Statue of Robert E. Lee, Antietam National Battlefield

The Robert E. Lee statue at the Antietam National Battlefield has been the center of some controversy surrounding the Battlefield. As some think the statue represents Robert E. Lee and what he fought for in a positive light. However, the statue and Lee himself are not as simple as a Black and white historical figure. The statue itself is a bronze cast of Lee on horseback next to a small white house that is currently in use by the National Park Service and next to route 34 leading into the town of Sharpsburg.  

Robert E. Lee was born January 19th, 1807 in Virginia, he would spend most of his life in Virginia. He would attend the West Point Military academy and prove to be an effective leader in the Mexican American War. His planation at Arlington in Virginia did have slaves as a part of the plantation. When the Civil War began the Union asked him to lead their armies but he decided to fight for his state decision to succeed then for the Union and joined the Confederate Army. It would take some time before he became the leader of the Army of Northern Virginia but he was generally considered the Confederates best general for most of the war. When it came to slavery Lee’s wife ran a small Sunday school for her slaves, which was legal when Arlington was still apart of DC but wasn’t exactly legal when Arlington was placed back in Virginia. Lee himself was not for slavery some could argue that he was against slavery but he never spoke out against slavery. Lee in fact wrote about freeing many of his slaves at different points in time. However, Lee himself didn’t own many slaves most that were on Arlington were owned by his wife’s family.

The Robert E. Lee statue at the Antietam National Battlefield was built by Ron Moore and was dedicated on June 24th, 2003. The statue depicts Lee riding his horse Traveler on top of a stone monolith, with a small plaque about the battle that took place there. It was built by a private citizen, Ron Moore, who owned the land at the time, while it’s unknown his exact reasons for building it, one of the reasons he gave was that it was to “correct… an imbalance between Union and Confederate statues at Antietam”, and it would later be taken over the National park. More recently the national park would change what was originally on the statues plaque to explain about the statue and Lee’s actions at the battle and not his beliefs. This was done to make the statue about the historical events of the battle and not what Lee himself believed in, as those had little to do with the events of the fighting that took place. While many statues of Robert E. Lee were built during a time in history relatively close to the time of the Civil War, or by the Lost Cause organization this one stands out slightly as it was built so recently in comparison and wasn’t built specifically to honor Robert E. Lee. While many statues of Robert E. Lee are being scrutinized for being pro-confederacy or pro-slavery. In fact many statues of Robert E. Lee are being removed for the very reason that people believe them to be pro-slavery and pro-Confederacy. However, this statue is neither as it was built in a relatively modern day by a private architect for the purpose of evening out the number of statues on the battlefield.

Currently there is a push to remove the statue which is led by Democratic-Representative Anthony Brown of Maryland’s 4th district. Who claims that the monument was built to “glorify the Confederacy” and stated that Lee was a “brutal slave owner”. A second reason for removing the statue is that Lee would not have ridden Traveler to Antietam as he had broken his wrist and arrived at Antietam in an ambulance cart. However, not all the parts of his arguments align as well with what we know about Lee, while Lee did own slaves and likely used violence at times it can also be found that he wasn’t brutal on his slaves and was much kinder than most other slave owners. While few in the surrounding areas want the statue removed, the drive to remove it is led by people who are not from the towns of Sharpsburg or the neighboring Keedysville and Boonsboro but instead are from cites such as D.C and Baltimore in 2020 and 2021. Those who have pushed to takedown the statue have continually tried to remove and have gotten close but the statue is still standing as of this time.

The statue has a rocky history as it would be historically inaccurate as Lee did arrive at Antietam with a broken wrist and as a result, he could not have ridden Traveler to Antietam. The meaning behind the statue can mean anything the visitor wants the statue to mean since there’s no clear reason for it other than the creator wanted to balance the Union and Confederate statue numbers at Antietam, and it seems to have been built without the idea of race or Confederacy behind it, just to equal a balance. The statue is whatever the visitor wants it to be whether that’s as a symbol for state’s rights of a sign of supporting slavery and/or the Confederacy as a whole. 

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