Mike Scruggs
January 19 will mark the birthday of one of the most revered military
leaders in American history. In fact, Robert E. Lee remains one of the
most studied and respected military commanders in world history, though
he was ultimately on the losing side.
Robert Edward Lee was born on Stratford Hall plantation in Westmoreland
County, Virginia, in 1807. He was the youngest son of Revolutionary War
hero, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee and Anne Hill Carter. Henry Lee III
was a close military confident of fellow Virginian, George Washington.
He was a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress form 1786 to 1788
and later became the 9th Governor of Virginia from1791 to1794. However,
he lost most of his fortune in the financial panic of 1795-6.
Nevertheless, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in
1799. During his one two-year term he wrote the Congressional tribute to
Washington on his death in 1799: “First in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen,” Continued financial difficulties
resulted in a year in debtors prison in 1809. He spent most of the
rest of his life in the West Indies trying to recover his wealth and
from injuries received while rescuing a friend from mob violence in
1812. He died in 1818 on his way back to Virginia, when young Robert
was only 11-years-old.
In growing up, the young Lee was influenced by his father’s military and
political legacy including his financial humiliation and struggles. He
was also strongly influenced by his mother’ s Biblical teachings and the
character of his father’s friend, George Washington. It was not
surprising that he decided upon a military career and attended the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point. Lee graduated second of the 46 cadets
who graduated in June 1829 and began his career as a Second Lieutenant
assigned to the Engineer Corps. Lee distinguished himself in combat
reconnaissance assignments under General Winfield Scot in the Mexican
War from 1846 to 1848, but his emerging leadership style and
effectiveness became most apparent during his tenure as Superintendent
the U.S Military Academy from 1852 to 1855.
Lee immediately saw the need for tighter academic and discipline
standards at the Academy and undertook a careful study of needed
changes. Then he began to implement them without fanfare. Although Lee’s
outstanding academic performance and strict military bearing had gained
him the nickname “the Marble Man” with his classmates as a cadet, his
leadership style was anything but stiff and overbearing. The Cadet Corps
was only about 200 at the time, and he took a personal interest in
every cadet, especially those who struggled with the strenuous academic
and strict military discipline of the school. Lee had high standards,
but his style was not to push, drive, or threaten. According to his most
celebrated biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman,
“He carried them [the cadets] on his heart, and spent many an anxious
hour debating how he could best train them to be servants of their
country by making them masters of themselves.”
Lee kept a close eye on class reports, and when he perceived that a
cadet was in danger of failing, he watched his standing week by week,
consulted his instructors, and sometimes brought the young man in for a
personal talk. He sometimes wrote letters to parents encouraging them to
encourage disheartened students. When a cadet’s failure seemed
inevitable, he would write the parents encouraging them to let him
resign and thereby save him the humiliation of dismissal.
Later as Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and General-in-Chief
of the Confederate Armies, one of the reasons for Lee’s spectacular
success in motivating Confederate soldiers, who were often badly
outnumbered, out-gunned, and coping with inadequate supplies and
clothing, was that they knew his orders were not given to gain himself
promotion, praise, or personal glory. He had the highest standards of
duty and honor and that included responsibilities to his troops as well
as cause and country.
Here are some quotes from Lee and others that illustrate the general’s “shepherding” style of leadership.
On discipline Lee remarked, “A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.”
“As a general principle, you should not force young men to do their
duty, but let them do it voluntarily and thereby develop their
characters…. Make no needless rules.”—Lee to faculty of Washington
College (now Washington and Lee) while president of the institution
after the war.
“His soldiers reverenced him and had unbounded confidence in him, for he
shared all their privations.”—Recollection of a Confederate officer.
“It was remarkable what confidence the men reposed in General Lee; they
were ready to follow him wherever he might lead, or order them to go.”—a
private in the Army of Northern Virginia.
“When a man makes a mistake, I call him to my tent, talk to him, and use
the authority of my position to make him do the right thing the next
time.”—Lee, advising a subordinate officer.
[After Lee took command]…”the troops improved in appearance…The
discipline became better; they went into battles with shouts and without
being urged, and when in, fought like tigers….A more marked change for
better never was made in any body of men than wrought in his army…”—A
Northern newspaper reporter, 1862.
When told that his chaplains were praying for him daily Lee responded:
“I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation.”
Responding to public praise, Lee said:
“I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I
know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God."
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Robert E. Lee Making Hard Choices
From December 20, 1860, through February 1, 1861, seven Southern states
seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The immediate cause of their secession
was not slavery. There was tension between North and South over slavery,
but Abraham Lincoln and most Northern political leaders were willing to
let it be. The principal Northern objection to slavery was that they
did not want it to spread to new territories or prospective states or to
overflow into Northern states that had already phased out slavery. A
substantial part of this Northern objection to slavery was an antipathy
toward blacks. In fact, Illinois (the President's own state), Indiana,
Ohio, and Oregon had strict laws against blacks entering into their
territories.
The Northern states were tolerant of slavery as long as it was contained
in the South. On February 28 and March 2 of 1861, in order to forestall
or prompt reconsiderations of Southern secessions, the U.S. House of
Representatives and Senate passed by the required two-thirds of its
un-seceded members a prospective Constitutional Amendment (the Corwin
Amendment) that would have forever prohibited any Congressional
legislation that interfered with slavery:
“No Amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or
give power to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any
State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons
held to labor or service by the laws of such State.”
Lincoln endorsed this prospective Amendment in his inaugural speech on
March 4, 1861. The South, however, ignored it. The primary Southern
reason for secession was independence from all Northern economic and
political dominance. Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois actually ratified the
Amendment, but the outbreak and continuation of the war, which was
really a war to prevent Southern independence, essentially dissolved
further interest in ratification.
The immediate causes of Southern secession were an unfair tax system to
be imposed on the South by a Northern Congressional majority and
continuing Northern disregard for the Constitution. Approximately 87
percent of the Federal Tax burden fell on the South in the form of
tariffs on imported goods. The new Morrill Tariff would raise average
tariff rates from 15 percent to 47 percent over the next three years.
Lincoln's number one campaign issue in the 1860 election had been to
pass high-tariff legislation to protect Northern industry from foreign
competition. He thus endorsed the Morrill Tariff in his inaugural speech
and promised to collect it even from seceded states. In addition to the
tax burden, high tariffs severely impacted Southern income from cotton
exports. Hence the South favored free trade or low tariffs, while
politically dominant Northern industry demanded high protective tariffs.
Federal tax revenues also went disproportionately to Northern projects.
After over 40 years of bitter disputes over tariff rates, Southerners
realized that politically dominant Northern commercial interests had no
reservations about trampling the Constitution under foot to advance
their interests regardless of the economic suffering imposed on the
South. Hence Southern States depended upon strict adherence to the
Constitution and States Rights to protect their commercial and political
interests from an unsympathetic Northern majority that aggressively
advanced its interests over that of the nation.
Southern secession would mean a devastating loss of Federal tax revenue
to the Union. Moreover, Southern free trade would ruin Northern
shipping. Foreign trade would shift from high-tariff Northern ports to
low-tariff Southern ports.
On March 29, 1861, Lincoln's Cabinet approved his plan to reinforce Fort
Sumter, although they knew it meant war. Col. Robert E. Lee was already
in route from Texas to Washington for a meeting with U.S. Army
Commandant Winfield Scott, who had been his commander in the Mexican
War. Scott considered Lee the greatest military genius in America. They
met in Washington on April 1 and evidently discussed the possibility of
war--which Scott already knew was in the works.
At 4:30 am on April 12, Confederate batteries encircling Fort Sumter
began to bombard it to prevent its reinforcement and resupply by Union
warships nearing Charleston's defense perimeter. Fort Sumter was forced
to surrender to the Confederates on April 14, but Lincoln never expected
reinforcement and resupply to be accomplished. His real purpose was to
use the Fort Sumter incident to rally the Northern public to support his
planned invasion of the South.
On April 15, Lincoln called on state governors for 75,000 volunteers to
invade the Southern states and put down the “rebellion.” This was the
immediate cause of the war.
On April 18, Francis Preston Blair, acting with Lincoln's authorization,
offered Lee the position of Supreme Commander of the United States Army
and command of nearly 100,000 men.
Lee later described his reaction:
“After listening to his remarks, I declined the offer he made me to take
command of the army that was to be brought into the field; stating as
candidly and as courteously as I could, that, though opposed to
secession and deprecating war, I could take no part in an invasion of
the Southern States.”
As an immediate consequence of Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops to
invade the South, four other states seceded: Virginia, Arkansas,
Tennessee, and North Carolina. In addition, Lincoln had to send troops
to Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland to prevent them from seceding.
Lee resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on April 20, and wrote this brief note to his sister:
With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of
an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise
my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore
resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native
state, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I
hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.”
To his wife, he had already written: “There is no sacrifice I am not
ready to make for the preservation of the Union save that of honor.”
hope that my poor services
may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.”
To his wife, he had already written:
“There is no sacrifice I am not ready to make for the preservation of the Union save that of honor.”
