Lee in the Shadow of Washington

by MCCASLIN RICHARD B.

• ISBN13: 9780807126967
• ISBN10: 0807126969
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

While most scholars agree that Robert E. Lee's loyalty to Virginia was the key factor in his decision to join the Confederate cause, Richard McCaslin goes further to demonstrate that Lee's true call to action was the legacy of the American Revolution viewed through his reverence for George Washington. Like Washington, Lee wore a colonel's uniform. He rode a horse named for one of his idol's mounts, Traveller, and carried one of Washington's swords. On January 19, 1861, his fifty-fourth birthday, Lee sat alone in his room at Fort Mason and faced the prospect of war by reading the latest book about his hero.

In his thematic biography of the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, McCaslin locates the sources of Lee's devotion to Washington and shows how this bond affected his performance as a general in battle. He argues that Lee used the strategy of attrition to attempt to persuade the North to quit just as Washington had wearied the British. But reliance on Washington as a role model led to tragic irony: in 1864 it was Lee's Confederates who became trappe

Author Biography

Richard B. McCaslin is professor of history at High Point University in North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Mystic Chords of Memory
A Revolutionary Heritage	13	(24)
The Old Revolutionary Blood
Coming of Age in the Army	37	(29)
Granny Lee
Secession and Obscurity	66	(29)
Audacity Personified
Northern Virginia in 1862	95	(43)
A Very Bold Game
Showdown at Gettysburg	138	(28)
Children of the Revolution
Fighting for Time, 1864-1865	166	(27)
Washington without His Reward
After the Civil War	193	(32)
Epilogue In the Shadow of Washington	225	(10)
Bibliography	235	(18)
Index	253