The Training Ground Read Free

Virginia. But he spent his money poorly, speculating on properties and soon finding himself so deeply in debt that his wife, Matilda, put all of her own assets in a trust to protect them from his creditors.
    Matilda, who was also Lee’s second cousin, died in 1790, and three years later Henry remarried, a woman almost half his age. Ann Hill Carter Lee gave birth to six children. The fourth, a boy who came into the world on January 19, 1807, was given the name Robert Edward, for two of her brothers.
    By then, Light-Horse Harry Lee’s financial misadventures had long derailed his promise. He had served in Congress for a term, had been briefly considered for a presidential nomination, and had written the words that Chief Justice John Marshall used to eulogize George Washington — “first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.” But soon after young Robert Edward was born, confiscation of family assets became a regular part of the family equation. For a year, beginning in the spring of 1809, Light-Horse Harry was cast into a debtor’s prison, where he wrote his memoirs of the Revolutionary War. The family was destitute by the time he was released, with every property and dwelling sold to pay bills.
    As devastating as that surely was, Harry Lee’s worst problems were before him. In July 1812, while defending a friend who shared his opposition to America’s new conflict with Britain, he was beaten for nearly three hours by a pro-war mob. They poured hot candle wax into his eyes, slashed at him with knives, and even tried to cut off his nose. Harry suffered serious internal injuries, his face was permanently disfigured, and his speech was slurred for the few remaining years that he lived. In 1813 he abandoned his family and traveled to Barbados at the behest of President James Monroe, hoping to regain his health. That summer day, five-year-old Robert Edward said good-bye to his father for the last time. On March 25, 1818, while finally making his way home to Virginia, Light-Horse Harry Lee died on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia.
    Robert Edward Lee was eleven at the time. His mother was raising the family in Alexandria, in a small house on Washington Street. Ann Carter Lee was only in her midforties, but she was already dying from the stress of too many years spent struggling to keep the family together in the face of Harry Lee’s many setbacks. She had loved her husband dearly and was proud of his many accomplishments, but she was just as adamant that her five children not be like him. Ann was a gentle woman who instilled in her children a disdain for all things impulsive and reckless, and daily preached a gospel of personal discipline and self-restraint. Those lessons would define Robert E. Lee for the rest of his life. He would never drink, swear, or gamble, just as his mother had hoped.
    The seeds of Ann’s teachings first bore fruit in the years following Henry’s death. After Robert’s older siblings, Carter, Ann, and Smith, moved away, he became the head of the household, left to care for his now-invalid mother and younger sister Mildred. He was growing — eventually reaching five feet ten and a half inches — and becoming a handsome young man, with a strong chin, wavy brown hair, and dark brown eyes. He was intellectual yet rugged, fond of study and just as fond of swimming in the nearby Potomac River or trekking through the forests and hills outside town.
    In 1823, Robert finished his studies at a small academy in Alexandria and applied to West Point. The family attorney, William H. Fitzhugh, wrote a letter of introduction, and Robert boldly bypassed the congressional selection process by presenting the letter directly to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. On March 11, 1824, Lee was formally notified of his appointment. His enrollment was pushed back an entire year, however, because of an unexpected surplus of qualified applicants. Lee passed the year in productive fashion,