Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) was a general during the American Civil War for the C.S.A. He is often remembered as a brilliant strategist, and credited with many of the C.S.A.'s successes against the more populous and more industrialized U.S.A.

Although Robert E. Lee did represent the C.S.A., it appears that he did not support slavery, or at least had abolitionist sympathies.

Robert E. Lee in The Guns of the South
Robert E. Lee was in poor spirits by 1864, having suffered a major defeat at Gettysburg the year before. However, hope for the Confederacy arrived with the mysterious stranger Andries Rhoodie, a man who presented Lee with a new type of "repeating" rifle, called the AK-47. With this new weapon, Lee led the Confederacy to victory.

With independence secured, Rhoodie shared the truth with Lee. He and his men were from the year 2014, and had come back in time to secure victory for the South. Rhoodie told Lee that substantial racial strife had come from emancipation and the South's defeat. Lee had his doubts; although he was a slave-holder, he was no great fan of the institution, and the events of the war had given him much to consider.

At Jefferson Davis' insistence, Lee ran for president. When Rhoodie attempted to assert himself over Lee so as to insure the continuation of slavery, Lee would have none of it, harshly rebuffing Rhoodie's presumptuous attitude. Rhoodie's men then supported veteran calvalry general and ardent slavery-supporter Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lee and Forrest shared a deep emnity during the election of 1868, but Lee won.

On the day of Lee's inauguration, Rhoodie's men attempted to assassinate Lee. While Lee survived, his wife Mary Lee was killed. This action united Lee and Forrest, and the C.S. army did battle with the time-travelers. Through captured history texts, Lee learned the truth: that the group were merely racists who wanted to insure the subjugation of blacks by altering history. He also learned that history had taken a dim view of the Confederate cause. This knowledge steeled Lee's resolve to end slavery in the C.S.

Robert E. Lee in Must and Shall
As a key general in the military of the Confederate States, Robert E. Lee was targeted for retribution by United States President Hannibal Hamlin following the assassination of his predecessor Abraham Lincoln while the latter was inspecting the redoubts around Washington, DC in July 12, 1864 and the defeat of the Confederate States in 1865. Along with other key Confederate politicians and military officials including Jefferson Davis and Joe Johnston, Lee was said to have been hung higher than Haman on the gallows.

Hannibal Hamlin then proceeded to punish the Confederacy by installing a harsh period of military occupation, destroying their economy and promoting the former black slaves to important offices which lead to long-term animosity between the inhabitants of the South and the North, as well as racial tensions throughout the former Confederate States. During World War II, Nazi Germany smuggled weapons into the South to stir up revolt and distract the U.S. government.

Robert E. Lee in Southern Victory
In 1861, Robert E. Lee's small army was defeated in West Virginia, allowing the United States to admit that state, and he was recalled to Richmond. In the spring of 1862, he became the Army of Northern Virginia's commander when his predecessor, Joseph E. Johnston, was wounded outside Richmond during the Peninsula Campaign. Lee repulsed the Union Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan. The following summer, he defeated an overland invasion of Virginia led by General John Pope at Manassas Junction.

In the fall of 1862, he launched an ambitious invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Aided by failures of US Intelligence to find his columns and by McClellan's timidity and incompetence, he defeated the Army of the Potomac at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and advanced on the city of Philadelphia unopposed. (Twenty years later, this campaign would inspire German officer Alfred von Schleiffen to plan the campaign which Germany eventually used to open the Western Front during the Great War in 1914.) This campaign obtained for the Confederacy British and French recognition and forced US President Abraham Lincoln to extend US recognition as well--in other words, it won the war for the Confederates.

Lee's nephew, Fitzhugh Lee, would eventually become President of the Confederate States.

In future generations, Lee would be honored when his name and likeness were used for the Order of Lee medal, the second-highest honor bestowed by the Confederate Army after the Confederate Cross.