Courage to Face Consequences

"Gettysburg: Stories of Monumental Courage"
A Broadcast For Students and Teachers from Gettysburg National Military Park
Broadcast date: May 21, 2002

Robert Edward Lee was born on January 19, 1807 at "Stratford" in Westmoreland County, Virginia, and was raised in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1825, he entered the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated second in his class in 1829. Lieutenant Lee served on numerous army outposts and forts before married Mary Ann Randolph Custis in 1831, a direct descendent of Mary Washington. During the War with Mexico, Lee distinguished himself in many battles and was slightly wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec. After the war, Lee briefly served as the superintendent of West Point before assignment to the 2nd US Cavalry. In 1859, Lee experienced a dramatic event when he was sent with US troops to Harper's Ferry, Virginia to put down an armed insurrection by John Brown. Brown and his followers raided the US Arsenal there and took weapons hoping to begin a slave uprising. It failed when Lee's troops stormed Brown's last holdout and took him prisoner. By 1860, the Lee family had settled at Arlington, Virginia, directly across the Potomac River from Washington. When the south seceded in 1861, Lee was offered command of the Union Army, but declined. His personal allegiance was to his family and native state of Virginia, so he resigned his commission and offered his services to the state. Initially placed in command of all state forces, he was later assigned as military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In the spring of 1862 when the Union Army of the Potomac was poised to strike the city of Richmond, Lee was given command of the Confederate Army that he renamed theArmy of Northern Virginia. Lee co-ordinated a plan with General "Stonewall" Jackson, who drove Union forces out of the Shenandoah Valley before rushing them to Richmond where he joined Lee's troops to attack those Union forces. The Union army was thrown back and Richmond was safe. Despite a disadvantage in equipment and manpower, General Lee used his engineering mind and the talents of excellent commanders to defeat the Union army again and again through a series of battles, though he was nearly defeated during the Maryland Campaign in 1862 at the bloody Battle of Antietam; yet Lee's thin line still held the field at the end of a single day of battle, giving him a strategic victory. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, though it was also where "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded. Lee invaded the north once again that summer, through Maryland and into southern Pennsylvania where the Battle of Gettysburg was fought. Lee felt a great personal responsibility for that costly defeat, but the Confederate government displayed great confidence in the commander of so many men and refused to allow him to resign. In the spring of 1864, General U.S. Grant, in command all Union Armies, chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Grant knew that Lee's army must be destroyed to end the war and undertook "The Wilderness Campaign". The two armies battled continuously for many weeks to the outskirts of Richmond. The fighting was bitter and brutal, though Lee was able to block Grant's every move. Yet, Lee's losses could not be replaced so easily and material shortages became severe. Grant shifted his forces around Richmond to Petersburg, Virginia, an important railroad junction for railroads from the south. The Union attacks were stopped and the battle became a siege. Lee knew that his army could not last through a long siege and to draw Grant away from Petersburg, he sent part of his army northward to invade Maryland. This force, under General Jubal Early, succeeded in reaching the outskirts of Washington before they retired back into Virginia. In March 1865, Lee ordered a last desperate gamble to break the Union siege line of the city, but it failed. Forced to abandon both cities, Lee marched west, hoping to eventually move south to join up with General Joseph Johnston's Army in North Carolina.The Army of Northern Virginia was blocked near Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865 and Lee, dressed in his finest Confederate gray uniform, met with General Grant to sign the terms of surrender to save the lives of his last 7,500 remaining soldiers. In the autumn of 1865, Lee accepted a position as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. With the help of an enthusiastic faculty, the school flourished. While administering the college, Lee quietly encouraged his veterans to return to their homes and rebuild their lives, but he never discussed the war, nor wrote about his war-time experiences. On October 12, 1870, General Lee died after a short illness and is buried in the chapel of the university that today bears his name- "Washington and Lee University".

It took several hours for preparations to be completed, but everything was ready soon after noon. At 1 PM, two signal guns fired and were followed by a simultaneous crash of over 150 Confederate cannon aimed at Cemetery Ridge. Union artillery replied. The great cannonade continued for nearly two hours and was so loud that it was heard as far away as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania- nearly 40 miles. The Union artillery died away while fresh guns were brought forward and artillery chief Colonel Edward P. Alexander sent an urgent message for the infantry to attack. A little after three o'clock, approximately 12,000 Confederate soldiers from Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee set foot toward the smoking Union positions on Cemetery Ridge.

Union artillery roared to life, blasting the Confederates with shells and canister- a tin can filled with iron balls that when fired acted like a giant shotgun. Despite the terrible fire, the Confederates made their way up to "the Angle" at the Union center and halted. Pushing his way through the crowd, Brigadier General Lewis Armistead knew what had to be done. "Boys, we can't stay here!", he cried. "Give them the cold steel!", and the southerners rushed over the wall. Within minutes it was over. The Union line had held, reserves arrived, and there was nothing for the Confederates to do but retreat.

From a vantage point on Seminary Ridge, General Lee watched his troops disappear into the smoke and fire of Cemetery Ridge. He witnessed the southern tide crest on Cemetery Ridge and the survivors of the charge straggle back toward the Southern lines. Reigning his mount "Traveller", the aged general rode forward to meet the downhearted and injured, addressing them with words of encouragement and calm. Sir Arthur Fremantle, a British Army officer who accompanied the Army of Northern Virginia, watched the general:

"He was engaged in rallying and in encouraging the broken troops, and was riding about in front of the wood(s), quite alone. His face, which is always placid and cheerful, did not show signs of the slightest disappointment, care, or annoyance; and he was addressing to every soldier he met a few words of encouragement, such as, 'All this will come right in the end. We'll talk it over afterwards, but in the meantime, all good men must rally. We want all good and true men just now.' He spoke to all the wounded men that passed him, and the slightly wounded he exhorted 'to bind up their hurts and take up a musket.' Very few failed to answer his appeal and I saw many very badly wounded men take off their hats and cheer him. I saw General Wilcox come up to him, and explain, almost crying, the state of his brigade. General Lee immediately shook hands with him and said cheerfully, 'Never mind, General, all this has been MY fault. It is I that have lost this fight, and you must help me out of it as best way you can.' In this manner I saw General Lee encourage and reanimate his dispirited troops and magnanimously take upon his own shoulders the whole weight of the repulse."

It was soon after rallying his troops that a courier arrived to inform Lee of his cavalry's defeat at the hands of Union cavalry three miles east of Gettysburg. The entire plan to break the Union line had been foiled.

Lee knew that he could no longer remain in Pennsylvania. Storm clouds and heavy rain signaled the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, and late that evening as Lee sat in his tent, he dictated orders for his army to withdraw from Gettysburg and begin the retreat to Virginia. Doubtless his mind wandered to the events of that day. "Too bad," an aide heard him say as he poured over his reports and maps, "Too bad. Oh, too bad!"

The Virginia Monument Gettysburg NMP Located near the center of Seminary Ridge, the Virginia Monument is the largest southern monument in the park and first one placed at Gettysburg. It features a heroic-size equestrian statue of General Lee atop Traveller, his favorite mount, overlooking the field of "Pickett's Charge". On the base of the monument is a grouping of bronze figures representing the various backgrounds of the soldiers who served under Virginia's flag. All of the figures are the work of sculptor F. William Sievers. The monument was unveiled and formally dedicated on June 8, 1917.

In the weeks following the Battle of Gettysburg, General Lee shuffled through hundreds of battle reports from his officers before he penned his own report to President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. The results of Gettysburg were a deep disappointment to the general. He openly accepted any blame for the failure of his army on the battlefield, for he was the one who ordered the attacks including Pickett's Charge; yet, General Lee could only heap praise upon his officers and men for their conduct:

"The highest praise is due to both officers and men for their conduct during the campaign. The privations and hardships of the march and camp were cheerfully encountered, and borne with a fortitude unsurpassed... while their courage in battle entitles them to rank with the soldiers of any army and of any time."

It is no wonder that the officers and men who served in Lee's army believed in the general and their admiration elevated him to such a place of honor in American history. It was his courage to accept the responsibility of command decisions, both good and bad, that endeared the general to his soldiers and historians alike.

Questions to consider!

1. What kind of courage is exhibited in this story?
2. What were the circumstances that made Lee order this charge?
3. What kind of courage did it take for these young Virginia soldiers to march across that field?

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GETTYSBURG: STORIES OF MONUMENTAL COURAGE
A Live Satellite Broadcast- May 21, 2002

National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
97 Taneytown Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325