At the Crossroads - Winfield Scott and Robert E. Lee (Article 27)

By early April, 1861, newly inaugurated President Abraham Lincoln knew that he would probably face a civil war and that he would need a military commander who was absolutely loyal to the Union cause and capable of forming, training, and then leading, a very large army against Southern forces

The current senior commander of military forces, General Winfield Scott was a Virginia native, a lawyer by training, and a highly decorated officer who received honors for gallantry in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War and had served as an able administrator when peace prevailed. However, Scott informed Lincoln that, at age 75, he was suffering from several disabling ailments and that he could not provide the vigorous military leadership his country would require. Lincoln appreciated the General’s honest self-assessment of his limitations but now needed to quickly designate a new commanding General; but who?

Some of the most experienced senior military officers in the U.S. Army had already resigned their commissions and had joined either Southern militias or the newly formed Confederate Army; and Lincoln suspected that there were other officers who might also defect if hostilities broke out. Although General Scott was proud of his Southern heritage, he opposed secession and Lincoln believed he could rely on Scott to recommend a new Commander who would be loyal to the Union and be a proven military leader. Equally important, Scott could help identify other officers still in the U.S. Army who might be sympathetic to the Confederacy.

Scott’s first choice as his replacement was also a Virginian whose career he had closely followed, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a decorated hero of the Mexican War, and an exceptional administrative leader who had served in several significant peacetime assignments. Further, Scott was aware that his nominee, like himself, had expressed opposition to secession and both men had voiced misgivings about the moral implications of slavery.

Scott recommended Colonel Robert E. Lee.

Lee was the son of “Light Horse” Harry Lee, a hero of the Revolutionary War who had also been a Governor, a Congressman, and before Robert’s birth, a reasonably wealthy plantation owner and slaveholder. Harry Lee had been a close confidant of George Washington and uttered the famous line at Washington’s funeral, “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the hearts of his countrymen.” However, Harry was a risk-taker who made several poor choices later in his life and deserted his family when Robert was only a small boy, leaving the family in a precarious financial situation. Robert’s mother made sure the children understood that their father’s finest moments were in service to his country and young Robert noticed that the public, while not overlooking Harry’s later transgressions, still showed respect for his contributions to the founding of the United States. Robert decided upon a military career early in life and, between his father’s service and his mother’s family connections, Robert gained an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. He became an exceptional cadet at West Point, graduated near the top of his class, and excelled both in military tactics and in his academic engineering program.

Robert E. Lee thrived as a U.S. Army officer. As a Captain in the war with Mexico, Lee was highly decorated for heroic service while serving under General Scott. Then, after that war, Scott recognized Lee’s engineering skills and arranged for Lee to lead several important large scale national public works projects; a major role for Army engineers at the time.

Although Lee did not grow up in a wealthy home, his family still enjoyed a certain societal status and he gained additional trappings of Southern aristocracy when he married Mary Custis; the step-granddaughter of George Washington. Robert and his wife lived just across the Potomac River from Washington DC in a stately mansion on the Custis plantation at Arlington, Virginia. Certainly Colonel Lee was considered a favored son of Virginia.

General Scott told Lincoln about Lee’s family background, his reputation as a military leader, and the administrative skills he had shown in his peace time assignments. Lincoln was already aware that a year earlier Colonel Lee had led a contingent of U.S. troops in a successful attack to regain control of the Federal Munitions Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry from the forces of abolitionist John Brown; who had seized the arsenal to gain weapons for use in a planned large scale slave revolt. Lee’s quick tactical assault had prevented the dispersal of the weapons and led to the capture of Brown.

Lincoln was impressed.

The President agreed with General Scott’s recommendation and decided to send an emissary to Arlington to offer Colonel Lee the rank of General and the command of all Union forces. They chose Preston Blair, a founder of the Republican Party and respected political insider, who was well acquainted with Lee. Blair, who had been born in Virginia, now resided in Maryland, a slave state which had decided to not join the Confederacy but remain in the Union. At the time, all four men, Lincoln, Scott, Blair and even Lee had some hope that Virginia would make the same decision as Maryland and not secede.

Meanwhile, events were rapidly escalating between the dis-satisfied southern states and the federal government; and before Blair could meet with Lee, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.

Since Virginia had not yet seceded from the Union, Blair urgently made his way to Arlington hoping to get a commitment from Colonel Lee to continue to serve the Union. While the two men had a polite conversation, Lee declined the offer with an eloquent explanation which Blair reported to Scott and Lincoln and which Lee repeated in a letter he wrote that evening to his sister. Lee said, “I look upon secession as anarchy. And, if I owned every slave in the South I would sacrifice them all to save the Union. But, how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state. I will retire to my home in Virginia and share the miseries of my people and, save in defense of Virginia, will draw my sword on no one.”

The portion of Lee’s response about not drawing his sword against Virginia is often quoted (rightly so) as his reason for choosing the Confederacy. However, his comments on secession as anarchy, the release of slaves to save the Union, and retiring except in defense of Virginia, are often omitted. In fact his statement is usually paraphrased to simply, “I cannot raise my sword against Virginia.” The entire statement is a better indication of the inner-conflict Lee faced.

By today’s standards, such loyalty to an individual state, as opposed to loyalty to the United States, may seem strange. But to Virginians in 1861, the Commonwealth of Virginia, which had been founded as a colony 250 years earlier, represented their roots for many generations. By contrast, the United States had only existed for 72 years. This parochial loyalty was true of many Confederate soldiers throughout the South who were more motivated to defend their individual state from Yankee intrusion than they were to fight for the viability of the Confederate government.

Colonel Lee was also under extreme pressure by other Virginians and Confederate officials to join their cause; and even Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, made a personal plea. But, for the next few days after his meeting with Blair, Lee took no further action and said later that he had hoped Virginia might avoid secession and join with Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri as slave-holding states which remained in the Union; the so-called Border States. He made no commitments until the Virginia Legislature passed a resolution of succession on April 17, 1861 to be voted on by their citizens on May 22nd.

After the Legislative resolution, Lee expected that a majority of Virginians would cast their ballots to secede and he planned to go to Richmond to offer his service to the Virginia Militia to help defend his state from what he was certain would be Federal reprisals. But first, Lee felt an obligation to his friend and mentor and on April 18, 1861 he went to Washington DC to personally inform General Scott of his decision to resign his commission in the U.S. Army. Both men later reported that they wept at the meeting as Scott said, “Lee, you have made the greatest mistake of your life, but I feared it would be so.” They shook hands, Lee returned to his home at Arlington, and the following day submitted his official resignation letter.

Lee then went to Richmond and accepted the position of Brigadier General in the Virginia Militia, and prepared to resist any Union forces that might invade his state. He would never return to Arlington.

At his own crossroads, Robert E. Lee had decided to turn South.

General Scott’s loyalties would also be tested. Like Lee, he was a native Virginian, and had also received a delegation from his home state whose prominent members urged him to join the Virginia Militia in the likelihood that voters decided to secede and Lincoln would order an invasion. Scott declined their plea saying, “I have served the flag off my country for 50 years and as long as God permits me to live, I will defend that flag with my sword, even if my native state assails it.” General Scott was immediately labeled a “traitor” by Virginia newspapers, Southern politicians, and some former friends; and to Scott’s great disappointment, his nephew went to his family home and destroyed the General’s portraits and other memorabilia from his fifty years of service to his country.

General Winfield Scott had also arrived at his crossroads, but turned North.

The two Virginians who were close friends, honored military officers, and in many ways so similar, each followed his conscience and chose opposite paths.

Contact the author at gadorris2@gmail.com