In the war with Mexico Lee earned honor and fame. He rose rapidly in rank. Starting as captain, he became major, lieutenant-colonel, and then colonel. When the Mexican War was over, he took charge of the Military Academy at West Point. After three years, he decided to give up the work at West Point and go West to fight the Indians. [Sidenote: =Lee goes with his state=] About this time the people began to insist that, in the United States, slavery must be given up. Even the army officers and men quarreled about it. Lee believed in the Union and did not want the South to leave it. But when Virginia followed other slave states out of the Union and into the Confederacy, Lee went with his native state. [Sidenote: =In command of army defending Richmond=] When the war began, Lee, as general, had command of the Virginia troops. After the battle of Fair Oaks, in which General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded, General Lee took charge of the army defending Richmond. [Sidenote: =Compels McClellan to retreat=] [Sidenote: =Invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania=] =172. Lee Fights Battle after Battle.= Lee at once attacked the Union army which was trying to take Richmond. In a seven days' battle he forced McClellan, the Union general, to retreat. He then struck the army of Pope a fatal blow and marched with his victorious soldiers into Maryland. A great battle was fought at Antietam (1862) and Lee returned to Virginia. He won two great victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In the latter battle he lost Stonewall Jackson, his best general. After this, his army rested and ranks filled, General Lee moved rapidly through Maryland and into Pennsylvania. The North became alarmed, but a great Union army was already hurrying to meet the Confederate forces. [Sidenote: =Greatest battle of the war=] [Sidenote: =Pickett's charge=] [Sidenote: =The loss=] The two armies met at Gettysburg, and there for three days was fought the greatest battle of the Civil War. On the last day General Pickett made his famous charge. Fifteen thousand southern soldiers charged across the valley--more than a mile wide--right up to the muzzles of the Union guns. But the help they expected from another direction did not arrive, and they had to retreat. Lee's army was defeated. More than fifty thousand men--including the killed, wounded, and missing on both sides--were lost at Gettysburg. [Illustration: PICKETT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG _This heroic assault marked the turn of the Confederate tide_] [Sidenote: =Lee never invades again=]