Today would have been the birthday of one of the greatest figures of American History. His name is Robert E. Lee. He was born in 1807. Abraham Lincoln had depended on him to lead the Union Army in the Civil War. Had he done so the war might have been cut in half. Lee, however was loyal to his beloved state of Virginia.
Lee was at all times a gentleman and a scholar and actually became a college professor after the end of the War. Now interestingly enough, Robert E. Lee privately ridiculed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the Founders. The commanding general of the Union army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top command. Lee accepted a promotion to colonel on March 28. Lee had earlier been asked by one of his lieutenants if he intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which he replied, "I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Meanwhile, Lee ignored an offer of command from the CSA. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, it was obvious that Virginia would quickly secede and so Lee turned down an April 18 offer to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned on April 20, and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23. At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank; he did not intend to wear a generals insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.
Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, where he was hampered by the lack of an effective Confederate navy. Once again blamed by the press, he became military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Secretary of War. While in Richmond , Virginia, Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches would later play an important role in battles near the end of the war. Today is also Dolly Parton's 64th birthday and believe or not Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers turns seventy one. Well off again to sell cars at my new job. All my training should be this week before I take my final position in the "Special Finance" department. That means financing for people with bad credit. After this recession do many people really have "great" credit? Maybe not.
Lee was at all times a gentleman and a scholar and actually became a college professor after the end of the War. Now interestingly enough, Robert E. Lee privately ridiculed the Confederacy in letters in early 1861, denouncing secession as "revolution" and a betrayal of the efforts of the Founders. The commanding general of the Union army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top command. Lee accepted a promotion to colonel on March 28. Lee had earlier been asked by one of his lieutenants if he intended to fight for the Confederacy or the Union, to which he replied, "I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in the defense of my native state, Virginia, in which case I shall not prove recreant to my duty." Meanwhile, Lee ignored an offer of command from the CSA. After Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, it was obvious that Virginia would quickly secede and so Lee turned down an April 18 offer to become a major general in the U.S. Army, resigned on April 20, and took up command of the Virginia state forces on April 23. At the outbreak of war, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank; he did not intend to wear a generals insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.
Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks. He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, where he was hampered by the lack of an effective Confederate navy. Once again blamed by the press, he became military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Secretary of War. While in Richmond , Virginia, Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches would later play an important role in battles near the end of the war. Today is also Dolly Parton's 64th birthday and believe or not Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers turns seventy one. Well off again to sell cars at my new job. All my training should be this week before I take my final position in the "Special Finance" department. That means financing for people with bad credit. After this recession do many people really have "great" credit? Maybe not.
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