Richmond and made a run for North Carolina
to link up with Joseph E. Johnston’s army.
Grant, however, pursued vigorously, and the
Army of Northern Virginia was cut off by
Sheridan’s cavalry at Appomattox. Lee, realiz-
ing the game was finally up, surrendered there
with great dignity on April 9, 1865, to spare
his ragged, hungry troops further bloodshed.
After the war, Lee turned down lucrative
employment offers and served as president of
Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He
accepted defeat gracefully and urged his for-
mer compatriots to work for a restored
Union. Following his death in Lexington, Vir-
ginia, on October 12, 1870, the college re-
named itself Washington and Lee University
in tribute. Lee occupies a conspicuous niche
in the pantheon of American heroes on ac-
count of his brilliance, tenacity, and genuine
humility. His citizenship was officially re-
stored by an act of Congress in 1975.
Bibliography
Canaan, John. The Antietam Campaign: August–Sep-
tember, 1862.Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books,
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Story of Lee and His Men against Grant, 1864,1993;
Dowdey, Clifford, and Louis H. Manarin, eds.The
Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee.Boston: Little, Brown,
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Woodworth, Steven E. Davis and Lee at War.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.LEISLER, JACOB
Leisler, Jacob
(1640–May 16, 1691)
Colonial Rebel
W
ealthy and well-connected, Leisler
was an unlikely candidate to lead a re-
bellion against English authority. He
nonetheless took control of New York City for
two years, demonstrating a real strategic grasp
in military affairs, but proved unable to consoli-
date his political base before being disposed.
Jacob Leisler was born in Frankfurt-am-
Main, Germany, the son of a Protestant minis-
ter. He received religious instruction as part
of the French Reformed congregation and
also attended a Protestant military academy
in Hanau. In the wake of the recently ended
Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), he also ac-
quired a deep hatred for, and suspicion of, the
Roman Catholic Church. After relocating to
Amsterdam in 1659, Leisler found employ-
ment with the Dutch West India Company as a