Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870) was an American career military officer best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. A top graduate of the US Military Academy, he distinguished himself as an exceptional officer and combat engineer for 32 years. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his personal desire for the country to remain intact and the fact that President Lincoln had offered Lee command of a Union Army. During the Civil War, he emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning numerous battles against far superior Union armies. Union General Grant's campaigns bore down on the Confederacy in 1864 and 1865, and despite inflicting heavy casualties, Lee was unable to turn the war's tide and would ultimately surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. After the war he supported President Johnson's program of Reconstruction. Lee became the great Southern hero of the War, but his popularity grew even in the North, especially after his death in 1870 at the age of 63. He remains an iconic figure of American military leadership.