Posted on 01/18/2015 11:26:40 AM PST by Sean_Anthony
Lee possessed every virtue of other great commanders without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower believed that Confederate General Robert E. Lee should be a Role Model for American youth and they should emulate his qualities.
Robert Edward Lee was born January 19, 1807 to Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III and Anne Carter Lee at Stratford Hall in Westmoreland County Virginia. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point where he graduated 2nd in the class of 1829 without a single demerit. Lee served in the U.S. Army for nearly 32 years.
At the beginning of the War Between the States (Civil War) he was offered command of the U.S. Army by Abraham Lincoln. He knew that Lincoln’s invasion of the Southern States was unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, and criminal. He had to make a choice to either defend the Constitution or the Union. He made the correct decision to defend the Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
Yep.
I grew up in a state that was yet 30 years from statehood when the cannon first sounded. And I am no historian or buff but of course see bravery, heroism and bitter tragedy on both sides.
I was really just making a joke, which probably wasn’t necessary.
I would tell you that I usually read the long Civil War (War of Northern Aggression to you) threads because they are often informative and always passionate.
He certainly was a singular man, considering his wife died in 1873. So I can't name another man, important or unimportant, who was caring for his wife three years after he died.
And while we're on the subject, his mother-in-law died in 1853.
On April the 15th Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion among Southern States. I suspect Colonel Lee surmised,from this action, that President Lincoln intended to attack those states that had seceded.
I am pretty old, (but not real old), so I am old enough to remember that my grandparents generation was very distrusting of carpet bagging northerners. The CW was the one most traumatic event in our nations history, and it may take another 150 years to truly quell the feelings.
Yet the author of this article speaks of the invasion as if it had already happened. I guess that on top of all his other qualities Lee was also psychic?
I know.
Had a friend from Smith County Miss who had me down a couple times in the late 80s, early 90s.
It was like visiting a foreign country but a country I liked a hell of a lot.
My friend is dead now and I may not get down there again but I still feel the magic, history, the sad and stirring air of the place....not to mention the miracle of Junior’s Barbeque!
The Confederate command advantage in the East vs. the Union command advantage in the West is one of the endlessly interesting facets of the war. It is easy to beat up on GB McClellan, but McClellan's errors in 1862 probably prolonged the war by two years, Lee notwithstanding. Political interference with Army of the Potomac operations is another great factor.
One of the keys is that Lee and Jefferson Davis formed an abiding partnership, based on trust, that was sorely lacking on the Union side. Davis, for all his faults, was a West Pointer with a distinguished service record, a former Secretary of War and chairman of the military affairs committee in the Senate, and a capable strategic thinker, although in the final analysis he was a westerner who probably was trapped by political pressures into overvaluing the east with regard to distribution of resources.
Lincoln was a great man and evolved as a war leader, but he was a military amateur. The Union suffered mightily early in the war in Lincoln's vs. Davis' management. In the west, where the Union armies had less political interference and no McClellan factor, they commenced to win early and often. The Union had its share of inadequate commanders and made its share of blunders in the West as well, but the Confederates made more. The East is another story.
Lee had the advantages of a narrow front that could only be outflanked by amphibious operations, numerous defensible river lines, Union hypersensitivity about the defense of Washington, and a chaotic Union command structure for the first two years of the war. He prolonged the war in northern Virginia by twice moving north, consuming two campaigning seasons. He tried this a third time, but by 1864, the Yanks had figured out the trick, Grant had reached James River, and there were no more miracles to be had. Lee was a brilliant soldier, on the wrong side, and a man of noble character. But had he gone west, as Davis at times suggested, there is little reason to think he could have reversed the inexorable collapse along a broad front threatened by multiple simultaneous Union advances.
More despicable than the slavery that led to the Civil War were those responsible for bringing the African negro to the Americas as slaves. If this had never happened we would not have all the turmoil that plagues the United states today.
“I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will”
True then and true now. The Federal govt has gained power in direct proportion to the erosion of states rights.
Well soon Barack Obama or whatever his name is will be carved on Mt Rushmore right next to Lincoln. The only argument then will be which one of them committed more illegal acts agains’t the Constitution.
The good news is that neither one of them will ever pollute the carvings of Southern heroes on Stone Mountain. :-)
‘’- with the singular exception that it enshrined slavery forever.’’ It sure did. Barely a paragraph into The Confederate Constitution it clearly says so.
Do not disagree. I think the initial fight to “save the union” was morally week compared to states rights. Wars are emotional things, do not underestimate the power of soldiers with a superior cause.
Whats a hoser like you going on about a seditious rebel traitor for anyway, eh? The Civil War wasn’t Canada’s fight. Hark off!
Dude, given the general condition of life in the 18th. century and what passed for health care what he did was not remarkable, it was the norm.
Come, come. You're forgetting that critical provision of limiting the President to a single six year term.
/s
I would disagree. Exactly which states rights did the Buchanan Administration violate so wrongfully, that secession was the only recourse, not the Courts, or the Congress.
Of course, firing on a federal fort is not an illegal act against the Constitution. You may want to refresh your memory. Read Article III section 3 of the Constitution of the United States.
Military genius, brilliant strategist, honorable “Southerner”. But he has the stain of slavery all over his legacy....Because of that...not a fan.
Actually it was 1852 and the New York Daily Tribune, but never mind.
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