Union Outfit Clip Art Robert E Lee Outfit Clip Art

In spite of the sight of the Stars and Bars flight from the radio masts of occasional automobiles coming out of Dixie, few fair-minded men can feel today that the issues which divided the North and South in 1861 have whatsoever real meaning to our nowadays generation.

Those were the words spoken by famous Globe War 2 full general Maxwell Taylor in 1952, at the dedication of Gen. Robert E. Lee'due south portrait in the W Signal library. This portrait has since get the topic of controversy from many who question the reverence for Lee at West Point in the form of a barracks, a gate, and multiple paintings.

Articles exploring this veneration and petitions calling for the removal of displays of Lee at West Point often fall brusque in addressing exactly how the Confederate leader became ingrained in academy culture. Lee's render to a place of honor at West Point occurred as a upshot of a reconciliation process that downplayed the Confederacy'due south treason every bit the master transgression for which southern officers required forgiveness, papered over the issue of slavery, and ignored the underrepresented black officers of the United states of america Regular army. The reverence shown, though, is no longer unchallenged by the diverse, twenty-first-century officer corps, and as a event, West Signal now faces a decision: What should it practice with displays of Lee's person and his name? And more broadly, what place should this controversial figure—and former university superintendent—occupy at the academy?

At the turn of the twentieth century, the institutional narrative at W Point about the Spousal relationship cause was yet focused on two major points: the preservation of the Union in the face of secession and the freedom of slaves. During this menstruation, 2 construction projects at W Indicate memorialized the Civil War—the Battle Monument, a towering column at Trophy Signal that was completed in 1897, and Cullum Hall, a building completed in 1900.

The Battle Monument was erected to memorialize all Wedlock Regular army regulars who were killed during the Civil War. According to its official history published in 1898, the monument commemorates the souls who "freed a race and welded a nation." Supreme Courtroom Justice David Brewer, who spoke at the dedication ceremony, likewise described these ii causes as the master reasons that the Union's struggle should be remembered by cadets. The monument itself still contains an inscription on its shaft calling the Civil State of war the "State of war of Rebellion" to bring attention to the treasonous actions of the Confederacy.

Cullum Hall, where Lee'south name commencement started to appear after the Ceremonious State of war, was completed to serve as a memorial hall for West Point graduates who distinguished themselves in the military profession. The edifice'southward deceased benefactor and Wedlock veteran, Maj. Gen. George Cullum, left the funds for its construction in his will, and the decision as to who was worthy of memorialization in the building would exist subject to a vote of West Betoken's academic lath. Robert East. Lee's proper name was placed in this building on a statuary plaque that named the past superintendents of the academy and the years they served in the part. The decision to include Lee'due south name seems to have little to practise with his leadership of the Confederate Army, but was treated as a thing of historical record.

Only two years later in 1902, dozens of both Confederate and Marriage West Point graduates attended the i hundredth anniversary celebrations of the academy's founding. The festivities included a speech by Brig. Gen. Edward P. Alexander, a highly influential Confederate officer who used the spotlight to catalyze the reconciliation procedure between white Union and Confederate graduates. Alexander'southward accost was steeped in "Lost Cause" rhetoric that glorified the right of states to secede. In the spirit of reconciliation even so, Alexander admitted that "it was best for the South that the cause was lost," since he viewed the strength of U.s. in 1902 as rivaling that of other major world powers. Finally, Alexander spoke directly of the pride "heroes of hereafter wars" would feel toward the accomplishments of Confederate graduates, predicting those heroes would "emulate our Lees and Jacksons." Notably, Alexander mentioned cipher of the institution of slavery, which the Confederacy fought to defend and Union graduates died to erase.

From that menstruation frontward, the narrative at West Bespeak regarding its Confederate graduates markedly changed. Taking Alexander's stirring words to heart, the Corps of Cadets began to forgive Confederate graduates for seceding and glorified their military accomplishments. Talk of slavery became rare—much similar black membership in the Corps of Cadets during the first half of the twentieth century—and relics of Robert E. Lee appeared slowly at the academy with the support of southern interest groups.

In 1930, the United Daughters of the Confederacy—known for its financing of Amalgamated memorials in the early on 1900s and pushing the "Lost Cause" narrative—reached out to West Point officials offering to donate a portrait of Robert East. Lee to exist displayed in the Mess Hall next to portraits of other West Point superintendents. The organization hoped to feature Lee in his gray Confederate uniform, merely the academy, perchance still wary of Lee's treasonous legacy, requested that the portrait characteristic Lee in the bluish US Army uniform he donned every bit superintendent. That version of the portrait is still on display in the Mess Hall in an unremarkable manner adjacent to the portraits of every West Point superintendent.

The following year, the United Daughters of the Confederacy made another offer to West Point, this time to sponsor a mathematics honour dedicated to Lee, who was known for his mathematical acumen as a cadet. This memorial award was sanctioned by the academy and was given until 2018 in the form of a saber, but information technology ceased to be sponsored past the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1993, after curriculum changes meant it would no longer be presented during convocation.

Meanwhile, as the United Daughters of the Confederacy slipped Lee back into the academy's retention and the white officer corps reconciled sometime differences, African-American cadets were subjugated to harsh and unfair treatment past academy officials and fellow white cadets. The best example is Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.—the academy's quaternary black graduate in the 7 decades later slavery ended—who is the namesake of the academy's newest billet construction. In the 1930s he was given a solo room assignment and no other cadets would speak to him during his unabridged four years every bit a cadet (an act known equally "silencing" typically used confronting cadets who were considered dishonorable). Davis graduated in the height 15 percentage of the Class of 1936, but was denied entry into the Army Air Corps to maintain segregation policies. Davis connected to be silenced by several classmates and other officers for years after commissioning. For decades, Davis's classmates and West Point leadership denied publicly that Davis was silenced, while several others wrote him letters of apology in individual. His experience stands in stark contrast to that of white cadets who pushed forward with reconciliation in the same era as the institutional memory of Confederate leaders grew more than positive.

Robert East. Lee's validation as a revered figure in Westward Point lore was cemented on the one hundredth anniversary of his selection as superintendent and during the 150th anniversary celebration of West Signal'southward founding. On Jan 19, 1952, a massive portrait of Robert E. Lee—in full Confederate greyness compatible, with a slave guiding his horse behind him—was donated to the West Betoken library.

Gen. Maxwell Taylor and other dignitaries and guests at the unveiling of the portrait of Robert E. Lee at West Point on January 19, 1952. (Source: The Sesquicentennial of the United States Armed forces Academy)

The portrait's unveiling was the occasion when Gen. Maxwell Taylor claimed that "few fair-minded men can experience today that the bug which divided the Due north and Due south in 1861 have any real meaning to our nowadays generation." He spoke these words only a month after the Army decided to pursue full desegregation and three years earlier both Emmett Till's murder and Rosa Parks's arrest. Desegregation nationwide still had far to go in 1952. This willful ignorance of the black experience in American history—including in American military history—was critical to the lionization of Confederate heroes and reconciliation with white southern officers. Without information technology, cadets and officers akin would be forced to grapple with the fact that men similar Robert E. Lee betrayed their land for the right to continue owning and subjugating an unabridged race of people they thought inferior.

Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a West Point graduate, recently described his alma mater's problematic association with Lee, including a barracks built, he notes, in the 1960s. While it'southward true the billet in question was completed in 1962, at the height of the civil rights movement, it was initially named "New Due south Barracks." Information technology was not named in accolade of Lee until 1970, when several buildings at the academy received the names of by graduates. Lee Gate received its name in the late 1940s, when the names of all entrances to the post were changed. In wide historical context, the how, when, and why of the naming convention for Lee Barracks or Lee Gate is relatively benign in comparison to the dedication of Lee's portrait to the West Betoken library. An entire committee of powerful southern financiers was dedicated to bringing back Lee'south likeness as a Confederate champion in 1952. Past the fourth dimension Lee Barracks was named, the view of the Civil War at W Betoken had already undergone a complete metamorphosis.

And then, what should West Signal practise about its Robert E. Lee problem? Nosotros believe the solution to this complex result is uncomplicated: Lee should exist remembered, but not honored. That starts past albeit that W Indicate and Army leaders got it wrong in 1952. The issues of the Civil War did have a "real pregnant" to the "present generation" when Taylor spoke at the unveiling of Lee's Confederate portrait, and they have a very real meaning to our generation today. Here are our recommendations:

• Lee's proper name should remain in Cullum Hall. Lee was the superintendent of West Indicate and his positive contributions to the academy in this regard cannot and should non be ignored. In the aforementioned vein, Lee'south portrait in the mess hall showing him in his blue Us Army dress uniform as superintendent should remain equally a thing of historical record.
• Lee's Amalgamated portrait and any others like it should exist removed and placed in the West Point museum or visitors center with appropriate historical context and background.
• Lee Billet and Lee Gate should be renamed. Lee'south name on these facilities became an everyday testimony to the newly reverential treatment of Confederates at the university. This encourages a revisionist history that elevates Confederates' positive characteristics and ignores their treason and support for the institution of slavery.

Some argue that removing such symbols is tantamount to erasing history and calls for founders like George Washington to be "canceled." Nosotros categorically refuse this harbinger-human being argument. Robert E. Lee was not just a racist and a slave owner. He chose to betray his state in the defense of his right to subjugate the black race, which now comprises a significant portion of the Army and officeholder corps. The leadership who saw fit to prop up Robert East. Lee as a revered figure in 1952 did so past accepting a comfortable, watered-down, and cherry-picked revisionist history. Today, history classes at the academy fully embrace the correct notion that preserving the nation'due south unity and catastrophe slavery were the defining features of the Union cause, and cadets learn about both the armed forces skill and ideological wrongdoings of Lee and his Confederate comrades. Cadets likewise learn about hundreds of W Point graduates whose accomplishments are worthy of honor, respect, and reverence. Although they learn nigh Lee, he is non one of those deserving of such reverence by the future officer corps.

W Point seeks to brainwash, train, and inspire future leaders in the Usa Army. The Corps of Cadets is the nigh diverse in the school'south history and Westward Point needs to ensure cadets tin can proceed to be inspired by graduates the academy sought to elevate in a bygone era. The school has so far avoided this question of Robert E. Lee, looking to the United states Army for guidance. Simply as West Point tells many of its growing leaders, there is nothing wrong with offer a recommendation to one's superiors. The schoolhouse has a responsibleness to its cadets, and nosotros hope West Signal volition practice what it expects of its graduates—pb.

Capt. Jimmy Byrn graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2012 with a BS in Military History. During his time on active duty, he deployed to Poland, Bulgaria, and Kosovo in support of NATO Operations Atlantic Resolve and Joint Guardian. He is currently an incoming JD candidate at Yale Law Schoolhouse.

Capt. Gabe Royal graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2012 with a BS in US History and American Politics. He is a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and an incoming PhD student at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Administration at George Washington University, and volition teach at W Betoken upon completion of his degree.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reverberate the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Regular army, or Department of Defence.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reverberate that the Department of Mathematics ceased presenting the award named for Robert E. Lee in 2018, and that the United Daughters of the Confederacy stopped sponsoring the honor in 1993 after curriculum changes meant it was given annually to an underclassman and thus non presented during West Point'southward convocation. The arrangement elected instead to transfer their donation to a different department to sponsor an honour that would exist included in the convocation ceremony.

Image credit: Michelle Eberhart, US Army

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