Robert E Lee

SIR – Daniel Capurro’s description of General Robert E Lee as a traitor (Comment, August 16) could not be further from the truth.

In fact he was a patriot, who did not want his state of Virginia to secede from the Union and only took up arms for the Confederacy to defend his home state against attack by the Union army. A disbeliever in slavery and in war as a means of resolving conflicts, he surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House to save unnecessary slaughter.

After the war he did much good as president of Washington College in Lexington, awakening in his students the desire to rebuild their state in a nation that would become united. David Packer

Tunbridge Wells, Kent