American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I ran across the following text contained in a 1860 letter written by a father to his son before the start of the Civil War, the father later becoming a famous general in that conflict. Can you tell me who you think it is?

"I can anticipate no greater calamity for our country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of. I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation. Secession is nothing but revolution. The framers of our constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forebearance, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the confederacy at will. It was intended for a perpetual union, so expressed in the preamble, and for the establishment of a government, not a compact, which can only be dissolved by revolution or the consent of the people in convention assembled. It is idle to talk of secession. Anarchy would have been established, and not government, by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the other patriots of the Revolution."

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General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)

thats easy.........R.E.Lee

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Lt. Gen. C. N. Matthews
Pickett's Infantry Division, I Corps,
Army of Northern Virginia, CSA

lee

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You have to remember that R.E. Lee's father was in the American Revolution as a cavalry officer and was prominent in Virginia politics. Lee was born only about 25 years or so from the end of that Revolution. The sentiments that Lee expressed were probably held by many, on both sides of the issue.

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General Ernie Sands
President ACWGC -Sept 2015- Dec 2020
7th Brigade, 1st Division, XVI Corps, AoT
ACWGC Records Site Admin

"If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there."