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98-535: Faulconer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Adam Faulconer – fictional character in "The Starbuck Chronicles" Bruce Faulconer – American composer Kevin Faulconer – former mayor of San Diego See also [ edit ] Falconer (surname) Faulkner (surname) Falkner (disambiguation) Fawkner (disambiguation) Faulknor (disambiguation) The Starbuck Chronicles , where

196-526: A first lieutenant of engineers in 1837, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbor and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Among his projects was the mapping of the Des Moines Rapids on the Mississippi above Keokuk, Iowa , where the Mississippi's mean depth of 2.4 feet (0.7 m) was the upper limit of steamboat traffic on the river. His work there earned him

294-656: A prisoner exchange between the Confederacy and the Union when the Union demanded that black Union soldiers be included. Lee did not accept the swap until a few months before the Confederacy's surrender. He also called the Emancipation Proclamation "a savage and brutal policy...which leaves us no alternative but success or degradation worse than death". As the war dragged on and Lee's losses mounted, he eventually advocated enlisting enslaved people in

392-488: A "primacy of slave law". She wrote that Lee's private views on race and slavery, In 1857, George Custis died, leaving Robert Lee as the executor of his estate, which included nearly 200 slaves. In his will, Custis said the enslaved people were to be freed within five years of his death. On taking on the role of administrator for the Parke Custis will, Lee used a provision to retain them in slavery to produce income for

490-464: A Confederate officer, Captain Billy Tumlin, who was taken prisoner: He is made Starbuck's second-in-command. Meanwhile, Adam has been assigned as a courier by intelligence officer Colonel Thorne and collects a copy of Lee's battle plan which was left for him by Major Delaney. Adam is ambushed and killed by Southern horsemen but hides the order, which is later found by Northern troops. Starbuck leads

588-411: A calm and rational manner, overtly physical domination of slaves, unchecked by law, was always brutal and potentially savage." Lee biographer Elizabeth Brown Pryor concluded in 2008 that "the facts are verifiable", based on "the consistency of the five extant descriptions of the episode (the only element that is not repeatedly corroborated is the allegation that Lee gave the beatings himself), as well as

686-409: A collection of talented subordinates, most notably James Longstreet , Stonewall Jackson , and J. E. B. Stuart , who along with Lee were critical to the Confederacy's battlefield success. In spite of his successes, his two major strategic offensives into Union territory both ended in failure. Lee's aggressive and risky tactics, especially at Gettysburg, which resulted in high casualties at a time when

784-656: A difficult time for Lee, with his long absences from home, the increasing disability of his wife, troubles in taking over the management of a large slave plantation, and his often morbid concern with his personal failures. In 1852, Lee was appointed Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point . He was reluctant to enter what he called a "snake pit", but the War Department insisted and he obeyed. His wife occasionally came to visit. During his three years at West Point, Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee improved

882-549: A fictional Faulconer County and Faulconer family are key plot elements [REDACTED] Surname list This page lists people with the surname Faulconer . If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name (s) to the link. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faulconer&oldid=1009462611 " Category : Surnames Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

980-498: A friend "There is not a word of truth in it ... No servant, soldier, or citizen, that was ever employed by me can with truth charge me with bad treatment." Foner writes that "Lee's code of gentlemanly conduct did not seem to apply to blacks" during the War. He did not stop his soldiers from kidnapping free black farmers and selling them into slavery. Princeton University historian James M. McPherson noted that Lee initially rejected

1078-404: A general way only at some unspecified future date as a part of God's purpose. Slavery for Lee was a moral and religious issue, and not one that would yield to political solutions. Emancipation would sooner come from Christian impulse among slave masters before "storms and tempests of fiery controversy" such as was occurring in " Bleeding Kansas ". Countering Southerners who argued for slavery as

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1176-503: A great blow to the men as Pelham was a popular leader. The Legion then marches to Roskill railhead. They bundle onto a train to Manassas and are assigned to Colonel Nathan Evans ' brigade. But Faulconer does not trust Evans' military judgement and seeks out General P.G.T. Beauregard , to be moved closer to where he believes the action will be (on the Confederate right). Nathaniel Starbuck, whom Faulconer has dismissed and sent back to

1274-503: A great-great-grandson of Richard Bland . Fitzhugh Lee (1835–1905), a Confederate general and later a United States Army general in the Spanish–American War , was Lee's nephew. Lee was a second cousin of Helen Keller 's grandmother, and was a distant relative of Admiral Willis Augustus Lee . On May 1, 1864, General Lee was present at the baptism of General A. P. Hill 's daughter, Lucy Lee Hill, to serve as her godfather. This

1372-428: A greater calamity to both. I should therefore prefer to rely upon our white population to preserve the ratio between our forces and those of the enemy, which experience has shown to be safe. But in view of the preparations of our enemies, it is our duty to provide for continued war and not for a battle or a campaign, and I fear that we cannot accomplish this without overtaxing the capacity of our white population." After

1470-674: A house on Oronoco Street. In 1812 Lee's father moved permanently to the West Indies . Lee attended Eastern View, a school for young gentlemen, in Fauquier County, Virginia , and then at the Alexandria Academy, free for local boys, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics. Although brought up to be a practicing Christian , he was not confirmed in the Episcopal Church until age 46. Anne Lee's family

1568-465: A matter of principle, and Lee adhered to the precedent. He considered it his patriotic duty to be apolitical while in active Army service, and Lee did not speak out publicly on the subject of slavery prior to the Civil War. Before the outbreak of the War, in 1860, Lee voted for Southern Democratic nominee and incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge , who was the pro-slavery candidate in

1666-552: A paternalistic master. There are various historical and newspaper hearsay accounts of Lee's personally whipping a slave, but they are not direct eyewitness accounts. He was definitely involved in administering the day-to-day operations of a plantation and was involved in the recapture of runaway slaves. One historian noted that Lee separated families of enslaved people, something that prominent enslaving families in Virginia such as Washington and Custis did not do. On December 29, 1862,

1764-505: A philosophical perspective, he supported its legality and held hundreds of slaves. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, he served in minor combat operations and as a senior military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis . Lee took command of

1862-494: A positive good , Lee in his well-known analysis of slavery from an 1856 letter ( see below ) called it a moral and political evil. While both Lee and his wife were disgusted with slavery, they also defended it against abolitionist demands for immediate emancipation for all enslaved. Lee argued that slavery was bad for white people, claiming that he found slavery bothersome and time-consuming as an everyday institution to run. In an 1856 letter to his wife, he maintained that slavery

1960-790: A promotion to captain . Around 1842, Captain Robert E. Lee arrived as Fort Hamilton 's post engineer. While Lee was stationed at Fort Monroe, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis (1807–1873), great-granddaughter of Martha Washington by her first husband Daniel Parke Custis , and step-great-granddaughter of George Washington , the first president of the United States. Mary was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis , George Washington's stepgrandson, and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis , daughter of William Fitzhugh and Ann Bolling Randolph . Robert and Mary married on June 30, 1831, at Arlington House , her parents' house just across

2058-543: A staff officer; he found routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable. He was promoted to brevet major after the Battle of Cerro Gordo on April 18, 1847. He also fought at Contreras , Churubusco , and Chapultepec and was wounded at the last. By the end of the war, he had received additional brevet promotions to lieutenant colonel and colonel, but his permanent rank

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2156-485: A thing." In 2000, Michael Fellman, in The Making of Robert E. Lee , found the claims that Lee had personally whipped Mary Norris "extremely unlikely", but found it not at all unlikely that Lee had ordered the runaways whipped: "corporal punishment (for which Lee substituted the euphemism "firmness") was [believed to be] an intrinsic and necessary part of slave discipline. Although it was supposed to be applied only in

2254-648: A will providing for the manumission of the slaves he owned, "a woman and her children inherited from his mother and apparently leased to his father-in-law and later sold to him". Lee's father-in-law, G. W. Parke Custis , was a member of the American Colonization Society , which was formed to gradually end slavery by establishing a free republic in Liberia for African-Americans, and Lee assisted several formerly enslaved people to emigrate there. Also, according to historian Richard B. McCaslin, Lee

2352-496: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Adam Faulconer Four novels have been written, and the series is still unfinished due to Cornwell's commitment to other projects. However, he has stated on many occasions that he wishes to return to the character's story, though recently he said he doubted that he would. The series presently includes the following novels: Rebel begins in Richmond, Virginia after

2450-533: Is promoted to Major and given command of the Legion. Truslow is made a captain in charge of Starbuck's old company. At the Second Battle of Manassas , Major Medlicott, who Faulconer attempted to make Legion commander ahead of Starbuck and who has command of the right hand wing, repeatedly refuses to fight until Starbuck kills him for refusing an order to advance. Galloway is killed when the horse are caught up in

2548-564: Is referenced in the painting Tender is the Heart by Mort Künstler . He was also the godfather of actress and writer Odette Tyler , the daughter of Brigadier General William Whedbee Kirkland . Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He was one of Winfield Scott 's chief aides in the march from Veracruz to Mexico City. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as

2646-494: Is there by circumstance, not for politics, and he is given the task of recruiting a tough Mexican–American War veteran named Thomas Truslow, who lives in the fictional Faulconer County . He succeeds by dedicating the grave of Truslow's wife and officiating in the marriage of his wayward daughter Sally Truslow. Many other events occur between this and the start of the hostilities, when the Faulconer Legion marches off to

2744-531: Is ultimately revealed that Lassan is the son of Richard Sharpe . His sword, described as an oversized steel-hilted straight sword, is likely the same Pattern 1796 heavy cavalry sword carried by his father throughout the earlier Peninsular War . He indicates to James Starbuck that he lost an eye to a "Russian shell" which, based on timing, was likely during the Crimean War. Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870)

2842-494: The National Anti-Slavery Standard . Norris said that after they had been captured, and forced to return to Arlington, Lee told them that "he would teach us a lesson we would not soon forget". According to Norris, Lee had the overseer tie the three of them firmly to posts, and ordered them whipped: 50 lashes for the men and 20 for Mary Norris. Norris claimed that Lee encouraged the whipping, and that when

2940-711: The 1860 presidential election and had supported the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas , rather than Constitutional Union Party nominee John Bell , the Southern Unionist candidate who won Virginia and voted against the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution as the United States Senator from Tennessee . Lee himself enslaved a small number of people in his lifetime and considered himself

3038-460: The Alexandria jail, Lee decided to remove these three men and three female house slaves from Arlington, and sent them under lock and key to the slave-trader William Overton Winston in Richmond , who was instructed to keep them in jail until he could find "good & responsible" enslavers to work them until the end of the five-year period. By 1860, only one family of slaves was left intact on

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3136-582: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which fails. It is an unfortunate start to the war for Faulconer, and he shows a distinct lack of military judgment—although he thinks of himself as a competent soldier and tactician. On the Fourth of July , the fully equipped Legion marches to Seven Springs to be sworn into the Confederate army. However Major Pelham suffers a heart attack and dies before the Legion leaves,

3234-639: The Battle of Antietam . The Faulconer Legion is a fictional regiment of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Confederate Army , the central unit of the Starbuck Chronicles. Shortly after the beginning of the war, Washington Faulconer is determined to set up a regiment free of state government control because he was unimpressed by Robert E. Lee and his lack of support. He returns from Richmond to find recruitment in full swing for

3332-625: The First Battle of Bull Run . It is here that Starbuck alienates himself from Faulconer. Copperhead follows Starbuck during the period of the Union invasion of the Confederacy by the Army of the Potomac under General McClellan. Battle Flag is set during the Second Battle of Bull Run . The Bloody Ground follows Starbuck as the Confederate army under Robert E. Lee invades the North, culminating in

3430-572: The Arlington plantation as a punishment; however, they disagree over the likelihood that Lee flogged them, and over the charge that he personally whipped Mary Norris. In 1934, Douglas S. Freeman described the incident as "Lee's first experience with the extravagance of irresponsible antislavery agitators" and asserted that "There is no evidence, direct or indirect, that Lee ever had them or any other Negroes flogged. The usage at Arlington and elsewhere in Virginia among people of Lee's station forbade such

3528-568: The Army a year after graduation). Lee did not incur any demerits during his four-year course of study, a distinction shared by only five of his 45 classmates. In June 1829, Lee was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. After graduation, while awaiting assignment, he returned to Virginia to find his mother on her deathbed; she died at Ravensworth on July 26, 1829. On August 11, 1829, Brigadier General Charles Gratiot ordered Lee to Cockspur Island , Georgia . The plan

3626-781: The Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign following the wounding of Joseph E. Johnston . He succeeded in driving the Union Army of the Potomac under George B. McClellan away from the Confederate capital of Richmond during the Seven Days Battles , but he was unable to destroy McClellan's army. Lee then overcame Union forces under John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. His invasion of Maryland that September ended with

3724-492: The Civil War. Robert E. Lee was at both events. Lee initially remained loyal to the Union after Texas seceded. John Brown led a band of 21 abolitionists who seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry , Virginia, in October 1859, hoping to incite a slave rebellion. President James Buchanan gave Lee command of detachments of militia, soldiers, and United States Marines , to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders. By

3822-581: The Confederacy had a shortage of manpower, have come under criticism. His legacy, and his views on race and slavery, have been the subject of continuing debate and historical controversy. Lee was born at Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia , to Henry Lee III and Anne Hill Carter Lee on January 19, 1807. His ancestor, Richard Lee I , emigrated from Shropshire , England , to Virginia in 1639. Lee's father suffered severe financial reverses from failed investments and

3920-505: The Confederate army in exchange for freedom. However, he came to this position with great reluctance. In an 1865 letter to his friend Andrew Hunter , he wrote: "Considering the relation of master and slave, controlled by humane laws and influenced by Christianity and an enlightened public sentiment, as the best that can exist between the white and black races while intermingled as at present in this country, I would deprecate any sudden disturbance of that relation unless it be necessary to avert

4018-548: The Confederate defences to Starbuck's older brother James, a major in the Union army. Faulconer forms his own brigade and has the Legion attached to it, dismissing Starbuck. Having discovered Adam's betrayal, Starbuck crosses the lines posing as an ally of Adam to convince General George B. McClellan that the southern defences are stronger than they are. He then rejoins the southern army at the Battle of Seven Pines and takes part in Colonel Micah Jenkins breaking

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4116-535: The Legion while Starbuck is given command of a punishment battalion, the Yellowlegs. Starbuck manages to expose his superior, Colonel Holborow, as keeping the battalion away from the lines so he can sell their supplies on the black market and has the Yellowlegs transferred to Swynyard's brigade for the Maryland Campaign . The Legion stumble across Blythe, who fled the field at Manassass, and claims to be

4214-487: The Legion. With Faulconer away in Richmond supposedly recovering from his wound, Bird makes Starbuck the captain in command of K Company, with Truslow as his sergeant. The Legion takes part in defeating the Union crossing at the Battle of Ball's Bluff , with Starbuck's company turning the northern flank. Adam, now a major on General Joseph E. Johnston 's staff, is disgusted by the slaughter so begins feeding information on

4312-440: The Legion; at least 10 companies have been recruited, along with a squadron of cavalry and two crews of artillery. Faulconer is the regiment's first colonel; his senior officers are Major Pelham, a veteran of the War of 1812, having fought at Bladensburg , and Major "Pecker" Bird, Faulconer's brother-in-law and a schoolmaster by profession. Major Danson is the Legion's initial surgeon and the local doctor. Faulconer leads an attack on

4410-494: The Norrises whipped, and that the overseer refused to whip the woman but that Lee took the whip and flogged her personally. Lee privately wrote to his son Custis that "The N. Y. Tribune has attacked me for my treatment of your grandfather's slaves, but I shall not reply. He has left me an unpleasant legacy." Wesley Norris himself spoke out about the incident after the war, in an 1866 interview printed in an abolitionist newspaper,

4508-550: The Potomac from Washington. The 3rd U.S. Artillery served as honor guard at the marriage. They eventually had seven children, three boys and four girls: All the children survived him except for Annie, who died in 1862. They are all buried with their parents in the crypt of the University Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Lee was a great-great-great-grandson of William Randolph and

4606-660: The Reverend Dr Elial Starbuck, who in return asks the Major to get him a Confederate Battleflag . Adam leads a raid on his father's estate to obtain horses for his new command. To keep their promise to Dr Starbuck, Adam then attacks the Faulconer Brigade's encampment and manages to capture the Faulconer Legion battle flag and also steal the General's sabre, given to his grandfather by Lafayette . At

4704-454: The Union lines, discovers advancing Union troops under David Hunter and Samuel P. Heintzelman . He informs Evans of their positions, and the Legion, under the command of Major Bird, marches to repel the Federal attack. The regiment fights the advancing Union troops well, but Faulconer and his aide Ethan Ridley return and Faulconer is disgusted by the insubordination of Bird and Starbuck. In

4802-463: The War Department he could not maintain laborers without the facilities of the fort. In 1834, Lee was transferred to Washington as General Gratiot's assistant. Lee had hoped to rent a house in Washington for his family, but was not able to find one; the family lived at Arlington, though Lieutenant Lee rented a room at a Washington boarding house for when the roads were impassable. In mid-1835, Lee

4900-420: The War, Lee told a congressional committee that blacks were "not disposed to work" and did not possess the intellectual capacity to vote and participate in politics. Lee also said to the committee that he hoped that Virginia could "get rid of them", referring to blacks. While not politically active, Lee defended Lincoln's successor Andrew Johnson 's approach to Reconstruction, which according to Foner, "abandoned

4998-481: The Yellowlegs to clear the ridge at the Battle of Harpers Ferry but the nervous Maitland keeps the Legion back. At the Battle of Sharpsburg , Swynward's brigade is decimated by Hooker's repeated attacks but manages to stand their ground, with Maitland drinking heavily to make it through the battle. Blythe flees back to Northern lines after manipulating Captain Dennison and Sergeant Case into trying to kill Starbuck;

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5096-444: The assignment and returned to his post in Washington, finding his wife ill at Ravensworth. Mary Lee, who had recently given birth to their second child, remained bedridden for several months. In October 1836, Lee was promoted to first lieutenant. Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington, D.C. from 1834 to 1837, but spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the state line between Ohio and Michigan . As

5194-557: The attempt fails and Starbuck turns a cannon on them in retaliation. As the Confederates prepare to withdraw, Maitland is sent back to a staff position in Richmond, Starbuck is given command of the surviving members of both the Legion and the Yellowlegs, and Swynyard is promoted to brigadier general. The colours of the Faulconer Legion are composed of the Confederate Battle Flag and the Faulconer coat of arms with

5292-529: The buildings and courses and spent much time with the cadets. Lee's oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, attended West Point during his tenure. Custis Lee graduated in 1854, first in his class. Lee was enormously relieved to receive a long-awaited promotion as second-in-command of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Texas in 1855. It meant leaving the Engineering Corps and its sequence of staff jobs for

5390-632: The college, he supported reconciliation between the North and South. Lee accepted the termination of slavery provided for by the Thirteenth Amendment , but opposed racial equality for African Americans . After his death in 1870, Lee became a cultural icon in the South and is largely hailed as one of the Civil War's greatest generals. As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, he fought most of his battles against armies of significantly larger size, and managed to win many of them. Lee built up

5488-546: The combat command he truly wanted. He served under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston at Camp Cooper , Texas; their mission was to protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and the Comanche . In 1857, his father-in-law George Washington Parke Custis died, creating a serious crisis when Lee took on the burden of executing the will . Custis's estate encompassed vast landholdings and hundreds of slaves but also massive debts;

5586-522: The contradictory nature of Lee's beliefs and actions concerning race and slavery. While Lee protested he had sympathetic feelings for blacks, they were subordinate to his own racial identity. While Lee held slavery to be an evil institution, he also saw some benefit to blacks held in slavery. While Lee helped assist individual slaves reach freedom in Liberia, and provided for their emancipation in his own will, he believed slaves should be eventually freed in

5684-516: The couple's first son, Custis Lee was born at Fort Monroe. Although the two were by all accounts devoted to each other, they were different in character: Robert Lee was tidy and punctual, qualities his wife lacked. Mary Lee also had trouble switching from being a rich man's daughter to having to manage a household with only one or two enslaved people. Beginning in 1832, Robert Lee had a close but platonic relationship with Harriett Talcott, wife of his fellow officer Andrew Talcott . Life at Fort Monroe

5782-464: The delay. In May 1858, Lee wrote to his son Rooney, "I have had some trouble with some of the people. Reuben, Parks & Edward, in the beginning of the previous week, rebelled against my authority—refused to obey my orders, & said they were as free as I was, etc., etc.—I succeeded in capturing them & lodging them in jail. They resisted till overpowered & called upon the other people to rescue them." Less than two months after they were sent to

5880-555: The estate to retire debt. Lee did not welcome the role of planter while administering the Custis properties at Romancoke, another nearby the Pamunkey River and Arlington; he rented the estate's mill. While all the estates prospered under his administration, Lee was unhappy at direct participation in slavery as a hated institution. Even before what Michael Fellman called a "sorry involvement in actual slave management", Lee judged

5978-534: The estate. Some of the families had been together since their time at Mount Vernon. In 1859, three slaves at Arlington—Wesley Norris, his sister Mary, and a cousin of theirs—fled for the North, but were captured a few miles from the Pennsylvania border and forced to return to the plantation. On June 24, 1859, the anti-slavery newspaper New York Daily Tribune published two anonymous letters (dated June 19 and June 21 ), each claiming to have heard that Lee had

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6076-448: The existence of an account book that indicates the constable received compensation from Lee on the date that this event occurred". In 2014, Michael Korda wrote that "Although these letters are dismissed by most of Lee's biographers as exaggerated, or simply as unfounded abolitionist propaganda, it is hard to ignore them [...] It seems incongruously out of character for Lee to have whipped a slave woman himself, particularly one stripped to

6174-442: The experience of white mastery to be a greater moral evil to the white man than blacks suffering under the "painful discipline" of slavery which introduced Christianity, literacy and a work ethic to the "heathen African". Columbia University historian  Eric Foner notes that: By the time of Lee's career in the U.S. Army, the officers of West Point stood aloof from political-party and sectional strife on such issues as slavery, as

6272-460: The fall of Fort Sumter , Charleston, South Carolina when Starbuck is trying to visit his friend Adam Faulconer. Starbuck is saved from an attack by Richmond's residents who think that he is a Yankee spy by Faulconer's rich father Washington Faulconer. Faulconer wishes to raise a regiment to fight the Yankees, and he appoints Starbuck as one of his aides, with the rank of second lieutenant. Starbuck

6370-460: The field to die by Starbuck and Truslow. However, Swynyard's injury is not serious; it brings about a religious conversion in him, so he frees his slaves and gives up alcohol. He apologises to Starbuck for his behaviour toward him and promises to make things right. Meanwhile, Adam Falconer has joined a unit of Northern Cavalry, Galloway's horse, made up entirely of Southeners who know the terrain. Major Galloway has received funding from Starbuck's father

6468-473: The first line of the northern position, although Adam has already sabotaged the attack by failing to pass on battle orders to General Benjamin Huger . He uses his knowledge of Adam's actions to force Faulconer to restore him to his company and Faulconer also reluctantly promotes Bird to lieutenant colonel. During the Battle of Gaines Mill , Adam deserts to the Union troops in full view of everyone. The Legion drive

6566-445: The flanking movement by Lee's reinforcements. In the aftermath, Starbuck burns Galloway's farm in retaliation for the burning of the tavern and recovers the battle flag from his father. Starbuck leads the Legion at the Battle of Chantilly , driving the last of John Pope's men out of Confederate territory, but Faulconer has obtained a position with the War Department and arranges to have Lieutenant Colonel Maitland placed in charge of

6664-433: The former slaves to the mercy of governments controlled by their former owners". According to Foner, "A word from Lee might have encouraged white Southerners to accord blacks equal rights and inhibited the violence against the freed people that swept the region during Reconstruction, but he chose to remain silent." Lee was also urged to condemn the white-supremacy organization Ku Klux Klan , but opted to remain silent. In

6762-476: The generation following the war, Lee, though he died just a few years later, became a central figure in the Lost Cause interpretation of the war. The argument that Lee had always opposed slavery, and freed the people enslaved by his wife, helped maintain his stature as a symbol of Southern honor and national reconciliation. Both Harpers Ferry and the secession of Texas were monumental events leading up to

6860-473: The inconclusive Battle of Antietam , after which he retreated to Virginia. Lee won two major victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville before launching a second invasion of the North in the summer of 1863, where he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg by the Army of the Potomac under George Meade . He led his army in the minor and inconclusive Bristoe Campaign that fall before General Ulysses S. Grant took command of Union armies in

6958-625: The last day he was allowed to legally retain them, Lee finally freed all the enslaved people his wife had inherited from George Custis (in accordance with the Custis will). Before this, Lee had petitioned the courts to keep people enslaved by Custis longer than the five years allotted in Custis' will, since the estate was still in debt, but the courts rejected his appeals. In 1866, one of the people formerly enslaved by Lee, Wesley Norris, charged that Lee personally beat him and other slaves harshly after they had tried to run away from Arlington. Lee never publicly responded to this charge, but privately told

7056-560: The latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence. Before leaving to serve in Mexico, Lee had written

7154-631: The motto "Forever Ardent". They are six feet by six as opposed to the four feet advocated by the War Department. In the second book of the Starbuck series, Copperhead , Starbuck encounters Patrick Lassan, Chasseur Colonel of the French Imperial Guard , and French Military Observer attached to the Union Army. The son of an English father and a French mother, he uses his mother's last name – Lassan – because his parents never married. It

7252-451: The negroes, will be firm & make them do their duty." But Lee failed to find a man for the job, and had to take a two-year leave of absence from the army to run the plantation himself. Lee's more strict expectations and harsher punishments of the slaves on Arlington plantation nearly led to a revolt, since many of the enslaved people had been given to understand that they were to be made free as soon as Custis died, and protested angrily at

7350-426: The northern forces from the ridge but suffer heavy casualties, reforming with eight companies of surviving troops. General Faulconer appoints an alcoholic veteran and ex-slave merchant, Colonel Swynyard, as his second in command. At the Battle of Cedar Mountain , Colonel Bird is seriously wounded and command of the Legion devolves upon Major Hinton. The perfidious Swynyard is wounded by a passing cannonball and left on

7448-458: The overseer refused to do it, called in the county constable to do it instead. Unlike the anonymous letter writers, he does not state that Lee himself whipped any of the enslaved people. According to Norris, Lee "frequently enjoined [Constable] Williams to 'lay it on well', an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine , which

7546-590: The people enslaved by Custis, including Wesley Norris, after the end of the five-year period in the winter of 1862, filing the deed of manumission on December 29, 1862. Biographers of Lee have differed over the credibility of the account of the punishment as described in the letters in the Tribune and in Norris's personal account. They broadly agree that Lee sought to recapture a group of slaves who had escaped, and that, after recapturing them, he hired them out off of

7644-486: The renewed Union attack, Captain Adam Faulconer is wounded and the Legion collapses. Faulconer tries to rally them but is himself wounded. In the panic Truslow and Bird save the colours. After the battle, Faulconer claims that Starbuck killed Ethan Ridley, but this is put down to delirium; his claims are true however. An embittered and wounded Faulconer is promoted to brigadier general and Major Bird takes command of

7742-559: The same time, the majority of the Legion's officers are celebrating Major Hinton's 50th birthday in a nearby tavern and are attacked there by a detachment of Galloway's horse led by the nefarious Captain William Blythe. In the ensuing chaos, the tavern is set on fire and almost all the officers killed. Faulconer is dismissed from command of the Brigade by General Jackson . Colonel Swynyard is appointed Brigade commander while Starbuck

7840-630: The spring of 1864. Grant engaged Lee's army in bloody but inconclusive battles at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania before the lengthy Siege of Petersburg , which was followed in April 1865 by the capture of Richmond and the destruction of most of Lee's army, which he finally surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House . In 1865, Lee became president of Washington College, now Washington and Lee University , in Lexington, Virginia ; as president of

7938-479: The summer of 1825. At the time, the focus of the curriculum was engineering; the head of the United States Army Corps of Engineers supervised the school and the superintendent was an engineering officer. Cadets were not permitted leave until they finished two years of study and were rarely allowed off the academy grounds. Lee graduated second in his class behind Charles Mason (who resigned from

8036-406: The summer of 1829, Lee had apparently courted Mary Custis whom he had known as a child. Lee obtained permission to write to her before leaving for Georgia, though Mary Custis warned Lee to be "discreet" in his writing, as her mother read her letters, especially from men. Custis refused Lee the first time he asked to marry her; her father did not believe the son of the disgraced Light-Horse Harry Lee

8134-429: The time Lee arrived that night, the militia on the site had surrounded Brown and his hostages. At dawn, Brown refused the demand for surrender. Lee attacked, and Brown and his followers were captured after three minutes of fighting. Lee's summary report of the episode shows Lee believed it "was the attempt of a fanatic or madman". Lee said Brown achieved "temporary success" by creating panic and confusion and by "magnifying"

8232-410: The waist, and that charge may have been a flourish added by the two correspondents; it was not repeated by Wesley Norris when his account of the incident was published in 1866 [...] [A]lthough it seems unlikely that he would have done any of the whipping himself, he may not have flinched from observing it to make sure his orders were carried out exactly." Several historians have noted what they consider

8330-537: The will required people formerly enslaved by Custis "to be emancipated by my executors in such manner as to my executors may seem most expedient and proper, the said emancipation to be accomplished in not exceeding five years from the time of my decease". The estate was in disarray, and the plantations had been poorly managed and were losing money. Lee tried to hire an overseer to handle the plantation in his absence, writing to his cousin, "I wish to get an energetic honest farmer, who while he will be considerate & kind to

8428-594: Was a Confederate general during the American Civil War , toward the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army . He led the Army of Northern Virginia , the Confederacy's most powerful army, from 1862 until its surrender in 1865, earning a reputation as a skilled tactician. A son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III , Lee

8526-439: Was a gradual emancipationist, denouncing extremist proposals for the immediate abolition of slavery. Lee rejected what he called evilly motivated political passion, fearing a civil and servile war from precipitous emancipation. Historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor offered an alternative interpretation of Lee's voluntary manumission of slaves in his will, and assisting slaves to a life of freedom in Liberia, seeing Lee as conforming to

8624-425: Was a great evil, but primarily due to adverse impact that it had on white people: In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of

8722-470: Was a suitable man for his daughter. She accepted him with her father's consent in September 1830, while he was on summer leave, and the two were wed on June 30, 1831. Lee's duties at Fort Monroe were varied, typical for a junior officer, and ranged from budgeting to designing buildings. Although Mary Lee accompanied her husband to Hampton Roads , she spent about a third of her time at Arlington, though

8820-680: Was a top graduate of the United States Military Academy and an exceptional officer and military engineer in the United States Army for 32 years. He served across the United States, distinguished himself extensively during the Mexican–American War , and was Superintendent of the United States Military Academy . He married Mary Anna Custis , great-granddaughter of George Washington 's wife Martha . While he opposed slavery from

8918-421: Was assigned to assist Andrew Talcott in surveying the southern border of Michigan. While on that expedition, he responded to a letter from an ill Mary Lee, which had requested he come to Arlington, "But why do you urge my immediate return, & tempt one in the strongest manner[?]... I rather require to be strengthened & encouraged to the full performance of what I am called on to execute." Lee completed

9016-493: Was done." The Norris men were then sent by Lee's agent to work on the railroads in Virginia and Alabama . According to the interview, Norris was sent to Richmond in January 1863 "from which place I finally made my escape through the rebel lines to freedom". But Federal authorities reported that Norris came within their lines on September 5, 1863, and that he "left Richmond ..with a pass from General Custis Lee." Lee freed

9114-478: Was interrupted by other duties, among them surveying and updating maps in Florida. Cuban revolutionary Narciso López intended to forcibly liberate Cuba from Spanish rule. In 1849, searching for a leader for his filibuster expedition, he approached Jefferson Davis, then a United States senator. Davis declined and suggested Lee, who also declined. Both decided it was inconsistent with their duties. The 1850s were

9212-426: Was marked by conflicts between artillery and engineering officers. Eventually, the War Department transferred all engineering officers away from Fort Monroe, except Lee, who was ordered to take up residence on the artificial island of Rip Raps across the river from Fort Monroe, where Fort Wool would eventually rise, and continue work to improve the island. Lee duly moved there, then discharged all workers and informed

9310-516: Was often supported by a relative, William Henry Fitzhugh , who owned the Oronoco Street house and allowed the Lees to stay at his country home Ravensworth . Fitzhugh wrote to United States Secretary of War , John C. Calhoun , urging that Robert be given an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Fitzhugh had young Robert deliver the letter. Lee entered West Point in

9408-489: Was put in debtors' prison . Soon after his release the following year, the family moved to the city of Alexandria which at the time was still part of the District of Columbia , which retroceded back to Virginia in 1847, both because there were then high quality local schools there, and because several members of Anne's extended family lived nearby. In 1811, the family, including the newly born sixth child, Mildred, moved to

9506-621: Was still captain of engineers, and he would remain a captain until his transfer to the cavalry in 1855. For the first time, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met and worked with each other during the Mexican–American War. Close observations of their commanders constituted a learning process for both Lee and Grant. The Mexican–American War concluded on February 2, 1848. After the Mexican War, Lee spent three years at Fort Carroll in Baltimore harbor. During this time, his service

9604-633: Was to build a fort on the marshy island which would command the outlet of the Savannah River . Lee was involved in the early stages of construction as the island was being drained and built up. In 1831, it became apparent that the existing plan to build what became known as Fort Pulaski would have to be revamped, and Lee was transferred to Fort Monroe at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula (today in Hampton, Virginia ). While home in

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