frontispieces, plates, portraits, maps ; 24 cm

I. A carriage goes to Alexandria -- II. A background of Great Traditions -- III. First impressions of West Point -- IV. The education of a cadet -- V. Sorrow and scandal come to the lees -- VI. Marriage -- VII. The ancient war of staff and line -- VIII. Lee is brought close to frustration -- IX. Youth conspires against a giant -- X. Lee studies his ancestors -- XI. An establishedplace in the corps -- XII. Five drab years end in opportunity -- XIII. A campaign without a cannon shot -- XIV. First experiences under fire (Vera Cruz) -- XV. A day under a log contributes to victory (Cerro Gordo) -- XVI. Laurels in a lava field -- XVII. Into the "Halls of the "Montezumas" XVIII. The building of Fort Carroll -- XIX. West Point proves to be no sinecure -- XX. Lee transfers from staff to line -- XXI. Education by court-martial -- XXII. The Lees become land-poor -- XXIII. Introduction to Militant Abolitionism -- XXIV. Colonel Lee declares the faith that is in him -- XXV. The answer he was born to make -- XXVI. On a train en route to Richmond -- XXVII. Virginia looks to Lee -- XXVIII. Can Virginia be defended? -- XXIX.The volunteers are called out -- XXX. The mobilization completed -- XXXI. The war opens on three Virginia fronts -- XXXII. Lee discloses a weakness -- XXXIII. Lee conducts his first compaign -- XXXIV. Politics in war: A sorry story -- XXXV. Politics, the rain demon, and another failure -- XXXVI. An easy lesson in combating sea-power -- Appendices

Following the immediate critical success of Lee's Dispatches, author Douglas Southall Freeman was approached by New York publisher Charles Scribner's Sons and invited to write a biography of Robert E. Lee. He accepted, and his research of Lee was exhaustive: he evaluated and cataloged every item about Lee, and reviewed records at West Point, the War Department, and material in private collections. In narrating the general's Civil War years, he used what came to be known as the?fog of war? technique--providing readers only the limited information that Lee himself had at a given moment. This helped convey the confusion of war that Lee experienced, as well as the processes by which Lee grappled with problems and made decisions. R.E. Lee: A Biography was published in four volumes in 1934 and 1935. In its book review, The New York Times declared it?Lee complete for all time.? Historian Dumas Malone wrote,?Great as my personal expectations were, the realization far surpassed them.? In 1935, Freeman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his four-volume biography. Freeman's R.E. Lee: A Biography remains the authoritative study on the Confederate general

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