THE REAL ROBERT E. LEE

In the past year, the "Get Rid of All the Confederate Statues" (GRACS's) movement, (my terminology) has gained a great deal of notoriety. 

But since I have previously written about the "GRACS's gang," the purpose of this particular thesis is to 'flesh out' truth from fiction in relation to their chief nemesis, General Robert E. Lee. 

It is true that Robert E. Lee served as a Colonel in the United States Army, that he fought in the Mexican War, that he was in command of the unit which arrested John Brown, the avid abolitionist, at Harper's Ferry, that his home, Arlington House, was (and still is) located on the property which has since come to be known as Arlington National Cemetery, that he owned slaves which he inherited from his father-in-law, and that prior to accepting command of the Army of Northern Virginia was offered command of the United States Army by Gen. Winfield Scott; in the name of Abraham Lincoln.

What you may not have known is that Robert E. Lee was the (drum roll) great grand step Son-in-Law of former General of the Army, and President of the United States George Washington; (since he married Mary Custis, Martha Washington's great Granddaughter). Given the fact that George Washington and Martha Washington never had children, and that George virtually adopted her two children from a former marriage, it might be said that Mary Custis was, in essence, Washington's great Granddaughter.

And you may not know that, at least in theory, Robert E. Lee was opposed to slavery, (and ultimately, freed his own slaves), and that while he opposed slavery, his reasoning for accepting the prestigious commission in the Confederate, rather than the Union Army was that he thought of Virginia as his country, and was bound to stand against any military force that marched against it.

I think it must have been a rather daunting conceptualization to break allegiance with the nation under whose flag he had fought, and seen those under his command give their last full measure of devotion. And I think his decision to do so must have been accompanied by significant time and trepidation. 

It is significant that neither Gen. Robert E. Lee, nor President Jefferson Davis, nor any other participant in the failed revolution against the United States, (except the Commandant of Andersonville Prison in Georgia for his harsh treatment against Union P.O.W.'s) was ever brought to trial for treason.

It has been conjectured that lawyers for the United States government realized that there was little or no likelihood former Confederate officials and generals could be convicted, since the Declaration of Independence declared that any state or nation  possessed the right of secession; in the case of an alliance which it have previously joined of its own volition. 

It is also interesting that, many years after the final battle was fought, an act of congress declared all the Confederates, living and dead, who fought in the Civil War to be United States military veterans. 

Robert E. Lee was a devout Christian, and after the War Between the States, while attending a church service in Richmond, witnessed what at that time would have been thought a sacrilege. For you see, when communion was offered, and the white congregation on the main floor prepared to receive it, a black man stepped down from the balcony and preceded them to the altar. 

No one moved, though a murmur must have wafted across the sanctuary. Suddenly, Gen. Robert E. Lee rose from his seat, walked to the altar railing, and knelt down beside the former negro slave.

In his later years, General Lee was offered the presidency of Washington-Lee College. (A wonderful conjunction, don't you think)? He accepted, and is interred in the chapel of that great institution; a few hundred yards from the campus of Virginia Military Institute where his second in command, General "Stonewall" Jackson once served as a professor.

by William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 68. Copyright pending

If you wish to copy, share or 'save' please include the credit line, above