Favorite Historical figure?

[Csargo]

Anyway, his home state was pro slavery, so whether you like it or not, Lee did fight for slavery as that was what the Confederates wanted.

Just because he fought for the Confederates doesn't make him pro-slavery. He fought for his country and did what he thought was right. Just because your a confederate doesn't mean your a slave driver does it? Just because someone is American does that make them a fat slob?

[Adrian II]

Just because he fought for the Confederates doesn't make him pro-slavery.

Even if Lee had not been pro-slavery, his stance invites nasty comparisons with Hitler's generals, intent on defending the Reich at all costs and in spite of the unrivalled evil which it represented.

But then he was pro-slavery. You must be aware of Lee's views on the subject. There is the well-known letter to his wife from December 27, 1856, in which he wrote:

"In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence."

Lee "owned" over sixty slaves himself and like other slave owners he had them whipped and abused. There is even a 1866 testimony from one of his former slaves, Wesley Norris, to this effect.

Any balanced judgment of Robert E. Lee should take this aspect into account.

[Julian the apostate]

i guess its a little ironic that both army commanders at the end of the war were slave owners: Lee and Grant (a wedding present). plus the emmancipation was only for regions currently rebelling and not for slave states still within the Union. its amazing with the weapons of both sides. it is still the worst war america has entered from the point of casualties (albiet when both sides are american it increases the numbes a bit)