Lee was a fine man and probably the best military mind of his age. It is hard to respect the man judging him from today’s standards. I understand his desire not to take up arms against his own state, Virginia. However, he volunteered to lead the forces against the US in violation of his oath to uphold the US Constitution. Hard to justify.
I doubt that he understood his acts to be in violation of the Constitution. While he understood his cause was lost, it’s likely he believed he was acting in support of the Constitution, and it’s certain he was acting as he saw his duty. That’s not hard to support in any age.
I guess it all depends on how you would view an oath to the Constitution if secession voids that document. Other Virginians like George H. Thomas took the opposite view & stayed with the Union forces thought they were greatly reviled for doing so.
I didn’t post about Lee; I posted about DDE.
I’m with you here. A fine general and a great man but if not for his fateful decision, doubtless many thousands of lives would have been spared.
Difficult time and it probably played hell on is mind. Given what Lee saw was happening politically to the UNITED STATES (his beloved country and state), it was probably not taken lightly in his own mind.
To him Virgina embodied the United States he knew. The historical actuality he believed in was that Virginia was the United States whose soldiers had fought for from the beginning of the the Unions inception.
He believed he was fighting for both. Don't be so hard on Lee or his place in the history of the United States he deeply believed in and fought for. To Lee Virginia and the United States were one in the same.