Douglas Southall Freeman s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Robert E. Lee was greeted with critical acclaim when it was first published in 1935. Stephen Vincent Benet said There is a monument and a fine one to Robert E. Lee at Lexington. But this one, I think, will last as long. This reissue of Richard Harwell s abridgment fulfills Benet s prophecy, chronicling all the major aspects and highlights of the general s military career, from his stunning accomplishments in the Mexican War to the humbling surrender at Appomattox.
More than just a military leader, Lee embodied all the conflicts of his time. The son of a Revolutionary War hero and related by marriage to George Washington, he was the product of young America s elite. When Abraham Lincoln offered him command of the United States Army, however, he choose to lead the confederate ranks, convinced that his first loyalty lay with his native Virginia. Although a member of the planter class, he felt that slavery was a moral and political evil. Aloof and somber, he nevertheless continually inspired his men by his deep concern for their personal welfare.
Freeman s achievement is the full portrait of a great American a distinguished, scholarly, yet eminently readable classic that has linked Freeman to Lee as irrevocably as Boswell to Dr. Johnson."