What if Lee had remained a U.S. Army officer?

[whitworth]

I notice this question asked over the years. What would have happened?

My reply is the Civil War would never last as long as it did. No Virginia out of the Union, if one assumes Lee was fighting for his state. That would mean many of Virginia's West Point graduates would not go over to the Confederacy.

The logistics base of Virginia out of the Confederacy, would mean faster doom to any military struggle by the Confederacy. The Confederacy lasted as long as it did, because of its supply base, in and around Richmond.

There would be no Battle of Gettysburg. Confederate forces would not come near Richmond. Confederate forces would have had a difficult time defending North Carolina, so far from its supply base in Georgia and Alabama. Savannah would fall from a seaward attack. The Union forces could isolate Tennesee by attacking from Virginia to Chattanooga. A Union army drive from Savannah to Augusta would cut off supplies to South Carolina and any part of North Carolina remaining in Confederate hands. The Pro-Union tory elements in western North Carolina would have a more devastating effect on Confederate forces. They would get supplies directly though western Virginia, a Union state.

If Virginia did not secede and Robert E. Lee remained in the U.S. Army, we would know a much different Civil War. Slavery probably would not immediately be abolished. A loyal Virginia would still have half a million slaves.