Quote:Lee distinguished himself as an exceptional officer and combat engineer in the United States Army for 32 years before resigning to join the Confederate cause.
This is misleading, and, in fact, it is just plain false. Contemporary Americans will see "combat engineer" as think of someone who builds bridges under fire, or blasts a path through enemy obstructions or defensive positions. For the first 17 years of Lee's career, he worked on harbor fortifications or the navigation of the Mississippi River--things that a modern American would consider the work of a civil engineer. It was not until the Mexican War that he actually had combat experience. Initially, he was made responsible for the transport and logisitcal support of General Wool's troops, before joining the staff of Winfield Scott for the second invasion of Mexico. He and his brother Smith Lee (an officer of the United States Navy) set up the batteries to shell Veracruz, which quickly surrendered. Lee was then made Scott's chief staff engineer.
Even then, modern Americans will likely not understand what his job was. He scouted enemy positions, and found routes for approach marches which would allow the Americans to get close to the Mexicans undetected before attacking. His two most notable forays in the capacity were at Cerro Gordo and finding a path through the Pedegral, an ancient lava fields south of Mexico City. This is not to say that he did not have real, physical courage--no one familiar with his career would ever allege that. But it was not at all the same as Thomas Jackson leading his little section of guns into a hail of Mexican artillery fire, or Ulysses Grant manhandling an artillery piece into a church tower to shell the gates of Mexico City.
After the war, Lee was eventually assigned to the Second Cavalry, established by Congress at the behest of Jefferson Davis, then the Secretary of War. It's officer ranks were filled with southerners whose careers Davis wished to prosper, such as the first commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, as well as Braxton Bragg and Henry Thomas. (Henry Thomas, a Virginian, did not, however, switch his allegiance in 1861--he remained an officer in the United States Army).
The Wikipedia article says:
He became a postwar icon of the South's "lost cause," and is still admired to this day. Note, icon of "the South's 'lost cause' "--that's hardly the same as a military icon. Furthermore, the Wikipedia article whitewashes his attitudes toward slavery. They quote a letter to his wife, and D. S. Freeman's benign account of his attitudes, but they don't quote the letter he wrote to his son about one slave who was constantly running away--Lee advised that his son administer harsh physical punishment in front of the other slaves, and that he then keep that man apart from the other slaves. As well consider Thomas Jackson had a benign attitude toward slavery because he used to send part of his salary to the Negro Sunday School for slaves in Lynchburg, Virginia.
The Wikipedia article is a whitewash of the kind that has kept Lee on his pedestal for the last 140 years, it is just a rehash of the Lee hagiography. I dissent entirely from the view that he was a great military man, and i am personally disgusted by the attempt to whitewash his attitude toward slavery.
Unbelievable . Just what do you know about what I have done ?
