Robert E Lee

A University’s Betrayal of Historical Truth

by David W. Blight, W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kevin M. Levin

The University of North Carolina agreed to pay the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million—a sum that rivals the endowment of its history department.

At 63, I Threw Away My Prized Portrait of Robert E. Lee

by Stanley McChrystal

I was raised to venerate Lee the principled patriot—but I want no association with Lee the defender of slavery.

Robert E. Lee descendant: I was 'disheartened' to hear Trump comments about Confederate general

“Last night I was disheartened to hear Donald Trump, our president, make comments about Robert E. Lee as a great general, as an honorable man. These were far from the true,” Robert Lee IV said in a video he posted on Twitter.

What America Keeps Forgetting About Robert E. Lee

by John Reeves

He was accused of treason. Only the hunger for reconciliation saved him.

State lawmaker files bill to remove Virginia's Robert E. Lee statue from U.S. Capitol

Several lawmakers have filed bills to give localities the power to remove Confederate monuments and relocate them to museums, nullifying a state law aimed at preventing local officials from removing or altering war memorials.

What Historians Keep Getting Wrong about Robert E. Lee

by Colin Woodward

To start with, he wasn't an aristocrat.

Video of the Week: Ike comes out in defense of Robert E. Lee

He counted Lee as one of the 4 greatest Americans.

The North tried compromise. The South chose war.

by Carole Emberton

The South's insistence upon protecting and spreading slavery caused the Civil War.

Historians respond to John F. Kelly’s Civil War remarks: ‘Strange,’ ‘sad,’ ‘wrong’

Kelly was asked about the decision of a church in Alexandria to remove plaques honoring George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

Virginia church to move plaques honoring Lee and Washington

In response to violent protests over the fate of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this year, a 244-year-old Episcopal church in Alexandria is planning to move a set of plaques honoring former parishioners Robert E. Lee and George Washington.

British Historian: It’s Urgent that Americans Finally Reject the Moral Equivalence of the North and South in the Civil War

by Robert Cook

It’s stopping Americans from addressing their real problems.

Was Robert E. Lee a “Woman Whipper”?

by John Reeves

Lee’s sorry record as a slave owner, whether he was guilty of the charge of “woman whipper” or not.

The Making and the Breaking of the Legend of Robert E. Lee

by Eric Foner

Whatever the fate of his statues and memorials, so long as the legacy of slavery continues to bedevil American society, it seems unlikely that historians will return Lee, metaphorically speaking, to his pedestal.

Snopes fact checks meme that equates Lincoln's and Lee’s views on slavery

The meme omits context and cites a dubious claim about Lee.

Washington National Cathedral to remove stained glass windows honoring Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson

Leaders at Washington National Cathedral, the closest thing in the country’s capital to an official church, have decided after two years of study and debate to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Confederate figures Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

How Charlottesville Got that Robert E. Lee Statue

by Bruce W. Dearstyne

It was thanks to a philanthropist who also paid for a park in honor of Booker T. Washington.

'The Lees Are Complex’: Descendants Grapple With Rebel General’s Legacy

Even within the family of Robert E. Lee, there are divisions over what should be done about Confederate monuments and what their ancestor stands for now.

Jon Meacham points out why Lee should go but Washington should stay

by Jon Meacham

Lee had it right: “I think it wiser,” he wrote in 1866, “not to keep open the sores of war.”

What Robert E. Lee Wrote to The Times About Slavery in 1858

The man who would become the top Confederate general was trying to set the record straight about the slaves on his wife’s estate in Virginia.

There Shouldn’t Be any Statues Honoring Robert E. Lee Anywhere

by Ed Simon

To remove Confederate memorials is not to white-wash history, far from it. It’s to finally remove the stain which concealed for too many Americans the reasons for why that hideous war was fought.