Robert E. Lee's Last Day in Uniform: Civil War Richmond 

How long ago was that James?

@@wildestcowboy2668 Probably 8 years or so

@@jameswoodfin4357 sweet, I wish I could go there and have a picture taken. Be safe up there.

I was wondering does any one live in the building now. I use to do HVAC too lol

Me too - but then I realized I am from NY and never stepped foot here but wish I had.

There seems to be a thread of support among some of the Park Rangers for the treason of the South. The monuments they so proudly discuss as well as the treasonous leaders of Southern armies reveal a perverse admiration for the losers of the Civil War. Frankly, Sherman, Grant, and Sheridan didn't burn and kill enough in the South.

Will Outlaw your a very disturbed and hateful person. I hope I don’t see you on national tv one day

@@willoutlaw4971 The south was legally allowed to secede. It's in the constitution that if the people believe the government has too much power and is tyrannical then you have the right to leave and establish a new government. Those are literally the words of our founding fathers you moron.

Semper Fi brother!!!!!

@@willoutlaw4971 If they had done more,I doubt the country could have ever been united again,who knows it may have caused a guerilla warfare movement that could have gone on for twenty years or more, which could have worn down the federal government to the point that in frustration, they would have said,to heck with it,let's negotiate an end to this and let the South go it's on separate way, this could have had serious implications for the US in the 20th Century, especially as we know the history of the 20th Century with the rise of Communism and Fascism I base part of this on the US failure in the 20th Century to be able to win against a insurgent guerrilla war in Vietnam,while we were successful in putting down the Phillipino Insurrection 1899-1901,the Moros who are Muslims,are still there,and still causing problems but the US is not there,of course the difference is that the insurgent guerrilla forces in Vietnam had help from outside countries and as far as I know,the Moros didn't, I suspect any insurgent guerrilla war in the South would have received help from the outside as well.

He was glad all of the death and destruction was finally over.

it was nice how the park ranger showed respect while he was telling the story behind those two photos

Probably thinking about how he doesn't want to be incarcerated or hang for treason. He proudly told the cameraman let me take a picture so people know that I'm done with this s***

General R.E. Lee, R.I.P. Lexington, Va. is Beautiful, and very Historical- V.M.I, etc! By moving from Washington D.C. to Lexington was a good move, President of a small (Washington Univ.), Far from the new US Prez Andrew Johnson! and the Vengeful U.S. REPS, after Lincolns Assassination, and as Lincolns Funeral Train travelled thru the North in its last stop in Illinois, the "Northeners became Emotional", The Topic of " Charging C.S.A. Leaders with Treason? from Abe Lincolns Generous terms till his death, to the Vengeful Afterwards! Time for Lee,(and others) to get far from D.C.? to quiet Lexington! and Lee, as President Increased Students from 40, to 400 students in short order, and today its W&L Univ! General Lee, resting at his Chapel, and his horse, Traveller is interred on the outside!

Just tired and weary. Knowing he did his best but also failed at key moments. Faces of the dead soldiers he knew... What would His maker have for him now to do?

Wow you are right.

Totally agree

It's a shame all Park Rangers are not like this one , the two best Park Rangers I ever met were at Vicksburg ,born ,and raised locally they represented their hometown with the same pride as they did the battlefield.

@@deanmason5900 Amen.

What he omitted was that ole Robert had to sneak into his own backyard to take a picture in that loosing uniform again sneaking into his own backyard that's a coward move in the end.

They don't make them like they used to... Everything is crap these days, even the bricks..

nik Bahtin apples to oranges

Scarakus not true (regarding bricks...most of the time). They couldn't make bricks as 'uniformly' as they do today. -- Those Are Not 'Original Bricks' Period. .. The vertical walls of the house, Yes. The horizontal flat patio, No.

I'm not if or what they sealed bricks with back in the day, i just know I've been doing maintenance on a 40 yo brick building, which was neglected for 20 years, and those bricks are crumbling.

Scarakus it happens.

Lee and honour are two words that should not be together. He was a vicious mean slaver who was a traitor to his country. Honour? He would not do a prisoner exchange because he viewed black Union soldiers as subhuman, condemning thousands (CSA and USA) to their death in squalid camps.

@@markgrice8214 how can one judge a value system that existed in a different period. I only spoke of the price paid for the honour, on a system of a different period. This value system was accepted by a big section of society then.

George Thomas faced the same moral dilemma and choice to honor his oath to the United States Constitution and Army. It would be interesting seeing a mini series sh on wing how two men who grew up in the Virginia slave owner class would made very different choices about defending such a social order.

Keith Harvey 😂 me too.

Start in Kentucky, both Lincoln and Davis were born there,...

Really, thanks i wasnt aware of that,was there any significant battles in that area? I will do a bit of research on it,thanks again from rainy Manchester

And Stonewall Jackson!

Lee was on record there would be no memorials or remembrances to the war. If he were alive he would be furious. Also FYI, the memorial was not built until after Lee's death.

@@markstaley5714 Remember, these barbarians who took down Lee's statue, also took down statues of Lincoln and Grant,if they could,I believe they would have replaced them with statues of Lenin,Marx and Stalin,they are Marxist revolutionaries,they always want to tear down history and rewrite history from a Marxist point of view,I guarantee you that these people know little or.nothing about Lee,Grant or Lincoln,otherwise they would have known that Grant and Lee were on the Union side and ended slavery.

@@wardfrancesphd2142 You have a PhD so I'd assume you know how to read. Why not start reading what almost every biographer has written about him. God you are a perfect example how a college education has become worthless in the USA

@@wardfrancesphd2142 what a goddam dumb question. Duh.

It's not being erased from schools, maybe from monuments, but not from schools, however its been recontextualized with our modern understanding of the motivations of the Civil War: Slavery and segregation.

What are you talking about? Where? In what school district has it been forbidden to teach the history of the Confederacy and the Civil War? Where? I challenge you to cite one instance of such a thing.

After the war an officer that had served under Lee came to him and asked if he should swear the loyalty oath to the Union. Lee answered that he should swear the oath as a good citizen should. The former officer went and swore the oath. The officer's father upon hearing that has son had sworn loyalty to the Union cursed him and called him a traitor to which the officer replied "General Lee said I aught to do it". His father then replied "Well, if General Lee said you should then you probably should." Lee encouraged those who served under him to return home and become good citizens, he just wasn't vocal about it.

Perhaps but Lee did in fact urge Southerners to come together and return to the Union. Also, his post war role was to serve as president of Washington College/ University subsequently to become Washington and Lee University. He was also approached on more than one occasion to allow use of his name for various (questionable) business ventures but he refused. At same time Grant headed one of the most corrupt administration in US History. The cause of the Southern rebellion was wrong, both in terms of slavery and the confederation type of government. But during that time, many Southerners considered their "country" to be their state and to which they had their greatest loyalty..

john wayne His 4 girls- Agnes- Annie-Mildred & Mary never married or had children. The 3 boys-Custis-Robert,Jr. & 'Roony'..all survived the war, and Roony&Rob had children. All of General Lee's descendants are though those Lee men.

In God we Trust All fought for a cause And that...IS THIER RIGHT. The surrender by Gen.Lee speaks volumes... he knew the war was lost and not prepared to simply send more guys to thier deaths. Let all who fought and died RIP for The Rest of Time. J H Kerby 🇬🇧 UK Army ....RCT ...Retd.

Lt. Colonel Walter Herron Taylor Jr., 6th Virginia Infantry. He joined Lee's staff in 1861 as a 1st Lieutenant.

Thank you. I knew his rank and surname.

He stood for slavery which is one the reasons the war was fought. Why should the citizens of Virginia continue to pay homage to a man that wanted nothing more for slavery to continue?

He was a traitor and should have been hanged.

@@ishmaeldarjean2757 he stood for slavery so much that freed his own slaves.

@@mintlatte9934 there's a reason he's acknowledged as an honorable gentleman by many outstanding people in the US and the world and you're just a random literal-who ignorant angry commenter on YT.

@@ishmaeldarjean2757 wrong...he was actually not pro-slavery. He never spoke out against it either though. We do not have the same mindset as the people did then. We can never walk in their shoes or understand their hearts.

We can't speak on the inside of the house, but the structure is the same building from 1865.

Mark Allred Mark, the fire was only 1 1/2 blocks when a sudden April rainstorm helped put it out. The girls were terrified for their mother, who was a invalid, who refused to leave the house. That storm saved Mary Custis Lee's life. She was Marha Washington's Great-Great-Grandaughter.

Midnight Minecraft/Derrick Scott Robert Duvall is kin to him too.

Midnight Minecraft/Derrick Scott Robert Duval is kin to Robert E Lee. Duval is a descendent. Duval even played Lee in Gods and Generals. You can kinda see the resemblance.

Jason Hallman Robert Duvall is descendant of Robert E. Lee. OR he was looking in the mirror and said to himself, 'I kinda resemble Robert E. Lee', and then put in Wikipedia, 'I am descendant of Robert E. Lee' . Now it's 'official'.😂😉 ..... just like half of Hollywood in Wikipedia are descendants of 'The Mayflower'. .. Yeah, what a coincidence.🤔

@@jayhallman6666 He is not a descendant of Robert E Lee. A cousin.

Jay Hallman Cool!

Dennis H Yes. He told Brady: "Mr. Brady, that is impossible!" Then Mrs. Lee & Custis persuaded Lee to sit, and stand, for those 6 photos. He doesn't smile because he is still depressed, angry & humiliated from the defeat & surrender at Appomattox, just 6 days earlier. Agnes said that her exhausted Daddy slept for 22 hours. The other officer is Lt. Colonel Walter Taylor, who was Lee's adjutant for 4 years. His book on Lee is an excellent read.

It seems to me like it was one last snubbing 2 Lincoln. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to wear civilian clothes in what is supposed to be the start of peace?

John Monroe John, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for the recommendation on Taylor’s book. Will pick it up. Thanks.

@@TheMrPeteChannel Brady wanted Lee in uniform numbnutz

@@jcommbe1514 Nobody tells Lee what to do if one had respect for him.

If the government we have today is what you consider "winning", then I sincerely question your sanity.

He probably did it as a final snub to Lincoln.

Lee was only 2nd in his class, 29 points behind Charles Mason (the all-time record-holder). Grant was 17th of 39 in his and set the equestrian high-jump record for a generation, far from the worst even in his own class. In fact, that's on par with Stonewall Jackson, who also finished 17th in his class.

It is often sited the REL received no demerits during his time at West Point, so did five other cadets that graduated with him.

Itsmanley, 2nd place and no demerits certainly would have beaten me.

Robert E Lee Was Polish 🇵🇱

​@@Endgame707 No. His ancestor Richard Lee I, emigrated from Shropshire, England, to Virginia in 1639.

@@SouthernGentleman Robert was born in Poland in 1807 in 1811 he moved to America this fact has been ignored by the USA 🇺🇸 probably because of anti polish mindsets

No, Grant gave Lee and his army paroles, which in military terms made them essentially POWs who could return home instead of being interned. The power of amnesty and pardon rested with the President and Congress, not with any general in the field. Sherman offered amnesty to J.E. Johnson's army a few weeks later and Grant had to go and explain to him that that wasn't allowed. Lincoln had made rather clear that he intended leniency, but nobody was sure what Andrew Johnson's intentions were at the time, especially given the anger in the Union over Lincoln's assassination.

Andrew Johnson was even More lenient to the South than Lincoln. ..not sure if Booth was thinking of that in his intension to kill the president.? probably not. just a hothead Hollywood type.

@bonanzatime Unlikely, since Booth sent an accomplice named George Atzerodt to kill Johnson that same night, but Atzerodt lost his nerve and didn't even make the attempt.

Grant did not have the authority to give amnesty to any of the murdering, treasonous rebels. Unfortunately, the rebels, including Davis and Lee, were not immediately hung for treason.

@@willoutlaw4971 You are awfully noisy for an ignoramus

Never forget the fight to preserve slavery?

@@shivtim Never forget so that we learn history and historical context so that our children don't end up being naïve tools for political agendas.

@@shivtim Oh! and that we can honor and respect a man that fought for his home, was an incredible general, and that we possess the maturity to be able to simultaneously look back 156 years in the past, sometimes without the proper historical context, and not while we certainly do not agree with the institution of slavery in retrospect, realize there were many complexities to the issue, one of which being that slavery was not the sole reason General Lee fought for the southern states. We can only hope that generations from now virtue-signaling people won't judge us through the lens of the politics of the future. If not, we are all subject to failure, are we not? We learn, grow and mature from the lessons of history, not from judging it!

@@Donjasoni That sure is a whole lot of words for "I'm a white supremacist."

Lee's intention was to join forces with the remnants of the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Johnston. Gen. Longstreet was with Lee at Appomattox. Most importantly - Robert E. Lee absolutely opposed any thought of a guerrilla war and actively moved to prevent any such thought. In Lee's mind the issue was decided and God's judgement was final.

Jon Jackson. Yes, Mr. Underhill is incorrect, and you are. During a lull & break while couriers were carrying messages back & forth, General E.P. Alexander spoke of that plan & his urge for it. He later wrote that he felt ashamed he even brought it up, because General Lee's reply was so wise, humane & selfless.

Not a very great person, but he was a great general

@@unoriginalclips9923 He was a product of his time. Many now may not consider him to be a good person because of how he lived but, that was the way of the world back then.

@@usnchief1339 Following the law (he did not when he delayed the release of 189 of his inherited slaves) and not being a traitor to your country should be considered normal. Lee did not do either.

Lol dork