What did Robert E. Lee do before he was a general?

Answer 1

Lee attended the US Military Academy at West Point, New York from 1825-29, graduating second in the Class of 1829. For the next thirty-two years Lee was an officer in the US Army. Graduates who did well at West Point were often assigned to the Corps of Engineers, and this was Lee's first work as an army officer. He made improvements to the waterfront in St. Louis and worked for several years building Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, Georgia. The army was small and there was no system of retirement pay. This meant that officers stayed in the service until they died or were very old. Promotion was possible only when someone left the service, creating an opening. After twenty years in the army Lee was still only a captain. He served brilliantly in the Mexican War on the staff of the Commanding General of the Army, Winfield Scott. Scott led an expedition of only 9,000 troops from Vera Cruz, on the Mexican east coast, over the mountains and into the great central valley of Mexico. Scott's small army had to several times defeat the Mexican army, which was two to three times as large, and then fight their way into Mexico City, which had a quarter million people. Scott captured Mexico City and dictated peace terms to the defeated Mexicans. Twice on this campaign Lee scouted and found a path by which American troops were able to outflank (get around) the Mexican Army in prepared defenses, which it would have been very costly to attack head on. Scott was so impressed with Captain Lee that fifteen years later (Scott was still commanding the US Army, after fifty-three years in the service) Scott offered Lee command of the US field army which was to do battle with the Rebels. A large amount of territory was taken from Mexico in the peace settlement of the Mexican War, and the US had to create two new cavalry regiments to patrol this new region, full of hostile Comanches and Apaches. This was an opportunity for promotion, and the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis (later Confederate president, and himself a West Point graduate) was able to select the best officers from the army to fill these new positions. Lee was promoted from captain to lieutenant-colonel, and was second in command of the new Second Regiment of US Cavalry. This regiment is legendary - of the eight men who became four star Confederate generals, four served in the Second Cavalry in the years just before the war. Lee had to take an extended leave in the late 1850s to administer the estate of his wife's mother. Lee's wife was a great granddaughter of Martha Washington and she had inherited Arlington, an estate, later confiscated by the US government and turned into Arlington Cemetery. Lee was at Arlington when John Brown made his raid on Harper's Ferry. The Secretary of War sent a young lieutenant, JEB Stuart, who was in Washington awaiting orders, across the Potomac River to fetch Lieutenant Colonel Lee. Lee and Stuart then took some Marines from the Washington Navy Yard and went to Harper's Ferry and captured John Brown and his group. This was the first time Lee and Stuart worked together, but Stuart would soon be a Lieutenant General commanding all the cavalry in Lee's army.

Answer 2

Lee was an officer of the US Army his entire adult life, from the time he graduated from West Point, second in the Class of 1829. Only the brightest graduates who finished at the top of the class were assigned to duty in the Corps of Engineers. West Point was virtually the only engineering school in the country then. Many graduates left the Army after a few years to take jobs in the railroad industry, which was brand new, and in desperate need of trained engineers to build the rail system. Lee stayed with the Army and worked in the Corps of Engineers, ingeniously solving a shoaling problem on the Mississippi water front in St. Louis, and working for years on Fort Pulaski, near Savannah.

There was no system of retirement from the Army then, so officers stayed on duty until they died. The Army was small, promotions were based entirely on seniority, and with nobody retiring, many, many years in coming. After more than twenty years on duty Lee had been promoted only twice, to captain.

When the Mexican War began Lee served on the staff of the Army's commanding general, Winfield Scott. Scott led an expedition that landed at and captured the fortified city of Vera Cruz, on Mexico's east coast. Then there followed the most remarkable campaign in American history. Scott headed inland from Vera Cruz with 9,000 troops toward Mexico City. Mexico City was the largest city in the Americas, with over a quarter million inhabitants. There was only one road there from Vera Cruz, which crossed high mountains into the Valley of Mexico. The Mexican Army outnumbered Scott's force three to one. Twice Captain Lee found a way by which the entrenched Mexicans, hoping the Americans would be foolish enough to attack them headlong in their positions, could be flanked and their strong fortified positions bypassed. Eventually Scott's force captured the Mexican capital and dictated peace terms there to the Mexicans. After that war Lee was superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point for several years.

As part of the peace settlement of the Mexican War the US acquired all or part of seventeen current states, the entire American southwest. This new territory was full of hostile Indian tribes. The stingy US government had to expand the US Army to patrol this new vast area. Two new mounted regiments were created, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry. Here was a chance for promotion without having to wait for somebody to die. The Secretary of War was Jefferson Davis (later Confederate President), himself a West Point Graduate (Class of 1827) who knew the Army and its officers well. He picked the best, most meritorious officers to be promoted to the officer positions in the new cavalry regiments. Lee was promoted from captain to lieutenant colonel (he never served as a major), second in command of the 2nd Cavalry. This is a legendary regiment. Eventually in the Civil War eight men were promoted to four star general in the Confederate Army, and four of these had served in the 2nd Cavalry in the 1850s. After the Civil War all the mounted regiments were renumbered and all redesignated as cavalry regiments, so Lee's old 2nd Cavalry became the 5th Cavalry, which is still an active Army regiment today, part of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

In 1858 Lee's mother-in-law died, and Lee went on a lengthy furlough to be executor of her estate. He was at the house he and his wife inherited, Arlington (house and grounds taken by the Union Army during the war and made into Arlington National Cemetery) when John Brown made his raid on the government arsenal at Harper's Ferry. A young former student of Lee's at West Point, Jeb Stuart, happened to be in Washington at the War Department and was sent across the River to fetch Colonel Lee when word arrived in Washington of Brown's seizure of the arsenal. Lee, Stuart, and about fifty US Marines from the Washington Navy Yard went to Harper's Ferry and captured Brown and his group.

When the Civil War was starting Winfield Scott was still (since 1839) commanding general of the US Army (no retirement), age 75, weighing near 400 pounds. He obviously was in no shape to take the field and lead an army on active service. He remembered his brilliant staff aide from the Mexican War. He called Lee in and offered him command of the Union field armies, but Lee had already decided he had to resign and go with his home state of Virginia.

Answer 3

Lee was a professional soldier. He graduated second in his class at West Point with no demerits. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, and as a peacetime officer in the Army Corps of Engineers and, later, the cavalry. He took a leave of absence from the army to manage the estate of his wife's father at Arlington. He commanded the troops that captured John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and turned down the command of the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War because he "would not raise his sword against his native home," meaning Virginia.

Answer 4

he was a general in the US Army, but he grew up in VA so he went to the south

Answer 5

Robert E Lee was a medical assisstant before he served in the mexican war.