Oh, to be sure! If you boil Robert E. Lee's life down to just the slavery issue, you can find very objectionable things by today's standards. Yet following the Civil War, Lee didn't continue the fight for slavery but accepted the new way of things. As southern Americans went, he was enlightened for his day.

The point is, regardless of the slavery issue, Robert E. Lee was a genuine American hero. He was highly regarded in both the north and the south. He didn't create the complex political and social issues of his day. But he did act bravely and reasonably during the worst upheaval in American history.