"If Virginia Stands by the Old Union" - Robert E. Lee Resigns from the U.S. Army

Robert E. Lee's April 20, 1861 resignation letter from the United States Army.

National Archives

by Park Ranger Nathan Hall

On April 20, 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned from the United States Army in the midst of the secession crisis and the coming of the Civil War. “If Virginia stands by the old Union,” Lee said, “so will I. But if she secedes (though I do not believe in secession as a constitutional right, nor that there is sufficient cause for revolution), then I will follow my native State with my sword, and, if need be, with my life.”^`1

On April 4, Virginia delegates had voted against joining the seceding Confederate states. The firing on Fort Sumter on April 12 and President Lincoln’s call for troops to put down the rebellion on April 15 prompted the Virginia convention to meet again and they approved secession on April 17.

The next day, Colonel Lee met with the current army commander, Major General Winfield Scott. Scott, a fellow Virginian, remained resolutely committed to the United States in the secession crisis, as did Lee’s Virginian cousins, Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee and John Fitzgerald Lee, Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army.

The two prewar Virginian generals in the army - Winfield Scott and Joseph E. Johnston - chose opposite sides in the coming conflict. There were nine or more colonels in the United States Army from Virginia in 1861, and only one of them – Robert E. Lee – chose to serve the Confederacy.

Colonels John J. Abert, Edmund B. Alexander, Philip S.G. Cooke, John Garland, Thomas Lawson, Matthew M. Payne, Washington Seawell, and George H. Thomas were all Virginians, and all chose to retain their positions in the United States Army in 1861, as did René De Russy, from the French Caribbean but a Virginian since the age of two. Virginian Thomas T. Fauntleroy’s path briefly paralleled that of Robert E. Lee but then significantly diverged.

 

Eight of the U.S. Army Colonels from Virginia at the start of the Civil War.

John James Abert was from Shepherdstown, Virginia (or possibly Frederick, Maryland).² He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1811 and commanded the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1860.³ He continued in that capacity when the Civil War began and retired from the army in September 1861.⁴

Edmund Brooke Alexander was from Haymarket, in Prince William County. He graduated from West Point in 1823. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was stationed at Fort Laramie, in the Dakota Territory. He continued in his position through the war and retired from the army in 1869.⁵

Philip St. George Cooke was from Leesburg in Loudon County. An 1827 graduate of the United States Military Academy, he commanded the 2^nd Regiment of Dragoons in 1860.⁶ When the Civil War began, he continued in the service of the United States as a Brigadier General of cavalry and remained in the army until 1873. Of his decision in the secession crisis, Cooke said, "I owe Virginia little, my country much."⁷

John Garland, from Albemarle County, commanded the 8^th Regiment of United States Infantry with the brevet (honorary) rank of Brigadier General in 1860.⁸ He stayed in the U.S. Army during secession and the beginning of the Civil War and died in New York City on June 5, 1861.

Thomas Lawson, from Princess Anne County, was the Surgeon General of the Army in 1860. He officially held the rank of colonel and was brevetted (given an honorific rank) as a Brigadier General.⁹ At the start of the Civil War in April 1861, he was 72 years old and in poor health. He died in May 1861, having remained in the service of the United States during the secession crisis.¹⁰

Brevet Colonel Matthew Mountjoy Payne was born in Goochland County. At the start of the Civil War, he was 74 years old, commanding the 2^nd Regiment of United States artillery.¹¹ He remained with the U.S. Army during the secession crisis, retired from service on July 23, 1861, and died a little over a year later, on August 1, 1862.¹²

René De Russy was born on the French island colony of Saint-Domingue and raised in Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where his family settled when he was two years old. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the Corps of Engineers, specializing in coastal defense forts. His service continued during the Civil War, and he died in San Francisco in 1865.¹³

Washington Seawell, from Gloucester County, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1825, served in the army continuously before, during, and after the secession crisis of 1860-61. At the outbreak of war, Seawell was promoted and assigned to command the 6th U.S. Infantry Regiment, a post he occupied until 1862. Thereafter, he served as Chief Mustering and Dispursing Officer for the State of Kentucky, then for the Department of the Pacific in San Fransicso for the rest of the war. In March, 1865, he was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General for "long and faithful services in the Army."¹⁴

George H. Thomas, from Southampton County, graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1840 and served in the army for twenty years before the Civil War, reaching the rank of major.¹⁴ He refused an offer to join the Provisional Army of Virginia during the secession crisis and instead accepted a promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the United States Army to fill the vacancy left by Robert E. Lee's April resignation. Less than two weeks later, Thomas was promoted again to the rank of full colonel.¹⁵ Eventually rising to the rank of Major General, George Thomas became one of the most successful military commanders of Civil War and continued his military service into the postwar Reconstruction Era, dying in 1870.

Thomas Turner Fauntleroy, from Clarke County, commanded the 1^st Regiment of United States Dragoons in 1860.¹⁶ Fauntleroy resigned from the U.S. Army on May 13, 1861. His home state established “The Provisional Army of Virginia” on April 23 and Fauntleroy accepted a position as a Brigadier General of Virginia troops in May. A month later, Virginia’s Provisional forces were absorbed into the national Confederate army. Fauntleroy refused to join the Confederates when Virginia’s troops were integrated into the Confederacy. Apparently differentiating between service to Virginia and service to the Confederacy was significant to Fauntleroy, so he opted to end his miliary career and requested to be dropped from the rolls so that he would not occupy a position in the Confederate military.¹⁷

Robert E. Lee, from Westmoreland County, was an 1829 West Point graduate and a brevet colonel commanding the 2^nd Regiment of United States Cavalry in 1860.¹⁸ On April 20, 1861, he tendered his resignation from the United States Army. Lee accepted a position as overall commander of the Provisional Army of Virginia when it was established on April 23 and he transitioned to Confederate service when the Provisional Army was disbanded and incorporated in the national forces of the Confederate States. Lee accepted command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862 and was elevated to the rank of General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States on February 6, 1865.

Despite the Virginia delegates’ declaration of secession and the relocation of the Confederate capital to Richmond, significant areas of Virginia did not support secession and were never under Confederate control. Much of western Virginia and its eastern coast continued to operate as part of the United States, including selecting state legislators, congressional representatives, and a governor. This displaced Virginia government relocated the operations of the state capital from Richmond to Wheeling, then Alexandria, and were recognized throughout the war as the legitimate government of Virginia by the Lincoln administration. In this sense, much of Virginia ‘stood by the old Union,’ fielding thousands of Virginians in over 40 regiments, supported by their legislature, to serve in the United States military during the war.




¹ Attribued to Robert E. Lee by Charles Anderson, quoted in Freeman, Douglass Southall, R.E. Lee: A Biography, Volume I (New York: Charle's Scribner's Sons, 1936), 429.
Of the validity of the quote, Freeman notes, "Anderson's article was written in 1884, twenty-three years after the incidents he described, but his statements fit in so perfectly with Lee's private letters, which Anderson had probably not read, that Anderson's testimony commends itself as valid."
² The Historic Shepherdstown Museum states "most biographies, including a listing in Kennemond’s Prominent Men of Shepherdstown, state that Shepherdstown was [Abert's] place of birth, although others claim he was actually born in Frederick, MD."
Abert's gravestone lists Frederick, Maryland as his birthplace. (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66938690/john-abert)
³Official Army Register for 1860 (Washington, D.C.: Adjutant General's Office), 10.
⁴ Callum's Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy - Class of 1811 (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/71*.html)
⁵ Callum's Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy - Class of 1823, Vol. I, p. 317. (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/358*.html)
⁶ Army Register, 14.
⁷ Wei-Siang Hsieh, Wayne, "‘I Owe Virginia Little, My Country Much’: Robert E. Lee, the United States Regular Army, and Unconditional Unionism," Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008).
⁸Army Register, 29.
⁹ Army Register, 5.
¹⁰ Gillett MC. Thomas Lawson, second Surgeon General of the U. S. Army: a Character Sketch. Prologue J Natl Arch. 1982 Spring;14(1):15–24.
¹¹ Army Register, 19.
¹² Conway, Baillie "Who is Matthew M. Payne and Why is Payne Hall Important?" (https://www.rajarmstrong.com/projects/summerville/paynehall/)
¹³ Eicher, John; Eicher, David, Civil War High Commands (Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press, 2002), 207.
¹⁴Callum's Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy - Class of 1825, Vol. 1, p.355.
¹⁴ Coppee, LL. D., Henry, Great Commanders, General Thomas. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898), 2.
¹⁵ Einolf, Christopher J.: "Forgotten Heroism", North & South, Volume 11, number 2, p. 90, December 2008.
¹⁶ Army Register, 32.
¹⁷ Allardice, Bruce S. More Generals in Gray. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995), 84.
¹⁸ Army Register, 16.