Chronicles General Robert E. Lee's experiences during the four years he served in Texas before the start of the Civil War.

"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron Chernow In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy—and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed. Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning. In a unique blend of history and reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy—that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation and enslavement of Black Americans—and directly challenges the idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through the arc of Seidule’s own life, as well as the culture that formed him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright lies—and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions of Americans to this day. Part history lecture, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the Confederacy—and provides a surprising interpretation of essential truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and accepting.

Relates the stories of thirteen heroes or events in nineteenth-century Texas history, including Cabeza de Vaca, Sam Houston and the Alamo.

Introduces a little known phase of the great General's career--his service in Texas during the four turbulent years preceding the Civil War.

Includes 20 costumed figures and 14 additional outfits for the Confederate general, his wife, and their 7 children, among them military and civilian apparel and modest day wear for the women and children.

Robert E. Lee In Texas introduces a little known phase of the great General’s career—his service in Texas during the four turbulent years just preceding the Civil War—at Camp Cooper, watching the federal government’s “humanizing” experiment with the wild Comanches; at San Antonio, commanding the Department of Texas; and at Fort Mason, headquarters of the Second United States Cavalry. In this account Carl Coke Rister, a leading historian of the West, takes us with Lee to his lonely posts on the border, and we share with him the hazardous and often fruitless chases after renegade Indians and Mexican bandits. We see through the eyes of the “Academy man” the raw life on the frontier and hear from his lips his impressions of the country and people. These were critical years for the nation and for the future military leader of the Confederacy. When Lieutenant Colonel Robert Edward Lee was transferred from the superintendency of West Point to Camp Cooper on an Indian frontier, where isolation, rawness, inconvenience, deprivation, and even death were commonplace, it seemed to him and to some of his friends that his military career was coming to a dead end. Nevertheless, while he was “lost on the frontier,” he gained strength, wisdom, and maturity. He worked with, and for the most part commanded, the famous Second Cavalry, many of the officers of which became either Northern or Southern field commanders in the Civil War. To know these officers, their points of strength and weakness, their whims and caprices, and their likes and dislikes served him well later in military crises. When in 1861 Lee came from the Texas wilderness to report to General Winfield Scott in Washington, he was prepared to assume the role of the South’s peerless leader—to justify General Scott’s Mexican War characterization of him as “America’s very best soldier.”

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the award-winning historian and best-selling author of Gettysburg comes the definitive biography of Robert E. Lee. An intimate look at the Confederate general in all his complexity—his hypocrisy and courage, his inner turmoil and outward calm, his disloyalty and his honor. "An important contribution to reconciling the myths with the facts." —New York Times Book Review Robert E. Lee is one of the most confounding figures in American history. Lee betrayed his nation in order to defend his home state and uphold the slave system he claimed to oppose. He was a traitor to the country he swore to serve as an Army officer, and yet he was admired even by his enemies for his composure and leadership. He considered slavery immoral, but benefited from inherited slaves and fought to defend the institution. And behind his genteel demeanor and perfectionism lurked the insecurities of a man haunted by the legacy of a father who stained the family name by declaring bankruptcy and who disappeared when Robert was just six years old. In Robert E. Lee, the award-winning historian Allen Guelzo has written the definitive biography of the general, following him from his refined upbringing in Virginia high society, to his long career in the U.S. Army, his agonized decision to side with Virginia when it seceded from the Union, and his leadership during the Civil War. Above all, Guelzo captures Robert E. Lee in all his complexity--his hypocrisy and courage, his outward calm and inner turmoil, his honor and his disloyalty.