Robert E. Lee: Letter to Jefferson Davis (1862)

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862. At that time, the men of the Union general George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac could see the church spires in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Within a month, however, Lee succeeded in driving McClellan away from Richmond and toward the James River. Once he learned that the Union high command had decided to order McClellan to evacuate his position and take his army north via water to join John Pope's Army of Virginia in central Virginia, Lee moved quickly to strike at Pope before McClellan arrived in full force. After smashing Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run (also called Second Manassas) at the end of August, Lee decided to advance into Maryland. The decision reflected his belief that the Confederacy's best chance to achieve independence lay in undermining support for the Union war effort through a series of Confederate victories. Invading Maryland, he believed, might well bolster the cause of secession in that state; it might also persuade European powers that the time had come to intervene. For the moment, it appeared that Lee had indeed caught the Union off balance, with its armies still recovering from defeat.

In September 1862 Lee decided to take the war north of the Potomac River into Maryland and Union territory. Even as he pressed forward, Lee thought it time to alert Jefferson Davis to the possible political advantages to be gained by coupling an invasion north of the Potomac with a call for peace negotiations, to result in the recognition of Confederate independence. As he puts it, it “would show conclusively to the world that our sole object is the establishment of our independence and the attainment of an honorable peace.” Nothing came of this proposal; in less than two weeks Lee had returned to Virginia after having held off McClellan at the Battle of Antietam in the bloodiest day of combat in the American Civil War.