WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.740 Welcome to the Deep Dive, the place where we 00:00:01.740 --> 00:00:04.000 take the source material you need to know and 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:06.900 really just extract the most surprising, complex 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:11.080 and vital insights. Today, we are taking a long, 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:15.039 unvarnished look at a figure whose life, I mean, 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.359 it really encompasses the foundational conflicts 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.640 and. frankly, the painful contradictions of American 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.480 history, Robert E. Lee. Absolutely. We're talking 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:25.620 about a man who, in the space of just a few months, 00:00:25.780 --> 00:00:28.460 goes from being a highly decorated U .S. Army 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:31.440 engineering colonel to the single most important 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:33.640 military leader of the Confederacy. You just 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:36.060 can't understand the Civil War or really the 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:38.200 century of historical argument that followed 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:41.299 without diving deep into Lee, the image of the 00:00:41.299 --> 00:00:44.030 man. It's often called the marble man for its 00:00:44.030 --> 00:00:46.570 polished kind of flawless presentation. And that 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:49.310 image has been so carefully curated over generations. 00:00:49.409 --> 00:00:51.850 So our mission today, based on this really extensive 00:00:51.850 --> 00:00:54.530 biographical excerpt we have, is to chip away 00:00:54.530 --> 00:00:56.490 at that polished veneer and, you know, confront 00:00:56.490 --> 00:00:59.689 the complexity underneath. Yes. Our source material 00:00:59.689 --> 00:01:03.210 is exhaustive. It covers everything from his 00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:06.590 mathematical rigor at West Point to his strategic 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:09.329 blunders at Gettysburg and, of course, his very 00:01:09.329 --> 00:01:11.129 fraught relationship with the institution of 00:01:11.129 --> 00:01:13.349 slavery. Our goal is to give you, the listener, 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:15.969 the complete contextual knowledge you need to 00:01:15.969 --> 00:01:18.530 understand not just what he did, but why his 00:01:18.530 --> 00:01:21.370 legacy is still the subject of such intense historical 00:01:21.370 --> 00:01:23.969 and public debate today. It's like you said, 00:01:24.010 --> 00:01:26.010 we have to explore these dual identities of Lee. 00:01:26.129 --> 00:01:28.670 On one hand, the exceptional military engineer 00:01:28.670 --> 00:01:31.450 who embodied U .S. Army precision. And on the 00:01:31.450 --> 00:01:34.109 other, the flawed Confederate general who sacrificed 00:01:34.109 --> 00:01:36.930 his nation for his native state. So let's start 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:39.049 at the beginning, because that discipline and 00:01:39.049 --> 00:01:41.689 precision that really defined his wartime command, 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:44.450 they were forged in a youth that was characterized 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:47.849 by, well, financial instability and this relentless 00:01:47.849 --> 00:01:50.829 pursuit of order. Precisely. Robert E. Lee was 00:01:50.829 --> 00:01:54.049 born January 19, 1807, at Stratford Hall, Virginia. 00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:56.150 And he's born into the, I guess you could say, 00:01:56.189 --> 00:01:58.709 the fading gentry of the state. He had this proud 00:01:58.709 --> 00:02:02.469 but deeply troubled legacy. His father was Henry? 00:02:02.989 --> 00:02:05.689 Light Horse Harry, Lee III, right? A celebrated 00:02:05.689 --> 00:02:08.349 Revolutionary War officer. Celebrated, yes, but 00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:11.090 also disastrously incompetent with money. And 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:13.490 that's really the key. The impact of the father's 00:02:13.490 --> 00:02:17.090 failures on the son is just. It's palpable. Light 00:02:17.090 --> 00:02:19.840 Horse Harry. goes bankrupt, he ends up in debtor's 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:22.020 prison, and then eventually he just abandons 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:24.139 the family entirely, departs for the West Indies 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:26.740 in 1812. So young Robert spends his formative 00:02:26.740 --> 00:02:29.000 years in Alexandria dealing with the fallout. 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:31.879 It's a constant struggle for solvency, and you 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:34.860 see this deep psychological need for order that 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:37.979 abandonment often inspires. That need for order 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:40.860 seems absolutely central to his education. He 00:02:40.860 --> 00:02:43.319 attended the Alexandria Academy, and his studies 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:45.879 really emphasized mathematics. Which was foundational 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.770 for engineering. The family, still relying on 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:50.830 those older Virginia networks, managed to secure 00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:52.870 him a highly coveted appointment at West Point. 00:02:53.150 --> 00:02:55.270 That was thanks to an appeal from a relative, 00:02:55.590 --> 00:02:58.169 William Henry Fitzhugh. So he gets the appointment, 00:02:58.349 --> 00:03:01.800 but his performance is purely his own. He enters 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.639 West Point in 1825, and by the time he graduates 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.699 second in his class in 1829, he had achieved 00:03:07.699 --> 00:03:10.639 something. Well, something truly remarkable that 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.080 foretold his entire career. That's right, discipline. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:16.020 Lee achieved this distinction, and it was shared 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:19.780 by only five of his 45 classmates. Just five. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.379 Incurring zero demerits during his four years 00:03:22.379 --> 00:03:25.300 of study. Zero. That's I mean, that's almost 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:27.419 unbelievable. It wasn't just about following 00:03:27.419 --> 00:03:30.039 rules. You have to see it as this absolute precision, 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:33.919 punctuality and military rigor that was just 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.300 ingrained into his personality. It makes you 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:39.120 wonder how that level of systematic perfection 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:42.080 translated into the practical world of military 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:44.199 engineering, which was his whole early career 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:47.199 focus. It translated perfectly. His initial assignments 00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:49.340 were these major national construction projects 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:51.460 that required meticulous planning and execution. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.469 He worked on draining. and building Fort Pulaski 00:03:54.469 --> 00:03:57.370 in Georgia, which sits on marshland. A huge engineering 00:03:57.370 --> 00:03:59.409 challenge. A massive challenge. And later on, 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:02.490 Fort Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula. This was 00:04:02.490 --> 00:04:05.090 hands -on, high -stakes infrastructure development 00:04:05.090 --> 00:04:07.189 for the country. And he was good enough that 00:04:07.189 --> 00:04:09.310 he earned a promotion to captain for his work 00:04:09.310 --> 00:04:11.650 on the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. 00:04:12.329 --> 00:04:14.750 specifically for mapping and addressing navigation 00:04:14.750 --> 00:04:17.670 challenges like the Des Moines Rapids. Yes, and 00:04:17.670 --> 00:04:19.709 this was a substantial career, but the source 00:04:19.709 --> 00:04:21.889 makes a really crucial point about the difference 00:04:21.889 --> 00:04:25.029 between his wartime rank and his permanent rank. 00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:27.089 Let's talk about that. Well, this is a crucial 00:04:27.089 --> 00:04:29.790 historical nugget for understanding the mid -19th 00:04:29.790 --> 00:04:32.910 century army. He was promoted to captain in the 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:36.769 Corps of Engineers in 1838, but even after distinguishing 00:04:36.769 --> 00:04:39.329 himself in the Mexican -American War, he held 00:04:39.329 --> 00:04:42.889 that permanent rank all the way until 1850. Why? 00:04:43.110 --> 00:04:45.670 Why so long? Because the U .S. Army was tiny. 00:04:46.110 --> 00:04:48.170 Promotions were incredibly slow, and they were 00:04:48.170 --> 00:04:50.730 often based on seniority, not necessarily battlefield 00:04:50.730 --> 00:04:54.009 merit. The stagnation. It was a key frustration 00:04:54.009 --> 00:04:56.649 for so many gifted officers who would later join 00:04:56.649 --> 00:04:58.829 the Confederacy. So while he was building this 00:04:58.829 --> 00:05:01.089 national defense system, he was also establishing 00:05:01.089 --> 00:05:05.230 his family. In 1831, he married Mary Anna Randolph 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:08.560 Custis at her family home. arlington house and 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:11.040 the historical weight of that marriage is just 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:14.420 incredible it really is mary was the great -granddaughter 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:17.560 of martha washington a direct link to the founding 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.120 era of the republic and the marriage itself was 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:22.899 according to accounts A study in contrast. Yeah. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:26.100 You have Lee, the model of discipline, tidiness 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.439 and punctual routine. And then you have Mary, 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:30.980 who was noted for her difficulty with organization 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:33.759 and structure. The sources note she really struggled 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:35.860 adapting from being this wealthy daughter of 00:05:35.860 --> 00:05:38.620 a slaveholder to managing a household with fewer 00:05:38.620 --> 00:05:41.279 enslaved people where, you know, she was expected 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.079 to take a more active role in domestic affairs. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.899 They went on to have seven children, three boys 00:05:45.899 --> 00:05:49.040 and four girls, though one daughter, Anne, sadly 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:51.199 died right in the middle of the Civil War. And 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.759 that brings us to the next great crucible for 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:58.379 Lee, the Mexican -American War from 1846 to 1848. 00:05:58.579 --> 00:06:01.180 It really provided the crucial learning experience 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:03.620 for the entire generation of officers who would 00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:06.120 later lead both the Union and Confederate armies. 00:06:06.420 --> 00:06:09.259 He served as General Winfield Scott's chief aide. 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:11.959 And his distinction came not just from managing 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:15.160 logistics, but from dangerous personal reconnaissance. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:18.079 Right. The source says Lee was known for finding 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:20.660 routes that the Mexicans considered literally 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:23.519 impassable. What kind of reconnaissance are we 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.699 talking about? We're talking about him often 00:06:25.699 --> 00:06:28.420 on horseback, alone, or with a minimal escort, 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.759 scouting terrain. Especially at places like Cerro 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.730 Gordo and Chapultepec. trying to find these unexpected 00:06:34.730 --> 00:06:37.569 attack vectors. So he's putting himself in incredible 00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:40.750 personal danger. Absolutely. Scott relied heavily 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:43.110 on his ability to read the landscape. For this 00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:45.069 heroism, he received three brevet promotions, 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:48.410 major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel. And we 00:06:48.410 --> 00:06:50.250 should clarify for the listener, a brevet promotion 00:06:50.250 --> 00:06:52.410 meant he could be addressed by that rank on the 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:54.990 battlefield, reflecting his merit. But his actual 00:06:54.990 --> 00:06:57.930 pay, seniority, and his permanent status in the 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:00.490 engineering corps remained captain until 1855. 00:07:00.629 --> 00:07:03.370 Which must have been so frustrating. But the 00:07:03.370 --> 00:07:06.310 war was invaluable. It was here, serving under 00:07:06.310 --> 00:07:09.490 Scott, that Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met and 00:07:09.490 --> 00:07:11.970 worked together. Unknowingly preparing for their 00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:14.649 later monumental clash, they were learning the 00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:17.269 same lessons from the same war. After the war, 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:19.230 Lee went back into that cycle of engineering 00:07:19.230 --> 00:07:22.750 posts and academic duty. He was appointed superintendent 00:07:22.750 --> 00:07:27.069 of West Point from 1852 to 1855. A post he reportedly 00:07:27.069 --> 00:07:30.269 called a snake pit. A snake pit? He was not a 00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:32.269 fan of the bureaucracy, I take it? He was a field 00:07:32.269 --> 00:07:34.629 commander at heart. But, you know, he used his 00:07:34.629 --> 00:07:36.550 time there effectively. He improved the curriculum, 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:38.750 the infrastructure. And it's a point of pride 00:07:38.750 --> 00:07:41.509 that his own son, Custis Lee, graduated first 00:07:41.509 --> 00:07:43.949 in his class during his father's tenure. But 00:07:43.949 --> 00:07:45.689 the moment he got the chance for a real field 00:07:45.689 --> 00:07:48.579 command, he took it. That moment came in 1855. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.000 He received a permanent promotion to lieutenant 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:53.560 colonel and accepted the second in command role 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:56.579 of the 2nd Cavalry in Texas. So he resigned from 00:07:56.579 --> 00:07:59.019 the engineering corps entirely to take a coveted 00:07:59.019 --> 00:08:01.699 combat command. Exactly. Protecting settlers 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:04.339 from Apache and Comanche attacks under the command 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:07.100 of Albert Sidney Johnston. He finally had the 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:09.519 combat command he craved, putting him directly 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:12.879 in this volatile, rapidly expanding Western theater. 00:08:13.060 --> 00:08:15.500 Right before the issue of slavery and secession 00:08:15.500 --> 00:08:18.120 tore the nation apart and dragged him back to 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.050 Virginia. And that brings us to the phase of 00:08:20.050 --> 00:08:22.670 his life that is, well, the most difficult to 00:08:22.670 --> 00:08:25.310 reconcile with that marble man image. This is 00:08:25.310 --> 00:08:27.389 where we step into what the outline calls the 00:08:27.389 --> 00:08:30.329 moral labyrinth. The period between 1857 and 00:08:30.329 --> 00:08:33.590 1862, where Lee, the disciplined U .S. officer, 00:08:33.710 --> 00:08:37.070 became Lee the pragmatic and often harsh slaveholder. 00:08:37.389 --> 00:08:39.789 This section is absolutely critical. In 1857, 00:08:40.049 --> 00:08:42.549 Lee's father -in -law, G .W. Park Custis, died, 00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:45.450 leaving Lee the executor of this complex, heavily 00:08:45.450 --> 00:08:48.009 debt -ridden estate that included Arlington House, 00:08:48.250 --> 00:08:50.549 massive land holdings, and nearly 200 enslaved 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:52.610 people. And the centerpiece of this whole mess 00:08:52.610 --> 00:08:55.970 was the will. The will explicitly required Lee 00:08:55.970 --> 00:08:58.149 to free the enslaved people within five years 00:08:58.149 --> 00:09:00.830 of Custis' death. This wasn't an option. It was 00:09:00.830 --> 00:09:03.570 a mandate. It was a mandate, but it was complicated 00:09:03.570 --> 00:09:06.190 by massive debt and years of poor plantation 00:09:06.190 --> 00:09:09.009 management. The sources are very clear on this. 00:09:09.269 --> 00:09:12.169 Lee was the executor of a chaotic financial situation 00:09:12.169 --> 00:09:15.470 and he prioritized solvency. He used a provision 00:09:15.470 --> 00:09:18.350 in the will to legally retain the enslaved people 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:20.789 in bondage for the full five years. Leveraging 00:09:20.789 --> 00:09:23.169 their labor to produce income and retire the 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:26.659 estate's massive debts. That detail. It speaks 00:09:26.659 --> 00:09:29.039 volumes about his character as an administrator. 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:32.080 The highly disciplined, precise engineer was 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:34.659 maximizing the economic output of human beings, 00:09:34.860 --> 00:09:37.700 delaying their legally mandated freedom for financial 00:09:37.700 --> 00:09:40.519 gain. And he finally filed the deed of manumission 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:44.299 on December 29, 1862. It's impossible to ignore 00:09:44.299 --> 00:09:47.000 the context. He waited until the absolute last 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.500 legal day he was permitted to under the terms 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:51.980 of the will. The maximum permissible time. A 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:55.019 clear choice driven by economics, not... not 00:09:55.019 --> 00:09:57.580 morality or any haste toward abolition. In this 00:09:57.580 --> 00:09:59.820 administration, this delay was met with immediate, 00:09:59.940 --> 00:10:01.679 and you can imagine, understandable resistance 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:03.580 from the enslaved people who had been promised 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:05.860 their freedom sooner. The expectation was high. 00:10:06.059 --> 00:10:09.200 And that delay, coupled with Lee's strict discipline, 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:12.700 well, it created conflict. Yes. Lee applied the 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:15.799 same rigorous military -style discipline he used 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:18.909 in the army to the plantation. He often complained 00:10:18.909 --> 00:10:20.710 in letters about the difficulty of finding an 00:10:20.710 --> 00:10:23.570 overseer who would be both considerate and kind 00:10:23.570 --> 00:10:26.629 to the Negroes, but also firm and make them do 00:10:26.629 --> 00:10:29.269 their duty. And when he couldn't find one, he 00:10:29.269 --> 00:10:32.490 took over himself. For two years, imposing his 00:10:32.490 --> 00:10:35.190 own standards, which leads us directly to the 00:10:35.190 --> 00:10:37.509 single most controversial incident of his life 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:41.169 as a slaveholder, the Norris case of 1859. Okay, 00:10:41.289 --> 00:10:43.889 let's unpack this. The circumstances were dire. 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:47.120 Three enslaved people, Wesley Norris, his sister 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.559 Mary, and a cousin fled the plantation. They 00:10:49.559 --> 00:10:51.559 were seeking freedom in the north. But they were 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:53.580 captured near the Pennsylvania border and brought 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.279 back to Arlington. After the war, Wesley Norris 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:58.659 gave this shocking, detailed account. It was 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:01.000 published in an abolitionist newspaper in 1866. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:04.460 What exactly did Norris claim happened? Norris 00:11:04.460 --> 00:11:07.320 claimed that Lee had them tied to posts and ordered 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:10.000 them to be whipped 50 lashes for the men, 20 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.980 for Mary. And crucially, Norris alleged that 00:11:12.980 --> 00:11:15.259 Lee stood by and encouraged the county constable 00:11:15.259 --> 00:11:17.659 administering the lashing, saying to lay it on 00:11:17.659 --> 00:11:20.679 well. And then ordered brine applied to the raw 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:24.169 wounds afterward. A common, incredibly painful 00:11:24.169 --> 00:11:27.309 anti -infection method used in slave discipline. 00:11:27.570 --> 00:11:29.990 This account stands in such stark contrast to 00:11:29.990 --> 00:11:32.190 the gentlemanly image that was later promoted. 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:34.389 And the historical community's handling of this 00:11:34.389 --> 00:11:36.889 account really demonstrates a significant shift 00:11:36.889 --> 00:11:39.889 in historiography. Oh, absolutely. Early 20th 00:11:39.889 --> 00:11:41.850 century biographers, especially those writing 00:11:41.850 --> 00:11:44.590 during the peak of the Lost Cause era, like Douglas 00:11:44.590 --> 00:11:48.679 S. Freeman in 1934. They just dismissed Norris's 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:51.019 account. Out of hand. Completely. They labeled 00:11:51.019 --> 00:11:53.679 it the extravagance of irresponsible anti -slavery 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.539 agitators, arguing it was just incompatible with 00:11:56.539 --> 00:11:59.399 Southern gentlemanly conduct. The myth required 00:11:59.399 --> 00:12:02.019 a denial of the cruelty. But the more rigorous 00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:04.080 modern analysis tells a very different story. 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:06.139 What's the contemporary historical consensus 00:12:06.139 --> 00:12:08.759 on the Norris case? Well, while most modern historians 00:12:08.759 --> 00:12:11.220 agree that the claim that Lee personally administered 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:14.340 the whip to a woman is extremely unlikely, they 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:16.480 concur on the essential facts of the incident. 00:12:17.139 --> 00:12:20.259 That Lee sought the recapture. He ordered severe 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:23.019 punishment, which included flogging, and he enforced 00:12:23.019 --> 00:12:25.500 his disciplinary system. And that system included 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:28.039 hiring the runaways out to plantations further 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:30.580 south, effectively separating them from their 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:32.740 families and any prospect of imminent freedom. 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:36.190 Corporal punishment was an intrinsic, brutal 00:12:36.190 --> 00:12:38.750 part of his administration. The sources also 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:41.909 point to another hard -nosed practice. Lee separated 00:12:41.909 --> 00:12:44.669 enslaved families. We see it with the Norris 00:12:44.669 --> 00:12:47.990 family. But the source notes that by 1860, only 00:12:47.990 --> 00:12:51.250 one enslaved family remained intact on the estate. 00:12:51.629 --> 00:12:54.289 And that was a practice that even prominent Virginia 00:12:54.289 --> 00:12:56.409 families like the Washingtons and Custises had 00:12:56.409 --> 00:12:58.629 often avoided, you know, due to the social stigma 00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:00.350 and the difficulty of selling whole families. 00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:03.330 It highlights a professional almost... mechanical 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:05.509 ruthlessness in his management of the estate. 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:08.029 Which is so hard to square with the other side 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:10.610 of this complexity, which is his private reflection 00:13:10.610 --> 00:13:13.629 on the institution itself. We have the famous 00:13:13.629 --> 00:13:17.289 1856 letter to his wife where he called slavery 00:13:17.289 --> 00:13:21.350 a moral and political evil in any country. Right, 00:13:21.450 --> 00:13:23.830 and that quote is so often cited by his defenders 00:13:23.830 --> 00:13:26.759 to show his moral opposition to slavery. But 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:28.879 when you read the full context, the very next 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.059 sentence, it immediately qualifies that opposition 00:13:31.059 --> 00:13:33.899 in a way that reveals his profound belief in 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:37.039 racial hierarchy. That qualification is the heart 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:40.000 of the contradiction. Immediately after condemning 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.879 it as an evil, he argues it was a greater evil 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:45.840 to the white man than to the black race. He justified 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:47.840 the institution by claiming that blacks were 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.259 immeasurably better off here than in Africa. 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:53.480 morally, socially, and physically. And the final, 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:56.279 most jarring part of that passage, where he argues 00:13:56.279 --> 00:13:59.240 that the painful discipline of slavery was necessary 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:02.120 for their instruction as a race and part of God's 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.580 purpose. That belief structure is just crucial 00:14:04.580 --> 00:14:07.159 to understanding the Confederacy. He wasn't arguing 00:14:07.159 --> 00:14:09.220 for immediate abolition, which he feared would 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:12.279 cause a devastating civil and servile war. No. 00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:15.519 He's subscribed fully to the paternalistic Southern 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:18.120 view that the black race required subjugation 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:21.139 and gradual instruction before they could be 00:14:21.139 --> 00:14:23.759 prepared for freedom. An instruction he was personally 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:26.039 enforcing through flogging and family separation 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.960 on his own plantation. So his moral condemnation 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.299 was filtered entirely through this racial hierarchy 00:14:31.299 --> 00:14:34.100 that demanded white political and social control. 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:37.179 Given that we've traced. the highly disciplined 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:39.960 U .S. Army engineer and the conflicted, ruthless 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:43.139 slaveholder, the next question becomes when the 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:45.899 nation split, which identity would triumph? And 00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:48.500 that leads us to the unavoidable choice of 1861. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:51.340 But it was preceded by one final act of loyalty 00:14:51.340 --> 00:14:53.720 to the Union. The suppression of John Brown's 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:57.200 raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. Right. The federal 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:59.259 government under President James Buchanan needed 00:14:59.259 --> 00:15:01.840 a highly competent officer to handle this crisis, 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:03.879 this abolitionist attempt to incite a massive 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:06.120 slave rebellion. And they chose Colonel Lee, 00:15:06.220 --> 00:15:08.399 who was then on leave from his Texas post. And 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:10.480 Lee executed the mission with his characteristic 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:13.179 speed and precision. He was given command of 00:15:13.179 --> 00:15:16.259 the U .S. forces, Marines and militia. When John 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:19.419 Brown refused to surrender, Lee ordered the attack. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:21.980 And within three minutes of fighting. Brown and 00:15:21.980 --> 00:15:24.259 his followers were captured. Lee's report back 00:15:24.259 --> 00:15:27.679 to Washington summarized Brown simply as a fanatic 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:30.899 or madman. It was a perfect display of martial 00:15:30.899 --> 00:15:33.639 professionalism, reinforcing his reputation as 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.539 a loyal, effective U .S. officer. And then two 00:15:36.539 --> 00:15:39.039 years later, that loyalty was tested to its breaking 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:42.799 point. By early 1861, the Deep South had seceded 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:45.840 and Virginia was wavering. And Lee himself privately 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:48.860 opposed the idea of disunion. He called secession 00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:52.179 nothing but revolution and argued it was an unconstitutional 00:15:52.179 --> 00:15:55.360 act that represented an accumulation of all the 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:58.080 evils we complain of. He even stated he would 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.240 sacrifice the four millions of slaves in the 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:02.639 South for the preservation of the Union. That 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:05.379 is a profound declaration. But you have to understand 00:16:05.379 --> 00:16:07.899 the Virginia Code of Honor. For Lee, personal 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.299 honor and his duty to his native state, to the 00:16:10.299 --> 00:16:12.620 soil where his family history was rooted, ultimately 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:15.120 outweighed his opposition to secession. So the 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.679 moment of decision arrives in April 1861. Lee 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:20.940 is offered a senior command major general in 00:16:20.940 --> 00:16:23.179 the expanding Union Army by presidential advisor 00:16:23.179 --> 00:16:26.080 Francis P. Blair. Specifically to command the 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:28.919 defense of the national capital. This was a direct 00:16:28.919 --> 00:16:31.779 path to continued military glory and command 00:16:31.779 --> 00:16:35.000 of a powerful modern army. And his famous reply 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.860 sealed his feet and the feet of the Confederacy. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.779 Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. 00:16:42.269 --> 00:16:44.769 But how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my 00:16:44.769 --> 00:16:47.370 native state? He resigned his U .S. Army commission 00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:49.950 as a colonel of the 1st Cavalry on April 20, 00:16:50.190 --> 00:16:53.830 1861, just two days after Virginia voted to secede. 00:16:53.929 --> 00:16:55.750 He was immediately elected Major General and 00:16:55.750 --> 00:16:57.629 Commander of Virginia forces upon his arrival 00:16:57.629 --> 00:16:59.789 in Richmond. And the tragic irony is that his 00:16:59.789 --> 00:17:02.289 mentor, General Winfield Scott, who was commanding 00:17:02.289 --> 00:17:04.630 the Union Army, warned him. He told him he had 00:17:04.630 --> 00:17:07.019 made the greatest mistake of your life. Scott 00:17:07.019 --> 00:17:08.960 saw the coming scale of the war and understood 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:11.119 what Lee was throwing away. I think one of the 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:12.980 most poignant details from the sources about 00:17:12.980 --> 00:17:15.579 this period is his choice of insignia. He wore 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:17.940 the three stars of a Confederate colonel, the 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:20.099 equivalent of his last U .S. Army rank throughout 00:17:20.099 --> 00:17:22.680 the war. Perhaps as a silent homage to the Army, 00:17:22.819 --> 00:17:25.339 he felt compelled to leave. And the choice was 00:17:25.339 --> 00:17:27.440 deeply personal. You see the family fractures 00:17:27.440 --> 00:17:30.480 as well. While Lee and most of his family chose 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:32.859 the South, his sister Anne remained fiercely 00:17:32.859 --> 00:17:36.440 pro -Union. They never spoke again. So Lee made 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.039 his choice. He aligned himself with the revolution 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.779 he hated and immediately stepped into command 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:45.660 of this nascent, untested military force. But 00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:48.599 his initial performance was, well, it was anything 00:17:48.599 --> 00:17:51.440 but triumphant. Absolutely. The Lee, who was 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.039 lauded for his precision in Mexico and at Harper's 00:17:54.039 --> 00:17:56.240 Ferry, was initially criticized as being too 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:58.440 tentative. His first field assignment in western 00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:00.539 Virginia was a decisive defeat at the Battle 00:18:00.539 --> 00:18:03.480 of Cheap Mountain in September 1861. This loss 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:06.000 led to immediate and painful public and press 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:09.460 criticism. They nicknamed him Granny Lee, implying 00:18:09.460 --> 00:18:11.539 he was too cautious, too old fashioned. Or just 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:13.720 too hesitant to commit to battle. Public confidence 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:15.920 plummeted. But Confederate President Jefferson 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.799 Davis recognized his strategic mind and moved 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:21.240 him into advisory roles. First in Richmond and 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:23.339 then organizing coastal defenses in South Carolina, 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:26.000 Georgia and Florida. A role that played directly 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.390 to his strengths as an engineer. And his work 00:18:28.390 --> 00:18:30.710 there was highly effective. The source mentions 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:33.450 he developed a defense in depth that successfully 00:18:33.450 --> 00:18:36.109 protected Savannah from a federal advance for 00:18:36.109 --> 00:18:39.029 months. Can you elaborate on what defense in 00:18:39.029 --> 00:18:41.569 depth meant back then? Well, it meant moving 00:18:41.569 --> 00:18:44.509 beyond just a simple linear coastal fort defense. 00:18:44.869 --> 00:18:47.809 Instead of only relying on heavy guns right on 00:18:47.809 --> 00:18:50.670 the coastline, Lee used the physical geography. 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.259 He placed defenses at various staggered points, 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:57.819 inland roads, bridges, swamps, forcing the Federals 00:18:57.819 --> 00:19:00.380 to fight multiple engagements to gain any ground. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:04.319 So he's maximizing the terrain. Exactly. Maximizing 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:06.420 the defensive capabilities of the terrain and 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:08.799 minimizing the need for large troop concentrations. 00:19:09.380 --> 00:19:12.279 It was a technique far ahead of its time. And 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:14.779 back in Richmond, even his engineering brilliance 00:19:14.779 --> 00:19:17.720 was ridiculed. He earned another nickname, the 00:19:17.720 --> 00:19:20.640 King of Spades, for his insistence on digging 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.839 extensive trench lines around the Confederate 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:25.619 capital. That is the ultimate irony, isn't it? 00:19:25.829 --> 00:19:28.750 People scoffed at the idea of dug -in fortifications. 00:19:28.829 --> 00:19:30.950 They believed in decisive, glamorous maneuver 00:19:30.950 --> 00:19:34.089 warfare. But Lee was preparing for a war of attrition. 00:19:34.230 --> 00:19:36.710 The war he knew was coming. And those same trenches 00:19:36.710 --> 00:19:39.589 later became the pivotal defense lines at Petersburg 00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:42.430 that allowed the Confederacy to survive for nearly 00:19:42.430 --> 00:19:45.230 a year longer than it might have otherwise. Everything 00:19:45.230 --> 00:19:49.660 changed in June 1862. General Joseph E. Johnston 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:52.079 was wounded during the Peninsula Campaign, and 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:54.019 Lee was finally put in charge of the main force. 00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:56.940 Which he immediately renamed the Army of Northern 00:19:56.940 --> 00:20:00.000 Virginia. This command change was a metamorphosis 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:03.000 for Lee. He immediately shocked the Union commander, 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:05.980 George McClellan, by launching a rapid series 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:09.240 of bold, aggressive attacks known as the Seven 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.900 Days Battles. The attacks were certainly bold, 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:14.579 but they were also incredibly costly for the 00:20:14.579 --> 00:20:16.319 Confederacy, weren't they? He was aggressive 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:18.980 to the point of seeming reckless. He was. Lee 00:20:18.980 --> 00:20:21.460 accepted much higher casualties than his predecessors 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:24.039 because his objective was always strategic. He 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:25.980 had to drive the Federals away from Richmond. 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:29.519 And despite the losses, he succeeded. He drove 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:31.940 the much larger Union army away from the capital, 00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:34.440 ending the peninsula campaign and dramatically 00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:37.640 boosting Confederate morale. This success cemented 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:39.920 his reputation, earning him that affectionate 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.960 nickname Marseille Robert among his troops. They 00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.359 now saw him as their indispensable leader. And 00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:47.859 that strategic success had massive consequences 00:20:47.859 --> 00:20:50.980 for the Union political landscape. The setback 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:53.359 forced President Lincoln to take drastic measures, 00:20:53.619 --> 00:20:56.259 realizing that emancipation had to become a military 00:20:56.259 --> 00:20:59.420 act to cripple the Confederacy. But to issue 00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:02.240 the Emancipation Proclamation, he needed a victory. 00:21:02.480 --> 00:21:05.500 And Lee, meanwhile, was relentless. He next defeated 00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:07.880 General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:10.920 Run in August 1862, pushing the battle lines 00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:14.140 82 miles north. He had successfully shifted the 00:21:14.140 --> 00:21:16.640 war dramatically toward Union soil. Which led 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:19.319 directly to his first major strategic push into 00:21:19.319 --> 00:21:21.640 Union territory. the invasion of Maryland in 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:24.559 September 1862. Lee hoped to gather supplies, 00:21:24.859 --> 00:21:27.200 relieve Virginia, and, most importantly, win 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:30.019 a decisive victory on Union soil that might compel 00:21:30.019 --> 00:21:32.279 Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy. 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:34.880 But this entire operation was compromised by 00:21:34.880 --> 00:21:37.559 one catastrophic failure of operational security, 00:21:38.099 --> 00:21:42.319 the lost dispatch. Yes, Special Order 191. Lee's 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.400 detailed plans were somehow lost, wrapped around 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.930 three cigars. and recovered by Union forces. 00:21:48.450 --> 00:21:51.430 So McClellan, despite his characteristic slowness, 00:21:51.589 --> 00:21:54.470 now knew the entire disposition of the Confederate 00:21:54.470 --> 00:21:56.910 army. Including the fact that it was dangerously 00:21:56.910 --> 00:21:58.910 divided. Which led to the Battle of Antietam, 00:21:59.009 --> 00:22:02.029 the single bloodiest day of the war. Lee's army, 00:22:02.250 --> 00:22:04.789 despite being outnumbered and strategically compromised, 00:22:05.269 --> 00:22:08.089 somehow fought the Union to a tactical standstill. 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:11.089 Tactically inconclusive, yes, but strategically 00:22:11.089 --> 00:22:13.890 profound for the Union. Lee was forced to retreat 00:22:13.890 --> 00:22:16.599 back to Virginia. And crucially, this compelled 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:18.660 withdrawal was sufficient for Lincoln to declare 00:22:18.660 --> 00:22:20.519 it a Union victory, giving him the political 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:23.359 cover he needed to issue the preliminary Emancipation 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:26.910 Proclamation on September 22, 1862. And that 00:22:26.910 --> 00:22:29.230 act immediately placed the Confederacy on the 00:22:29.230 --> 00:22:32.250 diplomatic and moral defensive globally. It fundamentally 00:22:32.250 --> 00:22:34.970 changed the war's objective from merely preserving 00:22:34.970 --> 00:22:37.809 the Union to actively destroying slavery. Yet 00:22:37.809 --> 00:22:40.410 Lee remained a terrifyingly effective tactical 00:22:40.410 --> 00:22:43.210 commander. He followed Antietam with a major 00:22:43.210 --> 00:22:45.569 one -sided victory at Fredericksburg in December 00:22:45.569 --> 00:22:48.809 1862 against Ambrose Burnside. Mostly due to 00:22:48.809 --> 00:22:51.569 strong defensive organization and Burnside's 00:22:51.569 --> 00:22:54.730 insistence on these futile frontal assaults. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:59.380 The casualty figures are stunning. 12 ,600 Union 00:22:59.380 --> 00:23:02.900 casualties to 5 ,000 Confederates. After witnessing 00:23:02.900 --> 00:23:05.539 the slaughter from a hill, Lee reportedly uttered 00:23:05.539 --> 00:23:08.599 that sobering, often quoted phrase, It is well 00:23:08.599 --> 00:23:10.799 that war is so terrible, else we should grow 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:13.160 too fond of it. And this leads right into his 00:23:13.160 --> 00:23:16.299 tactical masterwork, Chancellorsville, in May 00:23:16.299 --> 00:23:19.950 1863. He's facing a significantly larger Union 00:23:19.950 --> 00:23:22.569 force under Joseph Hooker, and Lee defies all 00:23:22.569 --> 00:23:25.069 conventional wisdom by dangerously dividing his 00:23:25.069 --> 00:23:27.670 already smaller army. He sends Stonewall Jackson 00:23:27.670 --> 00:23:29.809 on that daring flanking maneuver that caught 00:23:29.809 --> 00:23:32.009 the exposed Union flank completely by surprise. 00:23:32.289 --> 00:23:34.970 An astonishing display of battlefield audacity. 00:23:35.130 --> 00:23:37.829 An impressive tactical victory, arguably his 00:23:37.829 --> 00:23:40.089 best, but it came with an immense, unrecoverable 00:23:40.089 --> 00:23:42.539 cost. Jackson was accidentally shot by his own 00:23:42.539 --> 00:23:44.720 men and died a week later. Lee had won the battle 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:46.960 but lost his most aggressive and brilliant lieutenant. 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:49.420 And the loss of Jackson, combined with the strategic 00:23:49.420 --> 00:23:52.319 failure to gain decisive ground, left Lee restless. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:55.059 He still believed the South needed that one decisive 00:23:55.059 --> 00:23:58.279 victory on Union soil to end the war. That restlessness 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:01.519 and that desire for a knockout blow really set 00:24:01.519 --> 00:24:04.140 the stage for what comes next. Gettysburg and 00:24:04.140 --> 00:24:06.509 the War of Attrition. Following Chancellorsville, 00:24:06.630 --> 00:24:09.289 Lee launched his second and ultimately catastrophic 00:24:09.289 --> 00:24:12.329 invasion of the North. The source suggests this 00:24:12.329 --> 00:24:14.650 was a major strategic blunder right from the 00:24:14.650 --> 00:24:18.250 initial decision. Why so? Well, Lee had a bias 00:24:18.250 --> 00:24:21.170 toward offensive action. He believed he had to 00:24:21.170 --> 00:24:23.390 relieve Virginia and gather supplies from the 00:24:23.390 --> 00:24:26.269 rich Pennsylvania farmland. But his decision 00:24:26.269 --> 00:24:28.869 to push north came despite military advisers 00:24:28.869 --> 00:24:31.690 urging President Davis to focus resources on 00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:34.369 saving Vicksburg. Which was crumbling under Grant's 00:24:34.369 --> 00:24:37.589 pressure in the West. Why was Vicksburg so important? 00:24:37.829 --> 00:24:39.750 Vicksburg was the key to the Mississippi River. 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:42.759 Losing it meant splitting the Confederacy in 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:45.339 two and allowing the Union complete control of 00:24:45.339 --> 00:24:48.559 the Western interior, isolating Louisiana, Arkansas, 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:51.279 and Texas. But Lee's argument prevailed. It did, 00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:54.240 authorizing the Northern offensive, a decision 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:56.660 later viewed by historians as sacrificing the 00:24:56.660 --> 00:24:59.039 entire Western theater for a high -risk gamble 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:01.200 in the East. The Battle of Gettysburg itself 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:05.119 in early July 1863 was an accidental encounter 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:07.660 that quickly escalated, and the Confederate forces 00:25:07.660 --> 00:25:10.740 were immediately hampered by key military failures. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:14.180 First and foremost, the failure of J .E .B. Stuart's 00:25:14.180 --> 00:25:16.599 cavalry to provide effective reconnaissance. 00:25:16.779 --> 00:25:19.319 Lee was fighting virtually blind in enemy territory, 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:22.220 unaware of the exact Union strength or deployment. 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.099 And the terrain decisions were disastrous. On 00:25:25.099 --> 00:25:27.460 day one, Lee's forces successfully pushed the 00:25:27.460 --> 00:25:30.500 Union back, but the pursuit stopped short, allowing 00:25:30.500 --> 00:25:33.059 the Federals to consolidate on key high ground 00:25:33.059 --> 00:25:36.019 that General Ewell failed to seize. That failure 00:25:36.019 --> 00:25:38.220 to seize Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill on day 00:25:38.220 --> 00:25:41.200 one was crucial. Those hills gave the Union the 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:43.720 centralized, elevated defensive position, the 00:25:43.720 --> 00:25:46.079 famous Fish Hook Line, allowing them interior 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:48.599 lines to shift troops and supplies rapidly. So 00:25:48.599 --> 00:25:50.119 the Confederates were forced to fight uphill 00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:51.859 for the next two days against a concentrated 00:25:51.859 --> 00:25:55.079 enemy. An impossible task. Throughout day two, 00:25:55.220 --> 00:25:57.140 Lee pressed attacks but faced stiff resistance 00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:00.220 and heavy losses. Then came day three and the 00:26:00.220 --> 00:26:02.819 strategic failure that defines the battle, Pickett's 00:26:02.819 --> 00:26:05.440 Charge. Lee rejected the advice of his most trusted 00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:08.059 Corps commander, James Longstreet. Longstreet 00:26:08.059 --> 00:26:10.859 urged a flanking maneuver moving the army around 00:26:10.859 --> 00:26:13.900 the Union left to force Meade to attack them 00:26:13.900 --> 00:26:16.940 on ground of Confederate choosing. He famously 00:26:16.940 --> 00:26:19.920 argued that no 15 ,000 men could successfully 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:22.880 take the Union center. But Lee overruled him. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:26.019 He ordered a massive, futile frontal assault 00:26:26.019 --> 00:26:28.799 across open ground against the strongest point 00:26:28.799 --> 00:26:31.880 of the Union line. The ground was a mile -long, 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:34.920 open field completely exposed to Union artillery 00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:37.920 fire from Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate artillery 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:40.539 bombardment failed to seriously damage the Union 00:26:40.539 --> 00:26:43.160 defenses, and the Federal infantry and cannon 00:26:43.160 --> 00:26:45.339 just shredded the advancing Confederate lines. 00:26:45.539 --> 00:26:48.619 A bloodbath. It resulted in thousands of unrecoverable 00:26:48.619 --> 00:26:50.799 losses for the Army of Northern Virginia. And 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:53.180 Lee met the remains of the division and made 00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:56.140 that painful public admission. All this has been 00:26:56.140 --> 00:26:58.640 my fault. He was devastated. The Confederate 00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:01.119 Army never fully recovered from the 28 ,000 casualties 00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:03.599 suffered over those three days. He even offered 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:05.460 his resignation to President Davis on August 00:27:05.460 --> 00:27:09.460 8, 1863. Which Davis, of course, refused. The 00:27:09.460 --> 00:27:12.039 historical summation is brutal, encapsulated 00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:15.359 by historian Shelby Foote's quote. Gettysburg 00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:17.759 was the price the South paid for having Robert 00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:20.400 E. Lee as commander. It seemed his aggressive 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:22.259 style, which had been his greatest strength, 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:25.099 became his greatest strategic flaw when faced 00:27:25.099 --> 00:27:28.480 with a war of attrition. And from 1864 onward, 00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:30.900 it was purely a war of attrition, marked by the 00:27:30.900 --> 00:27:34.230 relentless duel with Grant. Ulysses S. Grant 00:27:34.230 --> 00:27:36.490 took command of all Union armies and changed 00:27:36.490 --> 00:27:39.089 the entire strategic objective in the East. The 00:27:39.089 --> 00:27:41.630 objective was no longer seizing territory or 00:27:41.630 --> 00:27:44.430 the enemy capital, but destroying Lee's army 00:27:44.430 --> 00:27:47.509 itself. Grant initiated the Overland Campaign 00:27:47.509 --> 00:27:51.109 in May 1864, resulting in these brutal, bloody 00:27:51.109 --> 00:27:53.390 battles like the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and 00:27:53.390 --> 00:27:55.509 Cold Harbor. And Lee displayed his defensive 00:27:55.509 --> 00:27:58.069 genius, stopping Grant at every turn. But the 00:27:58.069 --> 00:28:00.609 key difference was the strategic math. Grant 00:28:00.609 --> 00:28:03.170 used superior manpower and resources to simply 00:28:03.170 --> 00:28:05.569 absorb the casualties and keep moving southeast. 00:28:05.910 --> 00:28:08.769 At Cold Harbor, Grant ordered a disastrous frontal 00:28:08.769 --> 00:28:11.589 assault that cost 7 ,000 Union lives in 20 minutes, 00:28:11.750 --> 00:28:13.670 which Grant later called his greatest regret. 00:28:13.930 --> 00:28:16.210 But even after a setback like that, he didn't 00:28:16.210 --> 00:28:19.089 stop or retreat. That was the brilliance of Grant's 00:28:19.089 --> 00:28:21.670 attrition strategy. He knew he could replace 00:28:21.670 --> 00:28:24.529 his losses. Lee could not. Grant was tenacious. 00:28:25.099 --> 00:28:27.339 forcing Lee into the trenches he had been ridiculed 00:28:27.339 --> 00:28:30.160 for building years earlier. And when Grant successfully 00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:32.460 moved his massive army across the James River, 00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:35.579 he initiated the siege of Petersburg. The siege 00:28:35.579 --> 00:28:39.000 of Petersburg lasted from June 1864 until March 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:42.779 1865. It established the industrialized trench 00:28:42.779 --> 00:28:45.759 warfare that characterized World War I. Lee's 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:48.500 army shrank daily due to desertions and desperate 00:28:48.500 --> 00:28:52.250 supply shortages. By February 1865, in a gesture 00:28:52.250 --> 00:28:54.450 that really underscored his indispensable role, 00:28:55.109 --> 00:28:57.009 Lee was finally appointed general -in -chief 00:28:57.009 --> 00:28:59.369 of the armies of the Confederate States. Facing 00:28:59.369 --> 00:29:02.650 utter manpower devastation, he reluctantly advocated 00:29:02.650 --> 00:29:04.410 for the desperate measure of enlisting enslaved 00:29:04.410 --> 00:29:06.509 people into the Confederate Army in exchange 00:29:06.509 --> 00:29:09.150 for their freedom. A move that completely contradicted 00:29:09.150 --> 00:29:10.910 the foundational premise of the Confederacy. 00:29:11.029 --> 00:29:13.390 But the first units were only in training when 00:29:13.390 --> 00:29:16.269 the war ended. Petersburg fell. Lee retreated 00:29:16.269 --> 00:29:18.529 west, was surrounded, and surrendered his army 00:29:18.529 --> 00:29:21.170 to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 00:29:21.390 --> 00:29:24.950 1865. And it's important to acknowledge his immediate 00:29:24.950 --> 00:29:28.589 post -surrender action. He famously resisted 00:29:28.589 --> 00:29:31.430 calls from some officers to scatter and wage 00:29:31.430 --> 00:29:33.990 a hopeless guerrilla war. He insisted the war 00:29:33.990 --> 00:29:37.250 was over and campaigned immediately for intersectional 00:29:37.250 --> 00:29:39.769 reconciliation, and he made a striking public 00:29:39.769 --> 00:29:43.180 statement regarding slavery. I am rejoiced that 00:29:43.180 --> 00:29:46.160 slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly 00:29:46.160 --> 00:29:48.319 for the interests of the South. It brings us 00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:50.480 right back to the contradiction. The man who 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:53.339 administered slavery so harshly could also declare 00:29:53.339 --> 00:29:55.900 himself relieved that the institution was gone. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:58.599 Perhaps viewing the end of slavery as the end 00:29:58.599 --> 00:30:00.660 of the moral and political conflict that had 00:30:00.660 --> 00:30:03.059 plagued the nation. And that sets the stage for 00:30:03.059 --> 00:30:05.559 his postbellum life and the battle over his evolving 00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:08.059 legacy. Right after the war, he transitioned 00:30:08.059 --> 00:30:10.400 immediately into civilian leadership, accepting 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:12.680 the presidency of Washington College. Which is 00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:14.920 now Washington and Lee University. He served 00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:18.500 from 1865 until his death. And he used his enormous 00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:21.019 post -war fame to transform the small college. 00:30:21.259 --> 00:30:23.720 How did he transform it? He modernized it. He 00:30:23.720 --> 00:30:26.019 expanded the curriculum beyond just... classical 00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:28.519 studies, adding practical forward -thinking courses 00:30:28.519 --> 00:30:31.420 in commerce and journalism. He also established 00:30:31.420 --> 00:30:33.740 the famous honor system, telling the students, 00:30:33.859 --> 00:30:36.880 we have but one rule here, and it is that every 00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:39.279 student be a gentleman. He was actively trying 00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:42.119 to rebuild the South's civil and economic leadership, 00:30:42.299 --> 00:30:44.519 and he showed a commitment to national reconciliation, 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.740 at least among white citizens, by actively recruiting 00:30:47.740 --> 00:30:50.269 students from the North. His reflection on his 00:30:50.269 --> 00:30:53.069 career at this time is so poignant. He confided 00:30:53.069 --> 00:30:55.029 to a colleague that the greatest mistake of his 00:30:55.029 --> 00:30:58.369 life was taking a military education. He clearly 00:30:58.369 --> 00:31:00.769 viewed his final years as a chance to contribute 00:31:00.769 --> 00:31:03.349 to the nation's recovery through education rather 00:31:03.349 --> 00:31:06.069 than conflict. But his post -war politics and 00:31:06.069 --> 00:31:08.490 his views on race ensured he remained a champion 00:31:08.490 --> 00:31:11.240 of white supremacy. even as he promoted national 00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:13.900 reconciliation. Exactly. He opposed the congressional 00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:16.039 radical Republican program for reconstruction, 00:31:16.619 --> 00:31:19.140 viewing it as too harsh and too empowering for 00:31:19.140 --> 00:31:21.500 freedmen. This is laid out very clearly in his 00:31:21.500 --> 00:31:25.319 1866 congressional testimony. While he expressed 00:31:25.319 --> 00:31:27.869 kind feelings towards the freedmen, and believe 00:31:27.869 --> 00:31:30.170 they should be educated, his underlying racial 00:31:30.170 --> 00:31:33.470 bias was stark. He stated he did not believe 00:31:33.470 --> 00:31:36.309 the black man was as capable of acquiring knowledge 00:31:36.309 --> 00:31:38.930 as the white man is. And his opposition to black 00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:41.789 political power was forthright. He forthrightly 00:31:41.789 --> 00:31:44.809 opposed black suffrage, arguing that at this 00:31:44.809 --> 00:31:48.190 time, they black southerners cannot vote intelligently 00:31:48.190 --> 00:31:50.390 and that giving them the vote would only lead 00:31:50.390 --> 00:31:53.859 to demagoguism. And that concept of demagogism 00:31:53.859 --> 00:31:56.660 is important context. The term implies a fear 00:31:56.660 --> 00:31:59.440 that newly enfranchised black citizens would 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:01.960 be manipulated by white political agitators, 00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:04.700 often northerners, to vote against the established 00:32:04.700 --> 00:32:07.319 political and social order of the South. So he 00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:09.180 was essentially arguing that immediate black 00:32:09.180 --> 00:32:11.519 political power would lead to chaos and instability, 00:32:11.940 --> 00:32:14.539 necessitating the continuation of white political 00:32:14.539 --> 00:32:17.319 control. And this period of reconciliation also 00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:19.880 contains a notable silence. The sources point 00:32:19.880 --> 00:32:21.740 out that he was urged to condemn the Ku Klux 00:32:21.740 --> 00:32:23.779 Klan, the white supremacy organization that was 00:32:23.779 --> 00:32:26.200 terrorizing the South, but he chose not to speak 00:32:26.200 --> 00:32:28.839 out against them publicly. His focus was entirely 00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:31.579 on promoting obedience to the law and order among 00:32:31.579 --> 00:32:34.500 white Southerners. His choice to remain silent 00:32:34.500 --> 00:32:37.339 on the violence of the KKK. It speaks to his 00:32:37.339 --> 00:32:39.900 prioritization of stability over defending the 00:32:39.900 --> 00:32:42.559 rights and physical safety of the freedmen. And 00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:44.720 there's a bureaucratic footnote to his life that 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:47.920 is truly heartbreaking, given his later veneration 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:51.519 as a national figure, his citizenship. Yes. Lee 00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:53.920 applied for amnesty and signed an oath of allegiance 00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:57.279 in 1865, fulfilling the requirement for the restoration 00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:00.140 of his rights. However, his application was never 00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:03.240 processed by the Secretary of State due to what 00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:06.119 was later described as a clerical error. So Lee 00:33:06.119 --> 00:33:09.779 died on October 12, 1870. in lexington virginia 00:33:09.779 --> 00:33:12.599 after suffering a stroke without his u .s citizenship 00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:14.859 ever being restored there are conflicting reports 00:33:14.859 --> 00:33:17.700 about his final words some claim he mumbled tell 00:33:17.700 --> 00:33:20.200 hill he must come up strike the tent a return 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:23.049 to the battlefield command he had known And in 00:33:23.049 --> 00:33:25.089 a bizarre twist of fate related to his burial, 00:33:25.230 --> 00:33:27.650 he was interred without shoes because local flooding 00:33:27.650 --> 00:33:30.269 prevented a suitable custom -made coffin from 00:33:30.269 --> 00:33:33.089 arriving in Lexington in time. Such a strange, 00:33:33.089 --> 00:33:35.670 humbling detail for a figure of his stature. 00:33:35.809 --> 00:33:38.549 His citizenship was finally restored posthumously 00:33:38.549 --> 00:33:41.890 by President Gerald Ford in 1975, following a 00:33:41.890 --> 00:33:45.329 joint resolution by Congress. But by then, his 00:33:45.329 --> 00:33:47.970 legacy had been solidified and then fractured. 00:33:48.250 --> 00:33:50.750 by the Lost Cause movement. Immediately after 00:33:50.750 --> 00:33:53.190 the war, he was elevated to the central figure 00:33:53.190 --> 00:33:55.829 of that interpretation. Portrayed as the ideal 00:33:55.829 --> 00:33:58.970 honorable soldier, a foe without hate, who thought 00:33:58.970 --> 00:34:01.269 purely for his state and constitutional principle, 00:34:01.470 --> 00:34:03.710 completely sanitizing the cause of secession. 00:34:04.059 --> 00:34:07.299 Admirers praised him endlessly. Military figures 00:34:07.299 --> 00:34:09.719 like Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley compared his 00:34:09.719 --> 00:34:13.739 1862 operations favorably to Napoleon's 1796 00:34:13.739 --> 00:34:17.039 campaigns. The marble man image served this massive 00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:19.559 cultural need, allowing Americans, North and 00:34:19.559 --> 00:34:22.219 South, to reconcile by celebrating the general's 00:34:22.219 --> 00:34:24.619 honor while conveniently ignoring the reason 00:34:24.619 --> 00:34:26.639 he fought. The veneration was widespread and 00:34:26.639 --> 00:34:29.179 visible. Arlington House was designated a national 00:34:29.179 --> 00:34:32.619 memorial in 1955, and monuments just proliferated 00:34:32.619 --> 00:34:34.809 across the South. These dedications, like the 00:34:34.809 --> 00:34:37.050 equestrian statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, 00:34:37.250 --> 00:34:39.170 were designed to enshrine the narrative that 00:34:39.170 --> 00:34:41.690 Lee was a figure of honor and tragedy, independent 00:34:41.690 --> 00:34:44.630 of slavery. But history rarely remains snatic, 00:34:44.690 --> 00:34:48.210 does it? In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, 00:34:48.309 --> 00:34:50.650 the historiographical shift began in earnest, 00:34:50.949 --> 00:34:53.070 challenging that narrative by focusing on the 00:34:53.070 --> 00:34:55.449 consequences of his actions rather than just 00:34:55.449 --> 00:34:58.269 his personal integrity. Historians started questioning 00:34:58.269 --> 00:35:00.909 his strategic prowess, particularly his high 00:35:00.909 --> 00:35:03.829 -risk gambles. Some modern statistical studies 00:35:03.829 --> 00:35:06.369 measuring wins above replacement for generals 00:35:06.369 --> 00:35:09.250 even suggest Lee's reckless aggression may have 00:35:09.250 --> 00:35:11.789 had a net negative impact on the Confederacy's 00:35:11.789 --> 00:35:14.289 overall war effort. By hemorrhaging irreplaceable 00:35:14.289 --> 00:35:16.489 manpower at Gettysburg and elsewhere. And the 00:35:16.489 --> 00:35:18.530 focus shifted back to the complexities we discussed 00:35:18.530 --> 00:35:21.289 today. His actions as a slaveholder, the Norris 00:35:21.289 --> 00:35:24.110 case, his post -war refusal to support freedmen's 00:35:24.110 --> 00:35:26.690 rights. And this reassessment is what fuels the 00:35:26.690 --> 00:35:29.050 intense public debate we see today, particularly 00:35:29.050 --> 00:35:31.539 around his monuments. It's a dramatic conflict 00:35:31.539 --> 00:35:34.440 between two views of history. Despite Lee's own 00:35:34.440 --> 00:35:36.820 stated opposition to public memorials, he became 00:35:36.820 --> 00:35:40.400 widely commemorated. But the recent wave of monument 00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:43.079 removal exemplified by the Charlottesville Unite 00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:45.800 the Right rally in 2017 and the removal of the 00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:49.380 massive Richmond statue in 2021 reflects a society 00:35:49.380 --> 00:35:52.199 grappling with whether to define him by his military 00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:55.320 genius or by his role as a champion of a slave 00:35:55.320 --> 00:35:58.110 -holding republic. This deep dive has certainly 00:35:58.110 --> 00:36:00.889 revealed a figure defined by enormous paradoxes. 00:36:01.110 --> 00:36:03.510 We've traced the U .S. Army engineer who chose 00:36:03.510 --> 00:36:05.730 Virginia over the Union, the man who condemned 00:36:05.730 --> 00:36:08.809 slavery as an evil but profited from it, ordered 00:36:08.809 --> 00:36:11.210 the flogging of runaways, and vigorously opposed 00:36:11.210 --> 00:36:13.769 black equality after the war. And we've analyzed 00:36:13.769 --> 00:36:16.170 the highly skilled tactician, the Marcia Robert, 00:36:16.429 --> 00:36:19.510 whose aggressive strategy, most clearly at Gettysburg, 00:36:19.670 --> 00:36:21.469 may have been the very thing that doomed the 00:36:21.469 --> 00:36:23.690 Confederate cause by consuming manpower Grant 00:36:23.690 --> 00:36:26.489 knew he could replace. The story of Lee is really 00:36:26.489 --> 00:36:28.429 the story of America selecting which version 00:36:28.429 --> 00:36:31.190 of history it wants to memorialize. The honorable 00:36:31.190 --> 00:36:33.309 duty bound soldier or the Confederate leader 00:36:33.309 --> 00:36:35.909 fighting for human bondage. What stands out to 00:36:35.909 --> 00:36:38.230 me is the immense pressure he felt to define 00:36:38.230 --> 00:36:40.909 himself by this narrow code of state loyalty 00:36:40.909 --> 00:36:44.179 and gentlemanly honor, even if it meant. betraying 00:36:44.179 --> 00:36:46.079 the national army that had trained him and the 00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:47.940 constitutional government he initially believed 00:36:47.940 --> 00:36:51.280 in. His life exemplifies the tragic flaw of the 00:36:51.280 --> 00:36:54.159 antebellum elite. A localized, almost feudal 00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:56.340 concept of loyalty over a national commitment. 00:36:56.579 --> 00:36:59.559 Exactly. The marble man myth allowed us to forget 00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:03.019 that his choices had devastating concrete consequences, 00:37:03.480 --> 00:37:06.539 military, moral, and political, that continue 00:37:06.539 --> 00:37:09.219 to shape the American landscape today. And that 00:37:09.219 --> 00:37:11.239 leads to our final provocative thought for you, 00:37:11.280 --> 00:37:13.320 the listener, to carry with you. We established 00:37:13.320 --> 00:37:16.199 that Lee insisted that secession is nothing but 00:37:16.199 --> 00:37:19.019 revolution, and he would sacrifice the four million 00:37:19.019 --> 00:37:22.119 enslaved people to save the Union. What does 00:37:22.119 --> 00:37:24.139 it mean for the nature of American patriotism 00:37:24.139 --> 00:37:26.000 that the man who viewed the dissolution of the 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:29.239 Union as an accumulation of all the evils ultimately 00:37:29.239 --> 00:37:31.619 became the most revered military champion of 00:37:31.619 --> 00:37:32.400 that very cause?