Lee Named General-in-Chief: Confederacy's Last Hope
Robert E. Lee was appointed general-in-chief of all Confederate armies on January 31, 1865, a promotion that came so late it was essentially meaningless. The Confederacy was collapsing from every direction: Sherman had already burned his way through Georgia and was marching north through the Carolinas, Grant had Lee pinned in the trenches around Petersburg, and the Southern economy was in freefall. Lee had been the obvious choice for supreme command since 1862, but Jefferson Davis resisted centralizing military authority, preferring to micromanage individual theater commanders. By the time Lee received the title, he had roughly 60,000 starving soldiers facing over 125,000 well-supplied Union troops. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, just sixty-eight days later. The appointment served more as an acknowledgment of the Confederacy's desperation than as a strategic decision.
January 31, 1865
161 years ago
Key Figures & Places
American Civil War
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Confederate States of America
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Robert E. Lee
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Confederate
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Robert E. Lee
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American Civil War
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United States
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Nord-Amérindiens
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Indian reservation
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Commander-in-chief
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