attle. On June 1, Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave Lee command of Johnstons army and placed Lee in charge of the Confederacys fortunes. Lee withdrew the army and prepared the men for field fortifications. The public saw Lee in those early days as being over-cautious, and earned him nicknames such as Granny Lee or the King of Spades. Lee knew better, he realized that there was no hope of the Confederate ever having a successful of the North, his plan was to hold out, and make decisive victories in the South that would force the North to give up and accept the Confederacy. Although he withdrew, Lee quickly fought back in what was known as the Seven Days Battles. Sending J.E.B. Stuart to go around McClellans army and attack its flanks, while Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jacksons Shenandoah Valley army struck the rear, Lee was able to successfully drive out McClellans army. Lee was suddenly a hero and the Confederacy seemed saved, although Lee was frustrated because he wanted to destroy McClellans army, not drive it out. The Seven Days Battles began a year of success for the Confederacy. The Campaigns of 1862 in Virginia concluded on the Rappahannock River at Fredricksburg on December 13. Union general Ambrose E. Burnside attacked Lees army entrenched south of the city. The result was a massacre of Federal troops, who never breached Lees lines.After the Confederacys initial year of Success, the Union army began a slow yet steady advance on the South. The Confederate army, under supplied and starving, could not hold out against the vastly larger and well-supplied North, now lead by Ulysses S. Grant. The final showdown occurred in Richmond where Lee was trapped in a war of attrition. Eventually, on April 1 1865, Lees lines became too thin and too short; he had to evacuate his troops and the city of Richmond on April 2.On April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee and the shattered remnants of his army waited in a column strung along four m...
