{"id":9209,"date":"2016-07-05T18:07:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T22:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unclerickaudios.com\/?p=9209"},"modified":"2016-07-05T18:07:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T22:07:04","slug":"heart-general-robert-e-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/2016\/07\/05\/heart-general-robert-e-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of the General – Robert E. Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

For over a hundred years after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was a hero to Americans in the South and widely respected in the northern states as well.\u00a0 His personal integrity, courage, brilliance on the battlefield and finally his grace in defeat made him a legend in his own time and for more than a century after his death.<\/p>\n

Robert E. Lee<\/h2>\n

Lee did not want to see war come between the states of the Union.\u00a0 He wrestled long and hard with the decision to decline command of all the Union armies when it was offered to him by President Lincoln.\u00a0 But when his native Virginia seceded, he followed her into the new Confederate States of America.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s genius on the battlefield was soon evident.\u00a0 As the number of his victories increased he was given command of more and more Confederate troops.\u00a0 Ultimately he would become the leader of the entire army.\u00a0 His troops trusted him implicitly and would follow him into the most horrific storms of shot and shell.\u00a0 But his true character is perhaps illustrated best in the true story of an encounter Lee had with a soldier from the other side.\u00a0 This story is told in detail in Portraits of Integrity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"robelee\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On a hot day in early July, Union soldier Marcus Wright lay wounded on the bloody battlefield of Gettysburg, his leg shattered by a Confederate bullet.\u00a0 The southerners had suffered a devastating defeat and would soon be retreating back across the Potomac, having just seen the beginning of the end of their dream of independence from the Union.<\/p>\n

Late in the day, Marcus looked up at the sound of hoof beats passing nearby.\u00a0 He recognized one of the riders from pictures he had seen.\u00a0 It was Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army.\u00a0 He was no doubt deep in sorrow at the loss of so many of his beloved soldiers in the last three days of battle, not to mention the damage done to the cause of his country.<\/p>\n

But young Wright saw not a patriot, but a hated enemy.\u00a0 This man was the leader of the men who had shot his leg out from under him.\u00a0 He was the general of the army Wright had left home and family to fight against.\u00a0 Struggling to marshall his strength, the young soldier shouted at the riders, \u201cHurrah for the Union!\u201d\u00a0 Then he fell back, exhausted.<\/p>\n

The horses stopped.\u00a0 General Lee dismounted and came to look down on the wounded man.\u00a0 Wright thought, \u201cHe\u2019s going to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the old soldier knelt beside him and took his hand.\u00a0 Kindly eyes, lined about and softened with sadness at all the suffering they had witnessed, looked into the agonized young face.\u00a0 General Lee spoke.\u00a0 \u201cMy son, I hope you will soon be well.\u201dPa<\/p>\n

Wright was as filled with admiration as he had previously been with hatred.\u00a0 He later testified that after the General left him, he turned his face into the grass and cried like a baby.<\/p>\n

So it is that kindness can turn an enemy into an admirer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For over a hundred years after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was a hero to Americans in the South and widely respected in the northern states as well.\u00a0 His personal integrity, courage, brilliance on the battlefield and finally his grace in defeat made him a legend in his own time and for more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2,4,5,6,7],"class_list":["post-9209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story-saturday","tag-character-concepts","tag-character-stories","tag-helping-parents-raise-kids-of-character","tag-kids-blog","tag-uncle-rick-audio-club"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.characterconcepts.com\/unclerick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}