So the professional opportunities for young Robert were limited, and the army came as a rescue solution.
Pegging to his life of severe lacks, difficulties and sadness, Lee became a man of strict self imposed limits. He was moderate and never wasteful of either type of resource. Due to his rather stern appearance, he was not the most popular of army men. But he did always serve his country and the cause he believed to be the truest. He had a strong sense of civil duty, and he strived to insufflate it to others.
And while not many will agree with this, Lee was a compassionate man, who cared and strived to protect his subalterns. In working toward this goal, he also understood that his men were the ones who determined the final fate of the war. So he strived to protect their lives. Evidence in this direction stands the battle of Spotsylvania, in which Lee only lost 7,000 soldieries, whereas the casualties of the Union, led by general-in-chief Ulysses Simpson Grant, exceeded 17,000.
By some accounts, the battle at Spotsylvania is believed to have been won by the Union, whereas others would argue that it has been indecisive. Whichever the case, fact remains that Lee's Confederation did not win. Regardless, he managed to put up a strong fight. Due to his strategic abilities, Lee tried to reduce the advantage of Grant's army by cutting off their communications and by destroying their railroads.
Additionally, he protected his own men by building the best trenches the Civil War battles had seen until that day. "Wherever they stopped, soldiers quickly constructed elaborate networks of trenches,...
At Spotsylvania the rebels built the strongest such fieldworks in the
war so far" (McPherson, p.728).
Another time the strong character of Robert Lee was crucial was in the aftermath of the Union's victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. This is often considered as the battle that inclined the balance of
power n the net advantage of the North. But the army led by Lee, the North Virginia Army, did not lose hope. Their spirits and morale continued to be high, and this was due to the leadership abilities of their general. "In spite of defeat at Gettysburg and the hardships that followed, the morale of the Army of Northern Virginia remained high. Many of these lean, tough veterans had re-enlisted even before Congress on February 17 required them to do so. They had become a band of brothers fighting from motives of pride in themselves, comradeship with each other, and
devotion to Marse Robert [General Lee]. Many of them also shared Lee's sentiments, expressed on the eve of the 1864
military campaign, that if victorious, we have everything to hope for in the future. If defeated, nothing will be left for us to live for" (McPherson, p.719).
