Editing Robert E. Lee (section)

==Harpers Ferry and return to Texas, 1859–1861==
Both [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|Harpers Ferry]] and the [[Texas in the American Civil War|secession of Texas]] were monumental events leading up to the Civil War. Robert E. Lee was at both events. Lee initially remained loyal to the Union after Texas seceded.<ref name="Melton2012">{{cite book|author=Brian C. Melton|title=Robert E. Lee: A Biography: A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7S9XHroBFjAC&pg=PA38|date=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-38437-0|pages=38–41}}</ref>

===Harpers Ferry===
[[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] led a band of 21 abolitionists who seized the [[Harpers Ferry Armory|federal arsenal]] at [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]], Virginia, in October 1859, hoping to incite a slave rebellion. President [[James Buchanan]] gave Lee command of detachments of militia, soldiers, and [[United States Marines]], to suppress the uprising and arrest its leaders.<ref>{{harvnb|Freeman|1934|pp=394–395}}.</ref> By the time Lee arrived that night, the militia on the site had surrounded Brown and his hostages. At dawn, Brown refused the demand for surrender. Lee attacked, and Brown and his followers were captured after three minutes of fighting. Lee's summary report of the episode shows Lee believed it "was the attempt of a fanatic or madman". Lee said Brown achieved "temporary success" by creating panic and confusion and by "magnifying" the number of participants involved in the raid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTRIALS/johnbrown/leereport.html|title=Col. Robert E. Lee's Report Concerning the Attack at Harper's Ferry|publisher=University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law|date=October 18, 1959|access-date=October 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722154442/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/johnbrown/leereport.html|archive-date=July 22, 2010}}</ref>

===Texas===
In 1860, Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee relieved Major [[Samuel P. Heintzelman|Heintzelman]] at [[Fort Brown, Texas|Fort Brown]], and the Mexican authorities offered to restrain "their citizens from making predatory descents upon the territory and people of Texas&nbsp;... this was the last active operation of the [[Cortina War]]". [[Rip Ford]], a [[Texas Rangers Division|Texas Ranger]] at the time, described Lee as "dignified without hauteur, grand without pride&nbsp;... he evinced an imperturbable self-possession, and a complete control of his passions&nbsp;... possessing the capacity to accomplish great ends and the gift of controlling and leading men".<ref>{{cite book|last=Ford|first=John Salmon|title=Rip Ford's Texas|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin|year=1963|pages=305–306}}</ref>

When Texas seceded from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in February 1861, General [[David E. Twiggs]] surrendered all the American forces (about 4,000 men, including Lee, and commander of the Department of Texas) to the Texans. Twiggs immediately resigned from the U.S. Army and was made a Confederate general. Lee went back to Washington and was appointed Colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry in March 1861. Lee's colonelcy was signed by the new president, Abraham Lincoln. Three weeks after his promotion, Colonel Lee was offered a senior command (with the rank of Major General) in the expanding Army to fight the Southern States that had left the Union. [[Fort Mason (Texas)|Fort Mason, Texas]], was Lee's last command with the United States Army.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Texas Forts Trails|magazine=Texas Monthly|date=June 1991|page=72}}</ref>