About This Stamp
This Liberty issue stamp depicts Robert E. Lee. He was born at the Stratford Hall Plantation in Virginia in 1807. Lee was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; he later served as the school’s Superintendent from 1852 to 1855. He served with the Army Corps of Engineers and distinguished himself during the Mexican-American War. Lee declined an invitation to command the Union Army and after Virginia declared its secession from the Union in 1861, he remained loyal to his home state and took up command of Virginia’s state forces. He eventually took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, one of the main forces of the Confederate States Army. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House in 1865. Following the war, he became president of what now is Washington and Lee University.