Life of Robert E. Lee - Essay Example

Evaluating Lee is certainly not easy since there are quite a few different opinions about him. In essence, we have to take all available evidence into account before we can judge Lee to be brilliant, flawed, or pragmatic.

Considering his background and personal history, we know that he was a well-bred individual who was a career army man as he showed his keen dedication to work even while at West Point.  It was perhaps this training that showed him how to understand that the odds were insurmountable and the best course of action for the union was to surrender. As compared to his northern counterparts, Lee seems to have a completely different notion about life and how things are supposed to work since the north was unwilling to accept certain changes which had been brought to their economic systems. And production houses that did not need slave labor much.

However, despite his defeat at the hands of his enemies, he remains a great leader since he had the foresight to see that the war, the battle and the games between the leaders had all finished which allowed him to sit down and negotiate a peace treaty. In comparison to Grant, Lee had very different ideas about what America should be like and he certainly would have thought his viewpoint to be better. However, in defeat, he accepted that his ideals may never come true and he accepted that the victorious party gets to shape America as it wants. This makes him both a great leader and a flawed general since he accepted defeat which shows his greatness yet the defeat itself shows that he was flawed.

In this manner, it becomes plain to see that what Freeman (1934) and Nolan (1991) have written about Lee is very true indeed. He was great as a man since he believed in his ideals and was willing to fight for them. He was great as a leader since he recognized defeat and did not continue to put his armies in danger while he knew that the war could not be won. However, the idea of defeat brings with it a tarnishing image which means that his military prowess, his strategies and his abilities as a general would forever be doubted. Undoubtedly, defeat is an orphan but generations of historians who retell the story of General Lee acknowledge that he was indeed defeated and this makes him flawed when compared to the victory of Ulysses S. Grant.