A Genuine Hero

Reprinted from NewsMax.com ^ | Monday, Dec. 31, 2001 | Calvin E. Johnson Jr.

[vannrox]

I thought that this was a very good read.

[Restorer]

At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Lee was offered a command in the Union Army but turned it down when his home state of Virginia was invaded.

Chronologically incorrect. Lee resigned from the Union Army after VA seceded, but well before it was "invaded."

[HiJinx]

as did his father, Lighthorse Harry Lee in the American Revolution

I agree, this is a very good read, but...
There is something like an 80-year span between the Revolution and the Civil War.
Are we sure Harry Lee is Rob't. E.'s father? (I'm ignorant on this point, if he is, I apologize...)

[Crustacean]

What exactly is heroic about killing fellow Americans for the right to enslave a race of people stolen from their homeland?

[Redleg Duke]

"What exactly is heroic about killing fellow Americans for the right to enslave a race of people stolen from their homeland?"

You might try studying history rather than just reading someone's revision to fit their perpetual victimhood.

And before you launch into your attack on Southern Rednecks, I am from Wisconsin and now live in New Hampshire.

[vin-one]

What, are you talking about, if it is the war between the states, you must have gone to public
schools if at all. Lee was a great man, he did not agree with slavery
but felt states rights were greater than federal government. Go study some real history for a change.

[Crustacean]

"Lee was a great man, he did not agree with slavery." And yet he led his men to slaughter fighting for a state's right to determine something that he did not agree with. How principled! What a true hero!

[satan]

Not stolen, bought and paid for!

[aomagrat]

Robert E. Lee Bump!

[sheltonmac]

"'Lee was a great man, he did not agree with slavery.' And yet he led his men to slaughter fighting for a state's right to determine something that he did not agree with. How principled! What a true hero!"
--Crustacean

Tsk, tsk, tsk! Some people never learn.

BUMP!

[shuckmaster]

Thanks for the ping!

BTW, are you on my newsletter mailing list?

[been_lurking]

And yet he led his men to slaughter fighting for a state's right to determine something that he did not agree with.

Much like my support your own right to free speech (no matter how little I care for what you have to say.)

I can't be held personally responsible for how you choose to exercise that right.

[billbears]

a man who loved God, loved his family, was a man of honor and virtue and a man of his word.

That right there makes him a hero in my book and men like this have not been seen in United States government for a long, long time.

[Leesylvanian]

Light-Horse Harry is the father of General Rob't. E. Lee. He was born at Leesylvania plantation in Prince William County, Virginia, in 1756, and was still a teenager when he joined the Revolution where he became a controversial war hero.

However, he left the country to go to the Barbados around 1812 in order to restore his health (after being beaten by a mob in Baltimore while trying to defend an editor friend's right to publish anti-war articles) and possibly to escape creditors as well. He left his wife and young children behind in Alexandria, Virginia, so young Robert didn't have much contact with him.

In 1818 he decided to return to see his family after realizing his health wasn't improving. Along the way he took a turn for the worse and asked the ship's captain to put in off the coast of Georgia. Ironically, he found himself at the home of his former comrade-in-arms, the late General Greene of Revolutionary War fame, where he died.

Ironically, during the Civil War, RE Lee ordered cannon batteries to be built along the Potomac River. One of these batteries was located on his father's birthplace.

[Frank Grimes]

After the war Lee took the presidency of Washington College, which eventually became Washington and Lee University, and helped the school come out of some very hard times. The university ranks among the best today.

This is My Cousin

[Lloyd227]

"...And yet he led his men to slaughter fighting for a state's right to determine something that he did not agree with."

Exactly!

The alternative to this would imply that a state has only those rights that you would agree with? how principled would that be?

This seems to be pretty close to the idea that I would defend to the death YOUR right to espouse wrong ideas. I may not agree with you, but I'll defend your right to be wrong.

[Crustacean]

As much as I appreciate your defense of my right to speak freely, it is simply inhuman to compare this philosophical arguement to the defense a state's right to allow something as morally reprehensible as slavery.

[goodieD]

Thank you for this post. General Lee was a shining example of manhood, a role model indeed.

[Aurelius]

"...it is simply inhuman to compare this philosophical arguement to the defense a state's right to allow something as morally reprehensible as slavery.

Lee was not defending state's rights to practise slavery, as you insist on saying. He was defending state's rights, period. Why can't you understand the distinction?

Slavery may have been reprehensible, but the fact that it was practised in the southern states did not make those states ineligible to enjoy their natural rights.