04/20/2026
Choices. We make them everyday. Most choices are transient and don’t matter in the long run. But some choices change not only our own lives but the lives of others as well.
Arlington House saw many choices made by its occupants, but one choice, made 165 years ago today, affected not only the person who made the choice but impacted the lives of millions of Americans; a choice that still reverberates to this day.
In April 1861, after years of compromise, tensions between the North and South reached critical mass. The 34-hour siege of Fort Sumter, S.C. on April 12-13, 1861, brought about a Civil War that forced many to make difficult choices. Robert E. Lee, then living at Arlington House, was one of those forced to choose.
By this time, Lee was a colonel in the United States Army, a rank he had only held since March. Even though Lee was outranked by several men, he was nonetheless so highly respected that his mentor, General Winfield Scott convinced President Abraham Lincoln that Lee should be offered command of the U.S. forces to put down the southern rebellion.
This was what Lee had wanted during his career, high command, and a chance to prove himself. Yet, to achieve this, Lee would have to fight against his region, the South, including his own beloved state of Virginia, which seceded from the Union on April 17, 1861.
Lee, a Virginian, wrote a letter (pictured here and on display at the museum) to his mentor, Winfield Scott, and resigned from the U.S. Army saying that he could not “raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home” and that “save in defence of my native State, I never desire again to draw my sword.” Two days later, Lee was offered command of Virginia forces.
Lee’s choice not only affected him. His family was forced to leave Arlington and the approximately 60 enslaved people on the plantation were left in a place of limbo as many remained at the property that was soon occupied by Union forces.
Lee’s decision to resign from the United States Army proved to not only affect those at Arlington, but would change the history of the war as he led Confederate forces for the next four years.
Learn more about Lee’s decision: https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/lee-s-resignation.htm
