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

by Ty Seidule   

This is the autobiography of retired Colonel Tye Seidule, who was born in 1962 in Alexandria, Virginia. He grew up steeped in the “Myth of the Lost Cause,” namely that the War between the States, i.e., the War of Northern Aggression, was about preserving states rights (NOT about preserving slavery). He read about and worshipped Robert E Lee and aspired to become an Educated, Christian, Gentleman. (On a scale of 10 he ranked Jesus as 6 and Lee as 11.) Toward that end he graduated from Washington & Lee University with an ROTC scholarship and joined the US Army. The book is divided into chapters which describe his Family, Youth, Education, and the history of the Lost Cause. Of particular interest is his college experience and impressions at Washington & Lee University where in the chapel R.E. Lee was a deity.  Col. Seidule became a historian and ultimately the chair of the history department at the US Military Academy at West Point, where honoring the oath to protect and defend the Constitution was the highest duty.

He was selected to chair a committee charged with deciding how to recognize and honor the Confederate Alumni who died in the Civil War (War of Insurrection), when he had an epiphany. He was living in the Lee Barracks on Lee Boulevard near the Lee Gate when he realized that Lee was a traitor who violated his oath and was the General responsible for the deaths of more United States soldiers than any other General in the history of all our wars. He was shocked! He was 42 years old!

For me the book was a description and insight, although not an explanation, for how the “Myth of the Lost Cause” has been so pervasive, successful, and durable. It is prevalent today and has caused, as Jill Lepore describes, “winning the war and losing the peace.”

I believe the Blue & Gray divide is the basis still of our current Red & Blue split. Additionally several book club members had little sympathy for the author who was 42 years old before he realized (with considerable help from his wife) the hypocrisy of Lee and the Cause. 

Current issues remain as evidence: renaming military bases and removing or not of the statues of Confederate generals, and how to remember, if not honor, the Confederate casualties at both West Point and Arlington National Cemetery.

Fred G. Davis