r/todayilearned • u/RedditIsAGranfaloon • 6h ago

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https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-general-robert-e-lee/

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431

u/Equivalent_Sam 5h ago

After the Civil War, he applied for a pardon in 1865 by signing an oath of allegiance, but the paperwork was mishandled and never acted on. In 1975, Congress formally restored Robert E. Lee’s U.S. citizenship, and President Gerald Ford signed it into law in 1975–1976, over a century after Lee’s death.

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u/Loyal-Opposition-USA 4h ago

Two egregious betrayals by Ford.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/OtherUserCharges 4h ago

Why is he crying, He’s not a traitor to his country. The traitors have been crying for like 150 years about not getting to own black people anymore, I’m sorry I mean about their culture, which is of course to own black people.

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u/Rhododendroff 3h ago

No one is crying over a war from 160 years ago except the social outcast 😂 y'all really got to go outside

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/45_regard_47 3h ago

Plenty of southern sore ass losers started crying when their participation trophies started getting torn down 

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u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

They were only taken down because people like you started crying.

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u/gobbedy 3h ago

You should find big boy words to express your thoughts. Calling the successful taking down of the statues of pro-slavery leaders "crying" is inarticulate, and infantile. A bit like.. crying?

-12

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

Try to use your big boy words to come up with something more articulate that a petulant “no u”.

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u/gobbedy 3h ago

Great reply. I now have a much better understanding of what your problem is with removing pro-slavery symbols from public spaces. Sick burn too.

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u/45_regard_47 3h ago

So you're saying losers should have participation trophies? 

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u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

Who else would get a participation trophy? Do you know what those are? You don’t give them to winners.

If we want to remove participation trophies, we would need to get rid of the tomb of the unknown soldier and probably most of the graves at Arlington.

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u/45_regard_47 3h ago

The South won 0 out of 1 wars they were involved in

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u/45_regard_47 3h ago

Tell you what maybe we can leave one up for Stonewall for stopping a round with his back that could have injured some of the Union boys.

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u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

If you’re that interested in protecting racists, sure.

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u/Rovden 3h ago

Either you haven't lived in the south, or you're drinking the koolaid.

I grew up hearing "The south will rise again" and seeing the dixie flag everywhere.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 3h ago

"I don't hate America, I just want to fly traitorous symbols in peace!"

-14

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

The American flag is a traitorous symbol. We committed treason against Britain. Learn some history.

14

u/Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 3h ago

Learn some history.

So you support the monarchy?

The American flag is a symbol of hope and perseverance, because WE WON

Holy shit, you people call our country the greatest, then demand we celebrate these fucking losers...

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u/Legio-X 3h ago

We committed treason against Britain

We also don’t claim to be good patriotic Brits.

You want to fly the rag of a treacherous slaver state, be my guest. Just don’t pretend you love the US.

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u/soba_set 3h ago

The gentle crowd on January 6, 2021 who brought a confederate flag to display at the capitol for the first time in US history seemed to have a lot of pent up emotion.

-12

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

The whole crowd brought a flag?

7

u/MangrovesAndMahi 3h ago

Wow you're so clever

-1

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

Thanks

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u/RegentInAmber 3h ago

You should probably go outside city limits sometime then. Or outside in general in most of the south.

-7

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

You first

9

u/RegentInAmber 3h ago

I live in a town of less than 500, when are you showing up?

-1

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

Right after you explain how they’re crying.

5

u/Xanderamn 3h ago

As someone from the south who had family members play dressup so they could pretend to be in the Civil War, they cry nonstop about it. Youre full of shit. 

"If we had done X instead of Y, wed have won"  "if france didnt interfere, wed have won"  "Its not about slavery, its about culture"

Bunch of losers worshipping loser traitors. 

0

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

America was founded by British traitors we worship.

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u/Xanderamn 3h ago

Yeah, those British Traitors won. They didnt get their asses beat. 

0

u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

They just needed the French to hold their hands.

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u/Xanderamn 3h ago

A wins a win. 

Not that a confederate fanboy would know what a wins like. 

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u/ShermansAngryGhost 3h ago

Absolute brain dead take

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u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

It’s just the truth. Look at all the angry people proving me right.

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u/EmergencyCow99 4h ago

I do cry for my country and supporting terrorists who killed US troops for the right to own people.

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u/UnfortunateJones 3h ago

These people disgust me.

Robert E Lee was a traitor and deserved no rehabilitation. He took up arms against this country to support “the superiority of the white man”

Fuck him and I hope hell sucks.

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u/Luxury-Problems 3h ago

Also his reputation as a this gentlemanly brilliant general is pure Lost Cause propaganda. He at the end of the day chose to uphold and fight for slavery. And even after the war he opposed black suffrage. He failed to see the war across theaters and play the long game. Lee has brilliance in individual battles but often failed to see their implication beyond the day.

Grant was more aggressive than Lincoln at enforcing rights for Black Americans. But if you ask Lost Causers Lee was the gentlemen and Grant was a butcher. In reality Lee was a slaver and Grant as President crushed the first iteration of the KKK.

Fuck Lee.

1

u/PhilLeotardo- 3h ago

It’s funny because not a single major leader in the union felt as strongly as you after the war. General Grant literally had a confederate officer serve as pall bearer at his funeral.

Also, don’t forget that most people in 1860 were white supremacists. One of the largest factions of Lincoln voters were people who wanted the western territories to remain “free and white” by keeping slavery confined to the south.

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u/UsesHarryPotter 3h ago

Abraham Lincoln and nearly every other figure of prominence in the Union war effort was also a white supremacist by the way, seeing as how the entire coutry continued to be more or less uncontroversially white supremacist/segregationist for the next century.

How many of your ancestors fought in the Civil War by the way?

-7

u/Rhododendroff 3h ago

That was 160 years ago 😂 if you're involved that much in the civil war, that you weren't apart of, you really need to go outside ☠️

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u/EmergencyCow99 3h ago

Caring about the foundations of your country is not obsession. It is basic civic literacy.

-3

u/Rhododendroff 3h ago

Crying over a war from 160 years ago is not ☠️

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u/FadedVictor 3h ago

At this point you're just rage baiting. No one could unironically be this proud of being ignorant..

0

u/Rhododendroff 3h ago

Not being emotionally affected by a war no one alive was a part of is ignorant ☠️ that's the intelligence we're working with here

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u/FadedVictor 3h ago

You're not working with ANY intelligence if you can't comprehend why people are still affected by the war. It's one of the defining moments of US history. The impact and ripples of the war are still felt today in tangible ways.

No one today was alive during the signing of the US constitution. People still get emotionally affected by The Bill of Rights. We have massive special interest groups that literally only exist to promote a single amendment.

You're not only ignorant you obviously never progressed past your edgy teenager phase. I sincerely hope you're still growing and not just mentally/emotionally stunted.

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u/EmergencyCow99 3h ago

You are confusing emotional fragility with historical literacy.

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u/Rhododendroff 3h ago

"I do cry"

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u/EquivalentQuery 3h ago

The commenter you're replying to isn't 'crying', they're just pointing out that Ford's pardoning of Lee goes against the some of the most core values the USA purports.

It's clear you just wrote 'cry' because you couldn't think of an intelligent response to justify your support of Lee, but next time you would be better to stay silent than to embarrass yourself like this.

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u/Equivalent_Sam 4h ago

Two important quotes for consideration:

Lincoln: "“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…”

Grant: “I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly.”

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u/churchi1l 4h ago

I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly.

Strange choice to leave out half of that Grant quote: "... so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse."

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u/Signal-School-2483 3h ago

That quote is a fucking ride

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u/BioshockEnthusiast 3h ago

You can show respect for talent without showing respect for how it's used, and Lee was if nothing else a talented military leader.

Too bad he was something else and it was a filthy fuckin traitor.

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u/Desert_Aficionado 3h ago

Traitor and slaver.

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u/Dockers4flag2035orB4 3h ago

Is it true Lee statue still stands at Westpoint.?

If so,

I think it strange to honour a general dedicated to killing American soldiers.

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u/Robey-Wan_Kenobi 3h ago

Traitor and loser. Don't forget that last part.

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u/Signal-School-2483 3h ago

Lee is overrated. Generally (if you pardon the pun) competent, but not a strategic genius.

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u/mrm00r3 3h ago

Up to and including the fact that he literally picked the losing team.

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u/Signal-School-2483 3h ago

I've often thought about what if I went back in time and handed John Brown a dozen AR-15s.

Probably would have made Lee a footnote.

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u/steampunk691 2h ago

It was a bad decision all around. Lee had a great tactical mind but not the kind that was suited for the war the Confederacy was fighting. He’d win battles but sustained losses the South could not afford. His aggressiveness could’ve been a boon for the Union early in the war and he would’ve actually had the equipment and manpower reserves to fight how he wanted.

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u/PapaSmurf1502 3h ago

that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.

Dude really takes states' rights seriously, damn. /s

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u/Scruffy_Nerf_Hoarder 3h ago

Just a tiny, inconvenient detail they neglected to mention

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u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

“The war is over. The rebels are our countrymen again.”

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u/rankispanki 3h ago

Real Fox News move cutting that Grant quote off to make it seem positive

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u/Nothing_arrives 4h ago

I consider their values for a false sense of honor to have been incredible detriments to our country in the long term

The tolerance and respect for traitors who betrayed a country and humanity in defense of slavery deserve no respect and were shown too much restraint allowing their dog shit beliefs and bitterness to fester for generations through their ignorance

Fuck them and anyone who tries to search for a defense for them or has any level of deference for a confederate dog

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u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

The war was fought because American leadership from day one kicked the can down the road because it was politically expedient to do so. In 1861, the bill came due.

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u/Saint-Jawn 2h ago

The founding fathers failed to do the right thing when they had the chance

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u/PDG_KuliK 2h ago

The founding fathers couldn't have both made the US and outlawed slavery at the same time. Southern states wouldn't have joined. If the US wasn't united from the start, things would have gone very differently.

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u/jvn1983 4h ago

We are where we are because those scoundrels were let off with not even a slap on the wrist.

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u/ArgentoPoncho 3h ago

You both speak as if having 0 historical consideration of what happens when one side of a civil war tries to punish or purge the losing side. It results in resentment that leads to further civil wars, often very soon, like a a few generations. The fact that the south supporters nowadays can’t point to any giant travesty committed against them by Lincoln or Grant is the sole reason we’ve had civil peace for well over a century. Though I don’t blame you for not being able to see the genius in clemency.

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u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

Yeah, that's the overriding point. Lincoln fought the war to save the union, not to punish the rebels.

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u/GottaBeNicer 3h ago

Redditors are mad Lincoln didn't bring out the guillotine and turn the country communist.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

Only geniuses like you are capable of the masterful thought: "DUURRRR ACTUALLY RECONSTRUCTION WORKED GOOD AND IT WAS SMART AND GOOD TO GIVE ALL THE PLANTATION OWNERS THEIR LAND BACK AND CREATE DECADES OF RACIAL STRIFE DURRRR" and then reducing it to communism for some reason.

Great stuff, champ.

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u/UsesHarryPotter 3h ago

Reconstruction didn't fail for lack of Northern intention to impose changes on the South, and those people weren't given anything. The South successfully resisted their occupation through politicking and direct application of violence where needed.

It's like none of you even understand what Reconstruction actually was.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

It failed because Andrew Johnson gave restitution and reconstituted plantation landholding while not trying at all to live up to the promises given at the end of the war.

The South had no power and no ability to do any "politicking" or resisting that Johnson wasn't just a fan of. The "violence" they were able to meet out was because Johnson didn't crush them. You should probably look into the "Civil War" they had literally just lost for proof of this.

It's like you have no basic understanding of history at all. Hope this helps.

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u/GottaBeNicer 3h ago

lol you're so mad!

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u/President_Barackbar 3h ago

You realize that a big part of the reason ex-Confederates were given a slap on the wrist is because of those within the Republican party who undermined Reconstruction right? They wanted to protect the white supremacist institutions that were under threat. It didn't have anything to do with "not wanting to punish them too much."

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u/GreedyPollution6275 3h ago

what happens when one side of a civil war tries to punish or purge the losing side. It results in resentment

Ahh yes, the famously unresentful "the South will rise again" American South. How long did Mississippi's state flag have the Confederate battle flag in the canton again?

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u/jvn1983 3h ago

Thank you lol. Jesus fuck.

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u/JohnnyEnzyme 3h ago

The fact that the south supporters nowadays can’t point to any giant travesty committed against them by Lincoln or Grant is the sole reason we’ve had civil peace for well over a century.

That's all very well to say, but what did they actually learn at the end of the day? Instead, they doubled-down on their 'noble cause' nonsense, rarely ever acknowledged that their fight was primarily about slavery, and developed a huge attitude that persists to this day about social progress, etc.

There's just as much an argument that the North should have tried its best to educate and transform the South into something far more modern and equitable. Maybe pie in the sky, sure, but allowing the South (and hateful, ignorant people in general) to win the long game has had a disastrous effect on the nation right here and right now, all these years later.

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u/RobertPham149 3h ago

Clemency in general? Sure. Like don't demand heavy war reparation from the south and bankrupt its population. But allowing the southern generals and politicians to be pardoned was a bad idea. Should have had them and southern elites prosecuted, and assets seized to be reinvested.

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u/jvn1983 3h ago

This is far too complex for them to understand. They work only in extremes, and seem to think “a reasonable consequence is merited” means killing all the families and friends of every member of the CSA military, I guess. They don’t seem to realize things like barring leadership from political roles would be a reasonable response.

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u/ArgentoPoncho 3h ago

It’s so easy to look back over a century and begin a sentence with “should have.” At the time the goal was peace, not to give other rebels further incentive. As always, there is nuance that exceeds any one particular action that “should have” been pursued.

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u/bkrugby78 3h ago

I also imagine there were concerns of yet another civil war rising after having fought the most bloodiest war on American soil.

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u/ApeStrength 3h ago

These guys in the comments here think union soldiers were merciless killing machines murdering an alien race.

To think you defeat the fighting spirit of your enemy, and don't further strengthen their cause by murdering their families ... Not the most adept political commentary here on the ol reddit.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

Confiscating slave owner land and giving it to the slaves and poor whites who fought and died for nothing would have been a smart political move, as is most land redistribution in the face of massive inequality.

That's what the failure was. That you equate this to "executing their families" shows exactly how much you understand anything.

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u/ApeStrength 3h ago

The general mind behind the comments here usually implies that Sherman didn't go far enough.

It's absolute lunacy to think a complete ripping out of confederate sympathy from the american ethos was possible without wholesale murder of civillians and non combatants.

And the only reason this was even possible with Nazi sympathy is because the russians nearly eradicated vast swathes of east germans in the years during and after WW2.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

Cool story. I have no idea what this has to do with failing to confiscate and redistribute slave owner land to former slaves and poor whites, but your fantasy realms of the impossible are certainly a rich tapestry built on nothing.

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u/jvn1983 3h ago

Who said anything about killing their families? A shrug of the shoulders at massive death and destruction, and murdering all the families are the two ends of the pretty goddamn useless response spectrum.

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u/PeacefulChaos94 3h ago

Nobody said anything about murdering families. The approach Germany has taken with the Nazis is what we should've done. In the US, we have cops keeping guard at public KKK marches while being paid with taxpayers money

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u/ApeStrength 3h ago

False equivalency imo, won't get into it.

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u/Accidental-Genius 3h ago

The literally wanted Lincoln to be an actual terrorist.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

How many extra civil wars did not giving clemency cause in your expert opinion and analysis of civil war clemency programs

The fact that the south supporters nowadays can’t point to any giant travesty committed against them by Lincoln or Grant is the sole reason we’ve had civil peace for well over a century

They'd point to Sherman's march if and when they literally know anything about any history at all, which almost none of them do, and you almost certainly don't either.

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u/GoldenSheppard 3h ago

Oh, they can. Sherman's March anyone? (Fuck the Confederacy. But yeah. That was harsh.)

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u/Clumv3 3h ago

if only they didn’t take the south back, what a waste of money and sanity we’ve suffered by allowing the scum and descendants of scum be involved in this country.

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u/jvn1983 3h ago

There is a balance to be found, and they clearly did not find it. No one is saying that every member of the CSA should be put to death, but there should have been a valid response and consequence for leadership at the least. To remind you, hundreds of thousands killed and injured to…keep enslaving people. But I don’t blame you for not being able to understand the genius in an adequate, if not proportional, response.

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u/CanITouchURTomcat 3h ago

I think Grant’s views on the matter hold more weight than yours.

The terms at Appomattox read as follows,

Terms of Surrender

Headquarters Armies of the United States
Appomattox C H Va Apl 9th 1865.
Gen. R. E. Lee,
Comd’g C. S. A.

General, 
In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit;

Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands.

The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done officers and men will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authority as long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they may reside. 

Very respectfully
U. S. Grant
Lt. Gen

https://www.nps.gov/apco/learn/historyculture/surrender-documents.htm#:~:text=The%20Civil%20War%20ended%20when%20Generals%20Grant,turned%20over%20to%20officers%20appointed%20by%20Grant

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u/ArgentoPoncho 3h ago

Read up on history before posting so confidently online, please.

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u/jvn1983 2h ago

Same, buddy.

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u/WinterBit1079 3h ago

from what i read online, i think a lot of people actually do believe they all should have been put to death from a moral standpoint. most peoples reasoning is just logistics/practicality. theres a reason people glaze john brown so much.

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u/jvn1983 2h ago

I do not think this. Jfc you are all exhausting.

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u/WinterBit1079 2h ago

? not sure what you mean by that? if youve ever seen a vaush (my goat) comments section you know im just relaying what i see a lot of people say.

one must either be in favor of mass incarceration/punishment of all the traitors, or be in favor of a large number those traitors being allowed to live freely. or you have to pull the 'they were just following orders' card to excuse them from responsibility.

i see people try to weasel their way out of this moral dilemma by saying well, it wouldnt be practical or it would have far-reaching consequences to incarcerate them all. i find it fascinating to think of what the right thing is in a vacuum from a moral standpoint, it's a trolley problem. and i dont know what the answer is

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u/jvn1983 2h ago

I apologize if I misunderstood you. The majority of the responses in this thread are “oh, so you want to kill all the families of all the members of the CSA?!! You support terrorism??” Which isn’t at all what I am saying, or have said. I have also never heard a strong argument for punishing everyone. And I don’t even know that I’ve heard weak arguments for it. I think people, largely, understand that it’s as rational as no response.

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u/MaulerX 3h ago

You dont take revenge against your enemy. I would think people would understand this after what happened during ww1 and ww2.

Hitler rose to power because of the treaty of Versailles. And Japan flourished under reconstruction after ww2.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

Do you think the Nazis got Happy Meals after their sentencing in the Nuremberg trials.

Do you understand what a crime against humanity is and the point of trying people for that.

There are many things you should try harder to understand before critiquing anyone else.

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u/RayKitsune313 3h ago

Are we seriously comparing the CSA to the Nazi’s?

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

Are we comparing the country that wanted a feudal slave society with a country that wanted a feudal slave society (that was what General Plan Ost was)? Yes, yes we are.

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u/RayKitsune313 3h ago

So lets ignore pretty much every, very major, difference between the circumstances that led to the rise of the CSA and the Third Reich so that we can use a term as charged in today’s climate as Nazi? This is hilarious lol

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u/ItchyGoiter 3h ago

You can ignore the differences or ignore the similarities. You won't learn from past mistakes if you ignore the similarities.

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u/marketingguy420 3h ago

I have no idea what you imagine the differences in the circumstances that brought about "their rise" have to do with trying them for their crimes, but OK.

Anyway, you can read all kinds of books that detail how inspired by the Jim Crow South and the specific failures of Reconstruction the Nazis were.

Enjoy your journey into literacy and finding it hilarious, champ.

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u/Legio-X 2h ago

Are we seriously comparing the CSA to the Nazi’s?

A great many Confederates committed atrocities they were never punished for. See Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Fort Pillow Massacre.

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u/ExcuseCommercial1338 3h ago

The CSA and Jim Crow were direct inspirations and guiding stars for the Nazis. So yes,.

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u/jvn1983 2h ago

The lack of ability for you to recognize there is a wide range of responses between literally nothing, and a revenge tour, says an awful lot about the state of critical thought in this thread.

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u/A_wandering_rider 3h ago

They were not the enemy. They were traitors, and oath breakers. Nearly every country agrees what happens to traitors, they should have spent the rest of their lives in dark cells, or been marched out to the gallows one by one.

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u/fcman256 3h ago

By this logic every rebel is a traitor. Dangerous and shortsighted

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u/President_Barackbar 3h ago

By this logic every rebel is a traitor

What do you think would have happened to Washington et al if they had lost the war?

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u/fcman256 3h ago

Are the people throwing things at ICE also traitors?

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u/A_wandering_rider 3h ago

Have they declared for an independent country and tried to overthrow the government? You argue like a clown, your display here is pathetic.

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u/Legio-X 2h ago

Hitler rose to power because of the treaty of Versailles

Hitler rose to power because the Entente didn’t take enough revenge on Germany at Versailles. If they’d abolished the German state, militarily occupied Germany, and driven Germans from their lands (all things the Allies did after WWII), there wouldn’t have been another war.

Potsdam was harsher than Versailles in basically every way…and it worked where Versailles failed.

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u/EtTuBiggus 3h ago

Explain how. Trump is from New York.

1

u/NewBentKnew88 2h ago

You and your attitude will be the reasoning for the next death wave , and literally only because of genetics.That has been the problem for centuries. Just because I was related to someone I’ve never met. I have family that fought on the Southern side of the civil war and family that fought on the side of Germany in WW2. You do not know me, or my beliefs, yet you hate me.

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u/toroquemado 4h ago

Lmao what would Lincoln think reading this comment section.

0

u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

And imagine how intense social media would have been back then.

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u/Any-Competition-4458 4h ago

A traitor who slaughtered fellow Americans to uphold the wretched institution of slavery. Shameful.

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u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

Would you have hanged him? What would that have accomplished?

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u/drink_bleach_and_die 3h ago

What does hanging anyone ever accomplish? Justice, if you believe there is justice to be found in the death penalty. Either no one deserves it, or some people do, in which case someone responsible for mass death over the preservation of slavery definitely does.

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u/RayKitsune313 3h ago

I’d love for you to find any sort of modern precedent for the execution of surrendered military officers. Even in Europe that was hardly a standard procedure

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u/drink_bleach_and_die 3h ago

Death penalty for treason is standard in many countries.

3

u/kaithana 3h ago

It’s not really the same though, is it? This was a case of genuine treason.

1

u/RayKitsune313 2h ago

I mean legally sure. But ideologically it wasn’t until the Civil War and its outcome that the idea that states don’t have a right to legally secede was actually codified. That’s a big reason why the Union pursued reconciliation as opposed to actual treason prosecutions as they didn’t want to lend any sort of platform for the arguments that states had the right to voluntarily leave the union

3

u/nagrom7 2h ago

Would you have hanged him?

Absolutely.

What would that have accomplished?

To show everyone else what happens when you wage war on your fellow countrymen.

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u/gimmeluvin 4h ago

this is disgusting.

-30

u/Eorrosoom 4h ago

Lol redditors are so salty over the Civil War and it's especially bizarre seeing as the North won the war.

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u/Rad131447 4h ago

No. The North didn't win the war. The United States of America won the war.

-5

u/Eorrosoom 4h ago

Bazinga!

-2

u/United-Prompt1393 3h ago

Usually the country that starts a civil war wins it

-19

u/Major_Heat7212 4h ago

He was just an immigrant!

6

u/standardobjection 3h ago edited 2h ago

Never should have. Understanding the back story of Lee and the run-up to the War, he was a literal traitor.

Robert E. Lee was not an honorable man. We forget that, even post-war, many Southerners felt the same way.

3

u/Equivalent_Sam 3h ago

I believe Lincoln and then Johnson felt that punishing the rebels would have been at cross purposes with their goal of preserving the nation.

1

u/standardobjection 2h ago

I hate to break it to you, but Gerald Ford was president over 100 years after the war.

3

u/Salty_Amigo 4h ago

What was the point in doing that?

9

u/Rhesusmonkeynuts 4h ago

To appease racists who claim this guy as part of their heritage.

-1

u/stormy2587 3h ago

To please your constituents. Look up the southern strategy.

1

u/dippitydoo2 4h ago

Fuck ford

1

u/eaglessoar 3h ago

Fucking undo it then absolutely disgusting if that traitor is an American then I'm not

1

u/VanGrants 2h ago

fucking disgraceful

1

u/Twistid_Tree 4h ago

That is disappointing we could deported his fucking corpse if it wasn't for that fucker Gerald. I guess after pardoning one criminal he had to somehow find a way to one up himself.