LEE'S LESSON LOST
April 9, 1865. The war was over. Robert E. Lee had every reason to resent the North. Not only had he just been forced to give up his army, but his fortune was ruined, his beloved home Arlington confiscated forever, his profession closed to him. For forty years he had been a soldier; now he was a private citizen again, or, technically, a paroled prisoner of war, threatened with a trial for treason.
While other former Confederates prepared to flee to Egypt, Russia, Central and South America and elsewhere, Lee rejected the notion of fleeing the country or devoting himself to justifying the South’s actions. Lee instantly set himself to the restoration of peace in the South, to reconciliation, and to healing. He advised his soldiers to go home and be loyal citizens and proceeded to follow his own advice.
On his journey from Appomattox to Richmond, Lee told his staff officers to remain at their homes and to find some sort of employment, even if it differed from their former professions. He charged them to "promote harmony and good feeling" and to "qualify themselves to vote." Lee, deciding that he should "set an example by making formal submission to the Civil Authorities," complied with all the numerous Federal requirements and applied for pardon--although the government misplaced his oath of allegiance, and he was not granted citizenship during his life. Thousands of Southerners applied for pardon more successfully, following General Lee in peace as they had in war.
Because of their high esteem for Lee, veterans of the Confederate armies came to him for advice or were guided by his example, as in the case of a young Captain Wise. The new Northern regulation that required each Southerner to take an oath of allegiance to the United States before being granted a pardon had vexed Wise, so he came to speak with Lee. Lee revealed that he himself had recently sworn allegiance, and quietly remarked that Virginia needed her young men. Wise took the oath. His father, a general and former governor of Virginia, berated him for this action until the captain disclosed that he had acted on Lee’s advice. General Wise instantly retracted his objections, stating, "Whatever General Lee says is all right."
Mrs. Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, a minister's wife, expressed the same idea in her journal. "…We ought to feel that whatever General Lee and the President deem right for the cause must be right…" Other anecdotes and journal entries from the period confirm that Lee’s prestige and influence for peace surpassed those of any other Southerners, including Jefferson Davis.
Even Northerners recognized Lee’s influence. General Grant believed that "there was not a man in the Confederacy whose influence with the soldiery and the whole people was as great as [Lee’s]." Therefore, when Lee decided that he should "set an example by making formal submission to the Civil Authorities," that example was likely to be followed. After all, as a Marylander pointed out, "It was the general belief in all the Southern States, as expressed by the students therefrom, that the example of General Lee would weigh far more in the restoration of normal conditions and true peace than any other factor in a war-torn country."
Lee turned to a career in education taking employment at Washington College. He wrote to one of his sons, "I accepted the presidency of the college in the hope that I might be of some service to the country, and the rising generation, and not from any preference of my own." Shortly after accepting the presidency, he declared his purpose: "I have a self-imposed task which I must accomplish. I have led the young men of the South in battle; I have seen many of them fall under my standard. I shall devote my life now to training young men to do their duty in life."
Lee had expressed his view of this duty many times in his letters and in his conversations. In writing to a former governor of Virginia, he declared, "...The duty of [the South’s] citizens, then, appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of the war and to restore the blessing of peace." He repeated this same sentiment in many letters, and his son later wrote that Lee had "repeatedly" given "similar advice" to other Southerners, friends and strangers alike. Now he faced the difficult task of instilling the same understanding of duty into former Confederate soldiers and angry young Southern gentlemen.
Lee still found time to persuade those he met to forgive and forget the injuries done to them by the North. "His whole soul was engaged in the work of reconstruction, and he lost no opportunity to promote it socially," as one young friend wrote.
Lee gently advised a soldier’s widow who had been showing animosity toward the government, "Madam, do not train up your children in hostility to the Government of the United States. Remember that we are one country now. Dismiss from your mind all sectional feeling, and bring them up to be Americans."
Much to the astonishment of his fellow Southerners, Lee always made a point of being courteous to any Northerners or Union sympathizers that he met. On one occasion he called a Northern veteran "one of our old soldiers," insisting that the South should not bear a grudge against those who had fought on the other side. The veteran in question soon afterward called Lee "the noblest man that ever lived," adding that Lee "not only had a kind word for an old soldier who had fought against him, but he gave me some money to help me on my way."
Lee carried his policy of conciliation into the public as well. At White Sulphur resort, he went out of his way to befriend a group of "Yankees" whom the rest of his company were shunning. On this occasion he also offered a suggestion to a young lady acquaintance, saying to her, "Tell [your friends at home] from me that it is unworthy of them … to cherish feelings of resentment against the North. Tell them that it grieves me inexpressibly to know that such a state of things exists, and that I implore them to do their part to heal our country’s wounds."
Lee refused to allow feelings of racial superiority or wounded pride to interfere with his pursuit of reconciliation. One oft-repeated anecdote of Lee’s post-war conduct demonstrates his willingness to accept the former slaves as equals in the eyes of God. One Sunday morning shortly after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lee attended services at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. As the minister, Dr. Charles Minnegerode, delivered the invitation for the congregation to come forward to receive communion, "a Negro in the church arose and advanced to the communion table." As he knelt at the rail, the startled congregation retained their seats in "solemn silence." "Gen. Robert E. Lee … arose in his usual dignified and self-possessed manner, walked up the aisle to the chancel rail, and reverently knelt down to partake of the communion, and not far from the Negro." The other Southerners in the congregation followed Lee -- as they would continue to do throughout Reconstruction. This incident is still recounted to the incoming students at the college over which Lee presided.
At Lee's death even Northern newspapers paid him tribute. The New York Herald declared:
From the hour that he surrendered his sword at Appomattox … [he displayed] neither bitterness nor regret over the irrevocable past. He conquered us [the North] in misfortune by the grand manner in which he sustained himself, even as he dazzled us by his genius when the tramp of his soldiers resounded through the valleys of Virginia …. As a slaveholder he was beloved by his slaves for his kindness and consideration toward them…. it is doubtful if there are many men of the present generation who unite so many virtues and so few vices in each of themselves as did General Lee. He came nearer the ideal of a soldier and Christian general than any man we can think of…
Modern leaders of the SCV preach neo-secessionism and political activism. They tend to forget their primary mission to honor the memory of the Confederate veteran in a reunited country. What a shame that Lee's lesson has been lost on the current generation of leaders of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.