Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee

General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. The son of Revolutionary War officer Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III and a top graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Lee distinguished himself as an exceptional officer and combat engineer in the United States Army for thirty-two years. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican-American War, and served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had offered Lee command of the Union Army. Although he was able to secure victories against the much larger Union Army, Lee ultimately surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. After the war, Lee served as president of what is now known as Washington and Lee University.

Bill Wallace has recorded hundreds of books for the National Library Service’s Talking Books Program for the blind and physically handicapped under the auspices of the Library of Congress. He won the Alexander Scourby Narrator of the Year Award for Nonfiction in 2001 and the Canadian Torgi Talking Book of the Year Award in 1996 and again in 2003. He was nominated for an Audie^® Award in 1998.