Robert E. Lee

Life and Orange County connections

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

During their lifetime

1. 1866 commencement 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. Lee Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Jefferson Davis, John C. BreckinridgeSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 755
2. October 15, 1870 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. Lee Place: Durham (then Orange County) · Also named: D. C. Parrish, C. B. GunnHillsborough Recorder, October 26, 1870, p. 2

After their death in 1870

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. June 1897 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. Lee Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 543
2. June 1899 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. Lee Place: South Building · Also named: Julian S. Carr Jr.Search the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 564
3. 1900 to 1903 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. Lee Place: Chapel Hill Baptist Church, Chapel Hill · Also named: John William JonesSearch the index · Almonte Charles Howell, A History of the Chapel Hill Baptist Church, 1854-1924 (1945), scan p. 32
4. January 19, 1909 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. Lee, Woodrow Wilson Place: Gerrard HallSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 685
5. January 1909 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: Woodrow Wilson, Frank Porter Graham, Robert E. Lee Place: YMCA building, UNC campusSearch 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