Physical description

Hard cover book. The Life and Campaigns of General Lee
Author: Edward Lee Childe
Translator: George Litting, M.A., LL.B.
Publisher: Chatto and Windus
Date: 1875
Further Information: Black Cloth hardcover with lettering to spine in gilt. The spine has a Library label with an inscription.

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine with the typed text 920 LEE
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Public Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Flyleaf has a stamp from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute

Summary

The Life and Campaigns of General Lee, published in London by Chatto and Windus in 1875, is a biography of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, written by his French-based nephew, Edward Lee Childe. The book traces Lee's family history and upbringing, including his education at West Point and his early military service, then covers his major campaigns the Seven Days Battles, Second Bull Run, and Chancellorsville before turning to Lee's personal life, his marriage to Mary Custis, and his views on slavery and the Confederacy. It runs to roughly 336 pages in most editions. Notably, the book opens with a lengthy, strongly pro-Confederate defence of secession and states' rights; its Introductory chapter argues at length that slavery was not the war's real cause a reminder that this is very much a partisan Southern sympathiser's account, not a neutral military history.