Lee Favorite Robert E. Lee Quotes

Nice try KS. R.E. Lee left Mack Lee $360 in his will, equivalent to $6,600 today, so odds are he knew him well. . . . I forget, how much did U.S. Grant leave his ex-slave?

LOL!!!! And who was the source for that information? Mack Lee himself. The man who was with Lee at First Manassas AND First Bull Run. The man who cooked dinner for Lee on July 3, 1863 at Seven Pines. The man who served dinner to Thomas Jackson two months after he died. The man who lived on Lee's plantation for 18 years after the war yet somehow managed to start a church in DC 16 years after the war. The man who was simultaneously starting a church in Norfolk and at the same time established the State Benevolent Association of Virginia for colored people in Charolottesville. That Mack Lee. Hardly a impeachable source, wouldn't you say?
 
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LOL!!!! And who was the source for that information? Mack Lee himself. The man who was with Lee at First Manassas AND First Bull Run. The man who cooked dinner for Lee on July 3, 1863 at Seven Pines. The man who served dinner to Thomas Jackson two months after he died. The man who lived on Lee's plantation for 18 years after the war yet somehow managed to start a church in DC 16 years after the war. The man who was simultaneously starting a church in Norfolk and at the same time established the State Benevolent Association of Virginia for colored people in Charolottesville. That Mack Lee. Hardly a impeachable source, wouldn't you say?
KS, people like you tend to be selective when it comes to slave narratives. It all depends on who they glorify and who they vilify. I get it. Since Mack's feelings about Lee don't match yours you portray him as a lying, shiftless individual, and that is really sad.
 
KS, people like you tend to be selective when it comes to slave narratives. It all depends on who they glorify and who they vilify. I get it. Since Mack's feelings about Lee don't match yours you portray him as a lying, shiftless individual, and that is really sad.

And why do you swallow everything single thing he says whole in spite of the fact there are outrageous errors and holes you could drive a Mack (no pun intended) truck through? Could it be because he plays in nicely with selected Lost Cause myths?

And what about those poor misguided individuals who, for whatever reason, cling to the idea that Lee was killing off Pickett's division at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 rather than dining outside of Richmond? Or insist that Thomas Jackson died in May 1863 when he was, in fact, getting served dinner by Mack Lee in July? Or who foolishly believe that Lee lost his plantation in 1861 rather than living there 18 years later? Or who can do math and who have read Mack Lee's pamphlet and notice all the ways he contradicts himself and known facts? Are they all blind bigots as well? Heck, when it comes down to sheer fanciful story-telling, Mack Lee can give your avatar a run for his money as the most interesting-slash-entertaining man in the world.
 
Without doubt, Mack Lee's narrative is flawed. Might we instead look therein for something truthful? Or does the number of gross exaggerations nullify the entire document?
 
Without doubt, Mack Lee's narrative is flawed. Might we instead look therein for something truthful? Or does the number of gross exaggerations nullify the entire document?

Very good question. I suppose one way of determining "something truthful" would be if it was corroborated by another source. I have to admit that I tend to "sour" on a book/document if I find it has too many errors....probably end up missing things that way though.
 
Nice try KS. R.E. Lee left Mack Lee $360 in his will, equivalent to $6,600 today, so odds are he knew him well. . . . I forget, how much did U.S. Grant leave his ex-slave?

William Mack Lee, b. 1835
History of the Life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee: Body Servant of General Robert E. Lee Through the Civil War: Cook from 1861 to 1865
[Norfolk, Va.: The Smith Printing Company], c1918.

Summary

William Mack Lee (1835-c.1930) was a body servant and cook for General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War and until the general's death in 1870. Lee was raised at the General's Arlington Heights estate and served "Marse Robert, as I called him" even after being legally emancipated in 1865 (p. 3). General Lee left him $360 in his will, which Lee used to educate himself. He was ordained "a Missionary Baptist preacher" in Washington, D.C.

So show us Lee's will that has the amount left to WML.
 
Without doubt, Mack Lee's narrative is flawed. Might we instead look therein for something truthful? Or does the number of gross exaggerations nullify the entire document?

The document has zero credibility. Anything in there that is purported to be true would have to be corroborated by other sources to the point where you may as well not even use it and just use the other sources. It is flawed beyond repair.
 
The Reverend claimed he was raised as a slave at Arlington if you review the property list you will find he was and is not listed among the slaves or as property.

The Reverend then states he and Marsh Lee where at First Manassas which of course we all know Lee was not at the Battle.
He then goes on to say at the Wilderness in 64’ the cooked for Jackson who had died in May of 1863.

Neither Lee nor anyone in his staff be it on paper or speech ever mentions him. But more importantly Lee; Walter Taylor; Lt. Colonel Porter E. Alexander; Captain E. C. Fitzhugh and even Stuart state in many of their correspondences that Perry and William Parks along with Billy Taylor served as the Generals cooks and servants!

William Mack Lee a black who made many claims and was widely accepted throughout the South as an icon because of his supposed involvement with Lee. In most cases when relating these and other stories he was soliciting monies to build churches and apparently no one questioned him either because they wanted to believe him or did.

The Reverend claimed Lee had stated ‘At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to General Grant: 'Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Northen Confederate Army of Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I surrendered on conditins; you have ten men to my one; my men, too, are barefooted and hungry. If Joseph E. Johnston could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given you a happy time.'“ What these conditions were I do not know, but I know these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I surrender to you on conditions’
Quote from Rev. William Mack Lee's book who was Gen. Lee's cook from 1861-1865.
Note”

We did learn that Nancy one of Lees personal slaves listed a son by the name William Mack Lee. A slave usually took the name of their owner but there is also the outside chance Lee fathered the child. I say that as an author is currently pursuing that very prospect; asking if persons would submit to a DNA. For whatever reasons people have been refusing to submit to a test. However, our community should be prepared in case this is ever proven true, while most of us realize we are discussing a 19th century person and we should not allow current practices, beliefs to cloud our judgment; I can assure you others in this political correct world we live in will be demanding blood.
 
"Strike the tent."
; “There are suggestions that Lee's autobiographer, Douglas Southall Freeman embellished Lee's final moments” with Tell Hill he must come up ... Strike the tent”.

When in reality, the papers dying for just that Lees last words were greeted by the four (4) doctors and the family Lee's stroke had resulted in aphasia, rendering him unable to speak. When interviewed the four attending physicians and family stated "he had not spoken since 28 September...".
The last words LEE uttered were "I will give that sum" - this was spoken at a vestry meeting on the 28th of September. When he returned home he was unable to speak.
Thomas writes on pages 412 to 413. ‘But most of all those who watched and waited remembered the quiet, Mildred said it best-"his lips never uttered a sound! The silence was awful!"’
 
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.

What is your favorite quote?
Never said it!


The Forged Letter of Robert E. Lee
We have all seen and heard I have it on a print and inscribed here upon my desk “Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less”. It comes from a letter Lee wrote to his son, G. W. Custis Lee (5 April 1852); and published in The New York Sun on (26 November 1864). While it was presumed authentic and included in many biographies of Lee, it was repudiated in December 1864 by University of Virginia law professor Charles A. Graves who verified that the letter was inconsistent with Lee's biographical facts and letter-writing style. Lee's son also wrote to Graves that he did not recall ever receiving such a letter. Mr. Graves then conducted a thorough investigation and presented his findings at the 26th annual meeting of the Virginia State Bar Association 17:176 (1914) these finding which by the way are irrefutably can be found here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=EMkDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA176#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
Can you and Cash document that?

The history of the Rev. Wm. Mack Lee; Reverend William Mack Lee can be found on countless site (many of them supposedly pro Southron). I gave up trying to get these site owners to listen but there is no excuse for the Virginia Historical Society who sells copies of the Reverends pamphlet E185.97 .L48; “History of the life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee, body servant of General Robert E. Lee, through the Civil War - cook from 1861 to 1865”. Even after pointing out what could only be called lies not mistakes they stated it is not their responsibility to ensure truthfulness it is up to the reader to research the piece.

Here is an example of how gullible someone is, just because someone wrote a book of course it helps when the Virginia Historical Society sells it.

“One tiny book — perhaps it should be called a pamphlet — was written by the Rev. William Mack Lee, who served as Gen. Lee’s slave, bodyguard and cook during the Civil War. The book, “History of the Life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee: Body Servant of General Robert E. Lee through the Civil War: Cook from 1861 to 1865,” was written in 1918 when William Mack Lee was 82 years old. The reverend wrote his memoir to raise money to pay off a debt on the last church building he helped build. When he wrote the short book, he needed $418 to pay for the church.

Mack was born June 12, 1835 in Virginia and raised at Arlington Heights in Robert E. Lee’s home. He was 26 when the Civil War began and he went with Lee as his personal bodyguard and cook. He was a free black man as Gen. Lee, who did not believe in slavery, freed all his slaves 10 years before the war. Mack and all the other freed slaves had a choice to leave or stay and they all stayed on the plantation. Mack wasn’t literate, but he started preaching sermons two years before the war.

He married six years before the war began and had eight daughters. Mack’s wife died in 1910. He was ordained July 12, 1881 as a Baptist preacher and built his first church in Washington, D.C.

Mack got the idea to write a book when he went to the World-News office in Bedford, Va., to solicit donations for the church he needed to pay for. He told the receptionist why he was there. All the clerks listened to his plea for money and immediately went back to typing. The stooped and limping old man, who had a white, grizzly beard and an honest face, then told the office workers that he had been Gen. Robert E. Lee’s bodyguard and cook throughout the horrible war. All the typewriters stopped. The workers turned their attention to Mack and he told them his fascinating personal stories. When he got up to leave more than half an hour later, everyone in the office opened their wallets and gave him generous donations. His story was published in the newspaper, and readers tracked him down to donate to his cause.
In his little book, the reverend made a list of the generals and great officers he cooked for during the war. Some of the most well-known were Stonewall Jackson, who was a very dear friend of Lee’s, J.E.B. Stuart, George Pickett, Wade Hampton, James Longstreet and Jefferson Davis. He also listed the many different battles they endured together. Jackson was one of the South’s most aggressive generals and was the next best-known under Gen. Lee.

Mack described the day that word arrived that Stonewall Jackson had died. Mack, who was not yet aware of Jackson’s death, went to see his master. Gen. Lee told Mack that he had “lost his right arm.” Mack looked at Lee and replied, “Marse Lee, how can that be? You have not been in a battle since yesterday and I don’t see any blood on your arm.”
Gen. Lee said, “I am broken-hearted and my heart is bleeding.” The cook said the general looked as if he wanted to be alone with his thoughts so Mack left him alone. The next morning, Lee told his servant that his dear friend Stonewall had died. Mack had heard that Stonewall had been shot accidentally by the Confederate pickets at the Battle of

Chancellorsville in Virginia. They mistook Stonewall and several staff members for Union soldiers. Stonewall took three bullets and several staff members and many horses were killed. Stonewall’s left arm was amputated. Stonewall developed complications from pneumonia and died eight days later at the age of 39. Lee sent a message to him as he was dying that said, “You have lost a left arm, but I have lost my right arm.” Gen. Stonewall Jackson once said Lee was “the only man I would follow blindfolded.”

My favorite story that Mack told in his book was about a little, black hen. Gen. Lee got a little black hen from a man in Petersburg. He kept the hen and named her Nellie. He let her make her nest in the wagon and she laid an egg almost every day for two years. He loved the little hen as he loved all of God’s creatures. One day as they were about to pull out from the camp and move to another place, the little hen went missing. An APB was put out for Nellie. She was finally found, put back into the wagon and the unit moved on.

On July 3, 1863, Gen. Lee informed Mack, the cook, that he had invited several generals to eat lunch with them. Mack became very anxious and agitated. He said, “I was jest plumb bumfuzzled.” There was hardly any food available for anyone to eat. The men and horses were starving. He scratched his head and thought. He made some flannel cakes, a pitcher of tea and some lemonade. This was certainly not enough to feed a bunch of hungry generals. He heard Nellie cackle after laying her egg. The thought entered his head. He hated to do it but it seemed he had no choice. He wrung poor, old faithful Nellie’s neck and cleaned her. He stuffed her with a dressing made with bread crumbs and butter and cooked her. At dinner time, with all the generals sitting around the makeshift table, Mack proudly produced a platter with a large baked, stuffed hen on it. Gen. Lee looked at it and straight at Mack. Instantly, he admonished Mack in front of all the generals for killing the little pet hen that provided them with an egg a day. Mack said it was the only time Lee ever scolded him.

Gen. Lee said, “No, you didn’t have to kill her. Now, Mack, what are we going to do for eggs? You have already killed the hen that laid the golden eggs. I am going to write Miss Mary (Lee’s wife) and tell on you!”
I wonder if they all enjoyed the baked hen.

Just a few days after baking the hen for the generals, Mack went out to get Traveler, Gen. Lee’s horse, ready for the general to ride. He saddled the horse and led him over in front of the tent. Just as he tied her there, shots rang out from the Union army. One landed and exploded about 35 feet from Mack. Shrapnel struck him in his head and in his hip. He fell over and the general told him later that he had never heard anyone holler as loud as Mack did when the shells struck him. He was taken to the hospital for a few days. The piece of shell in his hip was never removed. He pointed to the hole in his head to show the office personnel.

Mack was with Gen. Robert E. Lee when he bade farewell to his comrades and instructed them to go home and make themselves good citizens after he surrendered in April 1865. Mack had several gavels made from the poplar tree under which Lee stood while making the farewell speech. Mack went home with the general and stayed with him until Lee died at the early age of 63 in 1870. He, like Stonewall, also died from pneumonia complications after having a stroke several days earlier.

The Rev. William Mack Lee ended his book by saying that he had been raised by one of the greatest men in the world. Gen. Robert E. Lee generously left the Rev. Mack Lee $350 in his will for Mack to continue his education, which he did”. http://www.bryancountynews.net/archives/10943/ Margie Love

To begin with the Reverend claimed he was raised as a slave at Arlington if you review the property list you will find he was and is not listed among the slaves or as property.

"The onliest time that Marse Robert ever scolded me," said William Mack Lee, "in de whole fo' years dat I followed him through the wah, was, down in de Wilderness--Seven Pines-- near Richmond. I remembah dat day jes lak it was yestiday. Hit was July the third, 1863."

I am sure everyone remembers where Lee was on that date? Does the word Gettysburg July 3, 1863 ring a bell? The same when it comes to the Wilderness or Seven Pines.

The Reverend then states he and Marsh Lee where at First Manassas which of course we all know Lee was not at the Battle.

He then goes on to say at the Wilderness in 64’ the cooked for Jackson who had died in May of 1863.

"On dat day--July the third--we was all so hongry and I didn't have nuffin in ter cook, dat I was jes' plumb bumfuzzled. I didn't know what to do. Marse Robert, he had gone and invited a crowd of ginerals to eat wid him, an' I had ter git de vittles. Dar was Marse Stonewall Jackson, and Marse A. P. Hill, and Marse D. H. Hill, and Marse Wade Hampton, Gineral Longstreet, and Gineral Pickett and sum others."

Neither Lee nor anyone in his staff be it on paper or speech ever mentions him. But more importantly Lee; Walter Taylor; Lt. Colonel Porter E. Alexander; Captain E. C. Fitzhugh and even Stuart state in many of their correspondences that Perry and William Parks along with Billy Taylor served as the Generals cooks and servants!

"Having stayed on Marse Robert's plantation 18 years after the war and with limited schooling, "
Wasn’t Arlington being used for something else? Oh I remember a graveyard!

William Mack Lee a black who made many claims and was widely accepted throughout the South as an icon because of his supposed involvement with Lee. In most cases when relating these and other stories he was soliciting monies to build churches and apparently no one questioned him either because they wanted to believe him or did. Even then there appears to be problems:Mack says he built the Third Baptist Church in Washington, DC at a cost of three thousand dollars, began its pastor and increased the pastored two years, increasing the membership. The Church says it was built in 1885 by the Rev. William B. Jefferson. http://www.thirdbaptistchurch.org/history.html

Cromwell's history states that the church was completed in 1893, and cost $26,000, and that under James Lee around 200 members were added:

The Reverend claimed Lee had stated ‘At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to General Grant: 'Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Northen Confederate Army of Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I surrendered on conditins; you have ten men to my one; my men, too, are barefooted and hungry. If Joseph E. Johnston could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given you a happy time.'“ What these conditions were I do not know, but I know these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I surrender to you on conditions’
Note” we did learn that Nancy one of Lees personal slaves listed a son by the name William Mack Lee. A slave usually took the name of their owner but there is also the outside chance Lee fathered the child. I say that as an author is currently pursuing that very prospect; asking if persons would submit to a DNA. For whatever reasons people have been refusing to submit to a test. However, our community should be prepared in case this is ever proven true, while most of us realize we are discussing a 19th century person and we should not allow current practices, beliefs to cloud our judgment; I can assure you others in this political correct world we live in will be demanding blood
 
"I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and have never seen the day when I did not pray for them."

As quoted in The American Soul : An Appreciation of the Four Greatest Americans and their Lessons for Present Americans (1920) by Charles Sherwood Farriss, p. 63

Respectfully,

William
 
Lee had a sometimes overlooked sense of humor, sometimes rather dark! After the war, wherever he went he was always greeted with large crowds, often a good many of them his old troopers. He'd acknowledge the cheers and rebel yells by taking off his hat and waving it, which usually got the cheers and yells doubled. His daughter Mildred disliked the hat as it was getting rugged looking, not all that dashing. She finally told her father about it. "You don't like my hat?" he said. "Why, everywhere I go large crowds gather just to cheer it!"
 
Th
The history of the Rev. Wm. Mack Lee; Reverend William Mack Lee can be found on countless site (many of them supposedly pro Southron). I gave up trying to get these site owners to listen but there is no excuse for the Virginia Historical Society who sells copies of the Reverends pamphlet E185.97 .L48; “History of the life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee, body servant of General Robert E. Lee, through the Civil War - cook from 1861 to 1865”. Even after pointing out what could only be called lies not mistakes they stated it is not their responsibility to ensure truthfulness it is up to the reader to research the piece.

Here is an example of how gullible someone is, just because someone wrote a book of course it helps when the Virginia Historical Society sells it.

“One tiny book — perhaps it should be called a pamphlet — was written by the Rev. William Mack Lee, who served as Gen. Lee’s slave, bodyguard and cook during the Civil War. The book, “History of the Life of Rev. Wm. Mack Lee: Body Servant of General Robert E. Lee through the Civil War: Cook from 1861 to 1865,” was written in 1918 when William Mack Lee was 82 years old. The reverend wrote his memoir to raise money to pay off a debt on the last church building he helped build. When he wrote the short book, he needed $418 to pay for the church.

Mack was born June 12, 1835 in Virginia and raised at Arlington Heights in Robert E. Lee’s home. He was 26 when the Civil War began and he went with Lee as his personal bodyguard and cook. He was a free black man as Gen. Lee, who did not believe in slavery, freed all his slaves 10 years before the war. Mack and all the other freed slaves had a choice to leave or stay and they all stayed on the plantation. Mack wasn’t literate, but he started preaching sermons two years before the war.

He married six years before the war began and had eight daughters. Mack’s wife died in 1910. He was ordained July 12, 1881 as a Baptist preacher and built his first church in Washington, D.C.

Mack got the idea to write a book when he went to the World-News office in Bedford, Va., to solicit donations for the church he needed to pay for. He told the receptionist why he was there. All the clerks listened to his plea for money and immediately went back to typing. The stooped and limping old man, who had a white, grizzly beard and an honest face, then told the office workers that he had been Gen. Robert E. Lee’s bodyguard and cook throughout the horrible war. All the typewriters stopped. The workers turned their attention to Mack and he told them his fascinating personal stories. When he got up to leave more than half an hour later, everyone in the office opened their wallets and gave him generous donations. His story was published in the newspaper, and readers tracked him down to donate to his cause.
In his little book, the reverend made a list of the generals and great officers he cooked for during the war. Some of the most well-known were Stonewall Jackson, who was a very dear friend of Lee’s, J.E.B. Stuart, George Pickett, Wade Hampton, James Longstreet and Jefferson Davis. He also listed the many different battles they endured together. Jackson was one of the South’s most aggressive generals and was the next best-known under Gen. Lee.

Mack described the day that word arrived that Stonewall Jackson had died. Mack, who was not yet aware of Jackson’s death, went to see his master. Gen. Lee told Mack that he had “lost his right arm.” Mack looked at Lee and replied, “Marse Lee, how can that be? You have not been in a battle since yesterday and I don’t see any blood on your arm.”
Gen. Lee said, “I am broken-hearted and my heart is bleeding.” The cook said the general looked as if he wanted to be alone with his thoughts so Mack left him alone. The next morning, Lee told his servant that his dear friend Stonewall had died. Mack had heard that Stonewall had been shot accidentally by the Confederate pickets at the Battle of

Chancellorsville in Virginia. They mistook Stonewall and several staff members for Union soldiers. Stonewall took three bullets and several staff members and many horses were killed. Stonewall’s left arm was amputated. Stonewall developed complications from pneumonia and died eight days later at the age of 39. Lee sent a message to him as he was dying that said, “You have lost a left arm, but I have lost my right arm.” Gen. Stonewall Jackson once said Lee was “the only man I would follow blindfolded.”

My favorite story that Mack told in his book was about a little, black hen. Gen. Lee got a little black hen from a man in Petersburg. He kept the hen and named her Nellie. He let her make her nest in the wagon and she laid an egg almost every day for two years. He loved the little hen as he loved all of God’s creatures. One day as they were about to pull out from the camp and move to another place, the little hen went missing. An APB was put out for Nellie. She was finally found, put back into the wagon and the unit moved on.

On July 3, 1863, Gen. Lee informed Mack, the cook, that he had invited several generals to eat lunch with them. Mack became very anxious and agitated. He said, “I was jest plumb bumfuzzled.” There was hardly any food available for anyone to eat. The men and horses were starving. He scratched his head and thought. He made some flannel cakes, a pitcher of tea and some lemonade. This was certainly not enough to feed a bunch of hungry generals. He heard Nellie cackle after laying her egg. The thought entered his head. He hated to do it but it seemed he had no choice. He wrung poor, old faithful Nellie’s neck and cleaned her. He stuffed her with a dressing made with bread crumbs and butter and cooked her. At dinner time, with all the generals sitting around the makeshift table, Mack proudly produced a platter with a large baked, stuffed hen on it. Gen. Lee looked at it and straight at Mack. Instantly, he admonished Mack in front of all the generals for killing the little pet hen that provided them with an egg a day. Mack said it was the only time Lee ever scolded him.

Gen. Lee said, “No, you didn’t have to kill her. Now, Mack, what are we going to do for eggs? You have already killed the hen that laid the golden eggs. I am going to write Miss Mary (Lee’s wife) and tell on you!”
I wonder if they all enjoyed the baked hen.

Just a few days after baking the hen for the generals, Mack went out to get Traveler, Gen. Lee’s horse, ready for the general to ride. He saddled the horse and led him over in front of the tent. Just as he tied her there, shots rang out from the Union army. One landed and exploded about 35 feet from Mack. Shrapnel struck him in his head and in his hip. He fell over and the general told him later that he had never heard anyone holler as loud as Mack did when the shells struck him. He was taken to the hospital for a few days. The piece of shell in his hip was never removed. He pointed to the hole in his head to show the office personnel.

Mack was with Gen. Robert E. Lee when he bade farewell to his comrades and instructed them to go home and make themselves good citizens after he surrendered in April 1865. Mack had several gavels made from the poplar tree under which Lee stood while making the farewell speech. Mack went home with the general and stayed with him until Lee died at the early age of 63 in 1870. He, like Stonewall, also died from pneumonia complications after having a stroke several days earlier.

The Rev. William Mack Lee ended his book by saying that he had been raised by one of the greatest men in the world. Gen. Robert E. Lee generously left the Rev. Mack Lee $350 in his will for Mack to continue his education, which he did”. http://www.bryancountynews.net/archives/10943/ Margie Love

To begin with the Reverend claimed he was raised as a slave at Arlington if you review the property list you will find he was and is not listed among the slaves or as property.

"The onliest time that Marse Robert ever scolded me," said William Mack Lee, "in de whole fo' years dat I followed him through the wah, was, down in de Wilderness--Seven Pines-- near Richmond. I remembah dat day jes lak it was yestiday. Hit was July the third, 1863."

I am sure everyone remembers where Lee was on that date? Does the word Gettysburg July 3, 1863 ring a bell? The same when it comes to the Wilderness or Seven Pines.

The Reverend then states he and Marsh Lee where at First Manassas which of course we all know Lee was not at the Battle.

He then goes on to say at the Wilderness in 64’ the cooked for Jackson who had died in May of 1863.

"On dat day--July the third--we was all so hongry and I didn't have nuffin in ter cook, dat I was jes' plumb bumfuzzled. I didn't know what to do. Marse Robert, he had gone and invited a crowd of ginerals to eat wid him, an' I had ter git de vittles. Dar was Marse Stonewall Jackson, and Marse A. P. Hill, and Marse D. H. Hill, and Marse Wade Hampton, Gineral Longstreet, and Gineral Pickett and sum others."

Neither Lee nor anyone in his staff be it on paper or speech ever mentions him. But more importantly Lee; Walter Taylor; Lt. Colonel Porter E. Alexander; Captain E. C. Fitzhugh and even Stuart state in many of their correspondences that Perry and William Parks along with Billy Taylor served as the Generals cooks and servants!

"Having stayed on Marse Robert's plantation 18 years after the war and with limited schooling, "
Wasn’t Arlington being used for something else? Oh I remember a graveyard!

William Mack Lee a black who made many claims and was widely accepted throughout the South as an icon because of his supposed involvement with Lee. In most cases when relating these and other stories he was soliciting monies to build churches and apparently no one questioned him either because they wanted to believe him or did. Even then there appears to be problems:Mack says he built the Third Baptist Church in Washington, DC at a cost of three thousand dollars, began its pastor and increased the pastored two years, increasing the membership. The Church says it was built in 1885 by the Rev. William B. Jefferson. http://www.thirdbaptistchurch.org/history.html

Cromwell's history states that the church was completed in 1893, and cost $26,000, and that under James Lee around 200 members were added:

The Reverend claimed Lee had stated ‘At the close of the struggle, General Lee said to General Grant: 'Grant, you didn't whip me, you just overpowered me, I surrender this day 8,000 men; I do not surrender them to you, I surrender on conditions; it shall not go down in history I surrendered the Northen Confederate Army of Virginia to you. It shall go down in history I surrendered on conditins; you have ten men to my one; my men, too, are barefooted and hungry. If Joseph E. Johnston could have gotten to me three days ago I would have cut my way through and gone back into the mountains of North Carolina and would have given you a happy time.'“ What these conditions were I do not know, but I know these were Marse Robert's words on the morning of the surrender: "I surrender to you on conditions’
Note” we did learn that Nancy one of Lees personal slaves listed a son by the name William Mack Lee. A slave usually took the name of their owner but there is also the outside chance Lee fathered the child. I say that as an author is currently pursuing that very prospect; asking if persons would submit to a DNA. For whatever reasons people have been refusing to submit to a test. However, our community should be prepared in case this is ever proven true, while most of us realize we are discussing a 19th century person and we should not allow current practices, beliefs to cloud our judgment; I can assure you others in this political correct world we live in will be demanding blood
that was well worth the read. Thank you.
 
Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.

What is your favorite quote?
"Go home, all you boys who fought with me, and help to build up the shattered fortunes of our old state. Go home and take up any work that offers. Accept conditions as you find them. Consider only the present and the future. Do not cherish bitterness.”
 
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