Leave it to Lee-Jackson Day to bring out the crazies. According to Henry Kidd, Robert E. Lee saved this country by agreeing to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox rather than disband it to fight in a guerrilla war that would have turned this country into something like Bosnia. Perhaps I am mistaken, but wouldn’t a Confederate victory also have led to the fracturing of the United States? So much for Lincoln, Grant, and the Union army playing a role in saving this nation. At some point I was hoping to see the interviewer bust out in uncontrollable laughter in response to such a ridiculous statement. That we live in a society that grants any legitimacy to such a position is all the reason I need to continue to teach.
Robert E. Lee: The Last Best Hope of Earth
Get a Signed Copy of My Book ($25 Direct From Author)
"In this stunning and well-researched book, Kevin Levin catches the new waves of the study of memory, black soldiers, and the darker underside of the Civil War as well as anyone has... Levin is both superb scholar and public historian, showing us a piece of the real war that does now get into the books, as well as into site interpretation."
David Blight, Author of Race and Reunion
Previous post: If Slaves Had Guns
Next post: Family Guy’s Lee Logs
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Apparently Mr. Kidd’s historical novel on the Crater <a href="http://www.henrykiddart.com/novel.htm"includes Silas Chandler. That’s interesting.
Fortunately, I didn’t see Silas in his print of the Crater: http://www.henrykiddart.com/images/RTCWm.jpg
I remember Lee as a rapists, as a torturer, as a kidnapper. His father was a swindler and a thief.
That’s a rather narrow view.
If Lee had not surrendered at Appromatox, all the men under his command would have been killed, with justification, and as the guerrillas sought to hide behind their women’s skirts, they would have mad their women and children into targets. Lee didn’t give up. He was beaten.