Man Who Would Not Be Washington by Jonathan Horn

Overall summary: The Man Who Would Not Be Washington is a scholarly work with extensive footnotes. I was certainly intrigued by the numerous connections to Washington which were obviously a major research focus for author Horn. I also learned quite a bit of new information about Lee’s life – such as his travels to fight in Texas and his role at Harper’s Ferry, but I wanted to learn even more about him as a person. What was he like as a cadet at West Point? Did he really want to be a soldier or was that a route to an education and career for a younger son? How did his own children, his slaves, his peers regard him? To what extent was he a reflection of his times versus these family connections?

From the notes, one sees that author Jonathan Horn clearly cares about his own family and about the idea of family and his writing made me pause to think about Lee’s actions. I am definitely inspired to search out and read some of the primary sources. What (besides his father’s absence, his mother’s illness, and father-in-law’s abdication of responsibility) were strong motivating factors for Lee? In particular, I still wish that I had a better understanding of why he chose to fight for the Confederacy and not for the Union.  In the context of the times, was his decision at all about loyalty or potential glory (this weekend, think Harbaugh and Michigan)?

As an aside, I also think that Jonathan Horn made Lee’s wife, Mary Anna Custis (who was also the child of George Washington’s adopted son), sound like a very strong-willed and colorful woman – I hope that someone writes a novel about her and the mansion at Arlington. Or maybe instead writes about Ann Pamela Cunningham and the private efforts to save Mount Vernon, including the founding of the oldest private preservation organization in the United States. (Anita Diamant or Sue Monk Kidd, are you listening?)