Editing Robert E. Lee (section)

===Army of Northern Virginia commander (June 1862 – June 1863)===
{{Further|Army of Northern Virginia}}
[[File:General R. E. Lee and Traveler.jpg|thumb|left|Lee mounted on his horse [[Traveller (horse)|Traveller]] in September 1866]]
In the spring of 1862, during the [[Peninsula Campaign]], the Union [[Army of the Potomac]] under General [[George B. McClellan]] advanced on Richmond from [[Fort Monroe]]. Progressing up the Peninsula, McClellan forced Gen. [[Joseph E. Johnston]] and the Army of Virginia to retreat to a point just north and east of the Confederate capital.

Johnston was wounded at the [[Battle of Seven Pines]], on June 1, 1862, giving Lee his first opportunity to lead an army in the field&nbsp;– the force he renamed the [[Army of Northern Virginia|Army of ''Northern'' Virginia]], signalling confidence that the Union army could be driven away from Richmond. Early in the war, Lee had been called "Granny Lee" for his allegedly timid style of command.<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|p=602}}.</ref> Confederate newspaper editorials objected to him replacing Johnston, opining that Lee would be passive, waiting for Union attack. This seemed true, initially; for the first three weeks of June, Lee did not show aggression, instead strengthening Richmond's defenses.

However, on June 25, he surprised the Army of the Potomac and launched a rapid series of bold attacks: the [[Seven Days Battles]]. Despite superior Union numbers and some clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, Lee's attacks derailed McClellan's plans and drove back most of his forces. Confederate casualties were heavy, but an unnerved McClellan, famed for his caution, retreated {{convert|25|mi}} to the lower [[James River (Virginia)|James River]], and abandoned the Peninsula completely in August. This success changed Confederate morale and the public's regard for Lee. After the Seven Days Battles, and until the end of the war, his men called him "Marse Robert", a term of respect and affection.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stiles |first1=Robert |title=Four Years under Marse Robert |date=1903 |publisher=Neale Publishing Company |location=New York |pages=17–20 |isbn=978-0722282922 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PPcLAAAAIAAJ&q=marse+robert |access-date=March 6, 2022}}</ref>

The setback, and the resulting drop in Union morale, impelled Lincoln to adopt a new policy of relentless, committed warfare.<ref>{{harvnb|McPherson|2008|p=99}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|McPherson|2008|pp=106–107}}.</ref> After the Seven Days, Lincoln decided he had to move to emancipate most Confederate slaves by executive order, as a military act, using his authority as commander-in-chief.<ref>{{harvnb|McPherson|2008|p=108}}.</ref> To make this possible, he needed a Union victory.

Wheeling to the north, Lee marched rapidly towards Washington, D.C. and defeated another Union army under Gen. [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]] at the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]] in late August. He eliminated Pope before reinforcements from McClellan arrived, knocking out an entire field command before another could arrive to support it. In less than 90 days, Lee had run McClellan off the Peninsula, defeated Pope, and moved the battle lines {{convert|82|mi}} north, from {{convert|6|mi}} north of Richmond to {{convert|20|mi}} south of Washington.

Lee chose to take the battle off southern ground and invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, hoping to collect supplies in Union territory, and possibly win a victory that would sway [[United States elections, 1862|the upcoming Union elections]] in favor of ending the war. This was sent amiss when McClellan's men found a lost Confederate dispatch, [[Special Order 191]], revealing Lee's plans and movements. McClellan always exaggerated Lee's numerical strength, but now he knew the Confederate army was divided and could be destroyed in detail. Still, in a characteristic manner,  McClellan moved slowly; he failed to realize a spy had informed  Lee that he possessed the plans. Lee quickly concentrated his forces west of Antietam Creek, near [[Sharpsburg, Maryland]], where McClellan attacked on September 17. The [[Battle of Antietam]] was the single bloodiest day of the war, with both sides suffering enormous losses. Lee's army barely withstood the Union assaults, and retreated to Virginia the next day. The narrow Confederate defeat gave President [[Abraham Lincoln]] the opportunity to issue his [[Emancipation Proclamation]],<ref>{{harvnb|McPherson|2008|p=129}}.</ref> which put the Confederacy on the diplomatic and moral defensive.<ref>{{harvnb|McPherson|2008|pp=104–105}}.</ref>

Disappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln named [[Ambrose Burnside]] the commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside ordered an attack across the [[Rappahannock River]] at [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]]. Delays in bridging the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, and [[Battle of Fredericksburg|the Union frontal assault]] on December 13, 1862, was a disaster. There were 12,600 Union casualties to 5,000 Confederate, making the engagement one of the most one-sided battles in the Civil War.<ref name="Fellman124-125">{{harvnb|Fellman|2000|pp=124–125}}.</ref> After this victory, Lee reportedly said, "It is well that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."<ref name="Fellman124-125" /> At Fredericksburg, according to historian Michael Fellman, Lee had completely entered into the "spirit of war, where destructiveness took on its own beauty".<ref name="Fellman124-125" />

The bitter Union defeat at Fredericksburg prompted President Lincoln to appoint [[Joseph Hooker]] as the next commander of the Army of the Potomac. In May 1863, Hooker maneuvered to attack Lee's army by crossing the Rapahannock further upriver and positioning himself at the [[Chancellorsville, Virginia|Chancellorsville crossroads]]. Doing this could give him an opportunity to strike Lee in the rear, but the Confederate General barely managed to pivot his forces in time to face an attack. Hooker's command was nearly twice the size of Lee's but he nonetheless [[Battle of Chancellorsville|was beaten]] after Lee performed a daring movement that broke all terms of conventional warfare: dividing his army. Lee sent [[Stonewall Jackson]]'s corps to attack Hooker's exposed flank, on the opposite side of the battlefield. The significant victory that followed came with a price. Among the heavy casualties was Jackson, his finest corps commander, accidentally fired on by his own troops.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/surgeon-stonewall-jackson-death-likely-pneumonia-0|title=Surgeon: Stonewall Jackson death likely pneumonia|last=Zongker|first=Brett|publisher=Associated Press|access-date=June 13, 2014|archive-date=July 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714212404/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/surgeon-stonewall-jackson-death-likely-pneumonia-0|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Even though he scored another impressive victory over an enemy army much larger than his own, Lee felt unsatisfied by the fact that he had made little territorial gains up to that point. Things were going poorly for the Confederacy in the West, and Lee started to grow restless; he devised a plan to once again invade the North, for similar reasons to before: relieve Virginia and its citizens of the weariness of battle, and potentially march on the Federal Capital and force terms of peace.