"Learn, Live and Love the World Around You"
After surrendering at the Appomattox Courthouse General Robert Edward Lee skipped the official surrender ceremony. On April 14th, General Lee visited his brother Charles Carter Lee. However, since General Lee did not want to inconvenience his brother, he ended up camping on the property of the Gilliams Family. This was the last time that General Lee camped during his journey from Appomattox back to his family’s home in Richmond, Virginia.
Union forces from Brazos Island launched the Brazos Santiago Expedition, leading to the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought in Texas form May 12 to 13th, 1865, well after Robert Edward Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, at Old Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
The Battle of Palmito Ranch was a victory for the confederate army. However, due to the surrender of the armies of the remainder of the confederacy, the victory did not change the outcome of the war.
The site of the last Civil War battle has been designated as the the Palmito Ranch Battlefield National Historic Landmark.
In 1740, the Historic Saint Thomas Episcopal Church was founded as a Colonial Parish of the Church of England. The church served as General Robert E. Lee’s place of worship during his encampment in Orange County in the winter of 1863 to 1864. During that winter essential movement of troops and supplies for General Lee’s Confederate Army, occurred in preparation for larger battles in the Spring, such as battle where Generals Lee and Grant’s armies clashed for the first time in May 1864. This first engagement resulted in 26,000 casualties and marked Grant’s first step toward Appomattox.
The Arlington National Cemetery began when the Union Army decided to bury their war dead on the property of Confederate General Robert Edward Lee, while his home was occupied by the Union Army.
Two former U.S. Presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and William Howard Taft are buried in the Arlington Cemetery.
Author’s Note:
Philip Andrew Hamilton’s Great Uncle William Henry Russell, who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The Custis Lee Mansion is the former home of former Confederate General Robert Edward Lee and his wife Mary Lee.
Robert Edward Lee resigned his U.S. Army Commission on April 20, 1861. Robert Edward Lee and his wife left the home, due to its proximity to Washington, D.C. and it’s likelihood of invasion.
Soon after the Lees left the Union did occupy the house, since the home was on a hill overlooking Washington, D.C.
On June 1862, the 37th Congress mandated that all property taxes within insurrectionary areas be paid in person. Mary Lee has arthritis and was unable to pay the taxes in person, hence the house was auctioned and purchased by the U.S. Government.
As punishment for joining the Confederacy, the Union military decided to bury hundreds of war dead in the grounds of the Lee home, to make it unsightly if they were to buy the mansion from the government and return to their former property. This decision by the Union military laid the foundation for the present day Arlington National Cemetery.
The Custis Lee Mansion has been renamed to the Arlington House and is currently owned by the U.S. National Park Service.
In 1799, construction of the Sully Plantation was completed by Richard Bland Lee, Northern Virginia’s first representative to U.S. Congress, whom was the uncle of Confederate General Robert Edward Lee.
Presently, the Sully Plantation is also called the Sully Historic Site and is owned by the Fairfax County, Government.
In 1812, Robert Edward Lee’s father Henry Lee decided to move his family to a home in Alexandria, Virginia, that President George Washington once dined in while it was the home of William Fitzhugh. Robert Edward Lee stayed at the home until 1825, when he left for Westpoint.
Five years after the end of the Civil War, Robert Edward Lee returned to visit his childhood home.
In 1757, the area of George Town, Virginia, named after King George II, was established, from part of Lord Fairfax’s land in Fairfax County, after the House of Burgesses decided to establish a County Courthouse there. In addition, George Town was established as the county seat for Loudoun County.
Before the Revolutionary War, George Town was one of the first towns in Virginia to vote to separate from the authority of the English Parliment.
After the U.S. Civil War, the city was renamed to Leesburg, Virginia, in honor of General Robert Edward Lee’s family.
The Battle of the Wilderness was the beginning of General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army offensive to overtake the Confederate Capital in Richmond, that began in Febuary 1964. The Battle of the Wilderness was the first time General Grant’s and General Lee’s armies combated one another during the U.S. Civil War.
While the Union army outnumbered the Confederate army, the advantage in numbers was undermined by the thick woods, that the troops encountered during the parts of the battle in the wilderness of Orange and Spotslyvania Counties, that made it difficult to advance forward in an orderly fashion.
Part of the Battle of the Wilderness occurred during a forest fire. Some soldiers returned to fight were the fire occurred to see skeletons of dead soldiers who had their bodies burned.
On October 12, 1870 General Robert Edward Lee passed away in Lexington, Virignia after four years of teaching at the College of Washington and Lee.
Robert Edward Lee, along with his family members are buried within the present day Lee Chapel and Musuem, within the Washington and Lee campus.
