Today is a big day for Civil War buffs. Exactly 150 years ago today Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant at Appomattox. The general feeling of most military historians is that the Confederacy had better military strategists, such as Gen. Lee, but that the Union forces greater numbers eventually won out,
I recently read a book on the connections between the Lee family and the Washington family. It pointed out the irony that Lee's wife, a decedent of the Washington family, was married to the man who might have been responsible for the dissolution of the United States if the Confederacy had won. Lee's wife was the step granddaughter of George Washington. Good read for those who are interested in American History.
P.S.
One interesting item about the Civil War era is that of the role of Marylander Montgomery Blair.
This gentleman played a pivotal role in keeping Maryland from seceding from the Union. Lincoln was concerned that Maryland, as a slave state, would secede and leave Washington D.C. surrounded by Confederate states. This would probably have meant that the US Capitol would have had to be relocated. Lincoln appointed Montgomery Blair, an abolitionist, as Postmaster General to be one of his advocates with Maryland legislators to stay in the Union.
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