The war was over. Appomattox was behind him. On April 12, 1865, Robert E. Lee rode away from the surrender site, a man without a country and, quite literally, a man without a home.
Most history books kind of just... stop there. We see the gray-bearded general shaking hands with Grant, and then the credits roll. But Lee lived for five more years. Honestly, those five years were probably the most influential of his life in terms of how the South actually put itself back together.
He wasn't just sitting on a porch rocking away. Far from it.
The General Becomes a College President
In the late summer of 1865, Lee was offered the presidency of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. It wasn't exactly a prestigious gig at the time. The school was broke. It had about four professors and 40 students who were mostly veterans. The buildings were practically ruins.
Lee hesitated. He was worried his presence might bring more heat from the federal government onto the school. Eventually, he took it. He told the trustees that he felt it was the "duty of every citizen" to help restore "peace and harmony."
Basically, he went from leading men to their deaths to trying to teach them how to live.
He wasn't just a figurehead, either. Lee was surprisingly progressive when it came to the curriculum. He didn't want the students just reading Greek and Latin all day. He pushed for:
- A School of Law (which eventually happened)
- Journalism courses (actually the first of their kind in the U.S.)
- Engineering and business classes
He wanted to build a "New South" that was practical. He was obsessed with the idea that these young men needed to be "Americans" again. There’s a famous story of him telling a bitter Confederate widow to "dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling" and bring her children up to be Americans.
The Battle for a Pardon
If you think Lee was just forgiven and everything was fine, you’ve got it wrong.
Lee was technically a paroled prisoner of war. He applied for a formal pardon from President Andrew Johnson in June 1865. He even signed an amnesty oath in October. But here’s the wild part: he never actually got the pardon while he was alive.
His oath of allegiance was literally "lost" in a desk drawer. A Secretary of State supposedly gave it to a friend as a souvenir. It wasn't found until 1970 in the National Archives. President Gerald Ford finally restored Lee’s citizenship in 1975, over a century after the guy died.
Private Bitterness vs. Public Peace
Now, here is where it gets complicated.
Publicly, Lee was the face of reconciliation. He told everyone to stop fighting and go back to work. He refused to support a guerrilla war. But privately? His letters show a man who was pretty frustrated with how things were going.
He wasn't a fan of Reconstruction. He was deeply skeptical about African American voting rights. In private letters to his family, he'd complain that "the South is to be placed under the dominion of the Negroes." It's a stark reminder that even the man seen as the "healer" of the South held onto the prejudices of his era.
He lived in a weird middle ground. He wanted the Union to stay together because he thought it was the only way the South could survive, but he didn't necessarily like the new social order.
The Physical Toll
The war had wrecked him. Lee had developed a heart condition during the conflict—probably what we’d call angina today. By 1870, he was exhausted.
His doctors told him to go on a vacation. He traveled south, but everywhere he went, massive crowds gathered to see him. It wasn't exactly a "relaxing" trip. It was more like a final tour.
In late September 1870, he sat down for dinner and couldn't speak. He’d had a massive stroke. He lingered for two weeks, mostly silent, before dying on October 12, 1870.
What Most People Get Wrong
People tend to see Lee as either a flawless saint of the "Lost Cause" or a pure villain. The truth is he was a college administrator who spent his final years trying to keep his head down while navigating a country that was fundamentally changing.
He lived a quiet life in Lexington. He rode his horse, Traveller, through the mountains. He obsessed over student grades. He tried to stay out of politics, even though everyone wanted him to run for office.
Why It Still Matters
Understanding what did Robert E. Lee do after the Civil War helps us understand the messiness of the post-war era. It wasn't a clean break. It was a slow, painful transition.
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Your Next Steps:
- Visit Lexington, VA: You can actually visit the Lee Chapel and his office, which is preserved exactly as he left it.
- Read "Reading the Confederate Mind": To see those private letters for yourself and get the full picture.
- Explore the Archives: Check out the National Archives digital collection to see the "lost" amnesty oath that sat in a drawer for a century.