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

by Ty Seidule

Why did Lee choose to resign his commission and bear arms against the country he swore to defend for three decades? We have Lee’s letter to his cousin Lieutenant Roger Jones in the West Point archives, and I show it to my class every year. “I have been unable to make up my mind to raise my hand against my native state, my relatives, my children, & my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army & never desire to draw my sword save in defense of my state. I consider it useless to go into the reasons that influence me.”53 If Lee had honored his oath, more members of his family might have stayed loyal. The vast majority of senior officers did stay. Lee went with his home state of Virginia—for a few weeks. He quickly resigned his commission leading the State of Virginia’s forces to accept a role in the Confederate States of America’s army. As historian Gary W. Gallagher has noted, Lee became a Confederate nationalist, almost overnight.54