Virginian Notes

Lee was more than a handsome face and a fine figure of a man with the accomplishments of a gentleman with a good education. He was a great military strategist, a hero, a Virginian, a Southerner.

After the war, Lee devoted himself to higher education.

Name one of the most influential Virginians after Robert E. Lee.

"When You say that again pardner, smile." Did I get the quote right?

What was going on in Virginia Territory before Smith got there?

What of interest is occurring in Virginia these days.

A Good Knight, and Dangerous

A short while ago I was writing about Robert E. Lee. I don't remember whether or not I posted that writing, but i do know that it got me thinking about chivalry. Lee lived through the time of what might be called a romantic revival of chivalry. After the fall of the South chivalry was still a racial and cultural memory and a literary heritage. Good men continued to practice courage, loyalty, courtesy, and expendability.

In order to understand chivalry it is helpful to understand feudalism. I'm not going to spend time on feudalism now, but will say that it it is a political and economic system which was practiced in Europe, especially Spain and France, from the 9th century to the 15th century.To last for over 500 years in western Europe it had to be a fairly effective system. The Southern plantation system in the first 250 or so years or so of North American settlement could well be called feudalistic.

The cowboy, the mounted man of the range bore, if not swore, 'allegiance to the brand' much as a knight gave allegiances to his liege. The great early cattle ranches were very like feudal estates.

I'll try to remember to continue this later.

Jimston

A hundred years after the Spanish and Portuguese had begun to colonize the Americas, Captain John Smith landed in Virginia and founded the first English colony at Jamestown where Indians and colonists used toloache.
Virginia was home to Patrick Henry of "Give me liberty or give me death." fame.
We know that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison of Independence and Constitution fame were Virginians.
Four of the first five American presidents were Virginians.

Why was New England so backward? Why was Boston a backwater while Richmond flowered? The people of Salem may have gotten some toloache. We know they used opiates early on.

Robert E. Lee and the Lee family were Virginians too. Lee's politics were Whig and anti-secessionist. I forget the major Whig positions, but expect to review them.
We know Lee as the Saladin of the South, a gentleman, handsome, educated, dashing. The great general of the South.He was related to the best families of the South. He was a Virginian by heart.
I'm not ready to review his biography here. However I will say that he traveled widely and that he graduated first in his class at the US Military Academy at West Point. He saw action in the Mexican War and chased Comanches (who knew toloache) for more that 1500 miles across Texas. Was he resistant to the guerrilla type tactics found useful in the Revolution.

"Light Horse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary war fame and a Virginian Cavalier was Robert E. Lee's father. Lee's mother, Ann Hill Carter, left Light Horse and Robert was raised by his mother. A mother's boy?

He married well. Mary Anna Randolph Curtis became his wife. Her home is now Arlington National Cemetery. Doesn't pay to lose.

Lee was a handsome young man. He loved the ladies and knew the social protocol of the south well. He was more than a handsome face and a fine figure of man with the accomplishment of a gentleman. He was one of the worlds great military strategist, a hero, a Virginia.

When you say that again pradner, smile.

After the Civil War he devoted himself to higher education. Did he die before Traveler?

Turning Pages

I was just turning the pages of a handsome coffee table book on Jackson, Mississippi.
While I was doing so I got to thinking that it would be interesting to find a book that dealt with how the people of the “southern states” learned to be “southerners” from the time Lee and Grant quit fighting until we decided to kill Europeans in WWI. Can anyone recommend to me a social history of The South during that period?

Then I got to thinking that I’d like to find a similar history of the perceptions of the French people and the American people of their interactions from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the Louisiana Purchase. It might be called “What Have They Ever Done for Us?” or “Thank Them for What?”