What if Lee as CSA preident

[lordroel]

All the CSA victory timelines i know, in one way ore another, Robert E. Lee always becomes president of the CSA after Jefferson Davis term had ended, so my question is, did Lee want to do anything with politics ore was he just the soldier defending his country.

 

[JonnyReb_In_MI]

I don't think Lee had political aspirations, just as he did not aspire to be the Commander of all Virginia's Confederate forces and later all of the Confederate military, but I do think that the people of the South would have selected him and I think that he would have accepted the responsibility... which also likely means that he might have died in office, depending upon when in the "what-if" timeline the Southern states won their independence.

 

[lordroel]

I don't think Lee had political aspirations, just as he did not aspire to be the Commander of all Virginia's Confederate forces and later all of the Confederate military, but I do think that the people of the South would have selected him and I think that he would have accepted the responsibility... which also likely means that he might have died in office, depending upon when in the "what-if" timeline the Southern states won their independence.

I would think if he was elected president he would try to repair relations with the Union as best as he could, but could his death not be butterflied away ore was it something that was coming.

 

[Carronade]

I would think if he was elected president he would try to repair relations with the Union as best as he could, but could his death not be butterflied away ore was it something that was coming.

He died at 63, not unusual for the time.

If our what-if includes a relatively short war, Lee might have spared the stress he experienced historically. On the other hand, in a short war he might not have emerged as the Confederacy's #1 hero.

 

[JonnyReb_In_MI]

could his death not be butterflied away ore was it something that was coming.

It was something that was coming, as he probably died from what we now know to be heart disease. The stress of being elected President and then having to deal with the stress of the office & dealing with politicians would have likely not helped at all.

 

[mofederal]

Lee was not real political. I don't think his health would have allowed him to serve. Heart disease is a bad thing to deal with, I wonder if he had congestive heart failure. Lots of us do, I have a family history of it.

 

[lordroel]

It was something that was coming, as he probably died from what we now know to be heart disease. The stress of being elected President and then having to deal with the stress of the office & dealing with politicians would have likely not helped at all.

I would assume he just want back to become a ordinary but very respected citizen and live out his life in peace and rest.

 

[diane]

Lee did have a chance to be president of the Confederacy during the war. A delegation of congressmen decided what they needed was not just a president but a dictator, and the best guy to be a dictator they could think of was Lee. So they approached him with the offer. He was so appalled he practically threw them out of his tent. As it happened, if he had been Napoleonically inclined, he had a fine army that was completely loyal to him and he could have done just such a thing. The very idea of that kind of power in his own personal hands was just too much for him! As so often happens in the CW, things often were mirrored by the opposite side. After his victorious march and the assassination of Lincoln, the Army of the Tennessee was camped outside Washington. No general was better placed to stage a coup than Sherman - and there were those who thought a dictator was just what the country needed. Sherman actually toyed with the idea and dismissed it! I don't think any of the generals wanted that much power. (Well, maybe Sickles!)

 

[lordroel]

Lee did have a chance to be president of the Confederacy during the war. A delegation of congressmen decided what they needed was not just a president but a dictator, and the best guy to be a dictator they could think of was Lee. So they approached him with the offer. He was so appalled he practically threw them out of his tent. As it happened, if he had been Napoleonically inclined, he had a fine army that was completely loyal to him and he could have done just such a thing. The very idea of that kind of power in his own personal hands was just too much for him! As so often happens in the CW, things often were mirrored by the opposite side. After his victorious march and the assassination of Lincoln, the Army of the Tennessee was camped outside Washington. No general was better placed to stage a coup than Sherman - and there were those who thought a dictator was just what the country needed. Sherman actually toyed with the idea and dismissed it! I don't think any of the generals wanted that much power. (Well, maybe Sickles!)

Wait, this is new for me, nice to now this.