, Robert E. Lee seemed bound for neither canonization nor denunciation.