Smug elitist cosmopolitans will tell you that General Lee and his army were traitors who fought for literally no reason than to preserve slavery, and they are the worst traitors in the nation's history. They tell you that their very existence was anti American.

Lee retired from the military and wanted to live peacefully on his Virginia plantation. When tensions began flaring, both the USA and the new CSA called on him to lead their armies. He refused both. Lee actually retired from the Union army shortly after the war began.

Virginia seceded, against Lee's wishes, but he vowed to serve to protect his home. Once Virginia became a Confederate state, he realized that conflict in his home state would be inevitable and agreed to lead the army of the CSA.

Lee owned slaves, mostly inherited from his ancestors. Some reports claim him being harsh on them, others say he was fair and compassionate. He never really had strong feelings about slavery as an institution. He was just a property owner like everyone else.

Lee was a tactical genius, and a godsend for the Confederate military. Without his guidance the war would have surely ended years before it did. General Grant had a lot of admiration for Lee, as they were both West Point graduates, Lee graduating second in his class.

Morons will say Lee "fought to preserve slavery" but the war had so many facets it's intellectually untrue at best, and maliciously dishonest at worst, to claim there was only one cause.

Obviously slavery was the sticking point for the war. But many saw the federal abolition of slavery as a direct violation of the 10th amendment which reserved power to the states, and also the 5th amendment on the federal government seizing private property.

Whether you like it or not, in those states slaves were considered property. Therefore this is a legally accurate argument. Morals aside, southern states saw this as a federal seizure of property.

The North had also already progressed beyond the agrarian lifestyle and exchanged it for an industrial economy, mainly in textiles and other manufactured exports. This reduced the need for slaves, where they were still necessary to the agricultural economy of the South.

For all these reasons, and some others, the southern states determined that the only way their economic viability could stay intact was if they broke off and kept to themselves, of course keeping trade open with the Union, who provided many necessary items.

Seemed like a good arrangement at the time, but with the secession of the Southern states came the seizure of several things still important to the Union, primarily Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and the Port of New Orleans in Louisiana. Losing these were not an option for the US

So the Union was forced to try and seize back Fort Sumter. After Day One of what became the Civil War, or whatever you call it, the CSA held the fort temporarily. The war was on,

This thread has already gotten too long and I'm not a historian so I'll close before I start rambling any more. Robert E Lee was a military genius and a proud American patriot as well as a loyalist to his true home. Him "losing" the war is an unfortunate blemish

But don't let idiots tell you he was a traitor. He did what appeared right to him at the time, and fought to defend his home. At the end of the war, his only request in negotiations with Grant was to protect and feed his men, who were starving after a long retreat. Grant agreed.