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ROBERT E. LEE APPOINTED "GENERAL IN CHIEF"
 

[LEE, ROBERT E.].

"Deeply impressed the the difficulties and responsibilities of the position, and humbly invoking the guidance of the Almighty God, I rely for success upon the courage and firmness of the people, confident that their united efforts under the blessing of Heaven will secure peace and independence." —R. E. Lee upon being appointed General-In-Chief

"Providence raises up the man for the time, and a man for this occasion, we believe, has been raised up in Robert E. Lee, the Washington of the second American Revolution." —The Richmond Dispatch, February 7, 1865

"Public demand led to [Lee’s] reluctant acceptance of an appointment as general-in-chief. The Confederate Congress and Virginia Legislature adopted resolutions asking for Lee’s appointment, but Lee told the president that he did not want the job. Davis was hard pressed to sustain his administration, though, and wanted to share responsibility. On February 9, Lee accepted a rank similar to that bestowed upon Washington."
—Richard B. McCaslin, Lee in the Shadow of Washington

OFFICIAL BROADSIDE CONFEDERATE PRINTING with seal on top left corner appointing Robert E. Lee "General in Chief" of the Confederate forces.

By 1865 Jefferson Davis had lost widespread support throughout the South. As the Confederacy’s fortunes worsened, there was a growing sense that Davis lacked the political and, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, the military skills needed to deliver victory and independence from the Union. Davis’s increasingly restive detractors began looking for ways to diminish the president’s role and expand that of their great general, Robert E. Lee. Early proposals for expanding Lee’s authority included the idea of simply making him Commander-in-Chief and thus de facto leader of the Confederacy. This never came to pass, in large part because Lee himself made it clear that he had no wish to encroach upon Davis’s authority. Despite this there was a widespread desire among the public, as reflected in this Act of the Confederate Congress, for Lee’s role to be expanded and Davis’s diminished. This Act gave formal expression to this important shift in the Confederate South. A highly important piece of Confederate legislation, these orders not only represent the culmination of Robert E. Lee's career, but had significant effects on the outcome of the war. After Lee was appointed "General in Chief" he became, like Washington for the North, the central figure in which the Confederates placed their hopes. Consequently, when Lee surrendered to Grant, the implications were profound. "Without their Washington, Southerner’s realized their revolution was over" (McCaslin, 191).

General Orders No. 3; Richmond, February 6, 1865. Housed in custom half-leather box. In remarkable condition for such a fragile item, with small tear visible on verso and only very light browning. Scarce: Printed for and distributed to members of the Confederate Congress and military officers and officials. $8000.