Robert E. Lee in Two Books: Davis and Flood Compared

Review: Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood

This review examines Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood, a book that looks at the final five years of Robert E. Lee's life after the Civil War. It is a moving account of a man who gave so much to his people, yet always felt he had given too little.

The author's thesis is quite clear: he wants to show the last years of General Lee's life and the effect the Civil War had on him and his fellow Southerners. The book reads partly like a historical documentary and partly like a novel, keeping the reader's interest throughout by interspersing personal information about Lee with general accounts of his life and times after the war. Flood also seems determined to show Lee the man, rather than Lee the General and leader. His portrayal is of a man near the end of his life who never felt his accomplishments amounted to much — facing his final years in ill health, without a home, and without a purpose now that his days of command were done. Flood portrays Lee as a hero, but never as haughty or self-important. He seems modest and unassuming, which makes him all the more sympathetic and likeable.

Lee was well respected, even by Union troops, whom he had once served alongside before he resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy. Flood describes a moving scene just after the surrender at Appomattox: "When he realized that this was Lee leaving, he stopped and took off his hat. So did every other Union soldier in the yard" (Flood 13). Flood fills his book with emotional scenes like these, drawing the reader into the action and offering a fuller sense of what Lee was truly like beneath the authority and the power. He also fills his book with stories of Lee's family, which gives a more well-rounded picture of the General's personal life and what awaited him after losing the war. Lee's family was close, and that closeness was a vital part of his life both before and after the conflict. Portraying the family in detail ultimately deepens the portrait of the General himself, making the reader feel less like an outsider and more like a friend of the family.

Flood illustrates his thesis by following Lee through the years after the war to his deathbed, with his daughter Mildred at his side. The Notes and Bibliography sections are extensive, demonstrating the depth of research the author completed before writing the book. He draws on personal reminiscences as a major source, alongside secondary research materials and other published biographies. The accumulated detail produces a biography that is both richly informative and difficult to put down. The book also includes an extensive selection of photographs of Lee, from his youth to just before his death, as well as images of his family, their home, and his final position at Washington and Lee University. The photographs complement the careful detail of the written account, giving the reader an even closer sense of the family Lee loved so much. They also show how war changes a man. His final photographs reveal a war-weary figure who looks far older than his years; it is clear he had suffered greatly and could never be the young man shown in earlier portraits at the beginning of his long military career.

In conclusion, Flood's book is an intimate look at the last days of the Confederacy's greatest and most enduring General. The picture Flood paints is of a man determined to find peace in his own life and to help rebuild a country still divided by war — a man who longed only for a simple life in the country and some way to care for his family. Another man might have seemed pathetic under these circumstances, but Lee holds on to his dignity just as he holds his family together and reassembles the pieces of his life after the war's end.

Reference: Flood, Charles Bracelen. Lee: The Last Years. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.

Review: Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Burke Davis

Robert E. Lee is one of the best-known figures of the Civil War, and perhaps one of the most misunderstood. Burke Davis's Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War attempts to make Lee's wartime years more understandable and real to the reader, while portraying him as a genuine person with real problems, emotions, and failings.

The book follows Lee's career through the Civil War, providing just enough background on his earlier life to give him depth as a person. The author's thesis emerges early: he wants to examine Lee's performance during the war, but he also wants to show that Lee's loyalties were severely torn beforehand and that he did not want the country to split. Lee wrote in a letter before the war, "I shall mourn for my country and for the welfare and progress of mankind. If the Union is to be dissolved and the Government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none" (Davis 9). At the war's outset, Lee was pessimistic, yet he chose to remain with the South even though he believed secession was a poor idea. He accepted command of the Southern Army and later took direct command in the field. His prophecies of Southern defeat ultimately proved correct, but not without a long and hard-fought effort on his part.

Davis proves his thesis by concentrating on the long years of war during which Lee faithfully served the Confederacy. He uses extensive research, including Lee's personal letters to his family, to reveal the man behind the strict face of command. The depth of the Notes and Bibliography sections reflects the thoroughness of the writer's knowledge of Lee and his wartime actions.

The book demonstrates that Lee was a brilliant commander, but also a modest man who could not recognize his own strengths while dwelling on what he saw as his many weaknesses. It is well illustrated with maps of key battles and photographs of both Lee and the devastation wrought by the war. Davis also goes into considerable detail about life in camp between battles, showing that General Lee was an officer and a gentleman who refused to live better than his men. The book notes, "His usual dinner in this camp was a head of cabbage boiled in salt water, with a piece of cornbread" (Davis 266). Lee was no prima donna; he served his men and his Confederacy to the best of his ability, even in ill health and low spirits. The book presents him as a hero — which is precisely how the Southern people still regard him.

If there is anything to criticize, it is the author's practice of mixing documented research with fictionalized conversations and reconstructed scenes. It is clear Davis knows Lee well, but he creates fictionalized moments within the research and commentary, inventing dialogue for Lee and many of his peers and soldiers. While some of these scenes may be well supported by sources, they read more like fiction than fact, and the reader is left uncertain where documented evidence ends and the author's imagination begins.

In conclusion, this is a valuable book for the student of history, the researcher, and anyone who wishes to understand General Lee's motivations and performance throughout the Civil War. Though it is not a complete account of his life, it is a thorough account of the war itself and of Lee's enormously important role in it. The Confederacy was likely doomed from the moment it seceded from the Union, and Lee recognized that. Yet he performed his duty with courage and skill. Had Lee not been in command, the war might have ended sooner, for he was a great commander who inspired his men to remarkable feats.

Reference: Davis, Burke. Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War. New Jersey: Burford Books, 1998.

Comparing the Two Portraits of Lee

The following analysis compares and contrasts Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War by Burke Davis and Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood, focusing on how the two authors describe and portray Lee as a person and as a leader. Both books cover specific periods of his life: one spans the Civil War years, the other follows his life after the war until his death. Both portray Lee vividly as a hero, a leader, and a fully realized human being, complete with the frailties and faults that define any real person. The authors employ different styles, giving the reader two distinct pictures of the man that together form a more complete whole.

Conclusion: Two Books, One Complex Man

Both of these books show Lee as a man and a leader. Flood's book incorporates his family, giving the reader a clearer picture of the man and his motivations. Davis's book draws on intimate letters and personal correspondence to reveal Lee's human side, while consistently portraying him as a wise and compassionate leader who inspired fierce loyalty. The books share many similarities, but in the end it is their differences that make them most valuable. A reader who uses both texts will come away with a more complete picture of Robert E. Lee as both commander and man.

Reading these two books together makes the reader want to know still more about Lee's earlier years in greater detail. Many men rise to greatness at the expense of others, but this does not appear to be the case with Lee. He rose on his own merits, and he remains one of the greatest heroes of the South. These two books make it clearer why Southerners loved him, followed him, and continue to honor him today.

References:

Davis, Burke. Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War. New Jersey: Burford Books, 1998.

Flood, Charles Bracelen. Lee: The Last Years. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.