The Making of Robert E. Lee

Hopefully some of those interested in a character study of Robert E. Lee will not be dissuaded by the negative reviews this book seems to have attacted. This is not really a conventional biography, but rather an attempt to unravel something of the man who resided behind a stoic mask. Yes, there are a few instances where the author seems to overreach -- but they do not negate the value of the work as a whole. Overall, the picture of Lee that emerges is thoughtful and balanced.

Some years ago Marble Man was published, explaining how post-war Confederates turned Lee into the symbol of fallen Southern chivalry. However, the first part of the book, a psychobiography of Lee, was extremely weak, because the author was unacquainted with 19th century norms of language and conscience. Fellman has made a systematic study of ALL of Lee's private correspondence throughout his life: the letters written to his wife and children, to the young ladies he enjoyed flirting with, and his military/political correspondence.An entirely new figure emerges, free of the accretions of Douglas Freeman. Far from being reluctant to leave the US Army in 1861, he embraces the Confederate cause. A man of his time and place, he carries the racism implicit in the Southern viewpoint. Most interestingly, his post-war career at Washington College shows him completely aware of his role as a political actor who represents the fallen cause. Must reading for any serious student of the Civil War.

This has to be the only book in recent years writtern on Lee that is not pro-confederate. This book shows Lee warts and all. Does not display him in a God like fashion like so many recent books have tended to do,but shows his early upbringing, his relationships with his children when they were young and older and Fellman even goes so far as to show that Lee was no father knows best when it came to love/disclipine. He gave it with one hand and took it away with another. After reading this book I wondered if Lee considered anything his family did was right. Is it any wonder several of his children had such a miserable adult life. This book is not glowing showcase for Lee but it does show Lee to be a human with faults like the rest of us.Lee worshippers may find the book hard to read.

Robert E. Lee is ever surrounded by a bodyguard of admirers who constantly fend off those who would speak plainly and honestly about the man. Like Alan Nolan before him, however, Fellman uses Lee's own words to demonstrate that the great general employed his remarkable skills in the defense of slavery and racial bigotry. Lee's defenders make much of his freeing slaves, yet, as Fellman points out, Lee did so only when forced to by circumstances. As for those who insist that Lee was free of racial animosity, Fellman need only allow Lee to speak for himself. Time and again, Fellman shows how Lee sought to deprive newly-freed African-Americans of the right to vote, hold elected office, or even find employment. One need only read Lee's statements before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction in February of 1866 to find proof of his monumental disdain of black Americans. In describing the general's views on race, Fellman also points outs that Lee, patrician aristocrat that he was, held ordinary white Americans in scarcely higher regard. I find this especially ironic as most of Lee's more devoted defenders are drawn from this group.

Robert E. Lee is the great teflon figure of American History. A traitor to his country, a racist, a loser, he has been revered by generations for being stoic or noble or some other slippery quality that sounds good but is hard to grasp. When everyone from George Washington to Mother Teresa was receiving the revisionist treatment, Lee continued to skate by unsullied. The Shaara families' silly hero worshiping novels have only added to the nonsense and made the real Lee more and more a murky mystery. So thanks to Mr. Fellman for his bold attempt to get by the myth and at the reality of the man. His effort isn't entirely successful but daring, pioneering efforts rarely get it right the first time out. I hope he's started a trend that will eventually lead to a complete reappraisal of this very flawed but very interesting man.