Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee

 
A review of The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee (Forge Books, 2006) by Thomas Fleming
Fleming uses this 2006 fictional courtroom drama to formulate arguments for his 2013 Disease in the Public Mind non-fiction book identifying the causes of the Civil War. The story is set in early June 1865 when Robert E. Lee is secretly tried by a military commission prompted by Assistant War Secretary and former editor of the New York Tribune, Charles Dana. Lincoln is dead. Andrew Johnson is in the early stages of shaping his presidency while Radical Republicans use the trial as one way to work behind the scenes to gain control of the federal government.

As a leading Radical, Dana  insists upon a military tribunal for two reasons.

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