There is a reason why Robert E. Lee was never prosecuted after the war, and why history has judged him so well. Regardless of one's views toward secession and the war, it was his actions after the cessation of hostilities that showed his true grace and character. Tens of thousands of rebel soldiers looked to him after Appomattox for direction. He could have initiated guerrilla warfare or dragged the war on for years in an insurgent form. But he took the moral high ground and told his men to go home. Rejoin their families. Plow their fields. Accept the outcome of the war as gentlemen and begin to heal. Ulysses S. Grant is also credited with achieving a peaceful settlement as the war ended. He could have humiliated and disgraced the Confederate leadership with harsh terms of surrender. But he let them keep their rifles and their horses and sent them home. The United States would be a very different place now if not for the actions of those two men at the end of the war.
+Bobby Ricigliano Lee didn't get his citizenship back until July 22, 1975. He died stateless in 1870. President Gerald Ford signed the congressional resolution on July 24, 1975 calling it a 110 year oversight. If only he would have had Stone Wall Jackson at Gettysburg.
When the real incident occurred, Lee was clean-shaven and dark hared. He grew a beard and his hair went white in late 1861. But nobody today would recognize a clean-shaven, dark haired Robert E. Lee.
Lee knew this from his Mexican War experience. He had been almost a special assistant for Winfield Scott and had seen the toll it had taken on that tough old man. But for him his state allegiance trumped everything else. In 1861 Lee had hit that age when men tended to go gray. The beard was the fashion of the time. Lincoln had been elected as a clean-shaven man.
"There is a terrible war coming, and these young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen, but I tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the South, for I would free them all to avoid this war." - Quote by Robert E. Lee
@@bluebandit5586 Yeahhh no he didn't and when he was instructed by the will to release them, he petitioned Virginian courts to extend the deadline. I have a source to this if you're not convinced. There is also a quote saying he deemed slavery beneficial for blacks.
@@emc448 theres also a quote saying he would release every slave in the US if he could to prevent the civil war, sooooo.... You cant mount an attack on his character sir. He was one of the most inspirational leaders in our history
Lee’s ancestors who came from England were the first family of the Virginia colony of British America. This is why Robert E. Lee being a descendant of the Lee family was so attached to Virginia.
Yet some of his family members joined the Union. His cousin Samuel Lee was a Union admiral. When asked why he stayed with the Union, Sam Lee said _"When I find the word Virginia in my commission papers, I will join the Confederacy."_
no all the english left america for canada after the french won in 1776, robert lees ancestors probably changed their last name to an english sounding name to fit in he was most likely irish mexican german and black like all americans
So his Virginian family tradition had existed for what..about a century? Whoopey doo! As a European I always thought all that civil war talk of honour and tradition as it related to states that had been around for barely a historical heartbeat was weird. Human Pride and Prejudice is a very strange thing.
HIS FATHER WAS " LIGHTHORSE " HARRY LEE WHO FOUGHT WITH WASHINGTON DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND GENERAL LEE AT THE TIME A COLONEL ALSO FOUGHT IN THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY RARELY TALKED ABOUT
In a somewhat cruel irony, if Robert E. Lee had taken command of the Union Army, he could have ended the war swiftly and spared his homeland a lot of grief.
But would he though? Lee would probably be facing the same pressure from Congress that McDowell did, which he means Lee would still be marching with untrained soldiers. Would the results still be the same?
Jacob Martinez The Confederate rank and file would be just as green at this point. As with all things though, great successes have many fathers. And many of Lee's were just as much due to having competent corps commanders like Stonewall. Still, I think having access to vastly superior numbers and material would make the war a lot closer to the "home by Christmas" myth that they thought it would be. Without Lee in command, Richmond wouldn't have been nearly as fortified, and on the Union side, Lee would be able to fight the war on his terms.
Edgar Labra Depends on how you define honor. If you read his letters, you'll know that he loved the Union almost as much as he loved Virginia, and if he wanted to save Virginia from the devastation of war, taking command of the dominant side and ending the war swiftly definitely seems to me to be the nobler option, however hard it may be to wage war on your home state. If the war had been ended with a few decisive strokes by a respected member of the Southern gentry like Lee, without any glorious victories like Chancellorsville to remember, I doubt the wounds of the Civil War would have been as deep. One thing that I'm pretty sure of is that the war would have been swift, if not entirely bloodless. With McClellan to build the Union army and Lee to use it, the South would have been beaten ingloriously, without any grand, last stands or faint hopes of what might have been to build the myth of the Lost Cause with. It wouldn't be called "the Civil War" or "The War Between the States" or "The War of Northern Aggression". It would be known as, "That brief time the Southern leaders collectively lost their minds, and ol' Bob stuck a boot up their nether regions and showed them what real Southern honor looks like". He would have felt like crap about it, and his contemporaries might have hated him for it, but tragedies like that are what myths are built on. Myths of the nigh demigod-like nature of the Founding Fathers gave national character to a people that once prided themselves in being Englishmen. Myths are powerful things, and that myth would have fundamentally changed Southern culture for the better.
I always wished Robert Duvall had played Lee in Gettysburg. I'm not saying that Martin Sheen did a bad job. But Duvall seemed born to play Robert E. Lee. He even looks like him.
@Jayden Dan Dominquez sure he didn‘t. Just like maybe von Mannstein and Guderian wanted to lead the Prussian Army, not the Army of Hitler. It just so happens that those turned out to be the same thing. Whoops
@Jayden Dan Dominquez im not just callimg it what it is. Personally I wished they had of killed all those Fucking slave owners they were an abomination of humanity the atrocities they did to my people was inexcusable period and all their descendants continued the shit with 100 yrs of Jim crow. Fuck them all
@@dinkyb2000 you should spend more time reading and less time commenting. You have no frame of reference for 19th century senses of duty and loyalty which were to thier home states more so than the union. That's why it was no surprise that top generals stuck with the south. Not only that they were being asked to invade thier own homes. Based on your comments I know you are not someone to understand nuance and I'm wasting my time but oh well...
I think it wiser, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered. Robert E Lee. A good man who served an evil cause.
i.e. a confederation. The popular saying goes that, before the War, the United States *are*. After the War, the United States *is*. If the United States is a confederation of sovereign States, they can rightfully secede at any time. And if they cannot secede, they are not sovereign, and they are unduly ruled by the national authority. Many don't realize, but the outcome of the Civil War marked a fundamental Constitutional change in the United States. It wasn't a change in the Written Constitution. It was a change in the Unwritten Constitution, the Constitution of the de facto, the Constitution of Empire.
Which he likely would. Lee and Grant were in many ways almost polar opposites. Lee was really in his best command in the field but lacked in overall strategy and political aspects of being a supreme commander. Also he can fairly be said to be perhaps too risk-averse. Grant was the best grand strategist of the Civil war and knew how to fight his army's corner in the politics to get supplies men and money he needed, and he was driven to end the war ASAP, but he was at best an above-average battlefield commander. And McClellan was a fine regimental and perhaps divisional commander, who was also personally brave (he did display casual disregard for his own safety when called for during the Mexican war), but his true great ability was to build an army for other men to then use. So if Grant gets his command early, has Lee to make the actual battle plans and execute them, and McClellan to build them both the Army of Potomac, then the war would be bagged and done with by 1862
@@bbqbros3648 it very much depend on who is lost and when. If substantial part of the core of carrier soldiers was lost in early war Union would be in BIG trouble
Lee was against the Confederacy but he cared about his home state and would defend his home. He wasn't a war monger by any means, he wanted to solve this through diplomacy, unfortunately the rest of the country made up its mind.
Stoach Giacco That wouldve caused chaos within the United States Army since Robert E. Lee was very well respected by both the United States and Confederate states
@@martincastro7406 are you kidding there just is you could be like Lee who aquired probably about a few million (maybe) in today's world which is considered wealthy but then you have the really wealthy prominent familys which I imagine around that time were cotton and coal families that proabaly were around billionaires in today's world that had alot of pull and tossed dumb money at politicians to back there plans
@@martincastro7406 to be honest not much has changed but anyway back at that the radical democratic party and those promonent southern families influenced the succession and there you have the Civil War where they publicized the reason to go to war as northern aggression (which it was) and the north well what ever lie they came up with anyway
@@martincastro7406 honestly I don't know about how much he got but from what I found Im pretty sure his fame and experience as a military leader was more influential than his wealth
@@lochlan241 Kentucky was so strategically important that Lincoln was supposed to have said "I would like to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky".
Lee had dark hair and a mustache when this event occurred. He didn’t go gray with a beard until later. I dunno why movies always get this wrong. It’s a perfect opportunity to show how constant stress of war ages someone like Lee. At the beginning when this scene occurs Lee was a handsome physical specimen of a man. The war aged him but he never did look like a old elderly man. His hair turned gray but his face still looked like a man in his 50s…..not 70s
@@cosminblk8359 just google photos of Lee. There is a few from prior to the war. Lee had dark hair and a mustache. No beard. Lee was also not white haired at beginning of the war. He began the war with dark hair and mustache. It wasn’t until he took field command in 1862 that his beard would grow out and hair turn grey. Lee did not look like a elderly man during the war although he did age a lot by the end. Lee’s health decline started right before Gettysburg in 1863. Prior to that he was very robust and top physical shape, always upright without the slightest sign of fatigue. Summer of 1863 he suffered a heart attack and his health began to decline along with aging physically
I think we get most of our accent from our folks--his Dad from Virginia, so I guess that explains it--though I don't really know a "Virginia accent" to be honest.
@@killertaco8themaster773 He sounds Southern just in my opinion. I've lived in the South all my life and heard many older folks talk the way he does. I knew a lady who recently passed away who was 85 that spoke in the same way Duvall does in this film.
Robert Duvall should be honored with an Oscar for a fantastic stream of characters he's done so magically, namely a loyal lawyer for the Godfather. Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg, I think but not sure. A cowboy with Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove, perhaps his best work. Playing Stalin under a heavy load of makeup, an astronaut trying to save the world from an asteroid. A cowboy with Kevin Costner with a fantastic script using actual language as spoken in the late 1800's. I could name a few more works, but he was also memorable as a newspaperman in The Natural with Robert Redford.
@TheWoodIsPoo I may have confused with his Stalin movie, which was actually pretty scary. Duval acted in major Russian buildings during after the fall of Wall of Berlin. The movie was terrifying from the way Stalin murdered millions just like Hitler, Mao. I watched it one time, never again. But Duvall's acting portrayal of a sociopathic leader was something. I've always wondered how he felt being there as I'm sure he was being watched. What an insane world it must've been and still is.
@@majoroz4876 There are quite a few great actors these days. I include Denzel Washington. He has the versatility of Duvall, who can play any role. Take a look at Will Smith, too. He's not just comedy.
You're right. Lee didn't grow his beard until the winter of 61/62 when he was in command of troops in the mountains of western Virginia (now West Virginia).
I wish these movies would stick hard to the facts. Reality deserves respect and is always more interesting, and it is in the details. BTW, See "History Buffs" UA-cam channel for analysis of movies, what they get right, what they get wrong. It's fantastic. One of my favorites: Master and Commander.. and the episode on that is great.
I imagine they had him wear a beard here so he actually looks more like Robert E. Lee and less like Robert Duvall. In telling this great story his beard or lack thereof is more or less irrelevant.
Scene is touching, even if it is inaccurate. Lee resigned in a letter after a night of careful consideration at Arlington. He left the following morning.
Steve Small It is why the movie that the book is based on is Historical Fiction. The books is far better than the movie. A good 1/3 of the books is missing from the movie.
in the history of the United States of America.. Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina also American territory... the originality of not naming a country does not take away from appropriating the name of a continent that bears his name in honor of a florentine navigator.
@@jamesmiller5331 Yes, especially the accursed brood of vipers known as Massachusetts, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Makes you bluebellies really chubby in the pants, don't it?
That’s because all you listen to is woke media and don’t know how to read or think for yourself. You can’t help it that your an ignorant F$&K, you’re just a product of your current environment. I don’t blame you at all.
Eisenhower was a big fan of General Lee. That's enough for me! He wrote: "From deepest conviction I simply state: "A nation of men of Lee's caliber would be unconquerable in Spirit and Soul! ". Fulsome praise from a 5 star General of The Army & POTUS.
That's just a Westpointer praising and showing respect to another Westpointer. Eisenhower would not have tolerated secession if he was in Lincoln's position. Eisenhower would probably have Lee imprisoned or hanged for treachery.
But let's not forget President Ike's reaction when a state rose up to challenge his federal authority. He immediately put it down with military force. Thankfully it didn't involve any shooting, but Ike showed whatever he thought of Lee, he was more on the path of Lincoln.
@@TheStapleGunKid The difference is unlike the spineless slime of today Ike could respect Lee as a gentlemen. But what is FAR more interesting to consider is what would Ike have done in Lee's shoes? Hmm? He would have done exactly as Lee did.
@@dancooper6002 No I don't think he would have. There's a common misconception that Lee did something typical that almost anyone else would do in his shoes, but that wasn't the case even in his own time. Out of the 8 pre-war US Army colonels from Virginia, Lee was actually the only one who joined the Confederacy,. Even among the 15 pre-war US army Colonels from all Confederate states, Lee was just 1 of 3 who joined the rebellion. So in fact, when it came to his choice among men in the same position as Lee, he was outlier. Over 100,000 Southerns fought for the Union, including some of its best officers, like Montgomery Meigs and David Farragut. This of course included many proud Virginians, such as his old commanding officer Winfield Scott. Even Lee's own cousin, Samuell Lee, as a Union Admiral. When asked why he stayed in the Union, Samuell Lee replied _"When I find the word Virginia in my commission, I will join the Confederacy."_
""I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country." Wonderful actor, wonderful scene and wonderful words!
And yet it was the south that raised an army against its own country and fired the opening shots. They seized government properties and declared themselves separate. They soon found out differently, thank God or what we would look like today.
Yet he was ok with treating people as beast of burden, slaves, inferior beings..Shame on him and double shame on those who hold him in high regard or have sympathy for him.
This one scene adds so much perspective to the Civil War. I also believe it was Lincoln himself who offered Lee the position in person. And everyone should remember that at the end of the war Lee was saluted by the Union as an honorable man. We all have to come together before something horrible like this occurs again.
C'mon guys, Slavery is horrible but in those days it was the norm. Today those people knowing what we know now would not have the same opinion. We have the benefit of television and the internet, these people had no vison of the wider world and they thought that because these people were not educated and were not "civilised" that they were not the same as them. it is very sad but I don't think this will ever happen again (thank god)
@@jordanjames2611 In all fairness, even by the standards of the 40s, ethnic genocide was a huge WTF, even by German standards, a huge step down in morality from the Germany of the past that, while housing anti-semetic sentiments, would never have gone so far as ethnic genocide as was done during the Third Reich. In 1860s, America, slavery, while horrible, was the norm.
There’s an alternate History where Lee takes command of the Union army, and the war is remembered as an insurrection ended after the battle of Bull Run.
Had Lee chosen to do anything other than to uphold his constitution and to do his duty, then he would not have been Lee and we needn't worry about what might have been.
Not many of you know this most likely but Robert Duvall, the guy in the video above who portrayed Robert E. Lee, is directly related to the deceased General Lee.
Out of 8 US Army colonels from Virginia in 1861, Lee was the only one who joined the Confederacy. Even among the 15 US Army Colonels from all Confederate states, Lee was just 1 of 3 who turned against the Union. Some people act as if Lee's choice was inevitable or the default thing anyone in his position would do, but in fact he was an outlier.
Perhaps so, but unlike a lot of other officers on both sides he was acting out of heartfelt conviction rather than an opportunity for fame or personal power.
@@johnmarcucci1719 But there were plenty acting out of heartfelt conviction who made the opposite choice, including his own cousin, Admiral Samuel Lee. When Sam Lee was asked why he stayed in the Union, he replied _"When I find the word Virginia in my comission, I will join the Confederacy."_
@@TheStapleGunKid and I respect his conviction, and I'm glad that I have never had to make a choice like that, between the homeland where I was raised and the nation to which I owe everything I have in this world.
@@johnmarcucci1719 Oh I have no doubt it's an agonizing choice, especially since Lee initially said he opposed secession. But I just get sick of people acting like it's the only choice he could have made, or the typical choice to make among most people, when in fact many others made the opposite one, including one member of his own family.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country." Except when George Washington did that very thing to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, and appointed your father to lead it.
"We could've pursued no other course without dishonor. And sad as the results have been, if it had all to be done over again, we should be compelled to act in precisely the same manner."- General Robert E. Lee
Exactly, we should mutually respect racists and slave owners, not point out how bad it is followed by them getting butthurt. Mutual respect is the future.
@@chattiermike140 they were not traitors and the south did not fight for slavery read history as well as even if they did it still wouldn't put the south at blame like you think it does
This scene never actually happened. He wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln from his home at Arlington House. “Sympathizing with you in the troubles that are pressing so heavily upon our beloved country & entirely agreeing with you in your notions of allegiance, I have been unable to make up my mind to raise my hand against my native state, my relatives, my children & my home” -Robert E Lee
Colonel Lee was the leader of the rag tag group that ended Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry. Years later, he fought some of the men he commanded that day
Southern historical revisionists love to whitewash Lee by ascribing to him all kinds of noble virtues and characteristics he never had. Lee was a white supremacist who strongly believed that God wanted blacks to be slaves. During his life, he was notorious for his cruelty to his slaves. Revisionist Southern apologists love the false narrative that Lee inherited his slaves and then set them free. This didn't happen; it's one of those…oh, what are they called, those things that are the opposite of the truth? Lies! That's right. One of those lies propagated by Southern apologists and people too naive to read history. In reality, his ancestors freed their slaves in their will. Lee disputed the will and kept the slaves anyway. He did not free them; he was forced to release them by the Virginia court, which ruled against him in the dispute over the will. Another popular opposite-of-the-truth alternative “facts” repeated by Southern apologists and those who naively believe Southern apologists without fact-checking is that 30,000 slaves or former slaves fought in Lee’s army. This is absolutely not supported by fact; the historical record does show a tiny number of slaves or former slaves fighting in the Confederate army, but this number is only about 10% of what the historical revisionists claim, and it includes all of the Confederate armies during the entire civil war, not just Lee’s army. Robert E. Lee was a cruel white supremacist slaveowner who truly and sincerely believed slavery was Divinely justified and who took up arms in support of traitors. He also let his men kidnap free blacks in Pennsylvania to sell into slavery. So noble! I can’t help but assume that the service of Robert Smalls in the Confederate navy is probably representative of their attitudes and commitment to the Confederate cause.
Does anybody agree with me? Cus if anybody does agree with me I'd like to hear your comments. Cus I'm related to Robert E. Lee on my father's side and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on my mother's side. And proud of it. Praise the Lord, and his kingdom on Earth!
to this very day the civil war has set across huge barriers still between the north and south. Education and social acceptances vary vastly depending on what side of the country you live in. It's amazing how something 150 years ago still affects the way we think and act today
It's because we rushed to reconciliation. Lincoln should've treated the South like the western Allies treated Nazi Germany. There, we didn't rush towards reconciliation. There, we put their leaders on trial and executed them. There, we banned the teaching of racist ideology. We emancipated Holocaust survivors, supported them, taught their history. We showed no mercy to Nazis. But with the Civil War? The South? We tripped over ourselves to reconcile with the rebels. We had an opportunity in that moment to utterly destroy white supremacy forever, and we held back. We had an opportunity to emancipate the slaves, truly support them, and teach their history, but we held back. We allowed the ideology of racial hatred to fester, and then boil over, leading to segregation, Jim Crow, white terrorism, and a white supremacist ideology that continues in America to this very day. Today, in Germany, in 2021, it's still illegal to show a Nazi flag, and has been since the war. But two weeks ago, a Confederate flag was flown in the U.S. Capitol. That right there tells us everything we need to know about how America handled ourselves after the Civil War. By the way, this video right here, which for some reason showed up in my feed, is itself *emblematic* of the continuation of America's acquiescence of white supremacy. It's nothing but Lost Cause garbage. Masturbation material for white supremacists. It's trash.
@@okbucket dude, if we executed all of the confederates, the country would have fallen apart again. The only reason the country is in one peace is because we reconciled. Fuck you and your vengeful garbage.
What you call “white supremacy “ is a self evident truth, the natural order of things. Equality is a lie and a perversion of the natural order. It will inevitably fail along because it goes directly against the immutable and eternal laws of nature. The strong are supposed to dominate the weak, it is for the greater good of all.
@@okbucket - Yeah, no, that revenge-porn approach would not have worked. You're taking an approach that worked in one place and assuming it would have worked in another, in another timeframe, in a setting where you weren't talking about about a conquered foreign nation, but people who were brothers - literally and metaphorically. To think that approach could have worked is retarded, and if you honestly think it would have produced anything useful, I don't know what other word to use to describe you.
@@jerry85g7 The eulogy was on Dec 26 1799 in Philadelphia PA (then the capital) Robert E Lee was born Jan 19 1807, in the same county as G Washington. He grew up idolized Washington and the Patriots of 1776. He looked to Washington for examples and his father in law was Washington’s step grandson G.W.P Custis
I’m convinced Slavery never would’ve been abolished in the south without a war. And Historical figures should not be judged by modern day standards But If Lee was truly a man of honor and principles he shouldve dedicated himself to mediating an end this dispute without serving as the head general of an army and govt that wanted to extend slavery
According to the book The Generals by Anderson and Anderson, this exchange occurred on 18 April 1861 in the townhouse of Francis Preston Blair. Blair owned a plantation in Silver Springs, MD. The commander of the U. S. Army at this point was General Winfield “Fuss and Feathers” Scott, who was deemed too old to take the field.
I've never seen this movie, but I am sooooo glad to have seen this segment. If I didn't already know how utterly superb Robert Duvall is, I would certainly know it now. Even as Boo Radley in 1962's treasure TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, he delivered an absolute masterpiece of a performance.
It is worth watching. I think this part, the Fredericksburg part, and Stonewall's flanking maneuver through Chancellorsville were the best parts of the movie. The rest, in my opinion, is a lot of soliloquy and boring introspective...hence why it didn't do as well as "Gettysburg".
The movie is rather crap compared to "Gettysburg." The highlight in my mind was how well Stephen Lang portrayed Stonewall Jackson, but the film is way too sympathetic to the Confederacy for my taste.
Lee wasn’t hung but they did take his home and land in Arlington where now sits the Arlington National Cemetery where Union soldiers that Lee ordered killed lay in honor
honestly I think Robert E Lee was one of the most honorable men who ever lived. He opposed slavery and supported reunification of the North and South as One Nation, but he refused to raise the sword against Virginia. He never cursed, never drank or smoked, rarely ever lost his temper and commanded great respect and admiration among his man.
I don't call that honor, I call it abandonment of principles. Staying out of the war is one thing, but he joined the other side and fought for a movement that aimed to preserve slavery.
Pan Z Absolutely it was. Read some of the declarations of secession by some of those states. By preserving slavery they were trying to preserve their economy as well as their social order which slavery helped to define.
PyonBoy two states in the south had voted and abolished slavery and the north had one slave state and this was during the war. only a small group of people had slaves and the rest of thd country had high unemployment and the people wanted slavery gone and jobs available and had the war been a draw slavery wouldve been gone in a mettwr of time. the south wouldnt let the north tell it what to do as no state should and should have the say in their state. this war wad about getting rid of state rights and that is exactly what it did.
John Doe ^ 84% of whites in the South were not in a family that owned any slaves. Most were farmers of some sorts. Slaves were usually owned by the rich owners of large plantations. Many Southerners were against slavery for ethical and economic reasons, and many Northerners were even pro slavery (the North even had 4 slave states during the civil war). Clearly, the Northern states we had slaves would've joined the South in the Civil War had the war been about slavery
I always agreed with the reasons as to why the south should have seceded. People argue it was against the constitution. Well the U.S. was founded on a revolution against Great Britain. You cannot say one rebellion is right whilst another is wrong. Even on the issue of slavery the fact that it was legal was the U.S. was founded you cannot suddenly change a contract then expect people to agree or stay with it.
The Civil War tore not just across state lines but also family lines as well. My great great grandfather fought for the Union and his older brother, my great great granduncle, fought for the Confederacy.
@@Archedgar Well I'm sure he had his reasons for joining the Confederacy. I can only imagine what my great great grandfather thought of his own brother being on the enemy side and the potential that the two might end up on the same battlefield unintentionally shooting at each other. Long story short, my great great grand uncle disappeared after the war and, as far as I know, he was never seen again. My ancestors did own slaves so maybe that was a reason for him to fight, or maybe it was for Southern honour and heritage. Either way, I certainly didn't benefit from it. I grew up poor in Canada. Not poor now but I was in my youth.
@@Archedgar Could very well be. I don't have much information on his military service record other than he was a Lieutenant Colonel of Newsom's Tennessee Cavalry Regiment and he was captured by the Union at Bolivar, Tennessee on Jan. 20th 1864 and was part of a prisoner exchange at Charleston, South Carolina on August 3rd, 1864.
Why on Earth didn't Lincoln himself come to talk to Lee? What on Earth could he have been doing that was more important than trying to personally make sure the best general in the country would lead his army??
@ M Rogers, perhaps Lincoln delegated his offer to another because he knew General Lee would very likely decline it and if so, he hoped the refusal would be less publicized thereby. Mr. Blair (Postmaster General Montgomery Blair) wasn't even in War Secretary Salmon P. Chase's War Department. General Lee is one of the most overrated Generals of all time. Although competent he was too slow to remove disappointing subordinates. His orders were often not clear enough, sometimes with disastrous results such as at Gettysburg. Lee made his reputation against commanders with more political connections than military expertise. That the Union was reduced to offering its top job to a Colonel indicates the sad state of the Union Army in 1861. Interestingly the same thing happened in 1942 when Colonel Eisenhower quickly rose to be Supreme Commander of the Atlantic Theater of Operations despite having never commanded troops in combat! Eisenhower's political skills, not his military skills were the key to that promotion. And Eisenhower's boss, General Marshall hadn't commanded troops in battle since 1898!
@@Steveross2851 Lee was one of our best generals, it is the only reason why the South lasted as long as they did. He was unclear at Gettysburg because he assumed that his generals had the intelligence that he had and would know to take Little Round Top.
@@mattrR678 in war except to the extent you want subordinates to use their own judgment you leave nothing to chance. You make every order crystal clear. No one disputes Lee's overall competence and he was extremely well liked. But he was too nice and didn't crack the whip enough with his men. By contrast General Grant didn't hesitate to remove or even court martial subordinates when warranted.
@@Steveross2851 that's an interesting take, but I still think the overwhelming consensus is that Lee was the best general in the country at that time. His record at West Point was arguably the most impressive in the history of the institution. He was the presiding general for the Union at the defense of Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859. He was the obvious choice for commander of the Army of the Potomac and his performance in countless Civil War battles in the face of being overwhelmingly outnumbered is hard to argue against (with certainly a lot of credit going to TJ "Stonewall" Jackson, who had a knack for understanding Lee's more ambiguous orders). Certainly, I agree that Lincoln probably would have expected Lee to turn down the offer, however it seems surprising to me that he wouldn't have given it his best shot by showing Lee the courtesy of appearing in person given what was at stake.
Lee is a hero to neo-confederates, their ilk, and also to people ignorant of the truth. 1). He took up arms against America to help the south defend the right to own humans. When viewed from the point of view of general humanity, that fact alone discounts him as a hero. He was, incontrovertibly, a traitor against The United States. Some claim that Lee was anti-slavery. This is demonstrably false. Lee was quite pro-slavery. While he thought that slavery was harmful to whites (and for this reason wished that it would end and was “rejoiced” when it did end), he argued that slavery was good and necessary for blacks. 2). Contrary to popular belief, Lee did not free the slaves at Arlington before the Civil War. His father in law had willed his slaves to be free after his death. But after his father-in-law’s death, Lee took over the administration of the slaves. He deliberately and falsely re-interpreted his father-in-law’s will so that the slaves would not be freed. This caused some of the slaves to try to escape. When Lee caught them, he personally beat some of them ruthlessly. (www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/) 3). Some people claim that Lee was appalled at the murder of Abe Lincoln. They cite an article allegedly published in The New York Herald” in 1865. The article is a phantom, in that while many claim to have seen it, no one has yet produced it in any sort of believable form. The “New York Herald” was not exactly a reputable newspaper. It was something like the print form of Fox News in its day. It was unashedly pro-Confederate, and especially pro-Lee. It will not do to rely upon it to relay an unbiased view of Lee’s perspective, doing this after Lee’s defeat. Lee may have been appalled, but as far as I can see, no one has produced any genuine evidence of this view. Because Lee fought against the United States, no logic exists to support the claim that he was an “American hero.” At best, Lee was a confederate hero, and is currently the hero of Neo-Confederates and other racists.
@@icecoldpolitics8890 You do realize Emancipation Proclamation was written mid-war right? It was simply an excuse for the Lincoln Administration to get further congressional support for the war and to keep the European powers from siding with the Confederacy. How about you read the Corwin Amendment that was written right around the time state secession was happening and nearly became the 13th amendment, which was an amendment to keep chattel slavery in America. Also how about research into how the Union treated blacks just as bad and in some cases worse than the CSA, how about also look into Lincoln's plan to send all blacks in America to Africa.. It's little things like that which aren't being taught in modern school history like they should and that prove the war had little to do with slavery, it was about controlling southern agriculture and further increasing the central government's influence on the individual states. Looking further back, can see signs of the war in the making way before then all the way back to around the 1820s.
@@icecoldpolitics8890 A President cannot speak law into existence. That's something only King George could do. The Emancipation Proclamation was an attempt to incite a slave rebellion in the South, but it largely failed because most Southerners actually treated their slaves quite honorably.
@@abrahamlincoln9280 "Traitor" for those who dont understand history, look up other comments tons of people see him as hero, and why should South people listen to a 2nd generation arab like yourself who ancestors didnt even fought in the civil war?Look at American state right now, I think America in fact lost the war. Im Polish btw
Um, actually, itll be the socialist democraps that be losing it, Yall are not only wrong, And for an evil governance that is the opposite of free democracy, Yall constantly forget that us Trumpers are the right, and have the majority of weapons, are prevalent in their use, and have the majority of the military's opinion with us.
@@drumking241 Nothing is more dangerous than a delusional militarist. Check yourself. Not only are you wrong on politics, but your ardent support of a narcissistic demagogue is morally bereft.
Bro you're supposed to last a few more comments before the mask comes off. His joining the confederacy all but guaranteeid the civil war would kill a million people. "Tyrannical government"-the CSA was the society where people were literally being forced to work for free for the rest of their lives. Wheres the freedom in that? Fuck off
@@captainchaserman7148 Lmao says the guy with the Great Seal of the United States as pfp P.S. btw is that what they taught you in history classes in Dixie? That the Union was the perpetrator and the war was about state rights?
Lee was like so many in “America” (then and now) in that he didn’t believe in the United States as a country, but in his own State of Virginia. I think that anyone who believes in States rights about that if the country, then if the majority of those in said State feel the same, then they should not receive any benefits or power from the federal government. This is one of the core reasons why the United States has been held back from being a great country.
In another reality, Lee accepted command of the Union Army, and the war lasted about a year, at most. Lee stood with Lincoln at the commemoration of the cemetery, where blue and grey were buried together as brothers. Three years later, supported by almost the entire nation, President Lee was elected in a landslide, and immediately continues Lincoln's policy of reconciliation, making sure that the South could survive without slavery by building railroads, encouraging industrial development, and taking power from the landowning cotton kings. He lived his entire life plagued by his decision, however, and could never shake the feeling that he might have made the wrong choice. The deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of his fellow Americans was on his hands, many of them Virginian, and he never forgave himself for what he perceived as personally spilling their blood. During a visit to New York City, a young boy rushed through the crowd to ask him if he ever had any regrets about the fantastic life of adventure and glory he had lived. The old president thought for a moment, and said "Son, any man with a heart who has ever ordered his boys into the fire, without being able to march alongside them, has more regrets than suppers. I just pray you never have to find yourself in that position." He patted the child's head, and with his familiar warm smile, said "You've got your whole life ahead of you, son. Don't waste one second of it." "I won't, Sir!" said Teddy Roosevelt.
You mean standing up for slavery _"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."_ --CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country." Today that army is called the IRS.
I would KILL to see the final installment "the last full measure" to complete this series. I know both of them were flops but if I had the money to produce the third installment I sure as hell would do it regardless of how successful it was at the box office. Gettysburg and God's & Generals are some of the best Civil War movies ever created and it is a damn dirty shame that the trilogy hasn't been completed yet
@@WalMartScrewedMe You'll die waiting because it's never being made. The only reason either of the first movies was made was because the thousands of re-enactors who volunteered their time, expertise and equipment for free. After all the Confederacy revisionism Maxwell incorporated into Gods and Generals dialogue came to their attention, they refused to work on the third movie, and that's when it was cancelled. Turner simply couldn't afford to pay for thousands of extras and the costumes necessary for them. Perhaps if he didn't push his neo-Confederacy revisionism in the faces of people who actually cared about the history he would have been able to make the last movie.
SO WOULD I ITS A DAMN SHAME ALL THE WOKE POLITICAL CORRECT IDIOTS ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO DESTROY HISTORY, WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT SOME COURAGEOUS FILMMAKERS WILL COME TO THEIR SENSES AND FINISH THE TRILOGY
There is a reason why Robert E. Lee was never prosecuted after the war, and why history has judged him so well. Regardless of one's views toward secession and the war, it was his actions after the cessation of hostilities that showed his true grace and character.
Tens of thousands of rebel soldiers looked to him after Appomattox for direction. He could have initiated guerrilla warfare or dragged the war on for years in an insurgent form. But he took the moral high ground and told his men to go home. Rejoin their families. Plow their fields. Accept the outcome of the war as gentlemen and begin to heal.
Ulysses S. Grant is also credited with achieving a peaceful settlement as the war ended. He could have humiliated and disgraced the Confederate leadership with harsh terms of surrender. But he let them keep their rifles and their horses and sent them home.
The United States would be a very different place now if not for the actions of those two men at the end of the war.
PREACH!
+Bobby Ricigliano Lee didn't get his citizenship back until July 22, 1975. He died stateless in 1870. President Gerald Ford signed the congressional resolution on July 24, 1975 calling it a 110 year oversight. If only he would have had Stone Wall Jackson at Gettysburg.
It was both the first most tragic death in the Confederate Army to lose TJ "Stonewall" Jackson as well as Ironic for him to die by friendly fire.
Hell. Someone who actually knows their stuff making a comment on UA-cam. I've seen it all now.
America could use another Robert E Lee and U.S. Grant right now cause we're one hell of a mess.
When the real incident occurred, Lee was clean-shaven and dark hared. He grew a beard and his hair went white in late 1861. But nobody today would recognize a clean-shaven, dark haired Robert E. Lee.
being a general is a stressful job
Lee knew this from his Mexican War experience. He had been almost a special assistant for Winfield Scott and had seen the toll it had taken on that tough old man. But for him his state allegiance trumped everything else. In 1861 Lee had hit that age when men tended to go gray. The beard was the fashion of the time. Lincoln had been elected as a clean-shaven man.
I think he had a nice mustache in April 1861
@@MM-qi5mk Based upon?
The movies never follow history close enough. This would have been a great detail
"There is a terrible war coming, and these young men who have never seen war cannot wait for it to happen, but I tell you, I wish that I owned every slave in the South, for I would free them all to avoid this war." - Quote by Robert E. Lee
I give this quote to every liberal I meet who doesn’t know history
Pretty ironic since Robert E Lee owned 189 slaves and treated them harshly.
@@emc448 he treated them well actually. And they werent his, they were his wifes that she inherited
@@bluebandit5586 Yeahhh no he didn't and when he was instructed by the will to release them, he petitioned Virginian courts to extend the deadline. I have a source to this if you're not convinced. There is also a quote saying he deemed slavery beneficial for blacks.
@@emc448 theres also a quote saying he would release every slave in the US if he could to prevent the civil war, sooooo....
You cant mount an attack on his character sir. He was one of the most inspirational leaders in our history
Lee’s ancestors who came from England were the first family of the Virginia colony of British America. This is why Robert E. Lee being a descendant of the Lee family was so attached to Virginia.
Yet some of his family members joined the Union. His cousin Samuel Lee was a Union admiral. When asked why he stayed with the Union, Sam Lee said _"When I find the word Virginia in my commission papers, I will join the Confederacy."_
He is still a racist, bloody criminal that subsisted on the proceeds of chattel slavery and its evils...
no all the english left america for canada after the french won in 1776, robert lees ancestors probably changed their last name to an english sounding name to fit in he was most likely irish mexican german and black like all americans
So his Virginian family tradition had existed for what..about a century? Whoopey doo! As a European I always thought all that civil war talk of honour and tradition as it related to states that had been around for barely a historical heartbeat was weird. Human Pride and Prejudice is a very strange thing.
HIS FATHER WAS
" LIGHTHORSE " HARRY LEE WHO FOUGHT WITH WASHINGTON DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND GENERAL LEE AT THE TIME A COLONEL
ALSO FOUGHT IN THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY RARELY TALKED ABOUT
Duvall is a direct descendant of Lee. It fits that he played him the second time.
Paul Johnson is that really true?
Yes.
Paul Johnson Robert e Lee is actually one of my great great great great great great uncle somehow on my mom's moms family
Not a direct descendant but a distant relative whose ancestor fought for the Union
Robert E. Lee is a distant relative of mine. I get my middle name from him.
Robert Duvall is one of the greatest actors of my time!
Much better than that washed up libtard De Niro.
I put em up there wit Bronson McQueen and Lancaster Duvall is a breed apart top knotch actor of the highest caliber
@@philmcnamara299 The best actor of all is Duvall.
You mean Captain Kilgore?
@@meathead6155 He was a colonel.
In a somewhat cruel irony, if Robert E. Lee had taken command of the Union Army, he could have ended the war swiftly and spared his homeland a lot of grief.
lol right
But would he though? Lee would probably be facing the same pressure from Congress that McDowell did, which he means Lee would still be marching with untrained soldiers. Would the results still be the same?
Jacob Martinez The Confederate rank and file would be just as green at this point. As with all things though, great successes have many fathers. And many of Lee's were just as much due to having competent corps commanders like Stonewall. Still, I think having access to vastly superior numbers and material would make the war a lot closer to the "home by Christmas" myth that they thought it would be. Without Lee in command, Richmond wouldn't have been nearly as fortified, and on the Union side, Lee would be able to fight the war on his terms.
Grave Wall he was too honorable for that
Edgar Labra Depends on how you define honor. If you read his letters, you'll know that he loved the Union almost as much as he loved Virginia, and if he wanted to save Virginia from the devastation of war, taking command of the dominant side and ending the war swiftly definitely seems to me to be the nobler option, however hard it may be to wage war on your home state.
If the war had been ended with a few decisive strokes by a respected member of the Southern gentry like Lee, without any glorious victories like Chancellorsville to remember, I doubt the wounds of the Civil War would have been as deep. One thing that I'm pretty sure of is that the war would have been swift, if not entirely bloodless. With McClellan to build the Union army and Lee to use it, the South would have been beaten ingloriously, without any grand, last stands or faint hopes of what might have been to build the myth of the Lost Cause with.
It wouldn't be called "the Civil War" or "The War Between the States" or "The War of Northern Aggression". It would be known as, "That brief time the Southern leaders collectively lost their minds, and ol' Bob stuck a boot up their nether regions and showed them what real Southern honor looks like". He would have felt like crap about it, and his contemporaries might have hated him for it, but tragedies like that are what myths are built on. Myths of the nigh demigod-like nature of the Founding Fathers gave national character to a people that once prided themselves in being Englishmen. Myths are powerful things, and that myth would have fundamentally changed Southern culture for the better.
Basically Lee’s like: “Screw you guys, I’m going home.”
He's like this year belongs to the confederacahh
Respect my authorita
@@markmazzurco150"Now we press on to Missourahh"
I always wished Robert Duvall had played Lee in Gettysburg. I'm not saying that Martin Sheen did a bad job. But Duvall seemed born to play Robert E. Lee. He even looks like him.
+Rick Roscoe He's an amazing actor!
Well, Duvall is related to Lee.
+tpsu129 Real!? how?
On his mother's side.
tpsu129
wow
They leave as enemies but still are respectful.
Most of the officers on both sides were friends from the Spanish War and West Point
I agree. Sadly, they are more respectful than Washington Insiders are now!
Imagine the Twitter spat that would happen if this happened today.
This is a movie
@@rustyshackleford9017 lol spanish war? The Mexican American war and the indian wars
Lee: I don't want to lead the Army
Lincoln: Thats why it must be you
Funny thing to say for a guy who ended up leading the opposing army. Apparently he wanted to lead that one instead.
@Jayden Dan Dominquez sure he didn‘t. Just like maybe von Mannstein and Guderian wanted to lead the Prussian Army, not the Army of Hitler. It just so happens that those turned out to be the same thing. Whoops
And he lost Fucking traitor.....
@Jayden Dan Dominquez im not just callimg it what it is. Personally I wished they had of killed all those Fucking slave owners they were an abomination of humanity the atrocities they did to my people was inexcusable period and all their descendants continued the shit with 100 yrs of Jim crow. Fuck them all
@@dinkyb2000 you should spend more time reading and less time commenting. You have no frame of reference for 19th century senses of duty and loyalty which were to thier home states more so than the union. That's why it was no surprise that top generals stuck with the south. Not only that they were being asked to invade thier own homes. Based on your comments I know you are not someone to understand nuance and I'm wasting my time but oh well...
this is one of the few time where I dont see an actor I just see General Lee, all due too robert duvalls outstanding performance
Lee didn't want to fight against his home state.
I wouldn't fight against mine either.
General Lee could’ve been my general
But he f up
@@abrahamlincoln9280 thanks Lincoln. Try not to lose your head in making statements like that. Or part of it at least.
@@Bluedevil82nd if he fought against his homeland, he would be branded a traitor and if he fought against and won, it would be a big mess
He just wanted to fight against his country.
It's a shame they haven't made a Robert E. Lee biopic with Robert Duvall as Lee cause Duvall is so great as Lee in this film
He outa be, he's a relative!
Oh really?
Shelby Dawg I am also a relative of Lee and been Yankee the whole time. must have been the Irish cousins or something.
Gods and Generals
I think it wiser, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.
Robert E Lee.
A good man who served an evil cause.
This was in a time when the state was your country. The states only formed a union of countries.
i.e. a confederation. The popular saying goes that, before the War, the United States *are*. After the War, the United States *is*. If the United States is a confederation of sovereign States, they can rightfully secede at any time. And if they cannot secede, they are not sovereign, and they are unduly ruled by the national authority. Many don't realize, but the outcome of the Civil War marked a fundamental Constitutional change in the United States. It wasn't a change in the Written Constitution. It was a change in the Unwritten Constitution, the Constitution of the de facto, the Constitution of Empire.
@@lukeporras1288 There is no delegated constitutional power for the federal government to wage war upon the several states.
@@The_Real_Indiana_Joe Correct. Also read Article IV, Section 4. The federal government cannot invade a State without that State's consent.
@@lukeporras1288 And Article 1 Section 10, the green backs (fiat) finally negated the states ending in one jurisdiction instead of 51.
A beautiful statement that is misunderstood
People really identified with their state more than The U.S. as a whole back than
Robert E. Lee had dark hair at the beginning of the Civil War.
"This movie is awesome."
-Robert E. Lee, circa 2021
Whats the name of the movie
Robert Rasa Gods & Generals
@@robertrasa452 It's not worth watching, boring pro-confederate propaganda
@@thomassmith8140 shut up gay harem dude
@@weyjosh5213 I allow women in my hermen too, just ask your mother.
Having a southern general would have been a master stroke of political display, by lincoln. especially if he had won and kept the job the entire time.
Which he likely would.
Lee and Grant were in many ways almost polar opposites.
Lee was really in his best command in the field but lacked in overall strategy and political aspects of being a supreme commander. Also he can fairly be said to be perhaps too risk-averse.
Grant was the best grand strategist of the Civil war and knew how to fight his army's corner in the politics to get supplies men and money he needed, and he was driven to end the war ASAP, but he was at best an above-average battlefield commander.
And McClellan was a fine regimental and perhaps divisional commander, who was also personally brave (he did display casual disregard for his own safety when called for during the Mexican war), but his true great ability was to build an army for other men to then use.
So if Grant gets his command early, has Lee to make the actual battle plans and execute them, and McClellan to build them both the Army of Potomac, then the war would be bagged and done with by 1862
They had a southern general. He was George H. Thomas.
@@michalsoukup1021 To be fair the Union didn't have to be as risk averse. They had more troops and more money.
@@bbqbros3648 it very much depend on who is lost and when. If substantial part of the core of carrier soldiers was lost in early war Union would be in BIG trouble
@@SpectreStatus a darned good general was Thomas too.
Robert Duvall always did an amazing job. His characters were real and heartfelt. He was a legendary actor.
god bless Robert Duval. that's how you portray a class act.
Lee was against the Confederacy but he cared about his home state and would defend his home. He wasn't a war monger by any means, he wanted to solve this through diplomacy, unfortunately the rest of the country made up its mind.
Blazin Goomba your the problem with this country just because he wanted to protect his home doesn’t means he was a bad person
Lòrd Tachanka that’s true
* that’s not true
Blazin Goomba what in tarnation
Stoach Giacco That wouldve caused chaos within the United States Army since Robert E. Lee was very well respected by both the United States and Confederate states
a rich mans war, and a poor mans battle
@@martincastro7406 there's a difference between wealth and rich
@@martincastro7406 there's a difference between wealth and rich
@@martincastro7406 are you kidding there just is you could be like Lee who aquired probably about a few million (maybe) in today's world which is considered wealthy but then you have the really wealthy prominent familys which I imagine around that time were cotton and coal families that proabaly were around billionaires in today's world that had alot of pull and tossed dumb money at politicians to back there plans
@@martincastro7406 to be honest not much has changed but anyway back at that the radical democratic party and those promonent southern families influenced the succession and there you have the Civil War where they publicized the reason to go to war as northern aggression (which it was) and the north well what ever lie they came up with anyway
@@martincastro7406 honestly I don't know about how much he got but from what I found Im pretty sure his fame and experience as a military leader was more influential than his wealth
"There's no way Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, or Kentucky will secede."
Well, 1 out of 4 ain't bad
even then Kentuckians would've seceded had the union not plopped its army there.
Fuck Lee , his choice dragged North Carolina into the shit !
@@lochlan241 Kentucky was so strategically important that Lincoln was supposed to have said "I would like to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky".
@@Arbeedubya Whatever
2 out of 4.
“Perhaps you know their mind better than they themselves.” Lol
Pretty apt today as well.
An oath to preserve the Constitution of the United States of America at West Point.....is an Oath..
@@thomasjensen6873 - and that oath ends when you resign your commission, as Lee did when he turned down this offer.
@@billbillson5082 Not to mention the fact that the Oath to uphold the Constitution includes the 10th Amendment - which includes the right to secede.
Lee had dark hair and a mustache when this event occurred. He didn’t go gray with a beard until later. I dunno why movies always get this wrong. It’s a perfect opportunity to show how constant stress of war ages someone like Lee. At the beginning when this scene occurs Lee was a handsome physical specimen of a man. The war aged him but he never did look like a old elderly man. His hair turned gray but his face still looked like a man in his 50s…..not 70s
That's intresting, because I've never found any photo with general Lee with dark hair
@@cosminblk8359 just google photos of Lee. There is a few from prior to the war. Lee had dark hair and a mustache. No beard. Lee was also not white haired at beginning of the war. He began the war with dark hair and mustache. It wasn’t until he took field command in 1862 that his beard would grow out and hair turn grey. Lee did not look like a elderly man during the war although he did age a lot by the end. Lee’s health decline started right before Gettysburg in 1863. Prior to that he was very robust and top physical shape, always upright without the slightest sign of fatigue. Summer of 1863 he suffered a heart attack and his health began to decline along with aging physically
No, this was in 1961.
Lincoln got it right with Daniel Day Lewis. Dude looked like he’d been run over by a forklift in that scene with Grant on the porch.
Because this movies only real concern is to be Confederate propaganda.
Robert Duvall has one of the best southern accents in film.
I think we get most of our accent from our folks--his Dad from Virginia, so I guess that explains it--though I don't really know a "Virginia accent" to be honest.
@@jimquantic There's a rugged elegance to his accent.
You can tell he isn't actually southern but he's definitely far better than most.
@@killertaco8themaster773 He sounds Southern just in my opinion. I've lived in the South all my life and heard many older folks talk the way he does. I knew a lady who recently passed away who was 85 that spoke in the same way Duvall does in this film.
Robert Duvall should be honored with an Oscar for a fantastic stream of characters he's done so magically, namely a loyal lawyer for the Godfather. Robert E. Lee in Gettysburg, I think but not sure. A cowboy with Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove, perhaps his best work. Playing Stalin under a heavy load of makeup, an astronaut trying to save the world from an asteroid. A cowboy with Kevin Costner with a fantastic script using actual language as spoken in the late 1800's. I could name a few more works, but he was also memorable as a newspaperman in The Natural with Robert Redford.
In my view, he is tied with Morgan Freeman as our greatest living actor.
@TheWoodIsPoo I may have confused with his Stalin movie, which was actually pretty scary. Duval acted in major Russian buildings during after the fall of Wall of Berlin. The movie was terrifying from the way Stalin murdered millions just like Hitler, Mao. I watched it one time, never again. But Duvall's acting portrayal of a sociopathic leader was something. I've always wondered how he felt being there as I'm sure he was being watched. What an insane world it must've been and still is.
@@majoroz4876 There are quite a few great actors these days. I include Denzel Washington. He has the versatility of Duvall, who can play any role. Take a look at Will Smith, too. He's not just comedy.
Technically a comet and that was Deep Impact
Let's have a hand for Gene Hackman as well. That guy is off the charts.
this was a hard decision for me. But I think it was the right one.
Indeed it was.... thank you
So... When will you lead the next rebellion?
Jesse Trout when the government takes our guns.
I will stand behind you for that one!
Jesse Trout'MURICA!
A minor point, I realize, possibly even nitpicking, but Lee didn't have a beard then.
His hair wasn't white either.
You're right. Lee didn't grow his beard until the winter of 61/62 when he was in command of troops in the mountains of western Virginia (now West Virginia).
I wish these movies would stick hard to the facts. Reality deserves respect and is always more interesting, and it is in the details. BTW, See "History Buffs" UA-cam channel for analysis of movies, what they get right, what they get wrong. It's fantastic. One of my favorites: Master and Commander.. and the episode on that is great.
I've watched his reviews. They're ok but the reviewer doesn't know his history so makes a lot of mistakes himself.
I imagine they had him wear a beard here so he actually looks more like Robert E. Lee and less like Robert Duvall. In telling this great story his beard or lack thereof is more or less irrelevant.
Lee,grant, lincoln,longstreet,sherman, stonewall jackson were all great men caught in a bad situation that had been festering for decades
Scene is touching, even if it is inaccurate. Lee resigned in a letter after a night of careful consideration at Arlington. He left the following morning.
The Avenger at Ilipa Precisely. The dialog in this clip is fantasy.
Lee did meet with Blair. To compress an already 3.5+ hour movie they combined two scenes into one.
***** Someone seems like their jimmies are a'rustlin...
***** But the flag wasn't flying over the statehouse 150 years ago... ;)
Steve Small It is why the movie that the book is based on is Historical Fiction. The books is far better than the movie. A good 1/3 of the books is missing from the movie.
Happy Birthday General! Your spirit lives on!
One of the most underrated moments in American History.
Underrated as in massively important or massively unappreciated? Because if it is the latter I’m gonna kill myself
And that's an understatement!
Is this actual footage?
great men
in the history of the United States of America.. Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, Argentina also American territory... the originality of not naming a country does not take away from appropriating the name of a continent that bears his name in honor of a florentine navigator.
Today they'd drone strike him in that very office and cause a "major tectonic event" in Virginia.
They would have put a drone strike on everyone pushing Rebellion before any state got a chance to vote on it.
@@jamesmiller5331 At least Lincoln woulda sent BLM to Liberia.
@@jamesmiller5331 Yes, especially the accursed brood of vipers known as Massachusetts, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Makes you bluebellies really chubby in the pants, don't it?
@@sadsackkvisling9694 I'm from Indiana myself 🤷♂️
"I cannot lead it. I will not lead it."
Cause he’s a shit general
@@Trackrace29582 no he is not
Robert Duvall is an awesome actor. Whatever role he takes, he assumes its identity.
Ok, so no chance he’ll be hosting “The Bachelor”
Interesting times when people thought of their states as countries more so than as a collective.
Lee was very popular and highly thought of after the war.
Thanks to the Lost Cause myth
Ah yes General Lee the most overrated general in US history.
Lee was one of the greatest men to ever live. Anti-Americans troll to discredit him because they are to ignorant to understand history.
@@CaugustusWhite Damn I didn't know that betraying the Union for supporting a slave society government was great.
That’s because all you listen to is woke media and don’t know how to read or think for yourself. You can’t help it that your an ignorant F$&K, you’re just a product of your current environment. I don’t blame you at all.
Duval does an amazing job as Robert E. Lee,as only has ever done in any role.
as good an actor as martin sheen is, robert duvall blows him out of the water as lee.
Duvall is a native Virginian. He understands the personality and the accent perfectly. All the people he knew in his early life sounded like this.
@@iVenge That and he's a direct decendant of Robert E. Lee
please, Martin was much better as Lee, Duvall was robotic.
Eisenhower was a big fan of General Lee. That's enough for me! He wrote: "From deepest conviction I simply state: "A nation of men of Lee's caliber would be unconquerable in Spirit and Soul! ". Fulsome praise from a 5 star General of The Army & POTUS.
That's just a Westpointer praising and showing respect to another Westpointer.
Eisenhower would not have tolerated secession if he was in Lincoln's position. Eisenhower would probably have Lee imprisoned or hanged for treachery.
@@streetgato9697 Probably, maybe, supposedly. Don't be a twerp communist your whole life.
But let's not forget President Ike's reaction when a state rose up to challenge his federal authority. He immediately put it down with military force. Thankfully it didn't involve any shooting, but Ike showed whatever he thought of Lee, he was more on the path of Lincoln.
@@TheStapleGunKid The difference is unlike the spineless slime of today Ike could respect Lee as a gentlemen.
But what is FAR more interesting to consider is what would Ike have done in Lee's shoes? Hmm? He would have done exactly as Lee did.
@@dancooper6002 No I don't think he would have. There's a common misconception that Lee did something typical that almost anyone else would do in his shoes, but that wasn't the case even in his own time.
Out of the 8 pre-war US Army colonels from Virginia, Lee was actually the only one who joined the Confederacy,. Even among the 15 pre-war US army Colonels from all Confederate states, Lee was just 1 of 3 who joined the rebellion. So in fact, when it came to his choice among men in the same position as Lee, he was outlier.
Over 100,000 Southerns fought for the Union, including some of its best officers, like Montgomery Meigs and David Farragut. This of course included many proud Virginians, such as his old commanding officer Winfield Scott.
Even Lee's own cousin, Samuell Lee, as a Union Admiral. When asked why he stayed in the Union, Samuell Lee replied _"When I find the word Virginia in my commission, I will join the Confederacy."_
""I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country."
Wonderful actor, wonderful scene and wonderful words!
And yet it was the south that raised an army against its own country and fired the opening shots. They seized government properties and declared themselves separate. They soon found out differently, thank God or what we would look like today.
@@paulbrasier372 America doesnt even look like America anymore, I dont think the Union won anything
Yet he was ok with treating people as beast of burden, slaves, inferior beings..Shame on him and double shame on those who hold him in high regard or have sympathy for him.
@@HeadhuntexGamer what do you mean by America doesn’t look like America?
@@anineh1551 look around you at tell me that this is what America is suppose to be.
This one scene adds so much perspective to the Civil War. I also believe it was Lincoln himself who offered Lee the position in person. And everyone should remember that at the end of the war Lee was saluted by the Union as an honorable man. We all have to come together before something horrible like this occurs again.
Lee owned human beings, far from an honorable man
It should also be noted that Lee fought a lengthy court battle AFTER the war to try and KEEP HIS SLAVES. Fuck him, he was fucking horrible
C'mon guys, Slavery is horrible but in those days it was the norm. Today those people knowing what we know now would not have the same opinion. We have the benefit of television and the internet, these people had no vison of the wider world and they thought that because these people were not educated and were not "civilised" that they were not the same as them. it is very sad but I don't think this will ever happen again (thank god)
@@foxyrene1 By your logic.....”Cmon guys, all the Germans were into mass murder at the time. It was just the thing back then”.
@@jordanjames2611 In all fairness, even by the standards of the 40s, ethnic genocide was a huge WTF, even by German standards, a huge step down in morality from the Germany of the past that, while housing anti-semetic sentiments, would never have gone so far as ethnic genocide as was done during the Third Reich. In 1860s, America, slavery, while horrible, was the norm.
I sure like Robert Duvall ... damn good actor!
There’s an alternate History where Lee takes command of the Union army, and the war is remembered as an insurrection ended after the battle of Bull Run.
Had Lee chosen to do anything other than to uphold his constitution and to do his duty, then he would not have been Lee and we needn't worry about what might have been.
Not many of you know this most likely but Robert Duvall, the guy in the video above who portrayed Robert E. Lee, is directly related to the deceased General Lee.
Love that Spawn avatar there man.
Out of 8 US Army colonels from Virginia in 1861, Lee was the only one who joined the Confederacy. Even among the 15 US Army Colonels from all Confederate states, Lee was just 1 of 3 who turned against the Union. Some people act as if Lee's choice was inevitable or the default thing anyone in his position would do, but in fact he was an outlier.
Perhaps so, but unlike a lot of other officers on both sides he was acting out of heartfelt conviction rather than an opportunity for fame or personal power.
@@johnmarcucci1719 But there were plenty acting out of heartfelt conviction who made the opposite choice, including his own cousin, Admiral Samuel Lee. When Sam Lee was asked why he stayed in the Union, he replied _"When I find the word Virginia in my comission, I will join the Confederacy."_
@@TheStapleGunKid and I respect his conviction, and I'm glad that I have never had to make a choice like that, between the homeland where I was raised and the nation to which I owe everything I have in this world.
@@johnmarcucci1719 Oh I have no doubt it's an agonizing choice, especially since Lee initially said he opposed secession. But I just get sick of people acting like it's the only choice he could have made, or the typical choice to make among most people, when in fact many others made the opposite one, including one member of his own family.
Over 28% of the entire US Army Officer Corps resigned and joined the Confederacy. It's a significant and relevant number.
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country."
Except when George Washington did that very thing to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, and appointed your father to lead it.
"We could've pursued no other course without dishonor. And sad as the results have been, if it had all to be done over again, we should be compelled to act in precisely the same manner."- General Robert E. Lee
It is 2 bad they never made The last Full Measure into a movie. I loved Gettysburg and Gods and Generals.
I felt the thumbnail was a colorized portrait of Robert e Lee for once. amazing casting
Stand your ground !
Thank You. Robert E Lee
Duvall is the PERFECT choice for that role!!
an excellent example of mutual respect. how far we've fallen since those times
Exactly, we should mutually respect racists and slave owners, not point out how bad it is followed by them getting butthurt. Mutual respect is the future.
@@reinarforeman6518 don't forget the guys who raped their slaves they deserve the most respect.
@@reinarforeman6518 Nah, Got more future than you do 😆
No respect for traitors
@@chattiermike140 they were not traitors and the south did not fight for slavery read history as well as even if they did it still wouldn't put the south at blame like you think it does
If this were disney, he would have started singing about how great Virginia is
If this were Disney, General Lee would have been played by a lesbian African American female
@@landeny65 how much has changed in only 4 years
Hell yeah. Gettysburg the musical
@@landeny65 in what world do you live in i relly am curious.
@@JackieAprileJr I will always rank Hamilton as the best musical
This scene never actually happened. He wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln from his home at Arlington House.
“Sympathizing with you in the troubles that are pressing so heavily upon our beloved country & entirely agreeing with you in your notions of allegiance, I have been unable to make up my mind to raise my hand against my native state, my relatives, my children & my home” -Robert E Lee
Love Robert Duvall. I think he lives in Virginia out in the horse country. It is beautiful.
Duvall's accent is so spot on. "Aboout". Very well done
Bry H Because he is a native Virhinian.
He was actually raised in Maryland, but his mother was of the Virginia Lees.
It's because Robert Duvall lives, or at one time lived, in Virginia.
General Lee I idolize as a kid an now a grown man leading for a true cause a true patriot may he rest in peace
He was a traitor. The exact opposite of a patriot
A traitor
Colonel Lee was the leader of the rag tag group that ended Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry. Years later, he fought some of the men he commanded that day
Winston Churchill admired Robert E. Lee and believed him to be one of the greatest of all generals.
grant was the greatest.....by world opinion!
"Loyalty to state over the loyalty to the federal government"
That's how I roll.
Texas first.
lmao
why have a country at all with that mentality
@@omarreyes7626 It's not about having a country.
It's about if put into a position where you had to fight your home state for the Federal government.
@@omarreyes7626 Most people back then didn't leave their own state. They felt that the union was a collections of states acting together.
Lee was only 54 years old in 1861.
Do millenials know anything about integrity and moral principles like this guy?🤔
No.
Southern historical revisionists love to whitewash Lee by ascribing to him all kinds of noble virtues and characteristics he never had. Lee was a white supremacist who strongly believed that God wanted blacks to be slaves. During his life, he was notorious for his cruelty to his slaves. Revisionist Southern apologists love the false narrative that Lee inherited his slaves and then set them free. This didn't happen; it's one of those…oh, what are they called, those things that are the opposite of the truth? Lies! That's right. One of those lies propagated by Southern apologists and people too naive to read history.
In reality, his ancestors freed their slaves in their will. Lee disputed the will and kept the slaves anyway. He did not free them; he was forced to release them by the Virginia court, which ruled against him in the dispute over the will. Another popular opposite-of-the-truth alternative “facts” repeated by Southern apologists and those who naively believe Southern apologists without fact-checking is that 30,000 slaves or former slaves fought in Lee’s army. This is absolutely not supported by fact; the historical record does show a tiny number of slaves or former slaves fighting in the Confederate army, but this number is only about 10% of what the historical revisionists claim, and it includes all of the Confederate armies during the entire civil war, not just Lee’s army. Robert E. Lee was a cruel white supremacist slaveowner who truly and sincerely believed slavery was Divinely justified and who took up arms in support of traitors.
He also let his men kidnap free blacks in Pennsylvania to sell into slavery. So noble! I can’t help but assume that the service of Robert Smalls in the Confederate navy is probably representative of their attitudes and commitment to the Confederate cause.
@@xavierwash98 Youre stupid!
Wow 2012 now ask gen z this question 😂😂😂
This was Robert Duvall's greatest rôle. His Tidewater Virginia accent is perfect.
He was pretty darn good as Capt Augustus McRea as well
Worst Tidewater Virginia accent I heard all year. Sounded more Blue Ridge Lynchburg to me. His Boo Radley was much better at the declensions.
Does anybody agree with me? Cus if anybody does agree with me I'd like to hear your comments. Cus I'm related to Robert E. Lee on my father's side and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on my mother's side. And proud of it. Praise the Lord, and his kingdom on Earth!
to this very day the civil war has set across huge barriers still between the north and south. Education and social acceptances vary vastly depending on what side of the country you live in. It's amazing how something 150 years ago still affects the way we think and act today
It's because we rushed to reconciliation. Lincoln should've treated the South like the western Allies treated Nazi Germany. There, we didn't rush towards reconciliation. There, we put their leaders on trial and executed them. There, we banned the teaching of racist ideology. We emancipated Holocaust survivors, supported them, taught their history. We showed no mercy to Nazis.
But with the Civil War? The South? We tripped over ourselves to reconcile with the rebels. We had an opportunity in that moment to utterly destroy white supremacy forever, and we held back. We had an opportunity to emancipate the slaves, truly support them, and teach their history, but we held back. We allowed the ideology of racial hatred to fester, and then boil over, leading to segregation, Jim Crow, white terrorism, and a white supremacist ideology that continues in America to this very day.
Today, in Germany, in 2021, it's still illegal to show a Nazi flag, and has been since the war. But two weeks ago, a Confederate flag was flown in the U.S. Capitol. That right there tells us everything we need to know about how America handled ourselves after the Civil War.
By the way, this video right here, which for some reason showed up in my feed, is itself *emblematic* of the continuation of America's acquiescence of white supremacy. It's nothing but Lost Cause garbage. Masturbation material for white supremacists. It's trash.
@@okbucket dude, if we executed all of the confederates, the country would have fallen apart again. The only reason the country is in one peace is because we reconciled. Fuck you and your vengeful garbage.
What you call “white supremacy “ is a self evident truth, the natural order of things. Equality is a lie and a perversion of the natural order. It will inevitably fail along because it goes directly against the immutable and eternal laws of nature. The strong are supposed to dominate the weak, it is for the greater good of all.
@@okbucket - Yeah, no, that revenge-porn approach would not have worked. You're taking an approach that worked in one place and assuming it would have worked in another, in another timeframe, in a setting where you weren't talking about about a conquered foreign nation, but people who were brothers - literally and metaphorically. To think that approach could have worked is retarded, and if you honestly think it would have produced anything useful, I don't know what other word to use to describe you.
But at least you got to virtue signal, which is nice, I guess.
One of the worst mistakes in the history of our great countryGod blessour Vets.
Robert Duvall of the best actors of our time. Truley an American Treasure.
Robert E Lee’s father gave the eulogy at George Washington’s funeral (Robert was only 2 years old)
Washington died in 1799, Lee was born in 1807.
@@freddy8479 So he was -8 at the time. He was still there.
@@jerry85g7 The eulogy was on Dec 26 1799 in Philadelphia PA (then the capital) Robert E Lee was born Jan 19 1807, in the same county as G Washington. He grew up idolized Washington and the Patriots of 1776. He looked to Washington for examples and his father in law was Washington’s step grandson G.W.P Custis
@@arlonfoster9997 Thx
Robert Duvall is so good
Robert E. Lee man with honor
Some oats meant alot for him, some oats meant nothing.
I’m convinced Slavery never would’ve been abolished in the south without a war. And Historical figures should not be judged by modern day standards But If Lee was truly a man of honor and principles he shouldve dedicated himself to mediating an end this dispute without serving as the head general of an army and govt that wanted to extend slavery
According to the book The Generals by Anderson and Anderson, this exchange occurred on 18 April 1861 in the townhouse of Francis Preston Blair. Blair owned a plantation in Silver Springs, MD.
The commander of the U. S. Army at this point was General Winfield “Fuss and Feathers” Scott, who was deemed too old to take the field.
One of the greatest generals of all time! God bless the south
I've never seen this movie, but I am sooooo glad to have seen this segment. If I didn't already know how utterly superb Robert Duvall is, I would certainly know it now.
Even as Boo Radley in 1962's treasure TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, he delivered an absolute masterpiece of a performance.
It is worth watching. I think this part, the Fredericksburg part, and Stonewall's flanking maneuver through Chancellorsville were the best parts of the movie. The rest, in my opinion, is a lot of soliloquy and boring introspective...hence why it didn't do as well as "Gettysburg".
He looked so much like Gen. Lee it was like Duvall blended into the character. What movie is this? Loved the music too.
@conspiracycornerireland3250 Gods and Generals
Gods and Generals, 4 hours long
The movie is rather crap compared to "Gettysburg." The highlight in my mind was how well Stephen Lang portrayed Stonewall Jackson, but the film is way too sympathetic to the Confederacy for my taste.
Lee wasn’t hung but they did take his home and land in Arlington where now sits the Arlington National Cemetery where Union soldiers that Lee ordered killed lay in honor
honestly I think Robert E Lee was one of the most honorable men who ever lived. He opposed slavery and supported reunification of the North and South as One Nation, but he refused to raise the sword against Virginia. He never cursed, never drank or smoked, rarely ever lost his temper and commanded great respect and admiration among his man.
I don't call that honor, I call it abandonment of principles. Staying out of the war is one thing, but he joined the other side and fought for a movement that aimed to preserve slavery.
That wasn't their aim....
Pan Z Absolutely it was. Read some of the declarations of secession by some of those states. By preserving slavery they were trying to preserve their economy as well as their social order which slavery helped to define.
PyonBoy two states in the south had voted and abolished slavery and the north had one slave state and this was during the war. only a small group of people had slaves and the rest of thd country had high unemployment and the people wanted slavery gone and jobs available and had the war been a draw slavery wouldve been gone in a mettwr of time. the south wouldnt let the north tell it what to do as no state should and should have the say in their state. this war wad about getting rid of state rights and that is exactly what it did.
John Doe ^
84% of whites in the South were not in a family that owned any slaves. Most were farmers of some sorts.
Slaves were usually owned by the rich owners of large plantations. Many Southerners were against slavery for ethical and economic reasons, and many Northerners were even pro slavery (the North even had 4 slave states during the civil war). Clearly, the Northern states we had slaves would've joined the South in the Civil War had the war been about slavery
I always agreed with the reasons as to why the south should have seceded. People argue it was against the constitution. Well the U.S. was founded on a revolution against Great Britain. You cannot say one rebellion is right whilst another is wrong. Even on the issue of slavery the fact that it was legal was the U.S. was founded you cannot suddenly change a contract then expect people to agree or stay with it.
4 million slaves know you are wrong!
The Civil War tore not just across state lines but also family lines as well. My great great grandfather fought for the Union and his older brother, my great great granduncle, fought for the Confederacy.
His brother was a hero for joining the rebellion against the tyrants.
@@Archedgar Well I'm sure he had his reasons for joining the Confederacy. I can only imagine what my great great grandfather thought of his own brother being on the enemy side and the potential that the two might end up on the same battlefield unintentionally shooting at each other. Long story short, my great great grand uncle disappeared after the war and, as far as I know, he was never seen again. My ancestors did own slaves so maybe that was a reason for him to fight, or maybe it was for Southern honour and heritage. Either way, I certainly didn't benefit from it. I grew up poor in Canada. Not poor now but I was in my youth.
@@histman3133 Or maybe he fought for what the rebellion was actually fighting for; States' rights & liberty from the tyrannical and corrupt govt.
@@Archedgar Could very well be. I don't have much information on his military service record other than he was a Lieutenant Colonel of Newsom's Tennessee Cavalry Regiment and he was captured by the Union at Bolivar, Tennessee on Jan. 20th 1864 and was part of a prisoner exchange at Charleston, South Carolina on August 3rd, 1864.
@@histman3133 In any case, my respects to your ancestors (both) and to you as well. You are prudent & centered..... they would be proud.
Robert E. LEE - absolutely honorable man!
There’s nothing honorable about being a tool for slave plantation owners
Why on Earth didn't Lincoln himself come to talk to Lee? What on Earth could he have been doing that was more important than trying to personally make sure the best general in the country would lead his army??
@ M Rogers, perhaps Lincoln delegated his offer to another because he knew General Lee would very likely decline it and if so, he hoped the refusal would be less publicized thereby. Mr. Blair (Postmaster General Montgomery Blair) wasn't even in War Secretary Salmon P. Chase's War Department. General Lee is one of the most overrated Generals of all time. Although competent he was too slow to remove disappointing subordinates. His orders were often not clear enough, sometimes with disastrous results such as at Gettysburg. Lee made his reputation against commanders with more political connections than military expertise. That the Union was reduced to offering its top job to a Colonel indicates the sad state of the Union Army in 1861. Interestingly the same thing happened in 1942 when Colonel Eisenhower quickly rose to be Supreme Commander of the Atlantic Theater of Operations despite having never commanded troops in combat! Eisenhower's political skills, not his military skills were the key to that promotion. And Eisenhower's boss, General Marshall hadn't commanded troops in battle since 1898!
@@Steveross2851 Lee was one of our best generals, it is the only reason why the South lasted as long as they did. He was unclear at Gettysburg because he assumed that his generals had the intelligence that he had and would know to take Little Round Top.
@@mattrR678 in war except to the extent you want subordinates to use their own judgment you leave nothing to chance. You make every order crystal clear. No one disputes Lee's overall competence and he was extremely well liked. But he was too nice and didn't crack the whip enough with his men. By contrast General Grant didn't hesitate to remove or even court martial subordinates when warranted.
@@Steveross2851 that's an interesting take, but I still think the overwhelming consensus is that Lee was the best general in the country at that time. His record at West Point was arguably the most impressive in the history of the institution. He was the presiding general for the Union at the defense of Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859. He was the obvious choice for commander of the Army of the Potomac and his performance in countless Civil War battles in the face of being overwhelmingly outnumbered is hard to argue against (with certainly a lot of credit going to TJ "Stonewall" Jackson, who had a knack for understanding Lee's more ambiguous orders). Certainly, I agree that Lincoln probably would have expected Lee to turn down the offer, however it seems surprising to me that he wouldn't have given it his best shot by showing Lee the courtesy of appearing in person given what was at stake.
Robert e Lee has always been one of my heros and an honorable man to fallow and a fantastic tactician
Lee is a hero to neo-confederates, their ilk, and also to people ignorant of the truth.
1). He took up arms against America to help the south defend the right to own humans. When viewed from the point of view of general humanity, that fact alone discounts him as a hero. He was, incontrovertibly, a traitor against The United States. Some claim that Lee was anti-slavery. This is demonstrably false. Lee was quite pro-slavery. While he thought that slavery was harmful to whites (and for this reason wished that it would end and was “rejoiced” when it did end), he argued that slavery was good and necessary for blacks.
2). Contrary to popular belief, Lee did not free the slaves at Arlington before the Civil War. His father in law had willed his slaves to be free after his death. But after his father-in-law’s death, Lee took over the administration of the slaves. He deliberately and falsely re-interpreted his father-in-law’s will so that the slaves would not be freed. This caused some of the slaves to try to escape. When Lee caught them, he personally beat some of them ruthlessly. (www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-myth-of-the-kindly-general-lee/529038/)
3). Some people claim that Lee was appalled at the murder of Abe Lincoln. They cite an article allegedly published in The New York Herald” in 1865. The article is a phantom, in that while many claim to have seen it, no one has yet produced it in any sort of believable form. The “New York Herald” was not exactly a reputable newspaper. It was something like the print form of Fox News in its day. It was unashedly pro-Confederate, and especially pro-Lee. It will not do to rely upon it to relay an unbiased view of Lee’s perspective, doing this after Lee’s defeat. Lee may have been appalled, but as far as I can see, no one has produced any genuine evidence of this view.
Because Lee fought against the United States, no logic exists to support the claim that he was an “American hero.” At best, Lee was a confederate hero, and is currently the hero of Neo-Confederates and other racists.
@@xavierwash98 You say that as if the North cared about slaves lol they didnt, they cared about power
@@HeadhuntexGamer the north stated war aim was to free the slaves of the south have you read the emancipation proclamation
@@icecoldpolitics8890 You do realize Emancipation Proclamation was written mid-war right? It was simply an excuse for the Lincoln Administration to get further congressional support for the war and to keep the European powers from siding with the Confederacy. How about you read the Corwin Amendment that was written right around the time state secession was happening and nearly became the 13th amendment, which was an amendment to keep chattel slavery in America. Also how about research into how the Union treated blacks just as bad and in some cases worse than the CSA, how about also look into Lincoln's plan to send all blacks in America to Africa.. It's little things like that which aren't being taught in modern school history like they should and that prove the war had little to do with slavery, it was about controlling southern agriculture and further increasing the central government's influence on the individual states. Looking further back, can see signs of the war in the making way before then all the way back to around the 1820s.
@@icecoldpolitics8890 A President cannot speak law into existence. That's something only King George could do. The Emancipation Proclamation was an attempt to incite a slave rebellion in the South, but it largely failed because most Southerners actually treated their slaves quite honorably.
This is very accurate. Good job!
Traitor
You could’ve helped the union army take over CSA (aka traitors). Now you are known as a traitor
@@abrahamlincoln9280 "Traitor" for those who dont understand history, look up other comments tons of people see him as hero, and why should South people listen to a 2nd generation arab like yourself who ancestors didnt even fought in the civil war?Look at American state right now, I think America in fact lost the war.
Im Polish btw
@@HeadhuntexGamer the US army won the civil war lol. No wonder your polish. Maybe don’t read into our history if you don’t know shit about it
@abrahamlincoln9280 who lost his head in the end.
I would have had him arrested on his way out.
You legally can’t
We are so close to that same situation now.
Yep this time with trumpets on the losing end
Oh, good lord.
Enough with the childish hyperbole.
Um, actually, itll be the socialist democraps that be losing it, Yall are not only wrong, And for an evil governance that is the opposite of free democracy, Yall constantly forget that us Trumpers are the right, and have the majority of weapons, are prevalent in their use, and have the majority of the military's opinion with us.
@@drumking241 Nothing is more dangerous than a delusional militarist. Check yourself. Not only are you wrong on politics, but your ardent support of a narcissistic demagogue is morally bereft.
@Daniel the Maniel aren’t most republicans just flat out idiots tho😂 they gonna accidentally shoot themeselves
" Come, rule the Galaxy as father and son"
Except he lost
"I have no room in my army for equivocal men." WInfield Scott's reply to Lee when asked if he could sit the war out away from the east.
General Lee never wanted to be in the union he always wanted to be a free soldier
Free to own slaves.
@@IdleWorker free to fight for freedom at that time both sides fought for the same cause just different leaders
A great moment in the U.S. history, incredibly well acted.
Great in what way
@Mono Lith You cannot know that. You do not decide who is damned and who isn’t.
@@lukethespaceman3231 a powerful man chooses his people and state over a tyrannical federal government.
Bro you're supposed to last a few more comments before the mask comes off. His joining the confederacy all but guaranteeid the civil war would kill a million people. "Tyrannical government"-the CSA was the society where people were literally being forced to work for free for the rest of their lives. Wheres the freedom in that? Fuck off
@@captainchaserman7148 Lmao says the guy with the Great Seal of the United States as pfp
P.S. btw is that what they taught you in history classes in Dixie? That the Union was the perpetrator and the war was about state rights?
Robert E. Lee R. I. P
Yankee Blue doesn't suit Lee at all.
Yeah, even though he served in the US Army in Mexico, it still looks odd on him.
+cynderfan2233 I think it would have suited him much better than Rebel Gray. :p
+antred11 I disagree
+cynderfan2233 Feels weird to see him wearing the colors of the army he fought to defeat
True he looks better in gray
Lee was like so many in “America” (then and now) in that he didn’t believe in the United States as a country, but in his own State of Virginia. I think that anyone who believes in States rights about that if the country, then if the majority of those in said State feel the same, then they should not receive any benefits or power from the federal government. This is one of the core reasons why the United States has been held back from being a great country.
In another reality, Lee accepted command of the Union Army, and the war lasted about a year, at most. Lee stood with Lincoln at the commemoration of the cemetery, where blue and grey were buried together as brothers. Three years later, supported by almost the entire nation, President Lee was elected in a landslide, and immediately continues Lincoln's policy of reconciliation, making sure that the South could survive without slavery by building railroads, encouraging industrial development, and taking power from the landowning cotton kings.
He lived his entire life plagued by his decision, however, and could never shake the feeling that he might have made the wrong choice. The deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of his fellow Americans was on his hands, many of them Virginian, and he never forgave himself for what he perceived as personally spilling their blood. During a visit to New York City, a young boy rushed through the crowd to ask him if he ever had any regrets about the fantastic life of adventure and glory he had lived. The old president thought for a moment, and said "Son, any man with a heart who has ever ordered his boys into the fire, without being able to march alongside them, has more regrets than suppers. I just pray you never have to find yourself in that position." He patted the child's head, and with his familiar warm smile, said "You've got your whole life ahead of you, son. Don't waste one second of it."
"I won't, Sir!" said Teddy Roosevelt.
Props to the south and my southern brothers standing up to the federal government.
You mean standing up for slavery
_"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."_ --CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens.
How ironic that so many Southerners refused to stand up to Trump--another Yankee.
"Gods and Generals" is a love letter to the Lost Cause.
Its an entertaining movoe nonetheless
I agree with both of you.
Thank GOD
Deo Vindice
"I never thought I'd live to see the day that a president of the United States would raise an army to invade his own country." Today that army is called the IRS.
I would KILL to see the final installment "the last full measure" to complete this series. I know both of them were flops but if I had the money to produce the third installment I sure as hell would do it regardless of how successful it was at the box office. Gettysburg and God's & Generals are some of the best Civil War movies ever created and it is a damn dirty shame that the trilogy hasn't been completed yet
I'd kill that apostrophe in God's, Berkowitz.
It would be awesome to see. The odds they were facing in the later parts of the war were staggering.
I’ve been waiting for Last Full Measure since 2003. I own and love both Gettysburg and gods and generals.
@@WalMartScrewedMe You'll die waiting because it's never being made. The only reason either of the first movies was made was because the thousands of re-enactors who volunteered their time, expertise and equipment for free. After all the Confederacy revisionism Maxwell incorporated into Gods and Generals dialogue came to their attention, they refused to work on the third movie, and that's when it was cancelled. Turner simply couldn't afford to pay for thousands of extras and the costumes necessary for them. Perhaps if he didn't push his neo-Confederacy revisionism in the faces of people who actually cared about the history he would have been able to make the last movie.
SO WOULD I ITS A DAMN SHAME ALL THE WOKE POLITICAL CORRECT IDIOTS ARE DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO DESTROY HISTORY, WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT SOME COURAGEOUS FILMMAKERS WILL COME TO THEIR SENSES AND FINISH THE TRILOGY