alor, and undaunted courage of Robert E. Lee...the greatest military genius in America"(Thomas 125-128).After three years at Fort Carrol in Baltimore harbor, Lee became the superintendent of West Point in 1852. He would have preferred duty in the field instead Witt 4of at a desk, but he worked at his post without complaint. During his three years at West Point, he improved the buildings, courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets. There was one cadet, Jeb Stuart, who later served as one of Lee's best cavalry officers. Lee earned a very good reputation during his service there as a fair and kind superintendent. In 1855, Lee became a Lieutenant Colonel of Cavalry and was assigned to duty on the Texas frontier. There he helped protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and Comanche Indians. Once again he proved to be an excellent soldier and organizer. But these were not happy years for Lee. He did not like to be away from his family for long periods of time, mostly because of his wife who was becoming weaker and weaker every minute. Lee came home to see her as often as possible. He happened to be in Washington at the time of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, and was sent there to arrest Brown and restore order. He did this very quickly and returned to his regiment in Texas. When Texas seceded from the Union in1861, Lee was called to Washington D.C. to wait for further orders (http://darter.ocps.k12.fl.us/classroom/who/darter2/relee.html 1). Unlike many Southerners, Lee did not believe in slavery and did not favor secession. He felt that slavery had an evil effect on masters as well as slaves. Long before the war he had freed the few slaves whom he had inherited. Lee greatly admired George Washington and hated the thought of a divided nation. But he came to feel that his state was protecting the very liberty, freedom and legal principles for which Washington had fought. He was willing to leave the union, ...
