Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

by Ty Seidule

In Alexandria, all looked to Lee. The local newspaper, my hometown paper, the Alexandria Gazette, wrote on the day Lee mailed his resignation, but before his decision was announced, “We do not know, and have no right to speak for or anticipate, the course of Col. Robert E. Lee. Whatever he may do, will be conscientious and honorable.” The pro-secession Gazette put no pressure on Lee to resign. If he did resign, the paper hoped Virginia would give him command of its troops. The paper fawned over him. “His reputation, his acknowledged ability, his chivalric character, his probity, honor and—may we add, to his eternal praise—his Christian life and conduct—make his name a ‘tower of strength.’”50 Lee’s actions carried great weight in Virginia and among army officers. One person who lived near Arlington noticed that “none of them wanted secession, and were waiting to see what Colonel Robert Lee would do.” A relative noted, “For some the question ‘What will Colonel Lee do?’ was only second in interest to ‘What will Virginia do?’” Lieutenant Orton Williams, Mary Lee’s cousin, was aide-de-camp to Winfield Scott. When Williams heard the news, he said, “Now that ‘Cousin Robert’ had resigned everyone seemed to be doing so.”51