All decent southerners are against racism and hate. And all Americans should know that Robert E. Lee deserves a monument in his honor. Some may not be aware of this, but Lee was against secession and slavery. Abraham Lincoln offered Lee Command of the entire Union Army. When Virginia seceded from the union, Lee wrote Lincoln telling him he had to decline his offer and go the way of Virginia or his “Country” as he called it. If anything, he may have been too loyal.
During the war, Lee lost nearly everything, including his home when Arlington was turned into the National Cemetery. Lee did go on to help develop Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. As the war neared its conclusion, Lee’s men – although starving with no fit shoes or clothes – urged him to not surrender out of adoration of the general. Lee could have made it a guerilla war and dragged the conflict on for many more years but wisely chose not to.
After Lee’s surrender, Lincoln was prepared to sign papers reinstating Lee’s citizenship; however, during the turmoil of Lincoln’s assassination and Andrew Johnson taking over as president, the paperwork was lost. In 1970, a law clerk discovered the paperwork and President Ford signed the papers in 1975 reinstating Lee as an American citizen. President Ford stated, “General Lee’s character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.” Let’s respect Ford’s decision and Lincoln’s desire and honor Lee as the American hero he was.
It disgusts me and many other southerners to see the Rebel Flag in the same video as a swastika. The Rebel flag is not about hate or neo-Nazis but represents the heritage of the south which lost 300,000 lives including some 50,000 civilians in the Civil War. The War Between the States proved you cannot strip people of their heritage, not then and not now.
At the Battle of The Wilderness, General Lee raced to the front of the lines on his horse Traveller to lead the rebel charge. His men stopped in their tracks thereby dramatically increasing the chances of their own horrific death. They refused to move and started chanting “Lee to the rear, Lee to the rear” and would not fight until their general had moved to the rear. Few men who have ever walked this earth have had other men willing to die for them, Robert E. Lee was such a man. He is as deserving as any great American to have a monument in his honor.
In a large degree because of Robert E. Lee, I am, have been and always will be proud of my Southern heritage.
– Gene St. Clair
