For most of American history, Robert E. Lee was regarded as an American hero of upstanding courage and military genius. This consensus largely held across the political and ideological spectrum.
It is only in the last decade that many have attempted to reduce Lee's legacy to the fact that he commanded Confederate forces during the Civil War, defending a regime dedicated to preserving the immoral practice of slavery. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, multiple Lee monuments were torn down in a sweeping rage to erase the past.
His enemies are not only wrong in their iconoclasm but also fail to understand who Robert E. Lee was.
Long before the Civil War, Lee devoted more than three decades to the United States Army. A graduate of West Point, he distinguished himself during the Mexican-American War, a conflict that resulted in the acquisition of vast territories that would become California, Nevada, Utah, and large portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
Lee's exceptional performance earned him repeated promotions and eventually led to his appointment as superintendent of West Point itself.
When Virginia seceded in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln's administration considered him for command of Union forces. Instead, Lee resigned his commission and followed his home state. This was an agonizing choice for him, forcing him to side with a movement opposed to the country he once fought for.
Whether one agrees with that decision or not, it was rooted in a conception of loyalty that was common among Americans of his era. Lee had expressed reservations about both slavery and secession (he once called slavery "a moral and political evil" in a letter to his wife), yet he believed he could not take up arms against his home state, of which his ancestors were some of its earliest inhabitants.
As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Lee became one of history's most respected military leaders. Even Winston Churchill praised his military genius. More importantly, after the Confederacy's defeat, Lee did not encourage bitterness or resistance. He urged reconciliation with the victors and accepted the war's outcome, and devoted the remainder of his life to education as president of Washington College.
Perhaps the strongest defense of Lee came from President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who kept Lee's portrait in his office. Responding to those who criticized him for displaying the portrait, Eisenhower wrote that Lee was "a poised and inspiring leader" and concluded, "a nation of men of Lee's calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul."
Most Americans do not honor Robert E. Lee because he led the struggle for secession and the upholding of slavery. They honor him because he embodied duty, courage, self-sacrifice, and reconciliation in one of the nation's darkest hours.
