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Lee's Memoir by Steve Payne
 Author
says: what if Robert E. Lee had published his memoirs? Please note that
the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of
the author(s).
On June 19th, 1867:
on the day the President of Washington College in
Lexington, Virginia published his war-time memoirs, his literary agent
Beverley Tucker's predicted that "No work in the nineteenth century has
ever had, or ever will have, such a sale. Every man, woman, & child, who can
read, will deny themselves the luxuries or even necessaries, if need be, to
have Robert E. Lee's History of the American War".
"I think he made the correct decision not to write an
apologia" - Readers CommentTucker initially proposed the idea just
two months after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, however Lee had
countered with the suggestion of writing a narrower piece entitled "History
of the Army of Northern Virginia's Campaigns". However, by the fall of that
same year, he had developed a fresh desire to shape the next generation of
Southern Leaders. Not only did this urge motivate him to accept the
appointment at the College, but soon afterwards, he also decided that he
did, after all need to set out a broader work on the whole rebellion.
Unfortunately most of his own records had been destroyed in the retreat, and
he had been forced to request copies of pertinent materials from his former
sub-ordinates. In so doing, he inadvertently became embroiled in the most
controversial decision of the war. Because Generals Ewell, Rodes and Early
and Chief of Staff Major Alexander "Sandie" Pendleton provided utterly
divergent accounts of the events of the first day of the Battle of
Gettysburg on July 1st, 1863. And the fateful decision to try to occupy
Culp's Hill with just ninety minutes of daylight remaining.
Author
says original content has been repurposed from an articile in the August
2010 Edition of "Civil War Times", Trudeau, Noah Andre. "Unwritten history:
why didn't Robert E. Lee write his memoirs?". To view guest historian's
comments on this post please visit the
Today in Alternate History web site.
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Steve Payne, Editor of
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Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit
differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items
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superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy
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