2014 in Review: War Chicken
Coming in at number two on the list of most-read posts for 2014, Meg Thompson’s February 20 account of Robert E. Lee’s most unusual camp follower:
Coming in at number two on the list of most-read posts for 2014, Meg Thompson’s February 20 account of Robert E. Lee’s most unusual camp follower:
I missed this the first time around. William Mack Lee is worthless as a source for *any* Civil War memories. His supposed memoir is a piece of terribly unimaginative fiction. No REL biographer uses him and the only one which mentions him is Elizabeth Pryor who demolishes Mack lee’s claims in a footnote.
There are no records of him at Arlington. He claimed to have seen REL, Stonewall, Pickett, et al in a July3, 1863 meeting in Richmond. Mack Lee was at Appomattox and heard REL make snarky comments to USG. It was to Mack Lee that REL revealed Stonewall was killed by Friendly Fire. Etc.
For some of the details of Mack Lee’s fabrications, see http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-slavery&month=0708&week=b&msg=ZE006wvEiXBoT14XY6TnkA&user=&pw=