For roughly one day, he was replaced by General Charles Smith. President Jefferson Davis overrode that decision, however, and by June 3, 1862, Robert E. Lee was commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Lee did not yet have the sparkling reputation with which he is today associated. He had performed in a mediocre fashion when commander in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861. But those who knew Lee well dismissed these criticisms. Captain Joseph C. Ives—a Northern man who had joined the Confederacy and become one of President Davis’ special aides—retorted that “General Lee’s name might as well be audacity.”