R. E. Lee: A Biography Volume IV

R. E. Lee: A Biography #4

by Douglas Southall Freeman

Vol. IV R E Lee Bio

Genres: Civil War, Biography, History, American History, Nonfiction, American Civil War, Military History

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

The son of a Confederate veteran, Douglas Southall Freeman was long interested in the Civil War. A man of intense work ethic, he earned his PhD at 22, then balanced a journalist's demanding schedule with a historian's, as he churned out Lee's Dispatches (1915), the Pulitzer-Prize-winning four-volume R. E. Lee: A Biography (1934-35), Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (1942-44), and finally, the multi-volume George Washington (1948-54). A respected historian, renown for his research, he garnered fame in his native Virginia and the friendship of major military figures.

Reviews

[Jack W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the book is after Appomattox, so it takes on a slower pace than the other volumes, being more composed of anecdotes and correspondence about the Reconstruction in Virginia. Kind and gentlemanly until his death, Lee is portrayed positively by realistically by Freeman, who is one of the most artful writers I have ever read from the 20th century. His style includes these lines worth quoting from Lee's death, but is present even in the most meticulously researched page about Lee's interactions with the quartermaster of the CSA.

"Because he was calm when others were frenzied, loving when they hated, and silent when they spoke with a bitter tongue, they shook their heads and said he was a superman or a mysterious man. Beneath that untroubled exterior, they said, deep storms must rage; his dignity, his reserve, and his few words concealed sombre thoughts, repressed ambitions, livid resentments. They were mistaken. Robert Lee was one of the small company of great men in whom there is no inconsistency to be explained, no enigma to be solved."

And closing with his most idealized, yet quite accurate portrait of Lee in all four volumes,

"Has his life been epitomized in one sentence of the Book he read so often, it would have been in the words, 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.' And if one, only one, of all the myriad incidents of his stirring life had to be selected to typify his message, as a man, to the young Americans who stood in hushed awe that rainy October morning as their parents wept at the passing of the Southern Arthur, who would hesitate in selecting that incident? It occurred in Northern Virginia, probably on his last visit there. A young mother brought her baby to him to be blessed. He took the infant in his arms and looked at it and then at her and slowly said, 'Teach him he must deny himself.'

That is all. There is no mystery in the coffin there in front of the windows that look to the sunrise."

[Mark Harden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthy of the Pulitzer Prize it received. The description of the End at Appomattox is high literature.

[Austin Gisriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having just concluded Volume 4 of R. E. Lee, I feel compelled to say again that Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography is a monument to research as much as it is to the famous Confederate General. There are 10 pages of personal acknowledgments including one of the “Right Honorable Winston Churchill” who “went over the ground of the Seven Days with the writer and made many helpful observations on the terrain.” As I have mentioned in my reviews of the previous three volumes, I am left to wonder if anyone could be as self-disciplined and godly as Lee. The answer for me is yes, as I knew a man who spent three years in the Navy and never heard him curse. Ever. Not even a damn. That was my dad who lived to be 83. Raised by his Methodist minister father and “saintly” (his term) mother, he was big on self-discipline, too. Still, if anyone interviewed me for a biography of my dad, I could have shared a few faults! Did Freeman look for any in Lee? Did he find them, and just decided that he was not going to write anything that would disparage the Zeus of the Southern pantheon? Maybe he saw them, and didn’t know what he was looking at; love will do that to you, and he clearly loved Robert E. Lee. This lack of a counter-point made me wonder just how did Robert E. Lee go from a defeated General, whom many Northerners regarded as a traitor in 1865, to someone who was praised as an example of American genius and gentility in just 5 years (Lee died in 1870), and by Northern newspapers no less. I think Freeman would be happy to know, that his work has prompted me to read further, and so soon, I expect to delve into John Reeves, 2018, The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case Against an American Icon. I am anxious to see what I find out.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of four books is probably the best biography I've ever read. It is well-documented. The author does a good job of keeping facts and both his own opinions and the opinions of others separate. Freeman obviously has a high opinion of Robert E. Lee, but he doesn't let Lee skate on his mistakes and faults. Sometimes he lets his writing get a bit ... grandiose, but maybe that's excusable when he's narrating a battle, the death of an irreplaceable lieutenant, the high and low points of a life, etc. It's noticeable when his writing changes that way so maybe it's a good thing that it doesn't happen often. All-in-all, it was an incredible series that I would recommend to anyone who is willing to start with an open opinion of R. E. Lee.

[Kathy Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's finished! It took rather longer than I thought to read this series because work kept getting in the way of personal reading, but I managed to finish Vol. 4 last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr. Freeman is obviously very sympathetic to his subject, but hasn't hidden mistakes that Lee made. At times I thought the details of all the troop placements in the battels could have been abbridged, but it was necessary to show how Lee conducted his battles.

I've heard about Robert E. Lee all my life, and now have a better understanding of who he was, what he faced, and how important he really was to the healing of the country after the war. That's the part you seldome hear about, it's all General Lee won this, and that, but his real contribution was his example for the South after the guns were quite. I think the Mr. Freeman's final assessment was probably correct. Robert E Lee was a humble, simple soul, and a true gentleman in every way.

My next book about Lee will probably be by an author whose assessment isn't so favorable, to hear what Lee's critics have to say, but at this time, I doubt the impression made by Mr. Freeman's work will be very much changed.

If you are interested in the Civil War, or American military leaders, these books are a must read.

[Micah Douthit · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Robert Lee was one of the small company of great men in whom there is no inconsistency to be explained, no enigma to be solved. What he seemed, he was--a wholly human gentleman, the essential elements of whose positive character were two and only two, simplicity and spirituality."

Phenomenal 4 volume biography of Robert E. Lee.

[Joshua Horn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last volume of Freeman's biography of Lee. Contains the end of the war and his service as head of Washington University.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

See R E Lee, Vol. I