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Local figure

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, was honored at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill decades after the war. The class of 1897 gave the university a bust of Lee, the class of 1899 planted ivy from his mausoleum on South Building, and on January 19, 1909, the university marked his hundredth birthday in Gerrard Hall.

Source: Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), pp. 543, 564, 685

Also found in catalogs as Robert E. (Robert Edward) Lee.

1807–1870 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

4 indexed works are connected with this person.

Search these 4 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr. (1873-1946) Collection

Andrews, Alexander Boyd, 1873-1946 · 1861

Papers of Alexander Boyd Andrews Jr., a Raleigh lawyer and son of railroad official Col. A. B. Andrews, 1861 to 1945. Among the letters are John Motley Morehead's account of the 1881 hanging of Tildy Carter, a Black woman, in Rockingham County, and H. A. Page Sr. writing about the home of Walter Hines Page. The Hillsborough Academy, the Civil War and the Episcopal Church also figure. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.125.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC

Leonidas Polk Denmark Family Papers

Denmark, Leonidas Polk · 1861

Papers of the Denmark family, 1861 to 1966, gathered by Leonidas Polk Denmark (1892 to 1964), grandson of the farm leader Colonel Leonidas Lafayette Polk (1837 to 1892). They cover Polk's agricultural journalism, the Farmers' Alliance and Populist politics, the Civil War, World War I and the 1918 influenza. Hillsborough appears among the places.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.

State Archives of NC

Civil War Collection

Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina · 1860

Statewide Civil War collection of the State Archives of North Carolina, dated 1860 to 1965. It gathers pardon petitions, bounty payrolls, quartermaster vouchers and supply papers, disabled veterans' claims and letters about artificial limbs, regimental and unit papers, muster rolls, diaries, reminiscences, clippings and sheet music. Orange County is one of the many North Carolina counties represented.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.

State Archives of NC

James Iredell Waddell Family Papers

Waddell, James I. (James Iredell), 1824-1886 · 1762

Papers of the Waddell, Moore and related families of New Hanover, Brunswick, Bladen and Orange counties, 1762 to 1919, centered on Captain James Iredell Waddell, who commanded the Confederate cruiser Shenandoah. His own letters and naval correspondence sit alongside family land, estate and plantation papers and material on the University of North Carolina. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.87.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 929.209 HEN The Lees of Virginia: Biography of A Family Hendrick, Burton Jesse · 1935

    Two centuries of the Lee family of Virginia, from Richard Lee, who founded the line in the colony in the seventeenth century, to Robert E. Lee, in a family biography by Burton J. Hendrick, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Little, Brown published it in 1935; 455 pages with portraits, plates and a folding genealogical table.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 920 SNO Southern Generals: Their Lives and Campaigns Snow, William Parker · 1866

    Biographical sketches of eighteen Confederate generals, compiled in New York by William Parker Snow, the English Arctic voyager and author. Robert E. Lee fills the first 160 pages; the rest include Stonewall Jackson, Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston, Longstreet, Stuart, Hood and Wade Hampton. Snow worked from official papers, letters and newspapers. This 1866 edition, 500 pages with portraits, revises one issued anonymously in 1865; the book reappeared in 1867 as 'Lee and His Generals'.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Trustees strike Confederate leaders from the commencement ball The student ball managers named Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, John C. Breckinridge, Zebulon Vance and other Confederate figures as honorary managers without asking them. Fearing hostile action by Congress, the trustees ruled the choice improper. People: Zebulon B. Vance, David L. Swain, Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 755
  2. Durham citizens meet to mourn Robert E. Lee A large meeting at Durham (now Durham County), with Col. D. C. Parrish in the chair and C. B. Gunn as secretary, adopted resolutions on the death of Gen. Robert E. Lee. People: Robert E. LeeHillsborough Recorder, October 26, 1870, p. 2
  3. The class of 1897 gives the university a bust of Robert E. Lee On Class Day the seniors presented a bust of Lee, which President Alderman accepted with a speech of praise, and the band afterward played Dixie. People: Edwin Anderson Alderman, Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 543
  4. The class of 1899 gives a bronze bust of Zebulon Vance and plants ivy from Lee's tomb On Class Day the seniors, led by Julian S. Carr Jr., presented a bronze bust of Vance, and that afternoon planted on the South Building a sprig of ivy from Robert E. Lee's mausoleum. People: Edwin Anderson Alderman, Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 564
  5. Confederate chaplain J. William Jones becomes pastor of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church John William Jones, chaplain-general of the Confederate veterans and a biographer of Robert E. Lee, served as pastor and often spoke on university programs. Howell says he carried the Lost Cause into his sermons and even his prayers. People: Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Almonte Charles Howell, A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924 (1945), scan p. 32
  6. Woodrow Wilson speaks in Gerrard Hall on Robert E. Lee's centennial On January 19, 1909, the university marked the hundredth birthday of Robert E. Lee in Gerrard Hall, with Princeton president Woodrow Wilson as the speaker. People: Francis Preston Venable, Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 685
  7. Students nominate Woodrow Wilson for president after his campus speech Students impressed by Woodrow Wilson's speech on Robert E. Lee met in the YMCA building right afterward and nominated him for president of the United States. One of them, Frank Porter Graham, was in the floor demonstration when the Democrats nominated Wilson in 1912. People: Frank Porter Graham, Robert E. LeeSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 111

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 3 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Robert E. Lee, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Robert E. (Robert Edward) Lee Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

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Books about Robert E. Lee

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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