 |
| Image from The Daily Beast |
Roots in Ripon
Chuck Roots
27 November 2017
The Ripon Bulletin
It has been said that “if we do not learn from history then we are doomed to repeat it.”
It is my contention that this truism is
uncomfortably accurate. In recent months we have seen the rise of those seeking
to ruin monuments of persons or ideologies they find objectionable and
offensive.
One such person is General Robert E. Lee,
commander of all Confederate Forces during the Civil War of 1861-65. His
statues have been damaged or torn down because he was the military leader of
southern forces during the “War of Northern Aggression”, which is just one of
the many names attributed to the Civil War. But what do we know of this man who
nearly lead the Confederacy to victory over Union forces, often many times
larger than Lee’s?
Robert Edward Lee was the son of Revolutionary
War officer and hero, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee III. Robert graduated in
1829, second of his class at the Military Academy (West Point) behind Charles
Mason, who resigned from the Army a year later. Graduates of the academy were
selected for assignments in the Army based upon their academic standing. Those
who scored lowest were sent to the infantry. The brightest were chosen to be
military engineers. Lee served in the U.S. Army for 29 years, mostly
re-engineering military installations around the country. He even served a time
as the commandant of West Point (1852-59). One of the nicknames attributed to
Lee by his academy classmates was, “The Marble Model” because he so typified
the soldier they all aspired to be.
During the Mexican-American War (1846-48), the
commander of American forces, General Winfield Scott, described Lee in this
manner, “He is the best officer in the
Army.”
There are often numerous ironies during war that
can only truly be appreciated after time and temper has passed.
The First Irony: In 1859 Lee was visiting
Washington, DC when the radical abolitionist, John Brown and his ragtag band of
followers seized control of the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The
War Department asked Lee, a colonel at this point in his career, to take a
detachment of U.S. Marines and recapture the armory. The recapture was
successful. The trial and execution by hanging of John Brown, occurred December
2, 1859. Brown wrote the night before his execution these sobering words, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that
the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had,
as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it
might be done.”
 |
| Author Chuck Roots |
The Second Irony: In April 1861 Lee turned down
the offer to command the Union Army. The person who had the authority to offer
such a command was none other than General Winfield Scott! Lee told his old
mentor, “I am a Virginian first.”
Allegiance to one’s state often superseded national loyalty. Lee did not
support secession and firmly believed that his home state of Virginia would
choose to stay with the Union. When this did not happen, he felt his loyalty
was to Virginia, though it grieved him greatly. It also brought about the split
in Virginia, creating the new state of West Virginia because the sentiments of
the majority of the folks living in that part of Virginia were for the Union.
The Third Irony: Colonel Lee resigned his
commission from the U.S. Army two days after he was offered command of the
Union Army and three days after Virginia seceded from the Union. He spoke with
General Scott on April 18, 1861, explaining his decision. He said he would have
resigned his commission already “but for
the struggle it has cost me to separate myself from a service to which I have
devoted the best years of my life and all the ability I possess.” His final
comment to Scott was, “Save in the
defense of my native State (Virginia), I never desire again to draw my sword.”
The Fourth Irony: After the war was over Robert
E. Lee opposed the construction of public memorials to Confederate rebellion on
the grounds that they would prevent the healing of wounds inflicted during the
war.
The Final Irony: Following the close of the Civil
War in 1865, Lee accepted the offer to be president of Washington College (now
Washington and Lee University) serving in that capacity until his death in
1870. Lee did not suffer the indignities of arrest and imprisonment so often
suffered by enemy combatants. However, his family home, the Custis-Lee Mansion,
had been seized by Union forces during the war and was eventually turned into
Arlington National Cemetery.
And the reason for the article’s title, “The King
of Spades”? Well, when Lee assumed command of the Confederate Army, he put his
military engineering into practice, requiring his men to take their shovels
(spades) for digging earthworks, fortifications, and entrenchments in
preparation for battle. The Daily Herald, Feb 16, 2014 states that, “General Ulysses S. Grant learned the hard
way that if he gave Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia just six uninterrupted
hours head start that they would have field fortifications built that were
suicide for Union troops to attack. Grant attacked them anyway, and the
butcher’s bill was catastrophic for the Yankees.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
The South Central Bulldog reserves the right to reject any comment for any reason, without explanation.