These views, held by General Lee, are important to remember as many today now oppose honoring the memory of this heroic southern leader and legendary American. When certain activities were announced to honor the memory of General Lee in this special year the NAACP protested on the grounds that to memorialize General Lee, or any Confederate for that matter, using public funds was an "insult" to Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities. I take the greatest possible exception to such a statement and can only be amazed by the stunning lack of understanding shown by the NAACP. They are effectively trying to make enemies where none exist. General Lee, certainly, fought for a country in which slavery was legal. However, General Lee was certainly no racist. His personal feeling was that slavery was an evil but that it was a problem the south had to deal with on its own and which should be ended peacefully, not by military force at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Such a statement by the NAACP is also an insult to the numerous minorities who supported, fought and died for the Confederacy. There were, it is often forgotten, Black Americans who wore Confederate gray, but I find it particularly ignorant that the NAACP would single out Hispanics since, unlike Blacks, the Hispanics in America overwhelmingly sided with the Confederacy and fought almost entirely on the Confederate side. In fact it was Santos Benavides, of Laredo, who was a Confederate hero and became the highest ranking Hispanic soldier of the war. Likewise the very first American Indian to rise to the rank of general in America did so in the Confederate army which was Brigadier General Stand Watie, the last Confederate general to surrender. By painting all Confederates as racist bigots, the NAACP is guilty of the same sort of attitude of discrimination as they claim to oppose.
After the war was over there was a service held in an Episcopal church in Virginia. In the old days, blacks and whites took communion seperately. This time, however, a newly freed Black man walked up the isle and knelt at the communion rail with the white people. This made them somewhat uncomfortable and one by one they all quickly left and returned to their seats, unwilling to take communion alongside the former slave. Then, one white man stood up, walked forward and knelt at the rail beside the Black man to take communion. That man was Robert E. Lee and seeing the example of their beloved general, the others soon came back. I would ask the NAACP is this sounds like the action of a racist? General Lee is an American hero that all people, of any color, north or south, should be able to admire. It says alot to me that even those of his lifetime who counted themselves as his enemies on the battlefield saluted him for his courage, skill and chivalry while it is only people today, 200 years later, who feel qualified to criticize and smear the honored name of such a great American general and southern gentleman as Robert E. Lee. They would also be well advised to stop trying to make enemies of people who have no problem with them. Ask any southerner today who admires General Lee why they do so and the vast majority will tell you it is because of his upstanding example, his morality, his conduct, his courage and his unsurpassed brilliance as a general. None will say because he fought for a slave-holding country, I would wager on it -not a single one!
Part of why General Lee has become such a beloved icon of the south is because he embodied all of the best qualities of the southern people. He represented the best of the south and not the worst. The south, and the Confederacy, certainly had a few unsavory characters, just as the north did, and there were southerners who were zealous defenders and promoters of the institution of slavery. However, and this is important, these are not the Confederates one will find honored throughout the south today. Rather, it is men like General Lee who are the most beloved, and the NAACP would do well to take the time to learn why he is so beloved and just exactly what qualities he embodied which the south aspires to before they start to condemn him. Even my very Yankee mother admits that General Lee was a fine man and that memorials for the Confederacy and the Confederates are perfectly legitimate as reminders of historical people and events be they good or bad. General Lee, of all people, should never be the source of controversy but rather his 200th anniversary should be an occasion for unity among all Americans that our homeland produced such a moral, human son and outstanding general whose victories are still being taught at military academies around the world. This weekend following his birthday, I will wear my Confederate gray proudly and fly my southern flag high and remember the good man and the greatest general the Americas ever produced who was Robert Edward Lee.
Happy birthday General, and remember, Deo Vindice!