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

by Ty Seidule

Book Overview

"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron Chernow

In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy--and explores why some of this country's oldest wounds have never healed.

Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250239265
• ISBN13: 9781250239266
• Release Date: January 2021
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

An excellent view of things most Americans don't know.

Seidule is in a unique position to explore this topic, being both a Virginian born and bred, and a career military man who taught history at West Point. As a child growing up, he was in awe of the hero Robert E. Lee; but as a mature man and military history professor at West Point, he began to question what he was taught growing up. Looking around the campus at the Point, he saw memorials to Lee everywhere. He decided to research why West Point displayed a huge portrait of Lee *in his Confederate uniform*, and also bronze plaques, supposedly commemorating US military history, which include the KKK. Seidule decided to research how and why Confederate officers, particularly those educated at West Point on the taxpayers' dime and undoubtedly considered traitors during and for some decades after the war, somehow had become heroes memorialized with statues, and streets, and buildings named after them. A very good question, I thought; the cemetery at West Point contains the graves of many military heroes...but not a single man who served in the CSA because they weren't allowed burial there. And there's a very good reason for that...they were traitors, period. I don't mean to say they weren't brave or good officers, but you can say the same about Rommel and other Germans in WWII; they were still enemy soldiers. The Confederates fought against the US Army, and thought of themselves as a foreign country; they killed hundreds of thousands of American soldiers. In 1861, Congress passed two laws concerning cadets at West Point; one which decreed that all cadets swear an oath never to fight for any other country *or state* against the US, and the other stating that such conduct was treason and could be punishable by death. This excellent book delves into all that and more. My only criticism is that there are no footnotes citing sources.

A prime example of presentism

I am a southerner. That is what I am, and will always be. Saying that, I decided to give Ty Seidule a shot and see what he had to say about Robert E Lee. I will say that Seidule is an accomplished writer and a military veteran, and I don't want to take away from that. What Seidule writes is true, but only half true, or as he put it in the epilogue, his truth. I believe it was Ben Franklin that alluded to the fact that half a truth is worse than a whole lie. In this book, Seidule concentrates on perceived racism and presentism. Without these, Ty would have no book. I'll try to list some of the half-truths that Seidule has written about. In Chapter 1 he refers to the "slaveholder's rebellion." Seidule does not mention that the US was also a slaveholding republic. He does this numerous times throughout the book. In this chapter, he also refers to the song "Dixie" as an "ode to better times of the slave era." He doesn't mention that "Dixie" was written by a northerner and was one of Abe Lincoln's favorite tunes. He attacks "Gone With The Wind" and that Mitchell, in writing the book used such terms as "ni**er," "darky,' and "wench." I'm sorry but these were terms used during that time and should be viewed as such...presentism. He refers to the burning of Atlanta in the book, and mentions that “Sherman’s hard war policy was purposeful and directed, causing few civilian casualties.” History disagrees. I cite Sophie Sosnowski, in “It Was A Terrible Night”, where it was written that the dealings of Union soldiers with female blacks "were not for female pen to dwell upon," meaning it was too horrible for a female to write about. I would also cite Mary Chestnut's diary where she notes that 18 black females were raped and murdered by Union soldiers. In Chapter 2, he writes of the first Union death of the civil war, Capt. Elmer Ellsworth, and calls it a death "closer to murder" than a death brought on by war. What happened was, Ellsworth, lead a unit into the city of Alexandria, VA. Ellsworth, seeing a Confederate flag in inn owner James Jackson's inn, decided that the flag must come down. Ellsworth, in violation of the Constitution, entered the inn, minus a warrant or authority, and attempted to take the flag down. Owner Jackson, a secessionist, unloaded a shotgun into Ellsworth, defending his property. A Union private, Frank Brownell, then shot Jackson in the face with a .58 caliber musket. Jackson's body then was repeatedly stabbed with Union bayonets. What was Jackson's crime? He had what he thought to be a flag of his country hanging in his inn and he tried to protect his property. So yes, I do agree that Jackson's death was "closer to murder" than to war. I'll add that such incidents of Union atrocities occurred throughout the southern seceded states and in Union controller territories. In Chapter 3, Seidule describes his time living in Georgia. He speaks to the "racist symbols" used by white supremacist groups such as the Confederate Battle flag. Seidule either fails to mention or ignores that white supremacist groups also use the US flag and the Christian flag. Seidule also mentions the lynchings of blacks that took place in Georgia, and all across the south. He does not mention that the largest mass lynching of blacks took place in New York, during the Draft Riots, where 120 plus blacks were lynched in protest of the US conscripting men to fight in the Union. Seidule rarely mentions Lee before Chapter 4, in which he describes his years at Washington & Lee University. Seidule talks of Lee's funeral and that there is no record of blacks attending. This doesn't mean that blacks did not attend. I had so much more to write but the character limit stops me. I can tell you this, Seidule says he was a Virginian, But Lee? He WAS a true Virginian. If you want to know about Lee, read his writings and not this book. Without "racism" and presenting, Seidule would have no book.