Final illness and death

On the evening of September 28, 1870, Lee fell ill, unable to speak coherently. When his doctors were called, the most they could do was help put him to bed and hope for the best. It is almost certain that Lee had suffered a stroke. The stroke damaged the frontal lobes of the brain, which made speech impossible. He was force-fed to keep up his strength, but he developed aspiration pneumonia, a common side effect of improper force feeding. Lee died from the effects of pneumonia, on the morning of October 12, 1870, two weeks after the stroke, in Lexington, Virginia, and was buried underneath Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, where his body remains today. According to legend his last words were "Strike the Tent."

Trivia

According to J. William Jones. Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Lee spoke his last words on October 12, 1870, shortly before his death: "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the Tent."

The birth of Robert E. Lee is celebrated in the state of Virginia as part of Lee-Jackson Day, which was separated from the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday there in 2001. The King holiday falls on the third Monday in January while the Lee-Jackson Day holiday is celebrated on the Friday preceding it. The state of Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day on January 19, Lee's actual birthday. The states of Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi honor Lee's birthday along with Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday in January. The state of Georgia observes Lee's birthday on the day after Thanksgiving.

Traveller, Lee's favorite horse, accompanied Lee to Washington College after the war. He lost many hairs from his tail to admirers who wanted a souvenir of the famous horse and his general. In 1870, when Lee died, Traveller was led behind the General's hearse. Not long after Lee's death, Traveller stepped on a rusty nail and developed lockjaw. There was no cure, and he was shot. He was buried next to the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University. In 1907, his remains were disinterred and displayed at the Chapel, before being reburied outside the Lee Chapel in 1971.

The General Lee, the souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger used in the television program in 1979 The Dukes of Hazzard and the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard movie adaption was named after Robert E. Lee.

A famous Mississippi River steamboat was named for Lee after the Civil War.

Despite his presidential pardon by Gerald Ford and his continuing to being held in high regard by many Americans, Lee's portrayal on a mural on Richmond's Flood Wall on the James River was offensive to some, including some African-Americans, and was removed in the 1990s as part of a campaign to delegitimize the Confederate heritage of the South.

Robert E. Lee was 5' 11" tall and wore a size 4-1/2 boot, equivalent to a modern 6-1/2 boot.

In the movie Gods and Generals, Lee was played by actor Robert Duvall, who is related to Lee. After the Civil War, as Lee's legacy grew, many people of Southern origin dug to find possible connection to Robert E. Lee, and such a connection was analogous to the frequent northern claim of being descended from Mayflower Pilgrims.

Two relatives of Lee were naval officers on opposing sides in the Civil War: Richard Lucian Page (Confederate States Navy and later a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army) and Samuel Phillips Lee (U.S. Navy Captain).

A distant cousin was Confederate General Edwin Gray Lee, a son-in-law of William N. Pendleton.

After the war Lee had financial difficulties. A Virginia insurance company offered Lee $10,000 to use his name, but he declined the offer, relying wholly on his university salary.^[7]

It has been noted that he bears a strong physical resemblance to British actor Christopher Lee. Despite this resemblance and the fact that they have the same surname, they are not related.

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