Of course Lee was a resident of a Union state ~ it was called Virginia. During the war a rump government was established in Northern Virginia, where the Lee residence is located (SEE: Arlington National Cemetery). The federal government didn’t ask their permission to buy Lee’s property at an open public auction ~ and it got standing in the Lee family suit to recover Arlington on that basis.
“Of course Lee was a resident of a Union state ~ it was called Virginia. During the war a rump government was established in Northern Virginia, where the Lee residence is located (SEE: Arlington National Cemetery). The federal government didn’t ask their permission to buy Lee’s property at an open public auction ~ and it got standing in the Lee family suit to recover Arlington on that basis.”
Virginia voted to side with the confederacy not the union. Hence Lee as a resident could not be a traitor to the Union he fought against.
This is the argument the federal government advanced against my namesake who was the leader of the orphan brigade of Kentuckians.
A little known fact is that the Arlington property was confiscated in retaliation for the Virginia secessionist state government confiscation of the property of the great United States general, Henry Thomas, a Virginian who chose to remain loyal to his country rather than his state. He was ostracized by his entire family and most of his friends for doing so.
These kinds of arguments are stupid. Highly honorable men were faced with a choice between betraying their nation or their state. They made an honorable choice, whichever it was.
There were, of course, also men on both sides who chose as they did for less than honorable reasons: expediency, personal advantage, ambititon, etc.
But that’s true of every war and indeed any human endeavor.