Ebook: Lee in the Shadow of Washington
Author: Richard B. McCaslin
- Tags: United States, American Revolution, Civil War, US Presidents, Historical, Biographies & Memoirs, American Civil War, Military, Leaders & Notable People, Biographies & Memoirs, Confederacy, Civil War, United States, Americas, History, Military, Afghan War, Aviation, Canada, Intelligence & Espionage, Iraq War, Korean War, Life & Institutions, Napoleonic Wars, Naval, Pictorials, Prisoners of War, Regiments, Strategy, Uniforms, United States, Vietnam War, Weapons & Warfare, World War I, World War II, History
- Series: Conflicting Worlds
- Year: 2001
- Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
- Edition: First
- Language: English
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In his thematic biography of the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, McCaslin locates the sources of Lee's devotion to Washington and shows how this bond affected his performance as a general in battle. He argues that Lee used the strategy of attrition to attempt to persuade the North to quit just as Washington had wearied the British. But reliance on Washington as a role model led to tragic irony: in 1864 it was Lee's Confederates who became trapped like the British in the Yorktown campaign. After his surrender Lee could no longer emulate Washington the revolutionary, and he became the president of a small college that bore Washington's name, surrounding himself with mementos of his hero.
Challenging conventional interpretations, McCaslin's absorbing book lays to rest the argument that a posthumous "Lee cult" superimposed Washington symbolism onto Lee's life to link it with the Revolution. Rather, Lee himself created the association, which yielded an enduring paradox: Washington earned his reputation as a statesman, whereas Lee never escaped his self-imposed image as a revolutionary in Washington's shadow.