Lee and Washington: True Heroes

LEE AND WASHINGTON: TRUE HEROES

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LEE AND WASHINGTON: TRUE HEROES

Until the end of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee had spent his entire adult life in the military. First in the United States Army and later in the Confederate Army, Lee became an admirable soldier and general; however, when the Confederacy lost the Civil War and rejoined the United States, Lee’s military life came to an abrupt end. Wishing for the peace and quiet that a small farm offered, Lee made plans to become a farmer. Fortunately for Washington College, he never accomplished his wish because he accepted the college’s offer to become its president. Already the hero of the South because of his actions during the war, Lee continued to lead the Southern people by example after the war. Already compared to his idol, George Washington, because of his military genius, Lee’s compassion and leadership shown while helping the South recover from the war brought even more parallels.

The comparison between Lee and Washington began during the Civil War. The United States Army greatly outnumbered Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war; however, Lee still won a majority of battles due to his superior strategy. Until Lincoln brought in General Ulysses Grant, who effectively used his greater number of men, Lee held off every Federal advancement into Virginia. Similarly, for years in the American Revolution, Washington held off the British, who greatly outnumbered his army. After receiving a large number of troops and a great amount of supplies from France, Washington eventually succeeded in forcing the British into surrendering at Yorktown. Although Washington won and Lee lost, the Southern people still respected and admired Lee as much as the triumphant revolutionaries admired Washington at the end of the American Revolution. Throughout the Civil War, the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Lee, offered the brightest hope to the Confederate people, marching to victory many more times than expected against the larger and better supplied Union armies. As the war continued, the Confederacy became less able to support Lee’s army; however, Lee continued winning battles against the ever-growing Union army, even mounting an invasion into the Union states of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Thus, each Confederate victory became a tribute to Lee’s military genius, making Lee the predominant Southern hero for years to come.

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The motivation of Lee and Washington, remarkably similar, made them perfect American heroes. Although both fought against their original countries, their loyalty to their home state of Virginia drove them to this extreme. While preferring peace to strife, both men became extremely capable leaders in battle, constantly strategizing future moves while encouraging their troops. Despite harsh conditions at Valley Forge for Washington and at the end of the war for Lee, the compassion both generals showed for their soldiers kept desertions to a minimum. Both Washington and Lee wished to remain at their family’s estates and farm; however, each was pushed into the national spotlight by the call of war and later recalled to heal the wounds of those wars. While Washington felt obligated to become the first President of the United States and lead the United States in its early years, Lee accepted the position as the president of Washington College and led the healing of the wounds caused by the Civil War. Thus, their compassion, leadership, and loyalty resulted in their failure to enjoy the peace and quiet they wanted.

In Lee: the Last Years, author Charles Flood quotes a young man from Maryland as saying, “‘It was a general belief in all the Southern States… 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’” (104-105). Similarly, when George Washington entered his first term as president, the American people believed that with him as their leader, they could pull themselves out of their current economic crisis and become a powerful nation of the world. Although Lee did not become President of the United States, during the summer of 1868, the great respect for him around the country caused The New York Herald to suggest that the Democratic Party nominate Lee as their candidate to oppose General Grant, the Republican nominee, in the upcoming Presidential election (Freeman 551). Also, both Washington and Lee, realizing the importance education had in helping economies recover, made great contributions to Washington and Lee University. While Washington donated money to assist the college soon after it formed (Flood 79), Lee used his skills and ideas as president of the college to make it one of the premier colleges in the United States. Lee became a celebrity in the South, just as Washington had in the original thirteen states. Today, the whole nation celebrates Washington’s birthday on President’s Day. Meanwhile, the state of Virginia celebrates Lee-Jackson Day in honor of Lee and his greatest lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson. Additionally, in 1870, the city of Columbia, South Carolina showed Lee’s celebrity status in the South by declaring a holiday because Lee was coming through the city on his way to visit friends in Savannah, Georgia (Flood 236-237). Just as Americans had looked to Washington as their leader in recovering from the American Revolution, the South looked to Lee for leadership after the war. Lee responded by letting Southerners know he wished for peace, writing, “I believe it to be the duty of everyone to reunite in the restoration of the country, and the reestablishment of peace and harmony” (qtd. in Flood 87).

Although Robert E. Lee and George Washington made their names as war heroes, their leadership after the wars in which they fought has made them idols for generations of Americans. Despite the large number of heroes that have come from Virginia in America’s short history, Lee and Washington stand out as the most prominent Virginians. Thus, the Virginia State Legislature decided to send statues of both men to the Capitol’s Statuary Hall, where statues of two heroes from each state rest (Danforth, Lesman, and AS@UVA 1). As the father of this country, Washington was an obvious choice as one of Virginia’s greatest heroes; however, the choice of Lee, a former Confederate, surprised many people, but not those who had studied his life. Lee was always “… an honorable man, a loyal husband, and a loving father” (Danforth, Lesman, and AS@UVA 6). A military genius, he helped his nation and his state by serving in the military. According to some, “Robert E. Lee’s statue in the Capitol stands for [his admirable traits]…, but it also stands for the peculiarly American process by which a mortal enemy can become a patriot” (Danforth, Lesman, and AS@UVA 6). Without Lee’s leadership, the nation never could have recovered from the hatred caused by the Civil War. He led the movement to heal the wounds between the north and the south; thus, becoming as much an American hero as his idol, George Washington.

Works Cited

Danforth, Courtney, Alex Lesman, and AS@UVA. “The Apotheosis of Robert E. Lee.”

<http:// xraods.virginia.edu/~CAP/LEE/title.html> (2 July 1999).

Flood, Charles Bracelen. Lee: The Last Years. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1981.

Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee. Ed. Richard Harwell. Abr. ed. New York: Charles

Scribner’s Sons, 1961.