ROBERT E. LEE'S LAST YEARS



  In 2003 and 2005 on our way to Antietam and Gettysburg we visited Natural Bridge in Lexington Virginia. While there I was able to visit Washington & Lee University. This is the place where Lee spent the last five years of his life as President of what was then Washington University. Lee was a great General but his tenure at this University proved the true character of the man. He took a university on the edge of bankruptcy and nursed it back to financial health. His primary message to his students, of which many were ex-Confederate soldiers, was the importance of education to a defeated South. That it was their duty to become good and loyal American citizens again. Lee had been in bad health ever since about the time of the battle of Fredricksburg when he suffered a heart attack. On September 28, 1870 he suffered a massive stroke at his home on campus and died two weeks later on October 12. He is buried in a crypt in the Lee Chapel on campus and the rest of the Lee family is buried in a mausoleum in the basement, along with his famous father "Light Horse" Harry Lee.
House Where Lee Died



Comments

  1. Visiting here was one of the most spiritual experiences of my entire life! Rest in the arms of G-d, General!

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