Posted on 01/19/2009 6:54:00 AM PST by Iron Munro
It was 1807 — 202 years ago — that the Lee family in Virginia welcomed a baby boy and named him Robert Edward. Monday is the birthday of that great American, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and is also a state holiday.
Robert E. Lee never came to Mississippi, but other than the many men from here who fought under his command during the War Between the States, he may have had an unusual Vicksburg connection.
Was he wearing boots, a gift from two Vicksburg sisters, when he met with Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9, 1865? That is a good possibility.
In January 1865, for his 58th birthday, the general received a package from two Vicksburg sisters, Sallie and Lucy Marshall, daughters of the Rev. and Mrs. Charles K. Marshall.
Lee wrote the following thank you: “I have rec’d the overboots sent me by your father and had the opportunity yesterday of testing their value. It was one of the most tempestuous days of the winter, hail, rain, and sleet. By their means through out all day I was comfortable. Please accept my grateful thanks for your birthday kindness and believe me with great respect, R.E. Lee.”
The boots had been paid for with money carefully saved by Sallie Marshall who had covered gold pieces with cloth and used them as buttons to keep them from being stolen. She had used some of those buttons to pay for the boots.
When Lee prepared to meet Grant to discuss surrender, he put on his best apparel — a handsome new uniform, his dress sword and his deep-red sash, for he expected to become a prisoner of war. He commented, “I must make my best appearance.”
His uniform immaculate, his boots well-polished — what a contrast he was to Grant when they met, for the Union commander wore a crumpled uniform and mud-spattered boots. A witness to the meeting described Lee as “6 feet tall, hair and beard of silver gray, a handsome uniform of Confederate gray buttoned to the throat with three stars on each side of the turned-down collar, fine topboots and handsome spurs and a splendid sword.”
Those fine boots — were they from the Vicksburg sisters? There’s probably no way of knowing, but it is entirely possible. The girls, by the way, were the granddaughters of the Rev. Newit Vick, the city’s founder. Their mother was Amanda Vick.
Another Vicksburg connection with Lee was a very remote one: his brother, Sidney Smith Lee, was married to a sister of Elbeck Mason who, with his wife, Virginia, lived for a time in the Cobb House in the Southern Cultural Heritage Center complex and then bought the castle that stood on the hill behind Price’s Glass and Mirror and was demolished by the Union army of occupation.
There was always a portrait of Gen. Robert E. Lee in the office of Dwight D. Eisenhower, even when he was president of the United States, and in 1960 a New York dentist took him to task, citing the fact that Lee gave his best efforts to defeat the nation from 1861-1865.
In his reply on Aug. 1, 1960, Eisenhower pointed out that secession was at that time an unresolved question and had been debated for 70 years. Lee, the president said, believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of the Southern cause.
Of Lee personally, he wrote that “he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingen-ious, unrelenting, and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God.”
Eisenhower saw Lee “noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history.”
He felt that the youth of America would do well to emulate his qualities, including his painstaking efforts to help heal the nation’s wounds once the war was over.
“From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul,” Eisenhower stated and concluded, “I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.”
The late Sen. Ben Hill of Georgia many years ago capsuled the qualities that make Lee loved and admired:
He was a foe without hate
A friend without treachery
A soldier without cruelty,
And a victim without murmuring.
He was a public official without vices
A private citizen without wrong
A neighbor without reproach
A Christian without hypocrisy,
and a man without guile.
He was Caesar without ambition
Frederick without tyranny,
Napoleon without selfishness,
and Washington without his reward.
There’s a concerted effort in our nation to erase the name of Robert E. Lee from schools named for him, an effort spearheaded by bigots more interested in rewriting history than in supporting education.
Those who seek to defame him aren’t worthy to polish his Vicksburg boots.
Robert E. Lee graduated from West Point at the head of his class and is still one of only six cadets to graduate from West Point without a single demerit.
Unlike Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, General Lee never sanctioned or condoned slavery.
Upon inheriting slaves from his deceased father-in-law, Lee immediately freed them.
Wife’s people trace their heritage to Lee.
I think very highly of Robert E Lee, for reasons listed in this article, and for many others I’ve learned over the years studying the Civil War.
That said, no reason to take a cheap shot at Grant as you do here.
He never owned slaves. He didn’t support slavery.
Bump - before the Yankees invade this thread.
bttt
That must be why the escaping slaves followed his army, and some gave him valuable intelligence.
Grant saw the Mexican American war as unjust, and nothing more than an attempt to expand slave territory. Had did Lee feel about it?
Great article. It makes me proud to have been born at the army hospital at Ft. Lee in Petersburg Virginia. My dad was in the army stationed at Ft. Lee at the time.
I’ll be flying Lee’s flag tomorrow, its my way of saying FU to DC.
Thanks for your article! I’ve always heard good reports on Robert E. Lee, and glad to reconfirm tose reports. A man beyond reproach!
Thanks for the reminder!
Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United State of America. He should have been hanged along with all Confederate officers.
Happy Birthday General Lee.
We need you now!
I have never read anything that suggested US Grant as a slave owner or pro-slavery. Can you point us to your source please?
“Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United State of America. He should have been hanged along with all Confederate officers.”
I would be careful, because as of tomorrow, WE are the ones that will considered traitors to the United State of America.
Looks like it only took 10 posts (aee above #10).
Here it is nearly 144 years since Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The good men who fought in that terrible war died long ago. It amazes me that there are many today who still harbor ill feelings for their own countrymen based upon geography and upon events that occurred generations ago.
It's a shame that all these many years later, some people are still looking for a fight.
Happy Robert E. Lee day, from this Yankee.
The rights of states to act of their own accord in matters that are of the best interests of their citizens was why the United States was built as a federal republic, and why the word “states” is in our nations name.
Sadly we have forgotten that, and an all powerful federal entity has risen from it. Conservatives, like the founders as well as the union leaders who DID NOT hang the confederate officers, appreciated the idea.
You may too in the near future given where we are headed.
Not all (or even most) of you are bad...but you already knew I felt that way.
There are many sources - Just Google US Grant Slave.
Here are a few:
http://www.nas.com/~lopresti/ps.htm
http://www.american-presidents.org/2007/02/grant-was-slave-owner.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant
(footnotes and references provided)
“A civilian at age 32, Grant struggled through seven lean years. From 1854 to 1858 he labored on a family farm near St. Louis, Missouri, using slaves owned by his father-in-law, but it did not prosper. Grant owned one slave (whom he set free in 1859); his wife owned four slaves (two women servants and their two small boys).”
Yes, and if you've ever read these threads on FR, you know they like to "pile on" and spout hateful nonsense about honorable men like General Lee.
The Yankees invaded the South, the South did not invade the Yankees.
And you are a horses ass and should be tar & feathered.
I know they do, and I agree that it is disgraceful. Equally disgraceful is all the yankee bashing and Lincoln hatred that seems to surface every time a Lincoln related thread is posted.
Not all yankees feel that way, some actually are educated.
My comment wasn’t meant as a cheap shot against Grant for being a slave owner (just Google GRANT SLAVE for some references).
Rather, it points out the kind of blind praise and criticism people seem to take for fact, even today with all the factual information, references and resources available. (political correctness?)
Grant - Union General = GOOD MAN
Lee - General of the CSA = BAD MAN
But it’s really not quite that simple.
Common wisdom about people and events isn’t necessarily fact - a lesson we will soon be learning all over again the hard way.
I can understand the feelings against Yankees, though, a lot of us go down there and wreck the character of the South they went there for.
Thank goodness at least 300,000 of those invading Yankee Scum died forcing their will on the South.
The South confiscated federal property and fired the first shot.
When you go out...do our friends were their “I’m with stupid” shirt?
I don't think this is entirely correct. What I've read said that he promised to release them after they fulfilled their "contract" of sorts. And when that time came he did release them. In fact, I believe it was in an article I read here.
They were both honorable men.
Trasvis, you remind me of my neighbor...he’s from Mass. and a Union re-enactor....he has a picture of Grant AND Lee on his wall.
....Happy Birthday Robert E. Lee!!
Stonewalls, whose g-grandfather was at Appomatox with I Company of the 23rd SC Inf and saw Lee....a sight he never forgot.
Bump - before the Yankees invade this thread.
______________________________________
Proud conservative rebel reporting in. Though I was born in Kansas, my Great-great grandfather was from Missouri and fought for the south. He participated in, and survived, campagins including the battle of Helena, Arkansas. This happened during the time of Vicksburg’s fall.
I’ve always admired two Civil War Generals, Lee and Jackson.
That is certainly true in Cary, NC.
She must indeed be a good person then. :)
Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United State of America. He should have been hanged along with all Confederate officers.
__________________________
Yankee troll.
Thanks, I’m pretty sure. Yeah, I’m a Yankee, but I sure do love the people and the way whenever i can get out of this part of the world and head down south. Lots of “please” and “thank you”, and common courtesy i just don’t see every day. And GOOD FOOD! YUM!!
Things are so different, though, inthe last 30 years. Every main street, no matter where it is, pretty much looks identical with all the national chains destroying the local character.
What do you mean specifically?
That I agree with. Indeed when one reads the dispatches and such from the events leading up to the surrender and after, you could see the mutual respect. We should follow that example...
My uncle, a yankee, lives there now, but I'm confident he's more in tune with the locals than he is with his fellow invaders from the north.
There are “Lee” middle names as far back as anyone can remember...
Lee did make some brilliant military moves, but his success was mostly due to the gross incompetence of the Union generals. And Lee’s actions at Gettysburg were just plain stupid. He is not the most over-rated general in history (Macarthur and Montgomery vie for that honor), but he is in the top ten.
He's got to find one first!
A true "local" in Cary would be about as hard to find as a conservative out on the National Mall tomorrow! :)
You would do well to remember that the most hallowed ground is that which is consecrated in defeat.
Ahh, good grief. I have no words for such utter nonsense.
‘Let em up easy’ were Lincoln’s instructions, and Grant’s perfomance at Appromatox exemplified it.
I live in Georgetown Ohio, Grant’s home as a child. Every year we have ‘Grant Days’...which includes a mounted reenactment of ‘the Greatest Raid’ which literally came across our property in July of 1863.
Its held every April, and if you get a chance its worth coming by and seeing it for yourself. Very cool. Local ‘reenactors’ include dead on ‘Grant’ and ‘Lee’ and ‘Lincoln’ wandering around speaking with everybody.
Its a great time.
...Travis come down to Dixie any time you can....and you’re right; it’s character is changing right before our eyes....the North and South got along very well for years after the war....up to about the mid 1960s....ML King and the Civil Rights movement destroyed all that...and it’s getting worse....Obama will be another milestone on the road to the coming civil war which will be even worse than the last one because it will be race war.
Yankee troll.
It’s probably not his fault if he went to a public school in the North.
Garbage in, garbage out.
It is a small consolation prize, since the south didn’t win, but at least more northerners did die in that war.
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