Song of the Day 7/1: Johnny Cash, “God Bless Robert E. Lee”
Statues are coming down and names scrubbed from buildings as once-revered figures are recast as traitors and racists. The Lost Cause has no greater hero than Robert E. Lee, whose myth rested on the idea of him as a reluctant rebel who turned down command of the Union army out of patriotism towards his home state of Virginia. The image of the Kindly General was undoubtedly embellished, but some of the respect for him, both North and South — including this song, written by Bobby Borchers in 1975 and recorded by Cash for his 1983 album “Johnny 99” — stems from Lee’s decision to surrender at Appomattox Court House, sparing both his men and the Union further bloodshed. It’s generally been treated as an anti-war song, but the Confederate viewpoint makes it an anachronism today.
I suspect if we never had postwar Jim Crow, if Reconstruction had segued into a smooth and just integration of former slaves into American society, Lee would in fact be remembered as the Kindly General.
Robert E. Lee would have saved tens of thousands MORE lives if he had surrendered a year earlier, when is was obvious to all but the most determined bitter-enders that the Confederacy was on its last legs and the Union had the manpower, resources and determination to crush it into submission.
Many students of the war have also pointed out that he might have actually won the war by pursuing a defensive strategy, conserving his limited resources and, especially, manpower while wearing down the Union’s resolve by a long war of attrition. Instead, he inflamed Union patriotism by repeatedly trying to invade the North, while squandering the lives of his troops in murderous follies like Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.
Yeah, but try setting that to music.
Great point.
What Lee should have done was not surrendered, lead his men back into the cities and then waged a guerrilla war with no rules.
His forces would have ambushed Union soldiers, killing maybe another 50 thousand more. All blacks would have been hunted at night and executed.
Eventually they could’ve mounted operations into cities like DC, Philadelphia and New York to bomb civilians and politicians.
That’s what an unkindly general like Mao or Trotsky would have done.
Thoughts?
They “would have,” would they have? That you think so says more about you than about Mao or Trotsky.
But thanks for playing.
This delusion is very similar to the fantasyland occupied by the freedom fighters who bombed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I remember how legions of like minded freedom fighters rose up.
Forget it, Jason. It’s Confederacytown.