WI: Robert E. Lee had accepted command of the Union forces in 1861?

What do you think would happen if Robert E. Lee had accepted command of the Union forces in 1861?

I think that he would only have done so IF Virginia had not seceded. Yes, he was not a fan of slavery. But he had a loyalty to his State that took precedence.
 

Sir Chaos

Banned
I think that he would only have done so IF Virginia had not seceded. Yes, he was not a fan of slavery. But he had a loyalty to his State that took precedence.

What could have happened for him to let this loyalty take a back seat to some other consideration?

Could Virginia have acted in some way for him to not want to support it? Could Virginia´s state government or the Confederate government have done something to thoroughly alienate him?

Could something have happened to convince him that his loyalty to Virginia demanded that he help bring it back into the Union?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
What could have happened for him to let this loyalty take a back seat to some other consideration?

Could Virginia have acted in some way for him to not want to support it? Could Virginia´s state government or the Confederate government have done something to thoroughly alienate him?

Not that I can think of. This is Robert E. Lee we're talking about here. If you cut open his chest, you'd find "Virginia" written across his heart.


Could something have happened to convince him that his loyalty to Virginia demanded that he help bring it back into the Union?

Not if that would involve waging war against it.
 

Yuelang

Banned
Or have Virginian government at the time done something so morally repulsive such as capturing free blacks' children and put them back on slavery. Lee will be convinced that to help Virginia, he must fight against it's corrupt government who secede from the union.

Or simply have Lee mulls a bit longer and Virginian government seize his assets and murder his family.

so much possibilities of things going wrong
 
There could have been circumstance leading to where no Southerner would have spoken to him. Col Lee of the US Army had been appointed to command the garrison at San Antonio. Cant recall what regiment was posted there. However, enroute he received new orders elsewhere. Shortly after secessionist Texas militia approached the San Antonio garrison & demanded the acting commander surrender the facility & arms within. For whatever reason the officer did so & marched his soldiers off to another unthreatened post. This occured a few weeks before the commander of Ft Sumter refused a similar demand & had his Ft bombarded by the secessionists.

Would Col Lee US Army & model officer of proven fortitude & dicipline have handed over the Federal property to a local miltia? Possiblly not. It might have ended there with the Texans retiring to the local saloons to plan their next move. Or it might have come to gunfire. In that case Lee as a Federal Army officer commanding resistance to secessionists would have had near zero chance of any Confederate or state commission as a officer.

This does not automatically mean he remains as a Union Army officer, but we would not be much discussing him as a Confederate leader either.
 
he was overrated. He bumbled Gettysburg, though had he won it I doubt the South would have won the war. It would have been more prolonged.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
There could have been circumstance leading to where no Southerner would have spoken to him.

True, but then he would have simply sat on the sidelines and not joined the fighting at all. Unless you want to completely change the kind of man Robert E. Lee was, there is no conceivable scenario in which Lee would lead troops against Virginia. None whatsoever.

You might as well speak of Winston Churchill deciding to side with the Irish or Indian nationalists against the British Empire.
 
True, but then he would have simply sat on the sidelines and not joined the fighting at all. Unless you want to completely change the kind of man Robert E. Lee was, there is no conceivable scenario in which Lee would lead troops against Virginia. None whatsoever.

You might as well speak of Winston Churchill deciding to side with the Irish or Indian nationalists against the British Empire.

What about him fighting on the Western Front? Maybe Lincoln gives him his word Lee will never fight Virginia if he accepts command. Would that work? And how would that go?
 
Would Col Lee US Army & model officer of proven fortitude & dicipline have handed over the Federal property to a local miltia? Possiblly not. It might have ended there with the Texans retiring to the local saloons to plan their next move. Or it might have come to gunfire. In that case Lee as a Federal Army officer commanding resistance to secessionists would have had near zero chance of any Confederate or state commission as a officer.
That's exactly what's told in Turtledove's excellent short story Lee at the Alamo. Read it!
 
What do you think would happen if Robert E. Lee had accepted command of the Union forces in 1861?

Lee was offered command of a Union army, not all of them. If he served in the east, Lee probably would have gotten McDowell's position and been sent into battle before he felt the army was ready. Combine that with the obvious learning curve (Lee did poorly in West Virginia) and Lee would almost certainly lose and probably been sidelined, becoming a footnote in history.

It seems more likely Lee would have been sent west. Again, he would probably initially perform poorly, as he did in OTL, but odds would be higher for him getting a second chance.
 

jahenders

Banned
Not at all that dramatic. All it would have taken would be for his conception of duty to the US to be as strong as his sense of duty to Virginia.

There are even some who have argued that evidence suggests he wasn't quite so clear cut on the issue (trying to find that reference).

True, but then he would have simply sat on the sidelines and not joined the fighting at all. Unless you want to completely change the kind of man Robert E. Lee was, there is no conceivable scenario in which Lee would lead troops against Virginia. None whatsoever.

You might as well speak of Winston Churchill deciding to side with the Irish or Indian nationalists against the British Empire.
 
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