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"Oh, but Robert E. Lee was such a Southern Gentleman!" (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

While Lee did publicly repent, there's a nonzero chance that he did so because at the time the Lost Cause hadn't hit full swing - Lee died in 1870, after all - and because there were still a very large number of radical Republicans quite literally calling for Lee to be hanged, even despite Johnson's amnesty.

He may have genuinely morally repented, or he may have (more likely in my eyes) simply seen no reason to continue fighting a (ha) lost cause with no hope of victory after the fall of the CSA, but he also may have just been trying to keep his head down to avoid personal trouble. Like Forrest suddenly swearing up-and-down that he was a good and peaceful citizen once it became clear that the Federal government was going to crack down on protofascist fucks.