A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee.

John Esten Cooke (November 3, 1830 - September 27, 1886) was an American novelist, writer and poet. He was the brother of poet Philip Pendleton Cooke. During the American Civil War, Cooke served as a staff officer for Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart in the Confederate States Army cavalry and after Stuart's death, for Brig. Gen. William N. Pendleton. Stuart's wife, Flora, was a first cousin of Cooke. Born in Winchester, Virginia on November 3, 1830, Cooke was one of 13 children (five of whom survived childhood) of Bermuda-born planter and lawyer John R. Cooke and Maria Pendleton Cooke.[1] He was born on the family's plantation, "Ambler's Hill," near Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1838, "Glengary", the family estate to which the Cookes had moved, burned down. The family moved to Charles Town, Virginia and in 1840 to Richmond, Virginia. Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870) was an American and Confederate soldier, best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army. He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. A son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, Lee was a top graduate of the United States Military Academy and an exceptional officer and military engineer in the United States Army for 32 years. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican-American War, and served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his desire for the country to remain intact and an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the main field army in 1862