Two sides to every coin.

Two sides to every conflict.

Two sides to every battle.

Lee and Grant.

Who was Lee?

One is a product of their environment, whatever the percentage breakdown might be.

His father fought in the American Revolutionary War as a cavalry officer and served as the ninth Governor of Virginia.

Homeboy was invested in America.

He married, had three kids, and then his wife died. Three years later, he married again.

Enter Ann Hill Carter.

Lee’s mom was an accomplished chess player, with a reputation for “grave humor,” and her singing voice. She was also from a wealthy family who owned a plantation.

Henry was the infamous, and dashing, Revolutionary War cavalryman. After their marriage, Ann knew her husband didn’t love her, yet believed she could win his heart, initially. She soon realized “in the short space of a fortnight that her affections were trampled on by a heartless & depraved profligate. . . She was despised & neglected.” It was clear Harry was seeking out the pleasure of other women—the salacious news spread throughout the Virginia gentry.

Despite these challenges, they remained together and had six more kids, one of whom was Robert E. Lee.

Lee grew up seeing a toxic marriage, a series of his dad’s poor financial decisions landing him in debtor’s prison for a time, his mother treated poorly, and amidst this turmoil both he was educated at a free public school.

There he excelled in math.

A relative saw his grit despite his family’s challenges, and through a series of events got Lee into the military academy.

He graduated top of his class and went on to serve, primarily as an engineer (designing and building ways to support transportation and communication for the military) for 32 years.

Surprisingly, he thought:

• slavery as a philosophy was bad AND supported the right for it to be legal, holding hundreds of slaves himself
• AND wanted to keep the union together while choosing to join his home state Virginia when they announced their secession

In 1856, Lee wrote his views on the institution of slavery to his wife. He described it as “a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly interested in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things.”

Clearly, Lee had a lot of racist beliefs.

As the civil war continued Lee rose in the ranks, got into leadership, won a few key battles, against armies of significantly larger sizes, then lost a few key battles, ultimately leading to his surrender.

After his surrender, Lee accepted the termination of slavery but opposed racial equality.