Lee Robert E Lee Prisoner of War?

[NH Civil War Gal]

Robert E. Lee: Prisoner of War? - Emerging Civil War

ECW welcomes back guest author Katy Berman Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee got his first taste of disunion when he returned to San Antonio, Texas on a February afternoon in 1861. To his distaste, he was confronted by newly minted Texas Confederates who demanded to know what side he was on. The...

emergingcivilwar.com

ECW welcomes back guest author Katy Berman

Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee got his first taste of disunion when he returned to San Antonio, Texas on a February afternoon in 1861. To his distaste, he was confronted by newly minted Texas Confederates who demanded to know what side he was on.

The old flag was no longer flying over the Alamo, and men with strips of red flannel attached to their clothes were milling about. Lee entered a nearby hotel and changed into civilian clothes. He meant to find out what was going on.

Lee had been stationed in San Antonio only months before, in temporary command of the Department of Texas. When Gen. David D. Twiggs, an ailing veteran of wars dating back to 1812, resumed command on December 9, Lee was ordered to rejoin his regiment, the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, at Fort Mason one hundred miles away.[1] There, he was employed in fruitlessly chasing the wily Mexican bandit, Juan Cortinas, and staying alert to threats from the Comanches.

The state of the Union was on his mind, of course; it was on everyone's. Twiggs had not wanted to return to Texas for fear he would be faced with the crisis of southern secession.[2] General Winfield Scott had sent Twiggs a letter, to be shared with Lee, advising the officers what to do in case Texas seceded. Lee, however, hoped all would be well. At fifty-one, he had had a long career with the army, and although the slow progress of promotions had disappointed him, he could imagine no other life.

Read more at the link!

 

[Pollaco]

About that time wasn't the 2nd Cavalry ordered back to Washington? Or was it as prisoners the 2nd was sent back to Washington? I recall reading that they treked down to the port of Indianola to board the Star of the West. But there was a change in plans because the "Star" had been captured. Oops maybe I should read the link first before sending off replys.

 

[Pollaco]

That link contains an article about how some members of the 2nd Cavalry were arrested and detained from being sent back to Washington because they were under arrest by Earl Van Dorn. One member of the Commission of Public Safety, Philip N. Luckett, soon became a staff member for Van Dorn. After a brief stint as a staff member he became Col. of the newly formed 3rd Texas Infantry.

 

[Bentonville]

They were doing that in the USMC. If you resigned you were subject to a trip to the brig.

Military are heald to miliary law. Whole given Constitutional rights you sign away quote a bit when you swear in and put a uniform of. Still excessive considering.

I never worked a job where there was any question that could quot. And I've never had a job that wasn't happy to find someone else.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Found the language used in Lee's reply to his men's inquiry in early 1861 as to his intent for sides, to be interesting and worthy of analysis.

Lee's reply was, ...'I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in defense of my native state.'...

On the bare face of it, this statement seems to express contradictory (or qualified) intent, as well as a deep confliction, in Lee's thinking.

However, thought the use of the connecting conjunction 'but' in this statement made it clear that Lee's prevailing intent (at least at this time) was always to defend his state (despite him saying in mandatory and absolute terms, 'he shall never bear arms against the Union').

Lee may have always dreaded taking up arms against the Union, but thought it was never ever going to be a consideration on an 'equal footing' in his choice of which of these competing alternatives to follow. The content of this reply to his men was the evidence.