Despite this rebuff Grant's determination was not shaken. He continued his previous manoeuvre and crossing the James river compelled Lee to follow him towards Richmond, and began on June 16 the long siege of Petersburg. During his advance from the Rappahannock to Petersburg Grant had under him 180,000 men, including reinforcements. Lee commanded 8o,000. It had taken the Federals a month of strenuous fighting to advance 7o miles, and their casualties had numbered close to 55,000. Con fidence in the North was shaken, but both Lincoln and Grant remained firm, and as long as that was so the end was sure. Grant by confining Lee to the immediate defence of Richmond had deprived him of the one weapon which could compensate for his inferior numbers, his skill in manoeuvre.
The siege of Petersburg dragged on through the winter of 1864 and into the spring of the following year, Grant continually extending his lines and compelling Lee to stretch his exiguous resources until the breaking point was reached. On April 2, he abandoned his lines around Richmond in the hope of being able to unite with Johnston in North Carolina. This Grant prevented by a prompt and masterly pursuit, and Lee surrendered with his army at Appomattox court house on April 9, in an interview made noteworthy alike by Grant's noble generosity and by Lee's calm dignity in disaster.
After the war Lee set himself to hea! the wounds of his people. Determined to take no part in any of the numerous controversies which the war aroused, he, though in financial straits like most Southerners, refused firmly to write his account of the great events in which he had taken a leading part. He was offered and accepted the post of president of Washington college (afterwards Washing ton and Lee university) and there he spent his last years teaching, by example and precept, the youth of Virginia to be good Ameri cans. He died on Oct. 12, 1870.
As a general Lee's chief characteristics were his rapid grasp of the possibilities of a military situation, his skilful use of interior lines of communication, his capacity for guessing what was in the minds of his opponents, and his understanding of their weak nesses. Few commanders have excelled him in the power of arousing devotion in his men. Almost his only weakness was a tendency to trust his subordinates too much, and an unwillingness to force his decisions on them. It was this characteristic which
made so grievous the loss of Jackson, who at once grasped what was in Lee's mind and devoted himself wholly and loyally to execute his chief's intentions.
Beyond and above all this, Lee's great contribution to the art of war was his understanding of the part field defences could play in aiding manoeuvre. In this he was years ahead of his time, and it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that his methods were really understood and applied by the military world. His high character, his moral courage, his noble nature, and his mastery of the art of war, make Robert E. Lee a notable figure in the pages of history.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies ; Lee's Confidential Despatches to Davis ; A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee; Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee; Sir F. Maurice, Robert E. Lee, the Soldier; G. Bradford, Lee the American (1929) . (F. B. M.) LEE or LEGH, ROWLAND (d- English bishop, be longed to a Northumberland family and was educated at Cam bridge. He obtained preferment through Cardinal Wolsey; after Wolsey's fall he rose high in the esteem of Henry VIII. and of Thomas Cromwell, serving both king and minister in the busi ness of suppressing the monasteries, and he is said to have cele brated Henry's secret marriage with Anne Boleyn in January 1533. Lee took part in preparing the divorce proceedings against Catherine of Aragon, and in January 1534 he was elected bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, or Chester as the see was often called, taking at his consecration the new oath to the king as head of the English Church and not seeking confirmation from the pope. As bishop he remained in Henry's personal service, endeavouring to establish the legality of his marriage with Anne, until May when he was appointql lord president of the council in the marches of Wales. After some years of hard and successful work in this capacity, he died at Shrewsbury in June 1543. Lee's letters to Cromwell, preserved in the Record Office, London, throw light on the bishop's career and on the lawless condition of the Welsh marches in his time.