R4804

Civil War Sesquicentennial

Battle of Fort Sumter - Robert E. Lee

Collins Cover Announcement 

Civil War Generals

Robert E. Lee

This cover is the second and final one for 2011 that commemorates generals of our Civil War. A total of ten officers will be featured between now and 2015 - five from the Blue and five from the Gray. The general chosen will not necessarily be connected to the individual battles depicted on the various stamps, but rather I will choose five from the North and five from the South that distinguished themselves as leaders of men and their respective armies.

For the South's first general to appear in this series, I chose Robert E. Lee - the top commander of the Confederate Army. Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee. Robert was a top graduate of West Point, and during a U.S. Army career of 32 years became an exceptional officer and combat engineer. In fact, in early 1861 as the Civil War began, President Lincoln invited Robert E. Lee to take command of the entire Union Army, but a heart-broken Lee declined as he felt his loyalty bound him to his home state of Virginia, even though he personally did not agree with secession from the Union. Lee soon emerged as the shrewdest battlefield strategist of the war and he won many victories.

Despite his battlefield brilliance, many historians feel that his longer range war planning was quite flawed as his invasions of the North in 1862 and 1863 met with defeat and ultimate disaster for the Confederacy. In the long run, the South was unable to replace their losses or even re-supply remaining troops. After his surrender, Lee became president of Washington and Lee University and supported President Andrew Johnson's program of reconstruction. Robert E. Lee became the great southern hero of the Civil War, and he remains an iconic figure of military leadership. Collins #R4804 - $14.00.