Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee
Michael Korda, HarperCollins 2014
Few characters from the Civil War rival Robert E. Lee in complexity and mystique. During the conflict, he symbolized and glorified a rebellion, only to rise as a role model who sought peace and national unity after Appomattox. Nearly 150 years later, Lee’s story remains an indelible facet of our history. His likeness appears on a 32-cent postage stamp, his name is on a U.S. Army tank and a Navy submarine—and drivers in Virginia can purchase a license plate commemorating Lee with the phrase “The Virginia Gentleman: 1807-1870.” Remarkably, the Rebel general who waged war against his country to preserve a slave-holding status quo emerged a much-admired, even revered, figure in the wake of defeat. In Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee (HarperCollins, 2014), Michael Korda shows us why.
The book’s skillfully woven narrative examines Lee through an in-depth exploration of his childhood and family, as well as his career. From the outset, Korda distinguishes his biography as a fine piece of writing, opening not with a pedantic thesis but with a cinematic re-creation of John Brown’s Raid on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. One of a succession of events that ultimately brought about war, it was a defining experience for Lee, who commanded Federal forces against the abolitionist and his men. Korda employs this scene to great effect in setting the stage for Lee’s historic metamorphosis from a U.S. Army engineer into a Confederate general and the face of a revolution.
As a subject, of course, Lee inevitably poses challenges, largely because he fits in no one category. Was he a traitor, a rebel, a patriot? The reader’s judgment on those questions depends on his or her perspective. To some, Lee was a stoic martyr; to others, he was a controversial warrior who fought for a heinous cause.
Whatever one’s opinion, Korda’s treatment is evenhanded and, more important, realistic. Over the past century, writers have labored to depict the general as infallible, in terms of his character as well as his leadership skills. But as Korda aptly demonstrates, Lee was human: He felt pain and sorrow; he made mistakes; he suffered regrets and insecurities. For instance, he spent the better part of his life repudiating the scandalous legacy of his wayward, absentee father, a Revolutionary War hero turned debtor and con artist. Lee went to extreme lengths to become the antithesis of “Light Horse” Harry. He exercised unflagging discipline and self-control in all matters. He was a devoted husband and parent, as well as a diligent soldier who had an almost obsessive fixation on honor and duty.
Indeed the humanity that Korda captures in his biography is perhaps his chief contribution to the existing literature. Far from being a mere factual chronology, this book looks to expose the emotional and intellectual elements that defined the real man. In the process, Korda dismantles the mythology surrounding his secular sainthood—to which Lee never aspired. He was not the sanguine revolutionary found in popular lore. In fact, Korda’s research suggests the opposite. Early in the crisis, Lee was a reluctant Confederate, wary of secession and wholly mindful of the grave consequences it would impose on Americans. At the same time, he was a Virginian, resolved to “share the miseries of [his] people.” On no account would he draw his sword against his home state. Korda thinks that’s why Lee continues to fascinate us. He possessed an astonishing ability to adjust to the changing world around him, whether it was a nation at war or a new South in Reconstruction. That’s the Lee readers find in Clouds of Glory, a single volume every bit as illuminating as Douglas Southall Freeman’s four-book classic.
Just before Lee met with Ulysses Grant at Appomattox, a member of his staff asked him what he thought historians would write about the surrender. The general simply replied that they would have “hard things to say of us.” But Lee would be pleasantly surprised by Korda’s work—a biography that, like its subject, is fair, honest and real.
Originally published in the October 2014 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
