Virtue Magazine

One noted military historian ranked Lee as one of the six greatest captains of all time, with Napoleon, Frederick the Great, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Hannibal. Others believe Jackson surpassed even Lee in skill and daring on the field of battle. Certainly both of them demonstrated the highest of military skill and daring during the struggle for Southern independence.

However, a great military reputation does not make for a great moral reputation. Many great soldiers throughout history have equaled their skill at war with their cruelty and wickedness. Such was not the case with Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson. Both exemplified many of the best Christian characteristics. Though they were not perfect men, they are men who deserve our honor, and I dare say, our emulation, regardless of what position one takes on the war.

Above all, Lee and Jackson were Christians. Their devotion to their native state and their country was only surpassed by their dedication to the service of God. Both, it seems, were converted some time around the Mexican War. Though they belonged to different denominations, Jackson to the Presbyterian, Lee to the Episcopalian, both constantly professed faith in Christ as the only Saviour for sinners, and lived lives in accordance with God’s Word. Following a religious service during one of the winter revivals in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Lee said to one of the preachers, “I am only a poor sinner trusting in Christ alone for salvation.” Both men endeavored earnestly to foster religious services in the army, and great revivals spread throughout the soldiery during the winters of 1862-63 and 1863-64.

No less was Stonewall Jackson a Christian. Fierce and relentless in battle, irritable, and often difficult to deal with, his efforts to promote the Gospel were nevertheless tireless, and his prayer life so constant that it was often said that the place he could always be found before a battle was in his tent, on his knees. Before the war, Jackson had sponsored, and financed, a Sunday school for Negroes, and was faithful to send his offering to that endeavor throughout his service in the army. He was loathe to do anything unnecessary on Sunday, though he would fight a battle if required. His preference was that that day be spent either in quiet rest, or at divine services. Ultimately, God granted him to die on a Sunday, which he had always wished for.

Jackson was a strong believer in the sovereign ordination of God in all things. “My religious beliefs,” he remarked, “allow me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.” He could not be killed until the time God had appointed, and when it was time for him to die, he would not be afraid, for he knew he had a reward in heaven. Just before launching the devastating flank attack on Union general Oliver Howard’s 11th Corps at Chancellorsville, Jackson wrote a brief note to Lee, which he concluded with the remark, “I trust an ever kind providence will bless us with great success.” Not even a battle report would go unmarked by Jackson’s strong faith and reliance on God. Defeated only once in the field, Jackson never failed to ascribe full credit for victory to God.

Robert E. Lee constantly did the same. His character was so sterling that he has often been called “the marble man.” His gentleness in manner and action changed only when he was in battle. He applied his Christian principles to everything he did. “I am opposed,” he wrote to his son Custis, “to the theory of doing wrong that good may come of it. I hold to the belief that you must act right, whatever the consequences.” Even under the severest strain and trials, Lee always remained faithful to his God, and constantly urged both his wife, who he wrote to constantly, and his army, to trust in Him, and to thank Him for each and every victory. He urged them against pride and self-confidence, and warned them always to put their reliance upon the Lord, “Who teaches my fingers to fight, and my hands to war.” Even when his daughter Annie died, in the winter of 1862, though sorely grieved, Lee urged his wife to rely upon God’s benevolence, and maintain faith in His goodness.

Above all, Lee was humble. Indeed, it could likely be said of Lee what the Scriptures say of Moses, “He was the meekest man on the face of the earth.” In all accounts ever given of the great commander, he was never once heard to “toot his own horn.” Always the credit for each victory went to God, first and foremost, and then to his generals, Jackson, James Longstreet, John Gordon, or others. Even at Gettysburg, when he was sadly failed by several generals, after the failure of Pickett’s charge, Lee manfully shouldered all the blame. “It is all my fault,” he said, and, upon returning to Virginia, offered his resignation to President Jefferson Davis in apology for the defeat. Davis, of course, wisely rejected the offer, and Lee returned in 1864 to conduct a brilliant defensive campaign against the overwhelmingly superior Army of the Potomac, now under the command of Ulysses Grant, until finally worn down, and forced to surrender when his army was a mere skeleton of his former self.

Even in defeat, Lee manifested a quiet Christian dignity. Though firmly believing the South had acted rightly, and that he had done right in defending his native state against hostile invasion, he was never heard to reproach his former enemies. In fact, on one occasion after the war, when he served as president of Washington College (later renamed Washington & Lee), he responded, “Sir, if you ever again presume to speak disrespectfully of General Grant in my presence, either you or I shall sever our connections with this university.” Also, after the war, at the Episcopalian church in Lexington, when a black member approached the table to receive Communion, Lee was the first to join the man, and thus set an example for the other members of Christian behavior.

Not bitter, but saddened, Lee lived out his final years striving to educate the young men of Virginia to serve the country God had placed them in. The defeat of the South had, he accurately foresaw, ended the days of strict construction of the Constitution, and ushered in the American empire. States’ rights had always been precious to Lee. Indeed, he had gone to war to defend Virginia, his native soil. He was not a traitor or terrorist, as some modern, historically ignorant and inept writers accuse, nor was he in favor of slavery. He had drawn his sword “only in defense of my native state.” To Lee, and to the South, had there been no invasion, there would have been no war. But the war came, and Lee, a reluctant secessionist, became more dedicated to the cause as the war progressed, once remarking, “No civilized nation within knowledge has ever carried on a war such as the United States has carried on against us.” This, of course, stood in stark contrast to the impeccable behavior of Lee’s army during the Gettysburg campaign, a result of strict orders issued by Lee, which forbid the soldiers from exercising vengeance on the Northern population, but to wait on Him “to Whom vengeance belonged.” During the cruel abuse of the South during Reconstruction, he privately remarked, “Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in my right hand.” Prophetically, he would write to the British Lord Acton in 1866, “The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all that have preceded it.” Two years later, he would mourn, “I grieve for posterity, for American principles and American liberty.” In our day and age, we are reaping the fruits of what was sown in Lee’s time.

Forgive me if I have strayed from my original subject, but a short political commentary is fully within the scope of this publication. As for Lee, let him be summed up in the words of Benjamin Hill: “When the future historian comes to survey the character of Lee, he’ll find it rising like a huge mountain above the undulating plains of humanity, and he will have to lift his eyes toward heaven to catch its summit. He possessed the every virtue of the great commanders, without their vices. He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guilt. He was a Caesar without his ambition; a Frederick without his tyranny; and Napoleon without his selfishness; and a Washington without his reward. He was obedient to authority as a servant, and loyal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as a woman in life; modest and pure as a virgin in thought; watchful as a Roman vestal in duty; submissive to law as Socrates; and grand in battle as Achilles.” Said of most men, I would accuse the writer of an almost inexcusable exaggeration. Having studied Lee for years, I can say that these words are the most accurate description of his character I have ever seen.

And so, I urge all of us this week to remember the birthdays of Robert E. Lee, January 19th, 1807, and Stonewall Jackson, January 21st, 1824. The military historian will love to recall their stirring campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, among others. But above all, we should admire, and emulate their Christian character, and seek to be as devoted to our God and our country as they were. When I see the day that this nation turns away from low-life celebrities and hypocritical, lying politicians as their heroes, to men like Lee and Jackson, then I will have hope that something good may come of us yet.