Posted on 10/01/2010 4:15:03 PM PDT by BigReb555
General Lee died at his home at Lexington, Virginia at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, October 12, 1870.
(Excerpt) Read more at huntingtonnews.net ...
For one thing — Lee didn’t switch sides in the middle of the war.
You beat me, but this Northerner agrees.
Didn’t he play him in Gettysburg?
The progressivist-communist-cryptomarxists have smeared this great man’s name. It is time for him to be rehabilitated.
“He did go to West Point and would have been hung for treason, but for the graciousness of West Pointers.”
No Confederates were charged with treason.
Whatever for? There was no treason committed. Or perhaps you have a document that says otherwise? Something that says secession was unconstitutional perhaps?
I don't know about that but Robert Duvall did portray General Robert E. Lee in Gods and Generals, a film released in 2003.
It all depends on which perspective you want to take. From the British perspective, all of the founding fathers were traitors that should have been hung or imprisoned.
Lee chose to fight not for a still young country, one with a tremendously divisive flaw, but for the land of his birthplace, Virginia. His father fought to overcome tyranny and was a hero.
Lee may not have agreed with all issues of the southern cause but he did choose to fight to help overthrow that which many in the south saw as tyranny against them.
Not only did he go to West Point, he graduated at the top of his class, and he served as superintendent.
Martin Sheen portrayed Lee in Gettysburg
I don’t know what kind of an America we would be living in today if Lee’s efforts had help the South prevail. My ancestors fought for The Army of the Potomac. Still in General Robert E. Lee is proof that men are capable of fighting bravely and skillfully for a wrong cause.
Pretty select group of "best generals": Washington, Lee, Pershing, Patton and Eisenhower, have to be in the top five. Each had strengths, some more so then the others.
Few of them had any glaring weaknesses, Patton being the notable exception.
“Never do a wrong thing to make or keep a friend”
Robert E. Lee
I’ve been to Lexington. Nice little town. Saw the house Lee lived and died in with the stable for Traveller still attached. Unfortunately, couldn’t tour it with the president of the college living there. Nice stuff to visit including Stonewall Jackson’s house and, of course, Stonewall is buried there as well with his stuffed horse Little Sorrel in the VMI museum. Lot of Confederate history in that town. I was able to visit the cottage where General Grant spent the last month of his life finishing his memoirs and died and that is something to see in Wilton, NY on Mt. McGregor if you ever get a chance. Lot of original stuff from Grant there and it’s something to take in what our country went through in that era.
Harry Turtldove wrote a series of books which takes this perspective and treats it seriously.
He goes from the Civil War through WWII with the CSA and the USA fighting a second time, and if memory serves even on opposite sides in WWI.
You can also ask how he’s any different than Washington was to the British.
It was a prequel. Martin Sheen was tied up on the west wing and couldn’t reprise his Lee, and so Duvall stepped in. Good sign for a sequel when a better actor steps in. Not that Sheen is bad, he’s just a bad American, and Duvall is a better actor.
I wouldn’t say Patton had any weaknesses as a field general. What about Grant and Sherman? What about Chesty Puller? But you are right, for the thousands upon thousands of generals this country has had, there are precious few who are memorable.
Very PC put,oilstick.
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