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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2005
- Location
- Right here.
That's an interesting question, really. A lot of people followed Lee's lead - a lot of fence sitters might not have joined the Confederate cause. It does make one wonder how affairs would have turned out in Virginia if Lee had not left with the government of his state. Plenty of Unionists in West Virginia!
His sons - I don't think there was a choice there even if they wanted one. They'd inherited property from their grandpa and it was in Virginia. Didn't fare any better than their mother's but the old homestead is worth fighting about. While I haven't really studied up on what Lee's boys thought, I have a feeling their mother's influence on them was more than their father's. Mary Lee was as Confederate as they came and never got reconstructed!
So do you believe the Union soldiers would have destroyed the property of prominent Unionists fighting for them, or would they have protected that property, like they did with John Minor Botts' property?