Robert E. Lee1807–1870It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.
Comment to James Longstreet, on seeing a Union charge repelled in the Battle of Fredericksburg (13 December 1862)I cannot consent to place in the control of others one who cannot control himself.
Comment regarding officers who became inebriated, as quoted in Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1874) by John William Jones, p. 170- Advice to a Confederate widow who expressed animosity towards the northern U.S. after the end of the American Civil War, as quoted in The Life and Campaigns of General Lee (1875) by Edward Lee Childe, p. 331
- Letter to General P.G.T. Beauregard (3 October 1865)
I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union.
Letter to his son, G. W. Custis Lee (23 January 1861).- “Definition of a Gentleman”, a memorandum found in his papers after his death, as quoted in Lee the American (1912) by Gamaliel Bradford, p. 233
