By William Tucker
Toward the end of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee became so worried about the morale of his troops that he appeared on the battlefield several times, ready to lead his men into action. How did his troops react? They surrounded his horse and forced him to the rear, refusing to go into battle until they were sure he was out of danger.
America was then -- and was for most of its history -- what sociologists call a "deferential society." People were willing to follow a leader not of their own class. Lee was a Virginia aristocrat married to Martha Washington's great-granddaughter. He was personally opposed to slavery, he backed his wife's efforts to set up an illegal school for African-Americans on his estate, and he finally liberated the family's own slaves in 1862. Yet Lee still felt indebted to his Southern heritage. He had little in common with the journeymen and backwoods farmers who made up his army, yet they were more than willing to defer to his leadership, and it was his military genius that kept them in the war for so long.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/02/22/the-tea-party-needs-allies
Toward the end of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee became so worried about the morale of his troops that he appeared on the battlefield several times, ready to lead his men into action. How did his troops react? They surrounded his horse and forced him to the rear, refusing to go into battle until they were sure he was out of danger.
America was then -- and was for most of its history -- what sociologists call a "deferential society." People were willing to follow a leader not of their own class. Lee was a Virginia aristocrat married to Martha Washington's great-granddaughter. He was personally opposed to slavery, he backed his wife's efforts to set up an illegal school for African-Americans on his estate, and he finally liberated the family's own slaves in 1862. Yet Lee still felt indebted to his Southern heritage. He had little in common with the journeymen and backwoods farmers who made up his army, yet they were more than willing to defer to his leadership, and it was his military genius that kept them in the war for so long.
Read more: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/02/22/the-tea-party-needs-allies
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