Why wasn't Robert E Lee prosecuted and executed?

[kentuck]

Lincoln wanted to unite a very divided country.

Robert E Lee might have been considered the greatest divider of the American people at that time. General Breckenridge was one of his top Generals, who fled to Cuba after the war. Later he moved to England and then to Canada. Jeff Davis was charged with treason but under the presidency of Andrew Johnson, all charges were dropped against him, as they were against Lee and the other confederate leaders.

Jefferson Davis and Donald Trump, in my opinion, were almost mirror images. Davis valued loyalty above competence, as does our present divider. This hurt him in the war effort, as did his over-all inferior assets during the War.

In today's world, Jeff Davis would be the President of the United States and Donald Trump would be the President of the Confederacy.

Does that mean we are in a similar situation as we were during the Great Civil War? In my opinion, yes, it does.

The division in our country is on a similar level. But, unfortunately, it is the Confederates that have the power on their side, and the Union is at a disadvantage.

But, the catalyst for the Civil War was division. The same type of division we are experiencing today.

Does that mean we are on the verge of a civil war? Our country simmered under the divisions before the Union was attacked at Fort Sumter. Are we close to a civil war?

[justaprogressive]

1. Republicans needed a precedent for Nixon

[Kaleva]

2. It was Gen. Grant who prevented Lee from being prosecuted

In Grant’s view, as long as Confederate soldiers, including officers, abided by the terms of their parole, they would not be tried for treason.

[kentuck]

4. Andrew Johnson pardoned Jeff Davis, Lee, and other Confederate leaders in December of 1868...

...and Grant inherited those actions. Grant is probably best known for leading the Reconstruction after the war.

[Kaleva]

9. Lee was never pardoned during his lifetime

Lee didn’t have his citizenship restored until 1975.

President Johnson wanted to prosecute Lee for treason but Grant threatened to resign his commission if that happened so it didn’t.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. The paperwork was misplaced, and rediscovered about that time.

Johnson, a Southern sympathizer, was accused of accepting payment for pardons of Confederates -- that's why he was impeached. I find it a little doubtful that he would have refused to pardon Lee -- unless maybe Lee refused to pony up. That might explain the cavalier way in which the document was handled.

President Johnson's amnesty pardons
graphic: Oath of amnesty submitted by Lee in 1865

On May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to persons who had participated in the rebellion against the United States. There were fourteen excepted classes, though, and members of those classes had to make special application to the president. Lee sent an application to Grant and wrote to President Johnson on June 13, 1865:

Being excluded from the provisions of amnesty & pardon contained in the proclamation of the 29th Ulto; I hereby apply for the benefits, & full restoration of all rights & privileges extended to those included in its terms. I graduated at the Mil. Academy at West Point in June 1829. Resigned from the U.S. Army April '61. Was a General in the Confederate Army, & included in the surrender of the Army of N. Virginia 9 April '65.[145]

On October 2, 1865, the same day that Lee was inaugurated as president of Washington College, he signed his Amnesty Oath, thereby complying fully with the provision of Johnson's proclamation. Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored.[145]

Three years later, on December 25, 1868, Johnson proclaimed a second amnesty which removed previous exceptions, such as the one that affected Lee.[146]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee#President_Johnson's_amnesty_pardons
***
In 1865, after the war, Lee was paroled and signed an oath of allegiance, asking to have his citizenship of the United States restored. However, his application was not processed by Secretary of State William Seward, and as a result Lee did not receive a pardon and his citizenship was not restored.[171][172] On January 30, 1975, Senate Joint Resolution 23, "A joint resolution to restore posthumously full rights of citizenship to General R. E. Lee" was introduced into the Senate by Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr. (I-VA), the result of a five-year campaign to accomplish this. Proponents portrayed the lack of pardon as a mere clerical error. The resolution, which enacted Public Law 94–67, was passed, and the bill was signed by President Gerald Ford on August 5.[173][174][175]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Lee#Legacy

On May 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to persons who had participated in the rebellion against the United States. There were fourteen excepted classes, though, and members of those classes had to make special application to the President.

Lee sent an application to Grant and wrote to President Johnson on June 13, 1865:

"Being excluded from the provisions of amnesty & pardon contained in the proclamation of the 29th Ulto; I hereby apply for the benefits, & full restoration of all rights & privileges extended to those included in its terms. I graduated at the Mil. Academy at West Point in June 1829. Resigned from the U.S. Army April '61. Was a General in the Confederate Army, & included in the surrender of the Army of N. Va. 9 April '65."

On October 2, 1865, the same day that Lee was inaugurated as president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, he signed his Amnesty Oath, thereby complying fully with the provision of Johnson's proclamation. But Lee was not pardoned, nor was his citizenship restored. And the fact that he had submitted an amnesty oath at all was soon lost to history.More than a hundred years later, in 1970, an archivist at the National Archives discovered Lee's Amnesty Oath among State Department records (reported in Prologue, Winter 1970). Apparently Secretary of State William H. Seward had given Lee's application to a friend as a souvenir, and the State Department had pigeonholed the oath.



https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/spring/piece-lee

The differences between the two sources are interesting.

At the time, I read a newspaper article which claimed Lee's Oath document had been found behind a filing cabinet after more than a century. Apparently, this is something of an urban myth, or a story concocted to cover up negligence or malfeasance.

[Kaleva]

21. Interesting!

That’s info I didn’t know.

[TacosUberAlles]

29. whoa, thank you for sharing this!

I hadn't heard about this before, thank you

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Grant later invited Lee to the WH. Times were different. nt

[brush]

3. Hard to tell what would've happened in Lincoln hadn't gotten assassinated.

There could've been a rising, publc demand for the top traitors to be executed, as that was the usual punishment for treason.

Andrew Johnson, the new president was a southern sympathizer so nothng happened to the traitors. Many had statues made of them, military bases named for them of all things, and Lee even had
a college and other institutions named after him.

BTW, I just watched the History Channel's excellent production of "Grant" agan and it reminded me that Gen. Grant was by far the best general of the Civil War. His Vicksburg campaign is studied at military academies.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Being magnanimous in victory was not an innovation for Lincoln

The British did the same after defeating the French at Quebec, even if they did deport the more radical factions. Surely there are other instances throughout history.

The country is divided, but not strictly geographically so. I'd bet even the forces under federal command would be divided as to loyalty. How do you get to civil war with division? I keep citing the Paris Commune, and the socialist left was decimated. But Dems would never be that well organized nor strategic because they'd get drubbed.

The danger in my mind is the anger that doesn't really know what it's fighting against so they blame the other.

[kentuck]

7. But anger and blame are only components of division.

I suppose there were many Southerners that did not agree with Davis or Lee and were very angry with the actions of President Lincoln. It was a time, in my opinion, when the division was out of control. People chose their tribe and defended it in battle.

[Akakoji]

6. Great post!

The resistance by some Southerners - in the past and still - to Flag Day had similar resentment built into it.

[WarGamer]

8. Some details:

Last edited Sun Jun 22, 2025, 03:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Robert E. Lee almost accepted the position as commander of all Union Armies...

Secession didn't all happen at once.

The Confederacy that fired on Sumter wasn't the same Confederacy that fought the War.

The original Confederacy was SEVEN States.

For example, in early 1861, Virginia held a State Convention and pro-Unionist support was greater than pro-Confederacy.

Lincoln made a crucial mistake after Sumter.

He ordered the assembly of 750,000 from the REMAINING States, meaning Virginia would have to fight other Southern States.

This triggered concerns over State's Rights, regional alliances and being forced to "choose sides".

In retrospect, if Lincoln had called up volunteer troops from Northern States like Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Mass...

Then Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee would have never joined the Confederacy...

Then Robert E Lee probably takes command of the Union armies in 1861 and defeats the much weaker 7 States of the Confederacy within a year.

BTW, Breckenridge wasn't a "top General" of Lee... he served mostly in the West, only serving under Lee for a short period of time, late in the war. I wouldn't count him in Lee's "top 20 Generals"

[kentuck]

10. He led his troops at Shiloh...

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/john-c-breckinridge

(snip)
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1821, John Cabell Breckinridge was a graduate of Centre College and later Transylvania Law School in 1845. He holds the record as the youngest Vice President ever elected to office, serving under President James Buchanan starting in 1856. In 1859, a year before his term as Vice President was to expire, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Siding with the slaveholding faction of his native state during the secession crisis of 1861, Breckinridge resigned and accepted a post in the Confederacy as a brigadier general, and was quickly promoted to major general in April of the following year. He commanded at Shiloh and in the summer defense of Vicksburg. Failing in an attack on Baton Rouge, he distinguished himself at Murfreesboro, in Johnston’s campaign to relieve Vicksburg, and at Chickamauga. He accompanied General Jubal Early on the raid on Washington and in the Battle of Monocacy.

Following his service with Early's command, Breckinridge took command of Confederate forces in southwestern Virginia in September, where Confederate forces were in great disarray. He reorganized the department and led a raid into northeastern Tennessee. Following a victory outside of Saltville, Breckinridge discovered that some Confederate troops had killed black Union soldiers the morning after the battle, an incident that shocked and angered him.

In February of 1865, Breckinridge received the appointment of Secretary of War by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. However, the war did not last long enough for Breckinridge to prove himself as a desk leader, and he quietly returned to a small law practice in Lexington. He died and was buried there in May of 1875.

[WarGamer]

11. Lee wasn't AT Shiloh

Wasn't Lee's army... wrong theater, wrong General.

Breckenridge DID fight briefly under Lee much later... at Cold Harbor.

[kentuck]

12. Breckenridge commanded at Shiloh

n/t

[WarGamer]

13. No... Breckenridge was a subordinate General to General Johnston at Shiloh...

[Jeebo]

23. Kentuck, those dates don't figure.

If Breckenridge was Buchanan's vice president, that means he was elected in November 1856, he was inaugurated in March 1857, and his term expired in March 1861. Why would he resign in 1861 when that was when his term as vice president expired anyway?

Also, how could he have been elected to the U.S. Senate in 1859 when he was then the sitting vice president? And as Senate elections are held in even numbered years, wouldn't that U.S. Senate election have been held in either 1858 or 1860 anyway? If it was 1858 he would have been unable to run for that seat because he already held the vice presidency. If it was 1860 I suppose he could have run if he knew he wasn't going to run for a second term as vice president, which I am sure was the case because his president Buchanan also wasn't running for another term.

As I said, those dates don't figure.

— Ron

[kentuck]

34. THe 17th Amendment allowed for the popular election of US Senators.

That was in 1913.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[sweetapogee]

33. John C. Breckenridge

was the Vice President of the United States under President Buchanan who proceeded Lincoln. He was the Democratic nominee who ran against Lincoln in 1860. True, most of his Civil War field assignments were in the west however he commanded the Confederate forces at the battle of New Market Va., he put the VMI cadets into the battle line. Against Grant (Mead) in Va he was a division commander (3rd Corps ANV from North Anna on to Cold Harbor) during the overland campaign and a Corps commander under Early during the push to attack Washington DC in July1864. Later in January 1865, he became the Confederate Secretary of War under Davis, a position he held until the surrender of the southern confederacy.

[demosincebirth]

14. I've always asked that, and all the confederate Generals

who graduated from West Point.

[Kaleva]

15. Grant prevented it.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. See my reply #16. nt

[Melon]

19. They had to unify the country. There were too many Southerners to give out

Punishment for participating.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Andrew Johnson was something of a flip-flopper. Sometimes he supported strong measures against ...

the South (he approved executions for several in the assassination plot, including the woman who owned the boarding house where meetings were held, which many regarded as undeserved), and sometimes he adumbrated leniency. He refused to accept the surrender of one of the CSA armies in NC in exchange for not freeing slaves in NC, and the Confederates capitulated. Later he proposed very lenient terms for readmission to the Union, but also campaigned for the Presidency under the name of the Union Party (created by Lincoln when the Republicans refused to re-nominate a sitting President in wartime, but after his election absorbed into the Republican Party) in an election in which Southerners could not vote. Even a short summary of the tumult behind his eventual impeachment is filled with seeming, or sometimes real, contradictions. It would be very hard to figure out what his convictions were, if any, given his actions -- perhaps the one respect in which he most resembles the current Occupant of the WH. Turnip's convictions, however, are mostly obvious and transparent -- he cares about ME, ME, ME, and whatever inflates his own opinion of ME. Everything else is just background noise.

[Celerity]

26. In the early 21st century, Johnson is among those commonly mentioned as the worst presidents in U.S. history.

According to historian Glenn W. Lafantasie, who believes James Buchanan the worst president, "Johnson is a particular favorite for the bottom of the pile because of his impeachment ... his complete mishandling of Reconstruction policy ... his bristling personality, and his enormous sense of self-importance." Tolson suggests that "Johnson is now scorned for having resisted Radical Republican policies aimed at securing the rights and well-being of the newly emancipated African-Americans."

Gordon-Reed notes that Johnson, along with his contemporaries Pierce and Buchanan, is generally listed among the five worst presidents, but states "there have never been more difficult times in the life of this nation. The problems these men had to confront were enormous. It would have taken a succession of Lincolns to do them justice."

Trefousse considers Johnson's legacy to be "the maintenance of white supremacy. His boost to Southern conservatives by undermining Reconstruction was his legacy to the nation, one that would trouble the country for generations to come."

Gordon-Reed states of Johnson:

We know the results of Johnson's failures—that his preternatural stubbornness, his mean and crude racism, his primitive and instrumental understanding of the Constitution stunted his capacity for enlightened and forward-thinking leadership when those qualities were so desperately needed. At the same time, Johnson's story has a miraculous quality to it: the poor boy who systematically rose to the heights, fell from grace, and then fought his way back to a position of honor in the country. For good or ill, "only in America", as they say, could Johnson's story unfold in the way that it did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson#Historical_reputation_and_legacy

[eppur_se_muova]

31. Buchanan failed to prevent the Civil War, Johnson failed to consolidate victory.

If "Worst. President. Ever." nominees need to carry some blame for a disastrous war, Turnip may be in the process of pumping up his resume now.

[Kaleva]

22. Thank you kentuck for starting this interesting and informative thread!

[Jeebo]

25. About Jefferson Davis ...

Some years ago I read somewhere that Davis was captured by Union troops somewhere in Georgia in the first few months of 1865. He was held in a federal prison for about two years, awaiting trial on treason charges, and then the charges were dropped and he was released. The reason, I read, was that Union officials were afraid that if they tried him, the courts might render a verdict of not guilty because he wasn't a U.S. citizen and therefore had no obligation of loyalty to the U.S. This is because he led a country made up of states that had seceded from the U.S. and were in fact another country, and he was the leader of that country. The issue of the legality, or constitutionality, of secession was never settled in the courts. It was settled on the battlefield. At the beginning of the war Lincoln was afraid of allowing the courts to rule on that issue, and that's why he threatened to arrest Supreme Court justices to prevent that from happening. If the courts were given an opportunity to rule on that issue two years after the war, and if they found in a trial of Jefferson Davis that the Confederate states DID have the legal right to leave the union and therefore that Davis was not guilty of treason because he was in fact the leader of a foreign country, that would have been like losing the war in the courts after winning it, at enormous cost, on the battlefield. That would have been a disaster, and that's why they dropped the charges against Davis and let him go.

That's what I read somewhere some years back, but I cannot tell you where I read it because I cannot find it now. I am relating it now just from memory. I assume there is at least some truth to it because it does make sense and fit the facts. It might also have something to do with why they didn't prosecute other Confederate officials.

— Ron

[Kaleva]

27. +1

[OnDoutside]

32. If he did renounce his citizenship of the US, could the US have not recognised the Confederacy, which they probably did

but if having done that, and he hadn't become a citizen of a recognised country, then maybe his renouncing of his US citizenship was invalid ?

Either way (and hindsight is wonderful of course), the US government were too soft in victory.

[Celerity]

24. Lost Cause of the Confederacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy


The Union As It Was, Harper's Weekly, October 10, 1874. (The title alludes to the old ca. 1862 Copperhead campaign slogan "The Union as it was, the Constitution as it is".) On a pseudo-heraldic shield are portrayed a black family between a lynched body hanging from a tree and the remains of a burning schoolhouse, with the caption "Worse than Slavery". The "supporters" are a member of the White League and a hooded Ku Kluxer, shaking hands on the "Lost Cause". As shown in this Thomas Nast cartoon, Worse than Slavery, white groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League used every form of terror, violence, and intimidation to restore a “white man’s government” and redeem the noble “lost cause.”

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. "With malice toward none; with charity for all..."

Lincoln was more interested in reconciliation than revenge.

[TacosUberAlles]

30. I just wanted to say thank you everyone

This is one of the best threads I've read anywhere on the internet in a very long time.
As someone who geeks out over history, the amount of historical information being shared in the replies is incredibly awesome. I've literally learned 3 things I didn't know before & that's invaluable.

Thank you everyone ❤