Robert Edward Lee  "The King of Spades"  January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870

It seemed an odd choice, on May 31, 1862, for President Jefferson Davis to appoint Gen. Robert E. Lee to command the 50,000-man Confederate army that was trying to protect Richmond from the 100,000 Union troops on its outskirts. Lee was to take the place of wounded Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, but he had never commanded an army in any battle and had only been under fire only twice.

At the start of the war, Lee had failed miserably at the impossible task of retaining pro-Union western Virginia for the Confederacy and had been dubbed "Evacuating Lee." Since then, Lee had been a valuable advisor to President Davis, and his brilliant instructions had started Gen. Stonewall Jackson on his Shenendoah Valley campaign. But generals in the field knew nothing of Lee's talents; to them, he was a fussy staff officer, and they nicknamed him "Granny Lee." Lee's lackluster reputation was soon to change, however, for he was about to command one of the greatest fighting armies of all time, and he would prove to be one of the best military commanders in history.

Lee ordered his soldiers, whom he named the Army of Northern Virginia, to build earthwork fortifications to protect Richmond from McClellan's Union army. All along the 16-mile line, Lee's troops complained that they had not joined up to fight with picks and spades. Finding little glory in their service, they nicknamed their new commander "The King of Spades."

Lee wrote to President Davis: "I am preparing a line that I can hold with part of our forces in front, while the rest I will endeavor to make a diversion to bring McClellan out." In a few weeks, no one would ever again refer to him as "Granny Lee," and the name "Evacuating Lee" would seem utterly ridiculous. The "King of Spades" and his Army of Northern Virginia were setting out on a long journey that would shroud them all in a mantle of glory.

Fascinating Fact:  During the height of the war, Lee traveled with a pet hen who laid an egg under his cot every morning.


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