Robert E. Lee and Friends, by Mathew Brady, 1865 One week after his surrender at Appomattox Court House, Robert E. Lee sat for this portrait by Mathew Brady, the country’s foremost photographer. Lee is joined by his eldest son, Major General George Washington Custis Lee (left), and a longtime aide, Lieutenant Colonel Walter H. Taylor (right). Lee’s sober, weary expression reflects four hard years of war and his final defeat. Already a matchless hero among white Southerners, Lee was well on his way toward saintly immortality. In 1868, one woman described Lee as “bathed in the white light which falls directly upon him from the smile of an approving and sustaining God.” Library of Congress.