In Honor of Confederate Heroes Day
GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE
Robert E. Lee’s 213th
Birthday
January 19, 1807 – 2020
On Aug. 5, 1975, 110 years after Gen. Lee’s application, President Gerald Ford signed Joint Resolution 23, restoring the long overdue full rights of citizenship to Gen. Robert E. Lee. President Ford stated, “General Lee’s character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.”
The state of Texas honors General Lee and others with the elective holiday “Confederate Heroes Day.”
The late Franklin D. Roosevelt, America’s 32nd president, spoke at the unveiling of the Robert E. Lee Memorial Statue in Dallas, Texas, June 12, 1936 and said, “I am happy to take part in this unveiling of the statue of Lee. All over the United States we recognize him, as a great general. But also, all over the United States, I believe we recognize him as something much more than that. We recognize Robert E. Lee as one of our greatest American Christians and one of our greatest American gentlemen.”
In a letter to his sister April 20, 1861, Robert E. Lee said, “With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty as an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, and my home. I, therefore, have resigned my commission in the army and save in the defense of my native state, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed.”
Gen. Robert E. Lee died of a heart attack at his Washington College home at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 12, 1870. Lee is buried at the school’s Chapel near his family and favorite horse “Traveler.”
A prolific writer, Lee wrote his most famous quote to his son Custis in 1852: “Duty is the sublimest word in our language.”
Sir Winston Churchill once remarked, “Lee was the noblest American who had ever lived and one of the greatest commanders known to the annals of war.”
OFFICIAL SCVNEWS POST: The Grimes County Greys, camp 924, Sons of Confederate Veterans, P.O. Box 166, Anderson, Texas 77830. 936-825-8095.