by Ty Seidule
75. Steve Longenecker, Gettysburg Religion: Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014), 139.
76. Smith, “Race and Retaliation,” 145–48.
77. Ibid., 146–47.
78. Hilary Green, “The Persistence of Memory: African Americans and Transitional Justice Efforts in Franklin County, Pennsylvania,” in Reconciliation after Civil Wars: Global Perspectives, eds. Paul Quigley and James Howdon (London: Routledge, 2019), 132–149.
79. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates; Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army, 306–9.
80. Lee to Andrew Hunter, Jan. 7, 1865, published as “General Lee’s Views on Enlisting the Negroes,” Century Magazine, Aug. 1888, in Encyclopedia Virginia, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/_General_Lee_s_Views_on_Enlisting_the_Negroes_Century_Magazine_August_1888; Gallagher, Becoming Confederates, 24–25.
81. Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army, 452–53.
82. Lee to Andrew Hunter, Jan. 7, 1865.
83. Ibid.; Gallagher, Becoming Confederates, 24–25.
84. Cobb to Seddon, Jan. 8, 1865, in Loewen and Sebesta, Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader, 221–22.
85. Levin, Searching for Black Confederates, 3.
86. Frederick Douglass, “Unknown Loyal Dead” (Decoration Day speech, 1871), in The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself (Hartford, Conn.: Park, 1881), 423.
87. Philip H. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan, vol. II (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1888), 180.
88. Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army, 461–62; Elizabeth Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 14–15.
89. Varon, Appomattox, 61.
90. “The Lieut.-General to Our Armies,” New York Times, June 5, 1865.
91. Varon, Appomattox, 2.
92. Mitchell, Gone With the Wind, 111.
93. Varon, Appomattox, 2–8.
94. Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army, 470; John J. Mearsheimer, “Assessing the 3:1 Rule and Its Critics,” International Security 13, no. 4 (Spring 1989): 54–89.
95. Varon, Appomattox, 95.
96. Ibid., 70–71.
97. Freeman, Robert E. Lee, 4:219.
98. Pryor, Reading the Man, 430.
99. Robert E. Lee Jr., Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (New York: Doubleday, 1904), 183.
100. John Reeves called this decision Lee’s finest hour. John Reeves, The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case Against an American Icon (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), 94.
101. Ibid., 94–95.
102. “Gen. Lee Takes the Amnesty Oath,” New York Times, Oct. 17, 1865.
103. Pryor, Reading the Man, 449.
104. Ibid., 456.
105. Ibid., 458.
106. Ibid., 431.
107. Robert E. Lee’s Testimony before Congress (Feb. 17, 1866), Encyclopedia Virginia, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Robert_E_Lee_s_Testimony_before_Congress_February_17_1866.
108. Robert E. Lee to Robert E. Lee Jr., March 12, 1868, in Encyclopedia Virginia, www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Letter_from_Robert_E_Lee_to_Robert_E_Lee_Jr_March_12_1868.
109. White Sulphur Springs Manifesto, Aug. 26, 1868, Staunton Spectator, Sept. 8, 1868.
110. Pryor, Reading the Man, 454–59.
111. John M. McClure, “Men in the Middle: Freemen’s Bureau Agents in Lexington, Virginia, 1865–1869” (master’s thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1998), 4; John M. McClure, “The Freedmen’s Bureau School in Lexington Versus ‘General Lee’s Boys,’” in Wallenstein and Wyatt-Brown, Virginia’s Civil War, 195–97.
112. Emory Thomas, Robert E. Lee. A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), 383.
113. McClure, “Men in the Middle,” 30; Pryor, Reading the Man, 455.
114. Constitution of the Confederate States, March 11, 1861, Article I, Section 9.1, Avalon Project, Yale Law School, avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp; A Century of Population Growth: From the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1970).
115. Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (New York: Miller, Orton, and Mulligan, 1855), 436.
116. W. E. B. Du Bois, “Robert E. Lee,” Crisis, March 1928, 1222.
117. “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy,” Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy; W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (New York: Free Press, 1998), 711–14; Domby, The False Cause, 46–75.
118. “Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States,” Census.gov; Ethan J. Kyle and Blain Roberts, Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy (New York: The New Press, 2018).
119. Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler, “The Costs of the Confederacy,” Smithsonian Magazine, Dec. 2018; Kathleen Tipler et al., “93% of Confederate Monuments Are Still Standing. Here’s Why,” Washington Post, Dec. 16, 2019.
120. Patricia Coggins, “Loudoun County History Curriculum,” 2019; Mechelle Hankerson, “A Governor-Appointed Commission Begins Work on Improving Black History Education in Virginia,” Virginia Mercury, Oct. 29, 2019.
EPILOGUE: A SOUTHERN SOLDIER CONFRONTS THE LOST CAUSE IN THE SHRINE OF THE SOUTH
1. Early, “Campaigns of Gen. Robert E. Lee.”
2. Gallagher, Becoming Confederates, 87.
3. The Virginia Flaggers (blog), vaflaggers.blogspot.com/; Cox, Lee Chapel at 150, 234–35.
4. Christian Zapata, “Virginia Senate Votes to Remove Lee-Jackson Day, Make Election Day State Holiday,” WAMU 88.5, January 22, 2020; Southern Poverty Law Center Data, www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy.
5. Virginia Flaggers (blog).
6. Travis Tritten, “Viral Video About Civil War’s Cause Puts West Point Close to Right-Wing Group,” Stars and Stripes, Aug. 12, 2015; Richard Kreitner, “Stop Turning the End of Slavery into Army Propaganda,” Nation, Aug. 12, 2015.
7. “Celebrating 30 Years of ‘Fresh Air’: Pulitzer Prize–Winning Novelist John Updike,” Aug. 30, 2017; originally aired in 1989.
8. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, “Remarks at the U.S. Military Academy Graduation and Commissioning,” West Point, N.Y., May 27, 2017. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Speeches/Speech/Article/1196942/us-military-academy-graduation-and-commissioning/.
9. “Report of the Commission on Institutional History and Community, May 2, 2018.” my.wlu.edu/presidents-office/issues-and-initiatives/institutional-history/response-to-the-report-of-the-commission-on-institutional-history-and-community/report-of-the-commission-on-institutional-history—x22393-ml.
10. Alumni started the Generals Redoubt, with a mission “to prevent further retreat from the University’s history, values, and tradition; protect revered campus buildings; and continue to honor the magnificent contributions of its Founders,” www.thegeneralsredoubt.us/.
11. Vernon Freeman, Jr., “Virginia lawmakers approve bills that would allow localities to remove Confederate monuments,” WTVR, February 11, 2020 www.wtvr.com/news/virginia-politics/bill-giving-localities-control-over-confederate-monuments-passes-virginia-senate; Sarah Rankin, “Northam signs bills on monuments, LGBTQ protections,” Washington Post, April 11, 2020.
12. Blight, Race and Reunion, 4.
ALSO BY TY SEIDULE
The West Point History of the Civil War
The West Point History of World War II, Volume 1
The West Point History of World War II, Volume 2
The West Point History of the American Revolution
Stand Up and Fight! The Creation of U.S. Security Organizations, 1942–2005
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TY SEIDULE is professor emeritus of history at West Point, where he taught for two
decades. He served in the U.S. Army for thirty-six years, retiring as a brigadier general. He is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College as well as a New America Fellow. He has published numerous books, articles, and videos on military history, including the award-winning The West Point History of the Civil War. Seidule graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Introduction
1 My Childhood: Raised on a White Southern Myth
2 My Hometown: A Hidden History of Slavery, Jim Crow, and Integration
3 My Adopted Hometowns: A Hidden History as “Lynchtown”
4 My College: The Shrine of the Lost Cause
5 My Military Career: Glorifying Confederates in the U.S. Army
6 My Academic Career: Glorifying Robert E. Lee at West Point
7 My Verdict: Robert E. Lee Committed Treason to Preserve Slavery
Epilogue: A Southern Soldier Confronts the Lost Cause in the Shrine of the South
Acknowledgments
Notes
Also by Ty Seidule
About the Author
Copyright
First published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
ROBERT E. LEE AND ME. Copyright © 2020 by Ty Seidule. All rights reserved.. For information, address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Nikolaas Eickelbeck
Cover photographs: statue © Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; confederate flag © Joesboy / Getty Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Seidule, Ty, author.
Title: Robert E. Lee and me: a Southerner’s reckoning with the myth of the lost cause / Ty Seidule.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020035324 | ISBN 9781250239266 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250239273 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807–1870—Influence. | Seidule, Ty. | Racism—History—Study and teaching—Social aspects—United States. | Whites—Race identity—Study and teaching—Social aspects—United States. | Historians—United States—Biography. | United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Influence. | United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Historiography. | United States—History—Study and teaching—Social aspects. | United States—Race relations—Study and teaching—Social aspects. | Southern States—Biography.
Classification: LCC E467.1.L4 | DDC 973.7/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020035324
eISBN 9781250239273
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First Edition: 2020
