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He was an impressive man, but did have a splendid uniform on. He would have done better to have kept his oath and remained true to the US government.

It is said he was the best commander the Marines ever had.

He hope he was able to find peace afterwards. What sad times they were.

Are you referring to the time Lee and Jeb Stuart took the train from Washington to Harpers Ferry to relieve the occupation of the armory and free the hostages taken by John Brown? I have often posted that our presidents should take note of Lee's decisive handling of that situation. He sent Jeb Stuart to the door with instructions to deliver an ultimatum to John Brown to surrender at once but Stewart was not to negotiate. If John Brown started to filibuster, Jeb Stuart was to stand aside and waive his hat whereupon the contingent of Marines, whose muskets had been unloaded to avoid injury to the captives, would storm the armory. This is what occurred and, if memory serves, one captive was lost. Robert E. Lee certainly commanded the Marines well on that occasion.

The terrorist John Brown was subsequently hanged and justice was done.

As to the observation that Lee, "would have done better to have kept his oath and remained true to the US government", that is a judgment that is made after a century and a half of perspective. It is clear that all his life Lee regarded his choice to have been the moral choice. I think that we have to judge historical characters upon the knowledge that they had or which was reasonably available to them. Judging by this standard, I will not substitute my judgment for his when he declined the union' s offer of command of their forces and to retire to his home state and not to draw his sword except in the defense of Virginia.

If I recall correctly, there were two "Lee to the rear" incidents where he exposed himself to peril in front of his troops to rally them in the dark days of 1864 when the weight of numbers was simply debriding his forces through a pitilessly imposed attrition. The quoted words were of his troops promising they would plug the hole if he would personally withdraw to the rear and get out of harm's way. These incidents lead me to believe that he was wholly committed to the cause during the war.

Although he behaved as a model citizen of the Union after the war, his reticence about the war was rarely broken, but a couple of remarks seem to indicate a deep regret that the cause was lost. Certainly he remained nostalgically fond of his officers and men to the end of his life.

Was it immoral for Lee to have decided that the larger moral commitment was to his state rather than his country? Clearly, within his culture his choice was the statistically normal one and a fully rational one.

Don, you’re making a “presentist” judgment against Lee. In the context of his time, Lee was remaining loyal to his country-—Virginia. The ‘United States’ did not become a singular terms until 1865.