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Robert E Lee

 

            
             Lee may have been one of the most effective leaders in our great country's history. Through the years Lee gained respect form everybody, from his commanding officers all the way down to the new recruits. This was one of the first signs that Lee would be a great leader.
             There are many things that make up a great leader. Showing great power is one of them. If you show great power over the people you are leading they will either respect you or fear you, in Lee's case they respected him. The men Lee commanded were in awe of him, yet Lee was never violent towards his men. They were in awe of him due to the great respect they gave to him.
             "To his soldiers, Lee was remarkable; his self mastery fed their awe. They knew him as a ferociously aggressive commander who never swore and rarely raised his temper; he was too fiercely focused on the matter at hand- fighting and winning, their common goal- to waste his energies on choler or abuse" (Crocker 18).
             This is what made Lee such a great leader. He worked with his soldiers toward a common goal and wanted what they wanted. In the civil war Lee fought for his home and his family. Those were the same reasons his men fought in the Civil War, they wanted to protect their families too. "With all me devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home" (Lee 24). Lee had a great understanding of man and human nature. "In other words Lee's religion gave him profoundly realistic understanding of human nature- essential to a leader" (Crocker 15). This is why Lee was so great, because he understood man and what they were like. In order to lead someone you first must understand him or her. .
             The impact of this awe that his men had for him leads to a great respect that they showed towards him, which is one of the key reasons Lee was such a great leader.


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