In Lincoln’s view, Lee was a strange and inexplicable man. Yet he was only one of many supposedly loyal Southern officers who violated their oaths of allegiance and went over to the rebels. Another Virginian, Captain John Bankhead Magruder of the artillery, came to see Lincoln, stood right here in his office and “repeated over and over again” his “protestations of loyalty,” only to resign his commission and head for the South. It gave Lincoln the hypo. He referred to Lee, Magruder, and all like them as traitors.
Lee and the rest lacked the courage to uphold their oaths.
