“Lee, as head of the buffoon army is one of the greatest of Americans. Soldiers the world over study his generalship to this day. So if he was a buffoon, he was OUR buffoon (the big ‘our’ that includes you and me and the rest of America).”
I guess Lincoln thought Lee was a buffoon, as well, which was probably why he had General Scott offer Lee command of all the Union forces. But, Lee believed in the Constitution, and the sanctity of the 10th Amendment, and he declined Scott’s offer, saying he could not take up the sword against his home state of Virginia.
Which is why Lee said he following, "But I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. I hope therefore, that all constitutional means will be exhausted before there is a recourse to force. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will. It was intended for 'perpetual union' so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution, or the consent of all the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not a government by Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the Revolution. . . ."
Lee knew the Southern actions were illegal. But he chose loyalty to state over loyalty to country and when Virginia joined the rebellion, so did he.