"Manufactured History?: Study Exposes Conflict Of Myth" Topic

…And Fiction Surrounding Lee

Of possible interest?

Free to read

link

Armand

Interesting.

I just read an article from the NY Times from Jan. 15, 1865 in which the Times reporter wrote about Lee and what a wonderful military leader he was. It was specifically pointed out that he avoided the limelight and never got involved in politics. The article also reproduced Lee's letter to his Sister lamenting being forced to decide to leave the U.S. Army in favor of his state. I read the letter as the words of an honorable man feeling as if he was being forced to make a decision that would be considered dishonorable, no matter what he decided.

While I don't doubt that Lee has been the recipient of postwar revisionism, he appears to have been pretty well thought of before that, by both sides.

Witness Grant's gentle treatment of him at Appomattox. Even saluted him as he rode back to his army.

Thanks

Armand

Basically he just says one author disagree with two other authors. Nothing written here changes my position on Lee.

I'm unfamiliar with Alan Nolan but Connelly's The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society is essentially a conspiracy theory. Basically, he asserts that after the war Virginians bult up a "cult" around Lee. It's rubbish. Gallagher [I've not read that work], according to the article, essentially debunks that 'theory' by examining facts and sources from the time. Good, it's overdue.

I have read Gallagher's The Union War in which he argues against the common contemporary belief that the war was fought over slavery. He does it using facts and historical sources. As Yardley of the Washington Post said in his review:
"Gallagher, who holds a distinguished professorship in history at the University of Virginia, is far more interested in pursuing historical truth than in massaging whatever praiseworthy sentiments he may harbor on race, gender, class or anything else. He knows that for the historian the central obligation is to understand and interpret the past, not to judge it."

I'd trust Gallagher's work over many others.

Thanks also…

Armand

I recommend anything written by Gary Gallagher. He is a first rate Historian. You can catch some of his lectures on YouTube. He is highly entertaining and informative.

I thought the the Lost Cause narrative generally ignored Lee's flaws and mistakes, while the modern day picture remains one of a great commander who none-the-less turned against his country and made some mistakes along the way, in other words, not so perfect. I think this makes him an even more compelling figure in history, gifted, admirable in many ways, but tragic.

Agree…

Armand