A union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.
-- Robert E. Lee, Letter to his son, Jan. 1861

It is history that teaches us to hope.
--Robert E. Lee, Letter to Charles Marshall, c. 1866.

There is no better way of defending a long line than by moving into the enemy's territory.
-- Robert E. Lee, Letter to Gen. J. R. Jones, March 21, 1863.

This is murder, not war.
-- Robert E. Lee, commanding one of his artillery officers to cease firing upon a federal regiment marching in close order simply to relieve their own pickets.

It is painful to think how many friends will be separated and estranged by our unhappy disunion. May God reunite our severed bonds of friendship, and turn our hearts to peace! I can say in sincerity that I bear animosity against no one ... [But] I must side either with or against my own section of the country. I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children ... I foresee that the country will have to pass through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation, perhaps, of our national sin.
-- Robert E. Lee, from a note to a northern child who had requested his photograph.

Lee was a man nearly everyone liked and admired, but so few knew ... Nearly an entire generation separated Lee from his principle subordinates ... For them, life with Lee was both uncomfortable and burdensome, and their pledges of love and unerring devotion were postwar phenomena.
-- Joseph T. Glatthaar, "Partners in Commdand."

Almost without exception, the great soldiers of the world from Alexander to Napoleon had been fiercely ambitious, ruthless men. But Robert E. Lee was neither ambitious nor ruthless. The most serious charges ever made against his ability as a general were that he was too gentle, too kind, too reluctant to hurt his subordinate's feelings.
-- Philip van Doren Stern, "Robert E. Lee, the Man and the Soldier."

General Lee was one of the few men who ever seriously impressed and awed me with their natural and inherent greatness.
--Lord Wolseley.

He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbor without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guilt. He was a Caesar without his ambition; a Frederick without his tyranny; a Napoleon without his selfishness; and a Washington without his reward.
-- John William Jones, The Character of Lee.

This I regard as of more value to us than to have General Scott as commander.
-- Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, upon hearing Governor Letcher had appointed Lee militay commander of Virginia Forces in April, 1861.

He will undoubtedly rank as without any exception the greatest of all the great captains that the English-speaking people have brought forth ... As a mere military man, Washington himself cannot rank with the wonderful war-chief who for four years led the Army of Northern Virginia.
-- Theodore Roosevelt.

If there is one man in either army ... head and shoulders above every other in audacity, it is General Lee. His name might be Audacity. He will take more desperate chances and take them quicker than any other general in this country, North or South.
-- Confederate Colonel Joseph Ives, to E. Porter Alexander who had asked a friend if Lee had the audacity to do what was asked of him.

The shot that struck me down was the best ever fired for the Confederacy.
-- Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, after being wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines.

I prefer Lee to Johnson - Lee is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility - personally brave and energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action.
--Union General George B. McCLellan, commenting on the change in command following Johnston's wounding at the Battle of Seven Pines. [could McClellan have been describing himself?]

It was all my fault.
-- Robert E. Lee, upon meeting his men staggering back from their attack on Cemetary Ridge, Gettysburg, July 3, 1863

That old man had my divison slaughtered in Gettysburg.
-- Confederate General George Pickett, following the war

Gettysburg was the price the South paid for having R. E. Lee.
-- Shelby Foote, from an interview in "The Civil War"; by Ward, Burns, and Burns.

Distinguished as was Lee's conduct while an officer in the Army of the United States, splendid as was his career as a general in the field, nothing in his life became him more than its end. His resolute refusal, in circumstances of great difficulty and temptation, to take part in any of the controversies which the war evoked ... all displayed more surely than did the tests of the battlefield, high courage, sincerity of purpose, devotion to principle, and nobility of mind. No man took upon himself more earnestly Lincoln's charge, and with real abnegation of self set himself, 'with malice toward none,' 'to bind up the nation's wounds.'
-- British Major General Sir Frederick Maurice.