Had Virginia stayed in the Union I’m sure Lee would have been quite willing to lead the Union armies. From his words, it sounds like he would have preferred that to what actually did happen.
“Had Virginia stayed in the Union I’m sure Lee would have been quite willing to lead the Union armies. From his words, it sounds like he would have preferred that to what actually did happen.”
Yes, I’m sure he would have, because his ultimate loyalty was to Virginia. But since his loyalty was to a seceding state, Virginia, above all other loyalties, he took up arms to defend her. And that meant fighting the Union.
He had an agonizingly tough choice to make, just as a couple million other Americans had to make at that time. That’s why a civil war is the worst possible thing that can befall a nation and a people.