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Three Myths About Robert E. Lee: It’s Time These Were Put to Rest
History Must Be Remembered Truthfully
Early last month I wrote an article about the controversy surrounding the removal of Confederate monuments from our public spaces. You should read the whole thing, but in a nutshell, I took on the many myths defenders of these monuments use to justify their support of keeping them. The image used in that article was one of a work crew removing a statue of Robert E. Lee in New Orleans; I have been thinking about Lee, and the myths that endure about him, ever since.
For more than 150 years the legacy of Robert E. Lee was virtually immune to scrutiny. The Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War, Lee has been revered in both the North and South as an Old-World gentleman and military genius who only fought for the Confederacy to defend his beloved Virginia. It is a nice sentiment, but it is just not true.
As I said in my earlier article, I am a Southerner. I grew up in a newly post-segregation Texas that was still coming to grips with being on the wrong side of the civil rights issue. Though we revered the heroes of the Alamo far more than those of the Confederacy, statues of Robert E. Lee were ubiquitous, as were the number of schools, parks, and streets named after him. I will admit…
