Robert E. Lee: A Biography, by Emory Thomas

In Robert E. Lee: A Biography (1995), Emory Thomas narrates the life of the Confederate general.  He makes generous use of letters, first-hand accounts, newspaper articles, and other documents to illuminate Lee in his time and place.  Thomas is no idolater, and he doesn’t hesitate to discuss Lee’s shortcomings and his racist views about Indians, Mexicans, and slaves—Lee’s views were fairly characteristic of how many in these times regarded these matters.  Thomas discusses Lee’s education, especially at West Point, his service as an engineer for the army, his experience in the Mexican War, and finally his rise to lead the Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. He gives much attention to Lee’s marriage and family life.  Lee’s wife Mary suffered illness throughout her life, finally becoming an invalid, but she and Lee still managed to produce seven children.

Thomas pays special attention to Lee’s father, Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee, who had a brief moment of heroism in the Revolutionary War as a cavalry officer but who in the remainder of his life was a failure—as a husband, father, farmer, politician.  He abandoned his family and Lee last saw him when he was eight years in age.  Thomas suggests that Lee felt obliged to make up for his father’s failings and to restore the family name.  He also notes several character traits that influenced Lee’s leadership as a military officer.  He did not like conflict and preferred to have people resolve their disagreements without his interference.  He preferred not to give direct orders and instead suggested to subordinate officers how they should conduct their troops in battle.  Misunderstandings sometimes resulted.  Several crucial battlefield errors were the result of his poor communication. Thomas discusses Lee’s Civil War battle tactics in some detail.  As a general, Lee was a brilliant tactician, but his strategies did not always succeed.  He achieved a number of successes in the field, but he also suffered significant failures, most notably at Gettysburg. Lee had only a few subordinate generals he felt he could rely on, especially Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart.  Longstreet was a close associate, but he and Lee did not always agree, and Lee found him unable or unwilling to act on his own.  This view of Longstreet differs from the one given by Michael Shaara in his novel Killer Angels (1975), about Gettysburg.

Lee was a shy man who did not like crowds or public events.  Partially as a result, some found him cold and distant.  Throughout his life, and with his wife’s knowledge, Lee conducted flirtations with young women, usually by mail.  Thomas notes that there is no evidence that these flirtations developed into sexual affairs, but some of the correspondence bordered on the risqué.

Thomas notes the mythology that has surrounded Lee but does not examine it in this biography: others have done so. This is the only biography of Lee I have read. It is a good account of his life.