When is robert e lee day celebrated

Martin Luther King Jr. In Alabama and Arkansas this year, for instance, both names appear on the states' holiday calendars. The culprit for this intersection: Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday celebrated across the country, while Robert E. Only three states — Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi — continue to celebrate the two on the same day.

Convenience is the main reason that the two days became linked in the first place, Jamelle Bouie writes for Slate. So they combined the two days. As a bureaucratic solution, it worked. In Arkansas this time last year, it seemed like MLK-Lee day might be celebrated for the last time, as lawmakers voted whether or not to pass a bill that would have moved the celebration of Lee to a separate day, she writes.

Lee's birthday is a state holiday in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi. It is a legal holiday, but it is not a paid holiday, for state branches or agencies in Florida. Many publications run editorial notes to commemorate the commander's achievements.

It is also customary for some state governors to proclaim the holiday to the general public. Grant, George Pickett, and Thomas J. Prior to the Civil War, Lee worked as an army engineer.

He was appointed Superintendent of West Point in , and he is considered one of the best superintendents in the institution's history. Lee command of the Union Army in , but Lee refused. He would not raise arms against his native state. Lee resigned his commission and headed home to Virginia, where he served as adviser to Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, and then commanded the Army of Northern Virginia.

After the four years of the war's death and destruction, Robert E. Lee met Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, where the generals ended their battles. Lee was appointed president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, in Joseph Reynolds and was reassigned to improving Confederate coastal defenses. His design of the defenses around Savannah are credited with thwarting Union aspirations there. The Army of the Potomac under Gen. It appeared to many observers then that the Union would take Richmond and force a Confederate surrender by the fall of that year.

Confederate General Joseph Johnston was wounded on June 1, The South had fewer people, fewer factories, no money and no navy. Hill, etc. Their efforts combined with Pres. Outnumbered more than two to one Lee finally abandoned his trench lines and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va and attempted to join his Army of Northern Virginia with Gen.

Ulysses S. Grant blocked off that effort and surrounded Lee on April 9, General Lee chose to surrender rather than fighting to the death. Lee broke the news to his troops with this address: Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Lee returned home from the war on parole and eventually became the president of Washington College in Virginia — now known as Washington and Lee University. He died on Oct. Lee opposed secession and slavery; but after the war he also opposed giving voting rights to the newly freed slaves and expressed his hope that they be relocated from Virginia.