Mr. Lee

[Wild Bill]

A couple of things: Lee freed his father-in-laws slaves per the old man's will. The fact that he did it by 1862 in spite of the war is rather amazing--Arlington was behind Union lines most of the time. I am uncertain if Lee owned any slaves of his own beyond perhaps a body servant or two. But I am willing to be corrected on this.

Root hog or die was a reference to blacks alone. Read Alex Stephens memoirs or Lerone Bennent, Jr., Forced into Glory. All things considered, however, root hog or die was the way Lincoln himself was brought up as were most frontier families. What he indicates here is that Freedom is the end of national largess, especially economically, although he was tending to favor the black vote as his April 11, 1865 speech showed. In this Lincoln is typical of 19th century America and this attitude is one reason why Reconstruction would fail by 1876. It was instrumental in negating any property awards to ex-slaves from their ex-master's plantations or even abandoned lands. It certainly helped kill the Freedman's Bureau and it economic and political assistance to the freed slaves.

The standard treatment of Lee is still Douglass Southall Freeman's R E Lee. The revisionist view is Alan Nolan, Lee Considered. Any other bios fall somewhere in between these two. I leave out military analyses of Lee in which he ranges between brilliance and being too costly to Confederate manpower. But one cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, huh?

An aside of nonsense, especially for Laurie, Lee was born on Jany 19, Stonewall Jackson on Jany 21, and yours truly on Jany 20. So I admit to quite a bit of prejudice here. Indeed Civil War Times Illustrated used to do "Personality Profiles" on CW people. They did one on Jackson. I cannot admit to his military genius but I sure was a reincarnation of his iron self-discipline and inability or unwillingness to put up with others--A P Hill being the best example. Still makes me shudder. But self-discipline helped me get a PhD that fellow students a lot smarter people could not. Maybe is it because I come from a long line of Prussians, who knows? That's for you, Eva.

Yeah, I will admit to a willingness to tell a lot of people to go to hell, no matter their status in life. It's my most lovable quality. . . .