Robert E. Lee, The Military Man

Robert went to Virginia on a short leave from the army. Shortly after his mother fell ill and died. He was then sent to Cockspur Island to help build Fort Pulaski. The island had lots of swamps and lots of pesky mosquitos. Robert was assigned to watch the building of the drainage ditch. The project at Cockspur was soon abandoned and Robert was assigned to Fort Monroe. When he was twenty four he went back to Virginia to visit some relatives. There Robert meet a distant cousin named Mary Anne Randolph Custis. Robert got married to Mary at the Arlington House in Alexandria Virginia. He got married to her because he liked her big brown eyes and her bubbly personality. Mary was the great grand daughter of Martha Washington.

Afterward he moved with his wife to Fort Monroe. The first of his seven children was born in the fort. His name was George Washington Custis Lee. He was named after Mary's father. They moved to St.Louis. Two more kids were born there. Mary and William Fitzhugh Lee. The Lee's moved to Fort Hamilton, New York where they lived for five years. During the Mexican War Lee's job was to scout enemy positions. General Scott asked Lee to cross a rough lava bed called Pedreagal to find a route where troops could advance. He found the path and also the enemy campgrounds. The treaty of Guadalupe ended the Mexican War. The U.S. got the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, California, Nevada and Western Colorado. The Harper's Ferry raid led by John Brown. Robert E. Lee took a unit of Marines to Harper's Ferry and overpowered Brown's troops.

In 1860 South Carolina split from the Union. Six other states followed. In 1861 Texas did too. They were called The Confederate States of America.

Some of Lee's friends like Joe Johnston, Jeb Stuart, Richard Ewell and John Hood joined the confederate army along with Lee's three of his sons and a nephew. After thirty six years in the United States Army, Lee must now fight against it. What laid ahead for the nation he loved?