Southerners must come to terms with Robert E. Lee. Even progressive Southerners must deal with Bobby Lee. This biography is one of the more discerning ones that I have read.
First you have understand this man as a product of his times. He came from the Virginia Tidewater gentry. He was a Southern gentleman of his times. He knew his place. He married the daughter of the stepson of George Washington. There was such inbreeding in his world of Virginia where people kept it in the family by marring their cousins. His father was Light Horse Harry, a Revolutionary War hero but a man who died broke in disgrace. But like most successful men of his time, he married up.
You have to understand his racism. He was truly a white supremacist of his time and place and I havegenuinely disparaged people of color.
"Lee could dream of an ideal wife, whose self-control and insistent good cheer would perfectly match his own." P. 27
His literary candor in the Victorian Era is astonishing. P. 32
Everything about Virginia was better. P. 56
Slavery was always brutal and potentially savage. P.67
Lee's wife was into colonization, which was racist antislavery doctrine. P. 68
Lee began the war with a sterling reputation. The South's sense of superior honor and virtue was transferred to Lee. The war brought a heavy dose of reality. During the war Lee's reputation suffered at first before rebounding and afterwards he became the personification of the Lost Cause. P. 90-91
Lee's war in 3 parts: 1) April 1861 to May 31 1862. He performed badly and was shuttled to second commands. 2)On June 1, 1862 after Joseph Johnston was wounded Lee was called to save Richmond. His glory period extended until July 4, 1863. 3) After Gettysburg Lee fought valiantly in an increasingly losing cause until Appomattox. P. 91
Lee had a sharp fall from grace at the outset of the war. P. 92
So much was expected of the Marble Man at the outset of the war. In his early down period in 61-62 he was called Granny Lee. His aristocratic bearing worked against him. P. 93
I have yet to connect with his sacred ties to George Washington despite knowing that he married the daughter of The Father of Our Country's stepson. P. 98
If Lee had died by 5/31/62 he would have been a footnote in history. P.111
But when Joseph E. Johnson was gravely wounded President Davis picked Granny Lee to succeed him to defend threatened Richmond. P. 112
For the next year after replacing Johnston Lee was audacious and successful. P. 113
From mid 1862 to mid 1863 Lee won victory after victor, redeeming himself grandly. He had up a head of steam as he headed into Pennsylvania in the summer of '63. He was aggressive and bold because he to be in order to save the Confederacy. P. 114
Lee's arrogance led him to disaster at Gettysburg. General Longstreet tried to change his battle plans but Lee did not listen. Lee thought he was on a roll and couldn't lose, but the Federals high ground proved insurmountable and his incoherent plan failed culminating in the disaster of Pickett's Charge. His pride, his sense of destiny, his contempt for the enemy, and his aggressiveness doomed his army at Gettysburg. P. 141-42
That Lee took the blame for Gettysburg is a myth. P. 143
Lee's Army of Northern Virginia escaped from Gettysburg when Meade's Army of the Potomac let him get away. Though is army was in bad shape after the battle, at the same time Meade was diffident to attack in follow-up. P. 146
At Gettysburg Lee fought the wrong battle at the wrong venue. He could have picked another place to fight the Federals but chose Gettysburg instead. He did not heed Longstreet's prebattle advice. Longstreet said Lee should have advanced on Washington, picked his spot, and waited for the Federals to attack. Would it have mattered? P. 150
In the weeks and months afterwards Lee mounted a defense of his defeat. He blamed his own sin and the sin of his nation. He blamed Jeb Stuart. He blamed most of all General Longstreet for waiting too long to long to go on the offensive. In his final report on the battle he did not mention his own bungling. P. 160
Lee threw Pickett under the bus, suppressing his report on the battle criticizing Lee. Pickett's reputation suffered as a result. P. 162
For the rest of life Lee blamed others for Gettysburg without ever coming to grips with his own failures. In particular he point to Stuart and Longstreet. The Lost Cause campaign to exonerate Lee and blame Longstreet had its start with Lee himself. Gettysburg was the end of Lee's audacity, the end of the dream of total victory, and never accepted blame for his own role in the disaster. He never came to terms with what he attempted and what he lost during those 3 bloody days. P. 162-64
After Gettysburg it was all downhill for Lee and the Confederacy. He was never the same again. He was in the position of grimly holding on. P. 165
The truth is that the Confederacy fought more for slavery than for nationhood. P. 218
Lee was a prisoner of his time and place. He might have been a good man had somebody been there to shoot him every day of his life.
In his testimony before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in 1866 Lee made crystal clear his enduring racism. P. 260-67
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