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General Lee’s College is a comprehensive account of the origins and development of Washington and Lee University from its founding as a small local academy, through its post-Civil War transformation under the leadership of Robert E. Lee, to roughly 1930. Ollinger Crenshaw describes the Virginia institution's founding in 1749 as Augusta Academy, its frequent changes of name and president, and its consistently moderate southern character. He stresses the importance of two events: the changing of the college's name to Washington Academy in 1798 (following a bequest from George Washington) and the arrival of Robert E. Lee as president in 1865. There is special mention of the law school and of the gradual broadening of the curriculum from the standard classical education to the now standard liberal arts cum science program.