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I'm sure this question has been posed here before, but what if Robert E. Lee had been commanding general of The Union forces?

In a Civil War movie I once saw, Lee said to Jefferson Davis, "I believe secession is constitutionally wrong, and slavery is a moral wrong in any society." Davis asked Lee why then he sided with The Confederacy and Lee said he could not fire on his home state of Virginia.

What if Robert E. Lee had not been so parochial toward Virginia? What if he had said, "If preserving The Union means firing on Virginia, then so be it," and he had gone with The Union?

My first thought is a shorter and less bloody Civil War.

But what would that have done in terms of slavery and Civil Rights?

Would Lee have gone on to become President of The US as Grant did in OTL? What kind of US President would Lee have made?
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