When I went to school (Kentucky), I was basically taught that General Lee was a brilliant leader as well as a brilliant, Christian person in general. He was faced with a tough decision on who to fight for(The Union even asked him to join them!), but he ended up going with the side that his home state of Virginia picked. I was effectively told that Lee was a great American despite him having fought for the Confederacy.

I always just assumed that that was true. But now there was this huge conundrum over at Charlottesville that all started with the possible removal of a statue of General Lee. And now I'm wondering if Lee was actually a bad person. Was he? Was my education utterly borked?