The Mystery of Robert E. Lee
National Review,
by
Allen C. Guelzo
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
9/20/2020 4:20:38 PM
No one who ever met Robert Edward Lee — whatever the circumstances of the meeting — failed to be impressed by the man. From his earliest days as a cadet at West Point, through 25 years as an officer in the U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers and six more as a senior cavalry officer, and then as the supreme commander of the armies of the Confederacy, Lee’s dignity, his manners, his composure, all seemed to create a peculiar sense of awe in the minds of observers. In the midst of the battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, Lee astonished Francis Charles Lawley, the London Times’ special correspondent in America,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
columba 9/20/2020 4:29:35 PM (No. 546879)
General Lee surrendered to General Grant on Palm Sunday 1965.
3 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
StormCnter 9/20/2020 4:38:18 PM (No. 546885)
Readers might enjoy further information. "The Surrender Meeting"
https://www.nps.gov/apco/learn/historyculture/the-surrender-meeting.htm
2 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 9/20/2020 5:03:14 PM (No. 546902)
Even more impressive are the entertainers among his descendants - - Peggy Lee, Pinky Lee, Spike Lee, Bruce Lee.
That's quite a legacy.
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 9/20/2020 5:06:22 PM (No. 546904)
Ooops! I left out Gypsy Rose Lee, Ruta Lee, and Sheila Jackson Lee.
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
davew 9/20/2020 5:15:30 PM (No. 546911)
Robert E. Lee was caught on the wrong side of history and was made a hero by the South for his loyalty to his state of Virginia just when the United States was evolving from its agriculturally (and slave labor) dependent past into a modern industrial country. He ultimately came to despise the military and would intentionally march out of step with cadets at Washington-Lee college where he taught after the war.
In the aftermath of the American civil war Henry Adams, then a young US diplomat in London, said: "I think that Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man and a fine character and acted conscientiously . . . It is always the good men who, do the most harm in the world."
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Flyball Dogs 9/20/2020 6:05:02 PM (No. 546942)
OP never disappoints in the diversity and intelligence of posted articles.
Thank you.
6 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Faithfully 9/20/2020 6:15:27 PM (No. 546956)
Years ago I read a book that was a collection of letters from Lee to his son. He was a man of character.
14 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
BarryNo 9/20/2020 6:27:26 PM (No. 546971)
A gentleman, who might speak frankly to family of troubles, doubts fears and beliefs was constrained to present a public face as a matter of course. Showing your temper sowed doubt in your friends and allies and revealed weaknesses to your enemies. It just wasn't done.
These are the expectations Lee and men of Lee's class were expected to live up to. Most could manage it if not put under stress, but Lee hardly grew up without stress.
8 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
JL80863 9/20/2020 6:27:50 PM (No. 546973)
A century off #1?
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 9/20/2020 6:43:01 PM (No. 546987)
Most of us alive today don't fully grasp the alliegence people had for their state. You can see that by how they named their regiments...34th Georgia, 25th Alabama, etc. Even the North...101st Pennsylvania (I had an Ancestor in both the 34th Georgia and the 101st Pennsylvania}. At that time, the Revolutionary War was still in living memory for some and many in the South thought if we could secede from King George then why not from the North. Lots of factors involved in that tragedy of a war.
18 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Southron 9/20/2020 6:58:47 PM (No. 547005)
The Leftist establishment is trying so hard to disparage Lee's reputation including encouraging the demolishing of Lee monuments but in the long run they will not succeed.
18 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
PostAway 9/20/2020 10:02:52 PM (No. 547132)
Grant might have been truly embarrassed when he met with Lee at Appomattox because of his rough dirty uniform compared to Lee’s immaculate appearance but, then again, he might have been making a statement. During his time at West Point Grant returned home on leave to southwestern Ohio and was made an object of humor for wearing his uniform around town. He was deeply abashed and never showed off in a uniform again. A few years later, during the Mexican-American War, a young Grant had reason to report to the commanding general of the Army, Winfield Scott. Lee, one of Scott’s adjutants, was shocked by Grant’s slovenly appearance and demanded that he change into cleaner and more formal dress before seeing his commander, which he did although he was humiliated and sore at the reprimand. He remembered the incident in his Memoirs and so certainly did at the surrender.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 9/20/2020 10:05:49 PM (No. 547137)
All here should remember how at that time, it was commonly held that, per the original compact, the Federal exists because of the States, not the other way around. Men at that time wore the uniform of their States, and in Gen. Lee's case, he NEVER wore anything but the uniform of the Army of Virginia. When his State voted to side with the Confederacy, Gen. Lee made the loyal decision to offer his services to Virginia, which was in the Confederacy.
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
MDConservative 9/20/2020 11:36:16 PM (No. 547216)
When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. That describes much of "history".
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
NYbob 9/21/2020 12:28:27 AM (No. 547237)
George Pickett had a thought about Lee after Gettysburg, 'That man destroyed my division.'
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
HPmatt 9/21/2020 6:54:23 AM (No. 547355)
It’s fun to play ‘what would I do” 150 years later. The world has changed, I think it takes great effort to learn about how the world was that long ago and the constraints back then compared to now, in how to live..No electricity, no internet, no email, no telephone, no cars, no a/c, no airplanes, no steamships, no indoor plumbing, no grocery stores, no dollar stores or clothing stores, no Home Depot, no concrete/asphalt roads, no weather satellites, no medical knowledge - try this root for that ailment..., no schooling for the non-wealthy. Grow your own food, cows, chickens, corn, can stuff for winter......the list is endless.
0 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 9/21/2020 7:08:51 AM (No. 547367)
I hold Robert E. Lee in the same regard as I do Abraham Lincoln.
2 people like this.
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Comments:
Outline misidentifies the author. It is Allen C. Guelzo