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    A Commitment to Valor: A Unique Portrait of Robert E. Lee in His Own Words
    A Commitment to Valor: A Unique Portrait of Robert E. Lee in His Own Words
    A Commitment to Valor: A Unique Portrait of Robert E. Lee in His Own Words
    Ebook135 pages1 hour

    A Commitment to Valor: A Unique Portrait of Robert E. Lee in His Own Words

    By Rod Gragg

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    About this ebook

    The character and legend of Robert E. Lee make him one of the most beloved figures in American history, particularly in the South. This attractive gift book captures that character and legend for Southerners, Civil War buffs, and home school students

    "Do your duty in all things," Robert E. Lee told his youngest son. "You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less: Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War, embodied all that is honorable in the tradition of an American soldier. A Commitment to Duty captures the essence of Lee through his most significant quotations and observations.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateMar 30, 2001
    ISBN9781418568597
    A Commitment to Valor: A Unique Portrait of Robert E. Lee in His Own Words
    Author

    Rod Gragg

    A former journalist, historian Rod Gragg is director of the Center for Military and Veterans Studies at  Coastal Carolina University, where he also serves as an adjunct professor of history.  His works have earned the Fletcher Pratt Award, the James I. Robertson Award and other honors, and have been selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club, the History Book Club and the Military History Book Club.

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      Book preview

      A Commitment to Valor - Rod Gragg

      A COMMITMENT

      TO VALOR

      A COMMITMENT

      TO VALOR

      A Character Portrait of Robert E. Lee

      Commitment_to_Valor_A_final_0003_001

      Compiled and Edited by

      ROD GRAGG

      Commitment_to_Valor_A_final_0003_002

      Copyright © 2001 by Rod Gragg

      All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews and articles.

      Published by Rutledge Hill Press, a Thomas Nelson Company, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

      All the photographs in this book are courtesy of the National Archives.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      A commitment to valor : a character portrait of Robert E. Lee / compiled and edited by Rod Gragg.

          p. cm.

         Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

         ISBN 1-55853-843-7

         1. Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870. 2. Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870—Military leadership. 3. Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870—Quotations. 4. Conduct of life—Quotations, maxims, etc. 5. United States—History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Quotations, maxims, etc. 6. Generals— Confederate States of America—Biography. I. Gragg, Rod.

      E467.1.L4 C658 2001

      973.7'3'092—dc21

      00-068853

      CIP

      Printed in the United States of America

      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 — 06 05 04 03 02 01

      FOR MATT AND SKIP

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      Acknowledgments

      Robert E. Lee Biography

      1. Duty

      2. Leadership

      3. Integrity

      4. Dignity

      5. Kindness

      6. Responsibility

      7. Courage

      8. Self-Control

      9. Humility

      10. Faith

      Lee’s Letter to Gen. Winfield Scott

      Lee’s Orders for the Invasion of Pennsylvania

      Lee’s Order for Worship

      Lee’s Farewell Address

      Notes

      PREFACE

      Upon completing his definitive four-volume study of Robert E. Lee, historian Douglas Southall Freeman—who would earn a Pulitzer Prize for R. E. Lee, A Biography—recalled the multitude of challenges he had encountered in producing the monumental work. Yet, he proclaimed, I have been fully repaid by being privileged to live, as it were, for more than a decade in the company of a great gentleman.

      Modern critics and revisionist historians have criticized Robert E. Lee for siding with Virginia and the South, and have sometimes accused him of various failures: failing to employ defensive tactics at Gettysburg, focusing too much on the defense of Richmond, failing to reprimand or motivate subordinates, declining command of Federal forces in the war’s opening days and other retrospective condemnations. Despite revisionist criticism of Lee, however, countless students of the American Civil War continue to share Douglas Southall Freeman’s opinion of the general.

      Amid the vastly different lifestyles of modern American society, literate Americans who discover anew the life of Robert E. Lee are often affected with the same awe and admiration as Lee’s contemporaries. Despite the best efforts of the most jaded revisionists and the harshest critics, generation after generation of Americans and others have encountered the Lee of history and, as have so many before them, find themselves marveling at the character and conduct of Robert E. Lee.

      Today, Lee remains the embodiment of all that was good and noble in the Old South. Despite the passage of time and the ever-changing whims of popular culture, he has remained America’s most admired military leader. This is not a work of history or biography, although history and biography are treated seriously and, I hope, faithfully in this book. It is a collection of observations by and about Lee that focuses on the caliber of character that has made Robert E. Lee an American hero for the ages.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I have been blessed to have been so exposed to the heart of this exceptional American, and I am grateful to those who helped me with this work. Special thanks go to Paul Fowler, a librarian at Coastal Carolina University’s Kimbel Library. His research skills and broad knowledge of the Civil War were invaluable to this project. Larry Stone, the president of Rutledge Hill Press, offered valuable direction in the formation of this work. My editor, Geoff Stone, was both thoroughly professional and consistently pleasant despite deadline pressures. I’m also grateful to Debbie Shaub for her able assistance, and to my mother, Elizabeth Gragg, whose cheerful spirit and Southern cooking were priceless. Deep love and thanks also go to my family: especially my wife Cindy, and all my children: Skip, Matt, Penny, Joni, Elizabeth, Rachel and Faith. I am most indebted—like Lee—to the promise of John 3:16.

      Rod Gragg

      Conway, South Carolina

      ROBERT E. LEE BIOGRAPHY

      Robert E. Lee was a Virginian. The third son of Henry Light-Horse Harry Lee and Ann Hill Carter, Lee was born at Stratford in Westmoreland County, Virginia on January 19, 1807. His father, who died when Lee was

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