HISTORY - George Washington and Robert E. Lee

"Exploring Robert E. Lee’s connections to George Washington" PBS NewsHour 2/16/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Robert E. Lee was the son of a Revolutionary War hero who was a trusted aide to George Washington.  In 1861, after 25 years in the U.S. Army, Lee turned down an offer to command Union forces in the Civil War.  That decision is the subject of a new book, “The Man Who Would Not Be Washington.”  Judy Woodruff talks to author Jonathan Horn about choices that change history.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now, a new take on Robert E. Lee, the famous Confederate general, with President George Washington as the touchstone.

I recently talked with the author of this look at two men who helped shape American history.

The civil war split families, states and the nation; 74 years after the signing of the Constitution, the United States was torn in two.  One of the more conflicted participants in the war was none other than Robert E. Lee, a son of a Revolutionary War hero who was a trusted aide to General George Washington.  He married the daughter of Washington’s adopted son.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee had served 25 years with the U.S. Army, but in April 1861, he turned down an offer to command the Union Army, resigned his commission, and accepted the command of the military and naval forces of Virginia.

All this and more can be found in the new book, “The Man Who Would Not Be Washington:  Robert E. Lee’s Civil War and His Decision That Changed American History” by Jonathan Horn, who served as a speechwriter and special assistant to former President George W. Bush.

Jonathan Horn, welcome to the NewsHour.

JONATHAN HORN, Author, “The Man Who Would Not Be Washington”:  Thanks for having me.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, you grew up in the area around Washington. Is that where this interest in Robert E. Lee came from?

JONATHAN HORN:  That’s exactly where this interest came up.

If you glow up on the Potomac River, you have so much of Robert E. Lee’s and George Washington’s history all around you.  Robert E. Lee was born in Westmoreland County downriver from Washington, and so was Washington.  Robert E. Lee grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, right near George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation, and Robert E. Lee married his wife at Arlington House, which is that great pillared mansion that’s now a cemetery, but back then it was actually a memorial to George Washington.

It was filled with relics of George Washington, because, as you mentioned, Robert E. Lee had married the daughter of George Washington’s adopted son.