Lee and His Cause The How and the Why of the War Between The States

Description

Originally published in 1907, this edition was reprinted in 2009. Written by a former Confederate Chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia. For General Lee to know his duty was to do it. At Appomattox, he saw it clearly and did it promptly. What it cost him to hand over to his enemy the ragged, half-starved, fighting remnant of the Army of Northern Virginia no words can tell, unless it may be summed up in these two - his life! The soldier's death would have been the easy, the glorious thing. Lee craved it, and spoke of it, but was too great and good to court it. He chose the harder lot of living and working, suffering and sorrowing over his vanquished people and ruined country. During the agonizing hours of suspense and whilst he was weighing the momentous interests and obligations involved in the question of longer resistance- burdened with the trust laid upon him, and bending under the weight of woe about to fall upon his beloved Southland- he exclaimed from the depths of his tender heart, "How easily I could get rid of this and be at rest! I have only to ride along the lines and all will be over! But, it is our duty to live- for what will become of the women and children of the South, if we are not here to support them?"