 Lee usually wore a plain uniform with three stars on the collar  because he disliked the heavily braided uniforms worn by most  Confederate generals. The three stars in the Confederate army  indicated the rank of Colonel (Lees rank when he resigned from the  US Army). Confederate generals wore wreathed stars on their collars  and their rank was indicated by the number of stripes in the braid  on their sleeve. Notice that Longstreet and others all have the  collar stars (1 large and 2 small) but the other generals have  varying numbers of stripes in their braiding. In fact, a couple of  the Brigadiers only wear the collar tabs. No one knows why Lee  insisted on wearing this uniform with the improper rank. He did  occasionally wear the proper uniform; most notably when he  surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.