Was Lee guilty of treason? In his new biography of Robert E. Lee, Allen C. Guelzo says yes as an historian but it's a complex historical question although Lee was indicted by a grand jury in Virgina but he was never brought to trail and therefore never formally found guilty of treason. A document Lee agreed to with Grant at his surrender seemed to absolve him and other Confederate officials of being accused of treason. The legality of this document was controversial at the time. Was General Grant legally within the rights of his position to issue such a "pardon?" Lee was subsequently viciously pursued by a Judge Underwood in Virginia. He would have been tried in Virginia by Constitutional mandate and it seems unlikely that a Virginia jury would have found him guilty. Supreme Court Chief Salmon Chase wanted no part of trying Lee for treason or Jefferson Davis. Ambiguity in the Constitution over the meaning of citizenship was Lee's main defense. The Constitution talks about US citizenship and state citizenship. Nowhere in the original Constitution is citizenship precisely defined. Lee said he was acting in the capacity of his state citizenship which absolved him of a treason charge. So historians can say Lee was guilty of treason but he was never tried and therefore never legally convicted.