19 Jan 2022

Robert R. Lee’s Birthday


January 19, 1807 — October 12, 1870.

“As distinguished for felicitous execution as for science and daring.”
–Gen. Winfield Scott, 1847.

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“I cannot in justice omit to notice the valuable services of Captain Lee of the engineer corps, whose distinguished merit and gallantry deserves the highest praise”

— Gen. Gideon Pillow, 1847.

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“He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.”

–Benjamin Harvey Hill (former Confederate Senator from Georgia), 1874.

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“He had a calm and collected air about him, his voice was kind and tender, and his eye was as gentle as a dove’s. His whole make-up of form and person, looks and manner had a kind of gentle and soothing magnetism about it that drew every one to him and made them love, respect, and honor him.”

–Samuel R. Watkins, veteran of 1st Tennessee Regiment, 1881.

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“He possessed my unqualified confidence, both as a soldier and a patriot.”

–Jefferson Davis, 1881

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“There is as much instruction both in strategy and in tactics to be gleaned from General Lee’s operations of 1862 as there is to be found in Napoleon’s campaigns of 1796.”

–General Garnet Wolseley, date unknown.

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4 Feedbacks on "Robert R. Lee’s Birthday"

OneGuy

I graduated HS in 1961. Back then we had real classes, learned things and the teaching was much better quality than we see today. Every year in school American history started with the civil war. Too bad I learned a lot about the civil war but not so much about other things. Since I lived in greater Boston the civil war was taught from the point of view of the Yankees. It was some years later that I heard other sides.

I dislike seeing Southern sympathizers who constantly try to rewrite the history of that era and I think they do themselves and the South a disservice. One point is that it doesn’t make them or the Southern cause look better by trying to make Lincoln look terrible.

But to my point; having lived in Mississippi and worked with many Southerners I came around to understanding that probably 95% or more of Southerners did not own slaves but were motivated by a federal government that was using the South to make certain businessmen in the North rich. I think that is well known and irrefutable. Most Southerners felt like the government left them in favor of another group (kinda like what we have seen in the last year or so).

Robert E. Lee was as good a man as anyone alive at that time. He was motivated by sympathy to his people and facts that he had no control over. He did a superb job against staggering odds but the fight was doomed from day one. I would celebrate his birthday and I would celebrate Grant’s birthday too



A. Squaretail

The point missed by the Lee haters of the left is that humans have good and bad traits. They are right about some things and wrong about others. I’m not a fan of Lee’s since I find his strategies and tactics wasteful of the lives of his men and his racial views repulsive. At the same time, I can recognize that he was a man of his times facing difficult decisions. He did what he thought was the right and honorable thing and rebelled (or stayed loyal to his state depending on your perspective). However, the fact that he had good and honorable traits coexisting with his racism and rebellion is an important lesson that many could profit from today. Unfortunately, today’s image conscious, virtue signaling politicians and activists are making sure that such lessons are not taught because actual, complicated historical analysis isn’t good for their agendas, careers and wallets. Only simplified twaddle lines their pockets. So, the do what they can to keep people from understanding our complex history.



Jim Walker

The only opinion of Robert E. Lee that ever mattered then and still remains as strong and solid as the statue’s of Lee that have torn down by leftist, Marxist supporters of BLM and Antifan’s. That opinion is that of the men that followed General Lee into every battle of the war. The rest of you can kiss Traveler’s rump.



McChuck

An honorable opponent, not an enemy.



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