- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
- Location
- Denver, CO
He had enough seniority to avoid getting posted to California. That meant he never was exposed to the international community that invaded the gold fields, nor did he meet with Henry Halleck when Halleck successfully maneuvered slavery out of the constitution of California. Lee did not go with Delafield to Europe to observe the conclusion of the Crimean war. Mordecai took that slot and McClellan got the slot open for a northern officer. Lee was not exposed to English and French thinking about the modern world. Colonel Lee did his duty at West Point. But the "snake pit" he disliked may well have been the politics of being with northern officers as well as the rapid development of the intellectual climate of West Point and Troy, NY. Contrast Robert E. Lee, who took a combat assignment to Texas as soon as it was offered, to George Thomas, who married a woman from Troy, and later threw his lot in with Winfield Scott and the United States. Later in the decade Lee took leave from the army to try and settle the Custis estate. That task must have been frustrating for him, with the rising tide of abolition not far away in Pennsylvania.
These acts seem to tend towards self isolation from modern thought. He was turning back to plantation life and slavery, the environment he grew up in, and the attempt to regain the prestige his father may have squandered.
The decision to not go to Europe may have cost him the most. When he didn't know about how much progress had occurred in naval gunnery he may have been surprised to learn that no brick and mortar fort was viable.
Once he had immersed himself in Texas and in the Custis estates, there was little opportunity to observe how fast the US was growing and how influential English thought had become. He married into the Custis lineage, but the examples of George Washington and Winfield Scott were not convincing to him. There is an aspect of tragedy involved.
These acts seem to tend towards self isolation from modern thought. He was turning back to plantation life and slavery, the environment he grew up in, and the attempt to regain the prestige his father may have squandered.
The decision to not go to Europe may have cost him the most. When he didn't know about how much progress had occurred in naval gunnery he may have been surprised to learn that no brick and mortar fort was viable.
Once he had immersed himself in Texas and in the Custis estates, there was little opportunity to observe how fast the US was growing and how influential English thought had become. He married into the Custis lineage, but the examples of George Washington and Winfield Scott were not convincing to him. There is an aspect of tragedy involved.
Bringing the