The Killer Angle: General Robert E. Lee

Another thing that stood out to me about General Lee was that he was not a big fan of slavery. He had command of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, so it does make sense. Lee through out this book shows his love for Virginia. Let’s face it, he is solely in this war because Virginia made the decision to leave the Union. He is very loyal to his home state, and it shows through out the

Robert E. Lee was a man of family, culture and tradition. Lee was a man who believed in the old English ways in chivalry. The Southern states fought for the same ideals that Lee stood for. Lee believed that this way of life made men to be of a higher class. He was convinced that these old values can build a better nation. Catton express the Confederacy loyalty to these values by saying: “For four years, the southern states had fought a separate war to up held the ideals for which Lee; as if he himself was the Confederacy… the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could have ever had to offer” (410).

6. How does Shaara portray General Lee in this work, especially Lee's decision to attack at Gettysburg, despite Longstreet's advice not to? Why doesn't Longstreet want to fight at this particular spot?

Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee & Civil War History is author Alan T. Nolan’s attempt at taking an honest look at what Nolan considers one of the most deified figures in American history, Robert E. Lee. Nolan approaches his biography much in the format popularized by respected biographer Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) in that he is attempting to take an irreverent approach, an approach Nolan claims is sorely lacking in most scholarship pertaining to Lee. The uniqueness of Nolan’s approach is highlighted in the work’s title, Lee Considered, as Nolan claims “Lee has not in fact been considered. This book is not, therefore, a re-consideration” (p. 8). Throughout this book Nolan scrutinizes the certain falsely mythologized aspects of Lee’s, what Nolan refers to as the “Lee tradition” (p. ix), convincingly exposing what should be the obvious truth that Lee was “a great man, but, indeed, a man” (p. xi).

Killer Angels is a historical fiction novel written by Michael Shaara is based on the events of Gettysburg during the civil war. The book is based on several old documents and journals from that period. Reading this a certain quote struck me on what the theme for the book is “Honor without intelligence . . . Could lose the war,” -General James Longstreet. During the book, General Lee, as good of a strategist he is, is shown making several mistakes that cost him the battle, and eventually, the war.

Robert E. Lee, by 1863, had asserted himself as the most dominant general on either side of the North and South during the Civil War. His ‘perfect’ victory against Hooker in May at Chancellorsville proved decisive enough for Lee to attempt another invasion of the North. Lee hoped that a move like this would be enough to enable the disrupt Union plans for an offense on Richmond in the summer, give his solders a morale-boosting offensive they needed, and by taking the war further north, giver war-weary Virginia a respite from fighting. Ever since his command of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Seven Days Battle in 1862, Lee had been relentlessly aggressive, so that by the summer of 1863, he had already created a legend of Confederate

John Kelly, the chief of staff at the White House, stated that he thought Robert E. Lee was “...an honorable man who gave up his country to fight for his state...it was always loyalty to state back in those days” (Kelly). The statement Kelly made while getting interviewed during the wake of the Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacy rally was wrong. Kelly’s utterance is erroneous because loyalty to state was never more important than the country as a whole and Lee was not an honorable man because of what he did with slavery and unequal rights in general.

Michael Fellman’s The Making of Robert E. Lee takes a different slant at investigating the man who commanded the Confederacy’s Army of Northern Virginia. The book is an examination of Lee’s state of mind and his supposed internal war rather than being a thorough biography. Fellman highlights vital events in the general’s life and gives a psychoanalytical study of Lee which goes beyond unbiased examination of the general and dives into speculation.

Robert E. Lee felt that he needed to continue the prestigious family name that was carried on by his ancestors and make up for what his father had ruined by debt and jail time and his brother had ruined by an affair with his sister-in-law. The reputation of his name was not only earned back, but made stronger then it had ever been before. His career was one of success. His devotion to war made it rare for him to loose in battle. In 1861, Lee was asked to become the commander of the Union army, he politely declined and then shortly

Robert E. Lee was born on January 9th, 1807 and he is one of the most heroic generals for the confederacy in the Civil war. Robert Lee served second lieutenant of engineers as soon as he graduated West Point. Robert lived a happy life and he was very heroic in the civil war and the Mexican war.

There are so many differing views on Robert E. Lee, which may be the reason so many historians find him intriguing, however, he still remains very much something of a mystery. Many earlier works, beginning in the late 19th and until the mid-20th century, Lee has often been portrayed as nearly saint-like, nearly clairvoyant with his defensive actions. Modern historiographies of Lee vary from the earlier works written as they seem to look more into the man, rather than the legend. Earlier biographies of Lee interpret him to have been born in near perfection, a noble and honorable man, as well as a brilliant soldier. His childhood is either not mentioned or described as carefree and happy; his opposition to slavery is described as whole-hearted and intense; and his marriage to Mary Custis is often written as a wonderful and idyllic relationship. His working relationship with his war-time staff is frequently said to be completely agreeable and his military judgment is said to be splendid and sound. When defeat came, it was rarely said to be Lee’s fault but because others on his staff were to blame or because he was overwhelmed by forces beyond his control.

Lee the leader led his army in its second invasion of the north. With his army in good spirits lee wanted to collect supplies in Pennsylvania farm and take the fighting away from Virginia. He wanted to threaten northern cities. He wanted to make the north’s appetite for war not wanted.

defend the very land he was attacking, when he was part of the whole United States army. Lee reflects on his past, and he tries to decide what to do. He considers a retreat, but realizes he has never seen men fight well after a retreat. He also knows his own army will never be stronger.

Military leadership is forever difficult to umpire as no control group exists. One may see the verdict of hindsight view passive strategy unfavorably, like General George McClellan who built the Union army in the early stages of the war but was a lethargic and fearful field commander who seemed incapable of gathering the courage to assertively take on Confederate General Robert E. Lee, an American soldier best known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia; others are indicted on being too reckless. Shelby Foote, an American historian and novelist, describes the massacre on Gettysburg by Major General George Pickett, proclaiming, “And that was the mistake he made, the mistake of all mistakes....and there was scarcely a

Robert E. Lee was one of the many leading generals of the Civil War. “What a cruel thing war is, to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbor.” (Robert E. Lee). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia’s forces, but only the formation of the Confederate States Army. He was one of the Confederacies five full generals. Lee was the experienced general who had already been serving. “I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the nine millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union, but how can I draw my sword against my native