Lee Takes Command

[Jim Klag]

June 1, 1862 - Jefferson Davis replaces wounded Army of Northern Virginia commander Joseph E. Johnston with Robert E. Lee.

Lee Takes Charge

McClellan thought he was timid. Newspapers called him ‘Granny Lee.’ But once in command, the general attacked quickly and boldly. The musketry and

www.historynet.com

 

[diane]

What would have happened if Lee had remained Davis' councilor rather than commander of the ANV (as he renamed Johnston's army)? Old Joe believed in treading water, keeping the casualties low, use the small resources wisely. Lee seemed to be advising Davis to go along with the commander on the ground but when he took the field himself he was probably the most aggressive general the US has ever produced! His son, Custis Lee, might have been a better replacement - but he didn't have the ringing accolades in Virginia his father had, or the military experience. However, when he did get a chance to show fight, he was very good.

 

[Jim Klag]

What would have happened if Lee had remained Davis' councilor rather than commander of the ANV (as he renamed Johnston's army)? Old Joe believed in treading water, keeping the casualties low, use the small resources wisely. Lee seemed to be advising Davis to go along with the commander on the ground but when he took the field himself he was probably the most aggressive general the US has ever produced! His son, Custis Lee, might have been a better replacement - but he didn't have the ringing accolades in Virginia his father had, or the military experience. However, when he did get a chance to show fight, he was very good.

Had his pal Albert Sidney Johnston not cashed in his chips at Shiloh, Davis would probably have named him to replace the wounded Joe.

 

[diane]

Yes! That's exactly what would have happened. Davis truly believed A S Johnston was Superman plus a side of fries. (That was news to A S Johnston, by the way, but he was a dutiful soldier and said yes sir a lot!) Myself, I believe Lee would have been best as an advisor to Davis. He had a way of soothing the savage beast, as it were, whereas Davis tended to rub its fur the wrong way. Much of the cause of the defeat of the South was getting his team to pull in unison - Lee excelled at mending wounded pride. I don't think the turmoil in the AoT would have escalated to the point it did if Lee had, as a representative of Davis, made his way out there and worked with all the disgruntled and unhappy egos - especially Bragg. (Lee had Bragg's number, incidentally, unlike Davis.)

 

[5fish]

I want to point out that Lee was a great general and his military achievement should be studied throughout time. He was no Cincinnatus, nor Washington but a traitor deserving no monuments in public spaces...

 

[5fish]

Here is this fine: Over all the site is slated to lost cause but you still can find things...

Robert E. Lee's Religious Views

Robert E. Lee was a man of profound Faith. Visit us to learn more about Robert E. Lee's Religious Views

www.sonofthesouth.net

• Robert E. Lee's Prayer

"Help me to be, to think, to act what is right because it is right; make me truthful, honest, and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me." From the Truman Library. This Robert E. Lee prayer was memorized by Harry Truman, and Used by Truman throughout his life.

TITLE PAGE AND Mrs. Lee'S INSCRIPTION IN GENERAL LEE'S PRAYER-BOOK
This book was used from 1846 until 1864 and then exchanged because the type was too small for him to read it easily.

 

[5fish]

Here a article on topic...

What do you know about Robert E. Lee’s religious faith?

Gregory Elder writes about less well-known aspects of the still-controversial Confederate general’s life

www.redlandsdailyfacts.com

Of the Scriptures he said, “There are things in the Old Book which I may not be able to explain, but I fully accept it as the infallible Word of God, and receive its teachings as inspired by the Holy Spirit.”

By birth and culture, Lee was an Episcopalian, the same as his wife and relatives. He was strongly evangelical in his views.
A bit of background on the American Anglicans might be in order to understand Lee’s deep Protestant faith. In the early part of the 19th century a ritualistic revival in the Anglican community began in England at Oxford University, known as the Anglo-Catholic movement, which desired to revive many of the older ritualistic elements of worship from medieval Catholic times, such as the use of chant, candles, formal vestments and the like.

Such men were known as the High Church or the “Puseyites,” named for a Catholic-minded English theologian. They were opposed by the more Protestant and evangelical elements in the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church, which sought to retain the Reformation heritage of emphasis on the Bible, personal conversion and simple worship. This party was called the Low Church, and the Lee family strongly supported this tradition.

When a High Church curate took it upon himself to intone rather than speak part of the worship at Christ Church, where Lee was a lay leader, he was horrified and declared, “I will not have Puseyism in my church!” The young priest stopped his intoning.

Throughout the war, Lee personally paid for Bibles and the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer to be distributed among his troops. In the military and in his retirement career as a college president, Lee encouraged the chaplains to convert as many of the young men as they could.

On a much less encouraging note, he was directly quoted saying that he believed that Christianity would help improve the black peoples in America, but that it would take a long time.

On a more positive side of things, Lee forgave his combat enemies in the war and asked his former military officers to pray for the people of the North. As a general and later as a college teacher, he prayed for the conversion of his young men to Christ.

One of Lee’s best-known prayers that he recited often — and years later President Harry Truman memorized and said daily — is as follows: “Help me to be, to think, to act what is right because it is right; make me truthful, honest, and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me.”

After Lee was defeated, he moved to Lexington, Va., where he had been offered the presidency of a college. The church he attended, Grace Episcopal Church, welcomed him and he soon became a church warden.

 

[5fish]

Here a eyewitness of Lee arrival in Richmond after his defeat...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/making-sense-of-robert-e-lee-85017563/

“And, as for myself, you young fellows might go to bushwhacking, but the only dignified course for me would be, to go to Gen. Grant and surrender myself and take the consequences.” That is what he did on April 9, 1865, at a farmhouse in the village of Appomattox Court House, wearing a fulldress uniform and carrying a borrowed ceremonial sword which he did not surrender.

Thomas Morris Chester, the only black correspondent for a major daily newspaper (the Philadelphia Press) during the war, had nothing but scorn for the Confederacy, and referred to Lee as a “notorious rebel.” But when Chester witnessed Lee’s arrival in shattered, burned-out Richmond after the surrender, his dispatch sounded a more sympathetic note. After Lee “alighted from his horse, he immediately uncovered his head, thinly covered with silver hairs, as he had done in acknowledgment of the veneration of the people along the streets,” Chester wrote. “There was a general rush of the small crowd to shake hands with him. During these manifestations not a word was spoken, and when the ceremony was through, the General bowed and ascended his steps. The silence was then broken by a few voices calling for a speech, to which he paid no attention. The General then passed into his house, and the crowd dispersed.”

 

[Jim Klag]

Here a article on topic...

What do you know about Robert E. Lee’s religious faith?

Gregory Elder writes about less well-known aspects of the still-controversial Confederate general’s life

www.redlandsdailyfacts.com

Of the Scriptures he said, “There are things in the Old Book which I may not be able to explain, but I fully accept it as the infallible Word of God, and receive its teachings as inspired by the Holy Spirit.”

By birth and culture, Lee was an Episcopalian, the same as his wife and relatives. He was strongly evangelical in his views.
A bit of background on the American Anglicans might be in order to understand Lee’s deep Protestant faith. In the early part of the 19th century a ritualistic revival in the Anglican community began in England at Oxford University, known as the Anglo-Catholic movement, which desired to revive many of the older ritualistic elements of worship from medieval Catholic times, such as the use of chant, candles, formal vestments and the like.

Such men were known as the High Church or the “Puseyites,” named for a Catholic-minded English theologian. They were opposed by the more Protestant and evangelical elements in the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church, which sought to retain the Reformation heritage of emphasis on the Bible, personal conversion and simple worship. This party was called the Low Church, and the Lee family strongly supported this tradition.

When a High Church curate took it upon himself to intone rather than speak part of the worship at Christ Church, where Lee was a lay leader, he was horrified and declared, “I will not have Puseyism in my church!” The young priest stopped his intoning.

Throughout the war, Lee personally paid for Bibles and the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer to be distributed among his troops. In the military and in his retirement career as a college president, Lee encouraged the chaplains to convert as many of the young men as they could.

On a much less encouraging note, he was directly quoted saying that he believed that Christianity would help improve the black peoples in America, but that it would take a long time.

On a more positive side of things, Lee forgave his combat enemies in the war and asked his former military officers to pray for the people of the North. As a general and later as a college teacher, he prayed for the conversion of his young men to Christ.

One of Lee’s best-known prayers that he recited often — and years later President Harry Truman memorized and said daily — is as follows: “Help me to be, to think, to act what is right because it is right; make me truthful, honest, and honorable in all things; make me intellectually honest for the sake of right and honor and without thought of reward to me.”

After Lee was defeated, he moved to Lexington, Va., where he had been offered the presidency of a college. The church he attended, Grace Episcopal Church, welcomed him and he soon became a church warden.

Here a eyewitness of Lee arrival in Richmond after his defeat...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/making-sense-of-robert-e-lee-85017563/

“And, as for myself, you young fellows might go to bushwhacking, but the only dignified course for me would be, to go to Gen. Grant and surrender myself and take the consequences.” That is what he did on April 9, 1865, at a farmhouse in the village of Appomattox Court House, wearing a fulldress uniform and carrying a borrowed ceremonial sword which he did not surrender.

Thomas Morris Chester, the only black correspondent for a major daily newspaper (the Philadelphia Press) during the war, had nothing but scorn for the Confederacy, and referred to Lee as a “notorious rebel.” But when Chester witnessed Lee’s arrival in shattered, burned-out Richmond after the surrender, his dispatch sounded a more sympathetic note. After Lee “alighted from his horse, he immediately uncovered his head, thinly covered with silver hairs, as he had done in acknowledgment of the veneration of the people along the streets,” Chester wrote. “There was a general rush of the small crowd to shake hands with him. During these manifestations not a word was spoken, and when the ceremony was through, the General bowed and ascended his steps. The silence was then broken by a few voices calling for a speech, to which he paid no attention. The General then passed into his house, and the crowd dispersed.”

These lasr two posts don't have anything to do with Davis replacing Johnston with Lee. Feel free to start a new thread.