Who Was Robert E. Lee?

LTC Greg Henning The Civil War books I have read venerated General Lee for his tactical skills with limited resources. In my mind, that skill and professionalism command my respect.

That is not quite true. Some rioters have taken down statues in some communities. But in most other community’s city leaders have ordered their peaceful removal. My take on this is simple. In the first place most of these statues were put in place during the Jim Crow era. But they were NOT put up to honor the greatness of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson or any other number of famous Confederate Officers...but were in fact put up for one reason...to intimidate and show Black folks that they meant absolutely nothing and that whites were fully in charge and had all the power. Most of these so-called "heritage statutes" were put up AFTER 1900 mostly in the 1920s after WWI. These statues were also put up because many Southerners, including sadly, many in my own family, just could not get over the fact that the South and the Confederacy lost. My Great Grandmother and to extent my Grandmother never could resolve it. And they both groused about all it the time.
Putting this chapter of our history to rest is way past due. And reminders like heroic statues of traitors does not serve the future of this nation only promote continued division, hate and anger. These kinds of old wounds are hard to get rid of because there are those in this country who keep picking at the scabs in purposeful despicable attempt to prevent any healing. Especially because these statutes were not put up to honor those men at all but to intimidate minorities.
But I also find it contemptable that we ever put up with honoring traitors. The fact that these long dead former US Army, Navy and Marine Officers, who violated their oath to the Constitution and the Nation and joined with an evil tyrannical oppressive government that stomped on the constitution rights of minorities and lived with a false sense of supremacy, is as evil and despicable as it gets. We do not have statues to Benedict Arnold. We do not have statues honoring other traitors to our nation. So why do we honor Lee, Jackson etc.?
Now I realize that the statutes of these on former civil war battlefields certainly serve a historical purpose. These statutes on the former Battlefields of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg do provide context and help those visiting visualize the battlefield and the combatant leaders involved. But that is the ONLY place that these statues serve a legitimate purpose. Any place else it is just keeping the pot stirred.
Now as far as Lee goes...he was lucky...lucky in that the first batch of his US Army counterparts were not up to the task until George Gordon Mead, U.S. Grant, W.T. Sherman showed up. Then his luck ran out. He was offered the Command of the US Army prior to the start of the Civil War....he refused forgetting and turning his back on his oath the God to protect and serve his Constitution and his Nation. That act alone means to me that he does not deserve a Statute anywhere except a former civil war battlefield.
The fact that any nation would build its nationhood and economy on a criminal conspiracy of kidnapping schemes, slavery and later white supremacist/nationalist policy and extralegal murders by lynching is immoral and evil. And to honor the leaders of all that is as evil and despicable as it gets and only serves to freeze the evil in place. Except for battlefield monuments and statues, it is time for all this to come down permanently.

Don't you hate when someone says you're better off for doing or having something done to you.