Lee in the Shadow of Washington

Winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table’s Laney Prize and the Virginia Historical Society’s Richard L. Slatten Award for Excellence in Virginia Biography

While most historians agree that Robert E. Lee’s loyalty to Virginia was the key factor in his decision to join the Confederate cause, Richard B. McCaslin further demonstrates that Lee’s true call to action was the legacy of the American Revolution viewed through his reverence for George Washington. In this thematic biography, McCaslin locates the sources of Lee’s devotion to Washington and shows how this bond affected his performance as a general. The enduring paradox, McCaslin shows, is that Washington earned his reputation as a statesman, whereas Lee never escaped his self-imposed image as a revolutionary in Washington’s shadow.

Richard B. McCaslin, a professor of history at High Point University in North Carolina, is the author or editor of eleven books, including The Last Stronghold: The Fort Fisher Campaign and Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862, winner of the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize of the Texas State Historical Association.