DVD Review: American Experience — Robert E. Lee
Seven thousand five U.S. and Coalition lives have been shed in Afghanistan and Iraq as of Christmas Day, 2010, according to CNN. The War on Terror is now the longest continuing war in our country's history. There were at least seven battles in the American Civil War with over eleven thousand casualties, two of which had over twenty thousand. Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate forces in all seven battles. The War Between the States lasted four years. It would take the combined deaths on the battlefields of Viet Nam, Korea, and both World Wars to outnumber the casualties inflicted upon ourselves in civil war.
General George S. Patton said, “Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor pale in significance.” Lee, a fellow West Point alumni, would be called upon by his country in 1861. The opportunity for which he had worked and studied for his entire life was about to be presented by the country to whom he had sworn his allegiance. The hero of the Mexican War of almost twenty years before, an accomplished civil engineer, a confident officer with an ardent desire for recognition was summoned to the capitol, by Abraham Lincoln.
PBS will premiere American Experience, Robert E. Lee, on Monday, January 3, 2011 at 9:00 PM EST.
The ninety minute presentation examines the life and times and legacy of Robert E. Lee. He graduated the military academy at the top of his class. He married the great granddaughter of George Washington. Their seven children were raised on the Potomac, at Arlington – a legacy of the first President. Lee was a land and slave owner. Recognized as possessing a soaring ambition, an unwavering resolve, and an almost superhuman physical stamina, Robert E. Lee achieved his long sought glory only after death.
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