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Title: Robert E Lee himself was opposed to Confederate Monuments
Source:
Business Insider
URL Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/robe ... d-confederate-monuments-2017-8
Published: Aug 16, 2017
Author: Daniel Brown
Post Date: 2017-08-16 18:30:42 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 4768
Comments: 26
The violence that erupted in Charlottesville over the weekend, which left one woman killed and dozens more injured, stemmed from a white nationalist and alt-right protest over the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Debates about the removal of Confederate statues have been ongoing for many years, and opponents of removing the monuments often decry such attempts as an attempt to erase history. In light of all this, it's probably best to remember one relevant historical fact: Robert E. Lee was opposed to Confederate monuments. “It’s often forgotten that Lee himself, after the Civil War, opposed monuments, specifically Confederate war monuments,” Jonathan Horn, a Lee biographer, told PBS. After the Civil War, Lee received a number of letters requesting support for the erection of Confederate memorials, according to Horn. In June 1866, he wrote that he couldn't support a monument of one of his best generals, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, saying it wasn't "feasible at this time." "As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated," Lee wrote in December 1866 about another proposed Confederate monument, "my conviction is, that however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt in the present condition of the Country, would have the effect of retarding, instead of accelerating its accomplishment; [and] of continuing, if not adding to, the difficulties under which the Southern people labour." Not only was Lee opposed to Confederate memorials, "he favored erasing battlefields from the landscape altogether," Horn wrote. He even supported getting rid of the Confederate flag after the Civil War ended, and didn't want them them flying above Washington College, which he was president of after the war. "Lee did not want such divisive symbols following him to the grave," Horn wrote. "At his funeral in 1870, flags were notably absent from the procession. Former Confederate soldiers marching did not don their old military uniforms, and neither did the body they buried." “His Confederate uniform would have been ‘treason’ perhaps!” Lee’s daughter wrote, according to Horn. "Lee believed countries that erased visible signs of civil war recovered from conflicts quicker,” Horn told PBS. “He was worried that by keeping these symbols alive, it would keep the divisions alive." Poster Comment: It's understandable that he didn't want any shameful reminders that he was a LOSER.
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#5. To: Willie Green (#0)
(Edited)
A LOSER? That is as uncharitable as it is untrue. Robert E. Lee justly deserves the warm regard in which he has been held for nearly a century and a half by citizens on both sides of the old Mason-Dixon line. He was a man of principle who did what he did out of a deep sense of duty. He was the most effective commanding general of the war on either side. He made errors, of course - all commanders do - but the errors he made were in daring great things, to try and win what was essentially an unwinnable war. The South was overwhelmed in the end by the superior manpower, industrial power and economic power of the North, and by its own intrinsic contradictions, but none of that can be laid at the feet of Robert E. Lee. He did as well as any American general could under the circumstances he was presented, and bested every Union commander thrown at him until Grant. In defeat, Lee made the wise choice for all of the people of America - to NOT continue the war as a guerrilla, to accept that it was over and lay down arms peacefully in surrender, and then to seek to repair the country to the extent that it could be done. Robert E. Lee was no loser. He was the embodiment of the greatest and noblest aspects of the American character. His Cause was wrong, but he believed it his duty to fight for his country. Lee does not deserve to be vilified and insulted any more than Grant does. They were military men, doing their duty, and because they were both very good at it, unfortunately the war was prolonged and the bloodshed was terrible. Neither was the cause of the war, neither wanted the war, neither enjoyed fighting it, both thought - correctly - that it was an utter tragedy. Each did his duty. Each did what he believed he had to do. Each did it well. And they both deserve the honor that is due to American fighting men who do their duty in the face of death and destruction. Lee's character is one of the key reasons that the Civil War is in the history books, finished in 1865. If Lee had been an aggressive, fanatical, mean-spirited bastard he COULD HAVE done what Bedford Forrest sought to do - break up his army and fight an ongoing guerrilla war. Then there would have never been peace, just as there was no peace in Ireland for centuries. BECAUSE Lee was a man of honor, that didn't happen. He saw that the war could not be won, he surrendered with dignity to spare his men, and he spent the rest of his life holding the stance that the peace must be respected and restored. That "loser", as you call him, is a key reason that the fight was really OVER in 1865, and we haven't had the misery of ongoing low-level civil war ever since. Character matters, and the character of Lee mattered a great deal - probably more than any other single man - for the ultimately peaceful post-war settlement. He COULD have poured oil on the fire and prolonged the agony for years. Instead, he retired and urged peace and reconciliation. If only the whole country were filled with such "losers", what a great country we would have. I am so Northern that I should live on a glacier, but even I have the greatest respect for General Robert E. Lee, because he EARNED it. You should not call him a loser. It's not right. There were plenty of other Confederate generals, and even more Union generals, who deserve that title. Lee does not. I can understand why blacks will always oppose Confederate monuments. That is their right. Statues to Bedford Forrest and the Ku Klux Klan are not honorable. But it is not honorable either to pull down statues of Robert E. Lee. He WAS honorable, and we all would do very well to emulate him. No, I don't like it at all when people pick on Robert E. Lee. I don't look up to many men. I DO look up to him, and that's saying something given my "Burn them to the ground" attitude about slavery.
Good analysis of Lee.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestIt's understandable that he didn't want any shameful reminders that he was a LOSER.
#6. To: Vicomte13 (#5)
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