Robert E. Lee

The fate of individuals of nations of the world has often hung upon accident, upon decisions that made the other way would have altered the course of human events. Suppose fate had decided that one of the four bullets which pierced George Washington's clothes on July 9, 1755 during Radix defeat had struck and killed him.

Would we have won our independence from England? Or what would have happened if by a stroke of fate Hitler had decided not to turn east against Russia before attacking the West? Would we have won World War II?

Yes, much depends upon a stroke of fate. And tonight we rewrite history as we present our conception of what might have happened. If by a stroke of fate Robert E. Lee had accepted Lincoln's offer to command the Union Army.

And now may I present our narrator for this evening. The noted newspaper columnist Mr. Walter Kiernan. History tells us that on April 18, 1861 following the surrender of Fort Sumter, the command of the Union forces in the field was offered to Colonel in the United States Army Robert E. Lee.

Several months before, in January 1861, Lee had written, I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but on us for its preservation.

Lee as we know, refused the command of the Federal Forces in the field. But what if fate had willed that one of the noblest, most talented military leaders in our history, Robert E. Lee had remained with the Union instead of going with his native state of Virginia.