A Saint of the South. General Robert Edward Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia *********************
Today we Southerners celebrate the birthday of one of the most famous Americans who ever lived. I refer, of course, to General Robert Edward Lee, late of the United States Army, and Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. (Born January 19th, 1807) In truth, this man’s birthday ought to be a national holiday. Quite simply, Robert E. Lee saved America.
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After the signing of the surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox, Virginia, in April of 1865, had not Gen. Lee asked his men to return to their homes and become good citizens, those bedraggled, yet angry men, men who had an awful lot of fight left in them, would have taken to the hills, and the swamps, and continued the fight even unto today! As it was, some fought on for months, especially in the western territories, and even here in the mid-Atlantic, partisan troops, under command of John Singleton Mosby, the famed “Gray Ghost”, continued to raid Union forces for at least 30 days after the formal surrender. Lee was the only man alive who could have, and did, call upon those men to lay down their arms and go home to their families and what was left of their homes. They obeyed him.
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Why? Respect and honor.
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Lee is not, I repeat, NOT a legend. He was REAL. Lee is one of the handful of historical figures for which the stories of his honor and deeds are not myth, but fact. He was the epitome of a Southern Gentleman.
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James Dickey, the poet laureate of South Carolina, was asked once, by Barbara Walters, to define a “Southern Gentleman”. Dickey replied: “A Southern Gentleman is a southern male… with a bible in one hand… and a cannon ball in the other!
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Had the South won the war, Lee would have, most certainly, been the next President of the CSA. He, more than any single Confederate, reflected the true South.
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As Lee lay dying, the streets and lawns of his neighborhood were filled with well-wishers, admirers, and mourners, as they awaited word of his death. His bed had been turned, days before, to enable Lee to see, through the window, those crowds of people who came to honor him because there was no way they could ever repay him for his service to both The CSA and The USA.
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Robert Edward Lee was an American in every sense of the word. America is in great need of men, with the character of Robert E. Lee today.
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The First National Flag of the Confederacy flies outside my home today. It flies alongside Old Glory. Those two flags tell the story of two great nations whose destiny is forever bound together into one entity, one country.
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Over the State House grounds, in Raleigh, the Third National Flag of the Confederacy will snap briskly in the January breeze today. Newspapers, throughout the South, will carry articles in praise of Lee today. Here, in the South today, our steps are a little lighter, our chests swell with a tad more pride, than usual, and we look with respect upon those flags of old which mark a nation denied and a dream un-fulfilled.
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Our South was once a land of Cavaliers, and Southern Knights, and Southern Ladies in their flowing dresses of silks and fine linens, and mansions surrounded by cotton fields and tobacco fields, and shielded by mighty oaks draped in Spanish moss, and perfumed by giant magnolias. A land of Dreams? To be sure. A land of flaws? Absolutely.
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The South was not Camelot. But she was as close as we are ever likely to come on this continent. Had the Old South, in fact, been Camelot, then for certain, Robert E; Lee would have been our King Arthur.
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Marse Robert, as you grace the mansions of heaven this day, know, sir, that you have not been forgotten. Your name is yet spoken in reverence among those in whose veins the blood of your Knights continues to flow. We salute you sir! We salute your memory. We have bound ourselves to a movement to keep your legacy alive and well.
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Let it be known, among all the world today, that we honor General Robert Edward Lee. An American!
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J. D. Longstreet
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