I'm reading "Reading the Man" in which we discover what a horrible human being R.E "Bobby" Lee was.

[NNadir]

I've been meaning to get to this book for some time, and recently remembered to get it from the library. I'm leafing through it.

It is a collection, with commentaries, of letters written by and to Lee that were in his family archives.

Here is the late Ms. Pryor discussing her book:

You can also find lots of videos on line put up to attack the book and Ms. Pryor, all, predictably, featuring White men who say that Americans killing Americans in order to claim that some Americans were property (like farm animals) was a great and noble thing and of course, Robert E. Lee would never whip his slaves, and the fact that his former slaves said he had them whipped, well who you gonna believe, a white man or former slaves?

Given the outcome of American history, I often muse to myself as to whether it might have been better to put the traitor on trial for the treason he clearly committed and perhaps hang him.

There were Virginians who stayed loyal to their country, notably Winfield Scott, whose remarkable conquest of Mexico was one of the greatest military campaigns in history, despite the unjust reason for undertaking it. Scott, Lee's mentor and once an admirer, kicked Lee out of his office when he realized that Lee was going to be a traitor. Another loyal Virginian was George Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga," who smashed the Confederate Army of Tennessee, the only leader on either side to completely demolish an opposing army (at Nashville) in such a fashion as there was nothing left of it in a position to surrender. (Three Confederate Armies surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, including Lee's.)

Pryor's book is interesting and worth a read I think. Pryor, unfortunately, was killed in an automobile accident.

"Bob" Lee was a horrible man. There are several worthy books that demonstrate that despite a contrary reputation, he wasn't all that much of a general, at least in the strategic sense although he had some tactical victories, especially against the little Brat McClellan. General/President Grant was the far greater man, militarily (in both tactics and strategy), politically and in morality.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We were raised to see Robert E. Lee as something of a hero, despite his role in the Civil War.

It is a difficult exercise to see him as anything else.

Kudos to Ms. Pryor!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. I read her book "Six Encounters with Lincoln" and it was excellent

for its enlightenment of his at times awkward principles, though some could be dismissed as going with the times he lived in.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. General Thomas needs more recogition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas