A Plea for Lee’s Legacy
Jun 30, 2025
As our Annual Fund comes to a close, we encourage you to please contribute to The Generals Redoubt today. We NEED YOUR SUPPORT to make Washington and Lee a place like no other.
Indeed, this was the course Robert E. Lee introduced to a dwindling institution in the fall of 1865. Contrary to the common narrative parroted by modern critics, Lee was internationally revered after his surrender at Appomattox.
But don’t take my word for it, take the word of one of Lee’s finest contemporaries, an imminent clergyman, abolitionist, and New York educator: Roswell D. Hitchcock.
With the help of a Washington and Lee parent, we just reproduced his never-before-cited, 1868 speech in favor of Robert E. Lee’s work at Washington College. You can listen to the speech below. And afterwards, we would really appreciate your pledge to help us educate the W&L community about President Lee’s remarkable legacy.
Go Generals!
Stephen W. Robinson, ’72, ‘75L
President
The Generals Redoubt