Robert Edward Lee was a distinguished American and Confederate general best known as the commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Before the war, he served as a superintendent of the United States Military Academy and was a highly regarded officer in the U.S. Army for 32 years. Despite his personal reservations about secession, his loyalty to his home state of Virginia led him to decline an offer to command the Union Army and instead join the Confederacy. After the war, he became the president of Washington College and worked to reconcile the country, becoming a revered figure in the American South.