"I have no greater duty than to my home, to Virginia".

Loyality to one' home state is too simplistic an answer for Lee's refusal to accept Lincoln's appointment as commander of the Union Army.

Lee was a member of the intercircle of military operations in Washington at that time. He was a favored aide of General Winfield Scott who had very close ties and associations with Lincoln. By the time Lee was offered this appointment at least two other officers, more senior to Lee, had already resigned, one of whom I know was Gen. Samuel Cooper, and had joined the Confederacy. I don't remember who the second was. It may have been Albert Sidney Johnston.

In any case Lee was the next senior officer on the list for promotion to the rank of General in the pre war United States Army, with those resignations. In this position and being closely linked to the interworkings of Washington DC military politics, because of his ties to Winfield Scott, Lee had to have known about all the skullduggery that was going on within the political circles by Lincoln about Fort Sumter and others attempts to goad the South into War.

Because of this, under these circumstances to me, Lee demonstrated more of the marks of an Honest man by refusing to be bought for such a small price and support Lincoln in these plans.

It is easy to say that Lee simply was loyal to his home state as an explainations for his refusal to become the commander of the Union Army. But, That same explaination, applied to all the southerners who left the army, covers up a LOT of the turmoil within the ranks of the United States Army in 1860.

Remember that the US Army in 1860 was a very small army, which was a close knit family of sorts, that were volunteers who suffere low pay, miserable living conditions, and miserable distasteful assignement at far flung post such as Texas and California. These men were not disloyal to their country at that time, to endure these things. In fact They were VERY loyal to the oath they had sworen to uphold the United States Constitution.

All this get swept under the rug, so to speak, by the overly simplistic remark that these men, like Lee, were loyal only to their family and their home state. It is a disservice to them to say that they were somehow miopic in their views of the situation and did not see the bigger picture.

I believe that they in fact saw the importance of the situation very well indeed. The fact that they eventually did not have the Military strenght to win their Independence is unimportant to their cause and legecy.