(Georgia) House proclaims 2007 the Year of Robert E. Lee

Savannah ^ | January 25, 2007 | Walter C. Jones

[FoxInSocks]

A few who share Robert E. Lee's birthday: James Watt, Edgar Allen Poe, Paul Cezanne, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, and I.

[groanup]

Perhaps America's most over-rated general.

Sniping is cheap, unless you are Free Republic's most overrated poster. Please expound.

[stainlessbanner]

Lee graduated from West Point w/out a single demerit.

Name another General who has done that.

[Rte66]

The Bonnie Blue Flag

We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil;
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far--
"Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!"

CHORUS:

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers
Both kind were we and just;
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

(CHORUS)

First gallant South Carolina
Nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama,
Who took her by the hand.
Next quickly Mississippi,
Georgia and Florida
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

(CHORUS)

Ye men of valor, gather round
The banner of the right;
Texas and fair Louisiana
Join us in the fight.
Davis, our loved president,
And Stephens statesmen are;
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

(CHORUS)

And here's to old Virginia--
The Old Dominion State--
Who with the young Confederacy
At length has linked her fate;
Impelled by her example,
Now other states prepare
To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

(CHORUS)

Then cheer, boys, cheer;
Raise the joyous shout,
For Arkansas and North Carolina
Now have both gone out;
And let another rousing cheer
For Tennessee be given,
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag
Has grown to be eleven.

(CHORUS)

Then here's to our Confederacy,
Strong are we and brave;
Like patriots of old we'll fight
Our heritage to save.
And rather than submit to shame,
To die we would prefer;
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

--By Harry McCarthy (d. 1874)

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Perhaps America's most over-rated general.

On what basis would you say that?

[DieHard the Hunter]

> A few who share Robert E. Lee's birthday: James Watt, Edgar Allen Poe, Paul Cezanne, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, and I.

Happy Birthday!

[relee]

Happy 200th, General!

[derllak]

My son shares his birthday as well. Lee was a wonderful, respectable human being. One of the few people in history I would have loved to have known.
Happy belated birthday to you! :)

[RobbyS]

If Lee had not decided to surrender his army to Grant, had instead allowed them to disperse into the hills, then Johnston and Forrest Bedford and the generals to the west of the Mississippi would have done the same. There would have been guerilla war for the next ten years. Instead of one Qauntrell, there would have been hundreds, and most would have likewise been bandits. The Federals would have had to maintain a large army in the field, and the whole development of the country would have taken a different course.

[04-Bravo]

I have the four-volume biography of R.E. Lee written by Douglas Southall Freeman. I'll read it again this year in honor of General Lee's 200th birthday.

[StoneWall Brigade]

Great News!

[RobbyS]

In two years we will be celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday.

[therut]

Good looking man. High cheek bones. A real man like this is getting hard to find. Sigh. A good,honest man of his word. A true man who knew loyality and the meaning of DUTY.

[CheyennePress]

Lee was soundly an abolitionist, even though he is often portrayed as the devil, it's quite evident that he was the opposite:

"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. .... Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity than from the storm and tempest of fiery controversy."

[FoxInSocks]

Thank you, thank you. :-)

[inkling]

Lee graduated from West Point w/out a single demerit. Name another General who has done that.

What on EARTH does that have to do with being a good general?

[DieHard the Hunter]

> What on EARTH does that have to do with being a good general?

I guess we are still waiting to hear your thesis on why you think he was over-rated. Me, I think graduating from West Point with no demerits was certainly a good start...

[stainlessbanner]

wrong thread to pull this stuff on pal.

[inkling]

I say that Lee is over-rated because, like MacArthur, he cut a romantic figure of what a general should be. Patton and Sherman just got the damn job done.

Lee would have been a great general in the Revolutionary War. However, the Civil War was an entirely different world. It was the fulcrum between pre- and post-industrial wars. Grant knew how to exploit the technology of the day while Lee was stuck in the dusty textbooks of West Point.

I'm not saying Lee was a bad guy nor a bad general. I would have preferred his company (and his command) to any of the others I've mentioned above. But I judge generals on winning wars, not on personal characteristics, however admirable.