Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

After becoming a professor of military history at West Point, Seidule was touring the grounds when he came across a monument of a column surrounded by cannons, dedicated to the memory of US soldiers who died in the “War of the Rebellion.” At first, this display did little to shake Seidule’s lingering loyalties to the Confederacy. Even as the curriculum regarding the Civil War placed more emphasis on slavery and the contributions of Black soldiers, Seidule still regarded himself as a Southern, Christian gentleman who revered Robert E. Lee. Seidule left West Point for active duty and then returned for a permanent faculty position, and a few years into that assignment he noticed that memorials to Lee were everywhere on campus, more even than at Washington and Lee University. Investigating this question produced a massive shift in Seidule’s attitude regarding Lee and the Civil War.

West Point’s reputation suffered tremendously during the Civil War, especially because so many cadets and alumni opted to serve the Confederacy. Although the majority stayed loyal, there were enough defections to suggest that West Point was failing in its purpose—namely, to train America’s future military leaders. When the Civil War broke out, West Point ordered new cadets to take loyalty oaths, a tradition in military academies retained to the present day.