I don't think so. The Republicans "waved the bloody shirt" everytime an ex-Confederate got close to gaining political power or recognition. Too many GAR veterans and ex-slaves voted for anyone like R. E. Lee to gain U.S. presidential office in the 1870-80s. Had he lived to the 1890s or 1900s he may have had enough support, the country was on a pro-Southern rebound at that time. Old Confederate generals were commissioned into the U.S. Army in the Spanish American War and living Confederate veterans marched in review for President Wilson in June of 1917 down Pennslyvania Ave., something that could not have happened when Lee was alive.

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David Upton