Object Details
- depicted
- Lee, Robert E.
- artist
- Giles, John Lawrence
- printer
- Robertson, William C.
- publisher
- J. Kelly and Sons
- Description
- At the outbreak of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee had famously rejected the command of the Federal forces recruited to defend D.C. He instead opted for the rank of general in the Confederate Army, claiming that he could never fight against his fellow Virginians. After graduating second in his class from West Point in 1829, Lee served in the United States Army for 32 years. He saw action during the Mexican-American War and later returned to West Point to serve as its superintendent. There he emphasized equestrian instruction, training future cavalry generals, including Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and Union General Philip Sheridan. On October 17, 1859, U.S. Marines commanded by Lee – then a colonel – confronted John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, killing many of his raiders and arresting the radical abolitionist.
- Although he lost his first engagement during the Civil War, Lee eventually proved his worth by repulsing George McClellan’s campaign towards Richmond during the Seven Days Battle. He then launched two failed invasions of the North, which were defeated at Antietam in 1862 and Gettysburg in 1863. In 1864, the new general-in-chief of the Union Armies, Ulysses S. Grant, ultimately gained the upper hand over the Confederacy after a brutal war of attrition. Surrounded by Grant’s armies, Lee finally surrendered his battered Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
- After the war, Lee was transformed into a legend. He became the personification of the Lost Cause, an interpretation of the war in which Confederate soldiers were remembered as heroic figures fighting to preserve their way of life, who were eventually overpowered by superior Northern resources and manpower. The myth of the Lost Cause remained popular throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, obscuring the actual history of the Civil War and the roles of slavery and race in the South. This 1865 print depicts Lee, flanked on either side by 19 other Confederate generals. All of the men are identified by labels in the lower margin of the print, except for Lee, who was already immediately recognizable at the end of the war. Several of the generals pictured in the print perished during the fighting. These include, J.E.B. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, A. P. Hill, John Hunt Morgan, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Leonidas Polk. In the landscape behind the men, infantry and cavalry regiments are assembled, preparing for battle.
- This print designed by John L. Giles was a New York artist and lithographer active from the mid-1860s to 1882. It was printed by William Robertson, another New York lithographer. The work was published by the printing firm of J. Kelly and Sons.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
- 1865
- ID Number
- DL.60.2608
- catalog number
- 60.2608
- accession number
- 228146
- Object Name
- Lithograph
- Object Type
- Lithograph
- Measurements
- image: 17 7/8 in x 26 1/2 in; 45.4025 cm x 67.31 cm
- overall: 21 1/4 in x 28 3/4 in; 53.975 cm x 73.025 cm
- place made
- United States: New York, New York City
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
- American Civil War Prints
- Art
- Domestic Furnishings
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Civil War
- Uniforms, Military
- related event
- Civil War
- Record ID
- nmah_324917
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b5-1936-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
