By Kiltie Tompkins
He was a saint. He was a human. He was a leader. He was a follower. He was faultless. He was flawed.
Robert E. Lee could not have been all of these things. But on the anniversary of his birth on Jan. 19, 1807, there are certainly some differing opinions about what this historical icon in Virginia was all about. Especially in the town where he spent his final years and where tourists come like pilgrims to pay homage.
“The big challenge here is that we are looking at different perspectives,” said Washington and Lee University history professor Ted DeLaney.
In the past two weeks, Lee’s commemoration has kicked into high gear at W&L, where Lee served as president from 1865 until his death in 1870. Events included an art exhibit, with lectures, and a one-man stage performance. An event not sponsored by the university was a parade and tour by Confederate reenactors on Jan. 13. On Jan. 11, Delaney and history department head Holt Merchant held a discussion in the school’s Wilson Hall about contemporary impressions of Lee.
“There are many celebrations of Lee’s 200th birthday,” Merchant said. “Most of them are about Lee the soldier. But people need to know about Lee the educator and Lee the reconciler and re-unifier.”
Merchant tended to be a Lee advocate, highlighting Lee’s unprecedented fundraising skills and his personal interest in the students, efforts that allowed a dying institution emerge from the war revamped. When Lee came to Washington College, there were 30 students. By the time of his death, there were 402, Merchant said.
“In my opinion, Lee saved the school,” he said. “Is it possible that someone else could have saved it? Yes. But Lee did save it.”
DeLaney agreed that Lee’s fundraising helped the college survive. However, he argued that Lee’s “reconciliation” was between Southern whites and Northern whites, at the expense of the four million blacks who had created Southern wealth. Lee, he argued, was a conformist in his personal views about race.
“To the extent that we understand leadership, he was a follower,” DeLaney said. “I see a Lee whose own perspectives were no different from any other Southern perspective of the day.”
DeLaney said that the University’s focus on Lee the President is a step in the right direction, but that it will never be fully effective. The marble statue of a recumbent Lee in the Chapel, for example, is a monument to Lee the General, not Lee the President, and is surrounded by reproductions of Confederate Battle flags rather than university banners. W&L has contributed to the glorification of Lee’s role in the South’s rebellion, a cause marred by the defense of slavery, DeLaney said.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) would beg to differ on the motivation. SCV members from all over the country came to Lexington on Saturday for a memorial service honoring Lee followed by a parade down Main Street and a ceremony in W&L’s Lee Chapel. Many of the parade participants argued that commemorating the Confederacy is not about preserving the memory of slavery.
“They call it a Civil War. It was not a Civil War; it was Northern aggression, said Deborah Mooney, a reenactor from northern Maryland. “It’s not about slavery, it’s not about hate. That’s the shame. You hear a lot people in ignorance talk about hate issues, and it has nothing to do with that.”
The service and parade are held each year in Lexington, and SCV members come as part of their mission to preserve “the history and legacy of [the war’s] heroes, so future generations can understand the motives that animated the Southern Cause,” according to the SCV website.
“If you’re a Lee scholar or if you’re interested in Southern history, Lexington is like a Mecca,” said Ronni Gardner, director of development for special projects at W&L.
With Lee as one its namesakes, its no surprise that W&L has also sponsored several events for his commemoration. In W&L’s Lenfest theater actor Tom Dugan performed a one-man play he wrote about Lee’s life as a soldier. In an addendum especially for the play’s premiere at W&L, Merchant interviewed Lee, played by Dugan, about his presidency at W&L.
“What academics like me are interested in is getting as close to the truth as possible,” Merchant said. “There were some inaccuracies in the play. But dramatically, it was good. And it’s a major attraction for the school.”
The “Re-Visioning Lee” exhibit in W&L’s Staniar Gallery, located in Wilson Hall, has also brought attention to the school. The exhibit features paintings, prints, and sculptures of Lee throughout his life, most of which belong to W&L.
Pam Simpson, the head of the Art Department and the exhibit’s curator, said she hopes the images of Lee throughout his life, and not just during his military years, will allow people to see that Robert E. Lee was more than a faultless and fearless general.
“We want to humanize him,” Simpson said. “Bringing him up to the present is one of the most important things. He may not be so much of a saint as people perceive him to be.”
That Lee was a perfect Christian with uncompromising morals seemed to be the perspective of participants in Saturday’s memorial service and parade.
“Lee’s legacy would probably be a healer,” said Steve Clark from Toronto, Canada, who attended Saturdays events. “He fought the war with passion, and then fought to heal it afterward with the same amount of passion.”
“Major” Mike Hagan, originally from North Carolina and a member of “the 22th
North Carolina Infantry,” said that Lee’s legacy is superior because of “his leadership, his humanity, his religion.”
But W&L hopes to principally put forth the image of Lee as an educator, not as a Southern leader or a Christian. The Lee Museum, located below the Chapel, focuses largely on Lee’s five year tenure as the president of then Washington College.
“A lot of the people who visit Lexington don’t know about his contributions to the trends in education,” Gardner said.
While historians have largely dispelled the idea that Lee directly founded the journalism department and commerce school at W&L, Merchant said that he did aim to add practicality to the curriculum that would prepare young men to rebuild the South. Lee’s reforms did not, however, include allowing blacks to enroll in the University, a fact that precludes DeLaney and many other historians from praising Lee’s leadership.
The true nature of Lee’s character may be unclear, but his presence in Virginia’s history is not. W&L is just one of many state historical sites honoring Lee’s birthday.
The Robert E. Lee Memorial Commission, established in 2005 by a resolution in Virginia’s General Assembly, was created to plan and coordinate events throughout the year in connection with Lee’s 200th birthday. The Commission has promoted W&L events, as well as activities at Stratford Hall, the Museum of the Confederacy, Mount Vernon, the Arlington House, and the Virginia Historical Society, to name a few.
“We were told to put a big emphasis on how many places [in Virginia] he touched,” said Lisa Wallmeyer, staff attorney for the Virginia Division of Legislative Services.
Wallmeyer, who is also a W&L alumnus, commended the University for its emphasis on Lee’s educational impact.
“That’s one of the least known aspects of his life,” Wallmeyer said.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd