Robert E Lee biography

Robert, still in his early teens took over the management of the home. His mother had become an invalid, one older brother had gone off to school, and the other had joined the Navy. He was educated first in the Carter family schoolhouse, with his relatives. Then he was sent to an academy where he learned Greek, Latin, and mathematics, the basic requirements for college. College, however, was beyond the family budget. So, when he was nineteen Lee asked for, and received an appointment to the military academy at West Point. There he studied drawing, surveying, engineering, physics, chemistry, history, geography, "moral philosophy" and the "science of war." Although half of the cadets failed to graduate, from the beginning Lee was in the top two or three of his class. After his first year, he was not just a student, but a teacher in the beginning classes. In his senior year he won the most coveted prize at the Academy and when he graduated he had not one demerit on his entire record. Because his record was so distinguished he was able to choose any branch of the service he wanted. He chose engineering.

At West Point

At West Point, Lee was affectionately nicknamed "Marble Model," not because he was cold and aloof like marble, but because his fellow students thought he approached perfection. One of them described him this way: "No other youth or man so united the qualities that win warm friendship and command high respect. For he was full of sympathy, kindness, genial and fond of gay conversation, and even of fun, while his correctness of demeanor and attention to all duties, personal and official, and a dignity as much a part of himself as the elegance of his person, gave him a superiority that every one acknowledged."

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