With the exception of George Washington, perhaps the most famous and celebrated general in American history is Robert E. Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870), despite the fact he led the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia against the Union in the Civil War. The son of U.S. Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, a relative of Martha Custis Washington, and a top graduate of West Point, Lee had distinguished himself so well before the Civil War that President Lincoln asked him to command the entire Union Army. Lee famously declined, serving his home state of Virginia instead after it seceded.
Lee constantly defeated the Union’s Army of the Potomac in the Eastern theater from 1862-1865, considerably frustrating Lincoln and his generals. His leadership of his army led to him being deified after the war by some of his former subordinates, especially Virginians, and he came to personify the Lost Cause’s ideal Southern soldier.
Naturally, as leader of the army, Lee wrote dispatches and reports, and many were preserved in The War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Since Lee died in 1870 before writing memoirs, his only primary accounts of the war come from his commands and postwar reports, preserved in the Official Records.
This collection of orders from September 1862 details the preparations for the Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion of Maryland, which would culminate in the Battle of Antietam. It includes Lee asking permission from President Davis to enter Maryland, Davis’ requirements, and Lee’s official invasion orders. It also includes the infamous “Lost Order,” which ordered the army to split into several pieces and capture different objectives. The Lost Order was discovered by a Union soldier and spurred General George McClellan to action, resulting in the Battle of Antietam being fought with a substantial portion of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia not even present. The Lost Order is considered one of the greatest strokes of luck either side had during the war.
This edition of the Official Records includes illustrations of the Maryland Campaign and Lee.
