This is a standard belief in popular Civil War literature. Is this accurate? Or have I read too much Bruce Catton?
I don’t think it’s possible to read too much Catton.
Either way, the idea is broadly correct. At the very least a sizable portion of Lee’s troops seemed to revere the man. There are several reasons for this.
That said, it’s not the entirety of his career. Undoubtedly some soldiers remained indifferent to their commander, and it seems that quite a few of those came from the lower-class of Southerners had about as much interest in fighting for the Confederacy as they did in feeding themselves to alligators. Early in the war, Lee earned the insulting nicknames “Granny Lee” and “King of Spades”. After some hard-won victories (over the grotesquely incompetent McClellan, Pope, Burnside, and Hooker) however… well some things are not hard to decipher. He brought the men victory, and most seem to have loved him for that. In addition, his marble-statue-like emotional reserve and virtual embodiment of noble bearing made it very easy to appreciate his military skill. He was the kind of man that men imagined a general ought to look like: he wore a uniform, and he wore it well, and he looked like a king come to life when riding. I also want to emphasize that lee wasn’t merely applauded by Confederates - quite a few in Europe expressed their admiration. And Winfield Scott frankly hoped lee would lead the Union army, while more than a few Northerners openly envied that their commanders (in the East, at least) couldn’t seem to muster a quarter of the brains and energy of Lee.
That all being said, there’s another side the legend of Lee, which is that too a considerable degree his real faults and failings were concealed after the war by those who turned him into little more than the aforementioned statue. Several of his aides and officers tried to blame anyone, but mostly Gen. James Longstreet, for Lee’s failures.
Longstreet was the best Division commander in the South - and maybe the entire nation. He was also about the least pro-Confederate general in the lot, and one of the few who openly accepted Reconstruction, which may give you an idea of the political implications here. Lee, especially after his death, made for a convenient human symbol. Just about all the positive things people said about him were true, but they stripped away his mistakes and weaknesses. But a great many former Confederate soldiers really did see him this way, else it would have not have been so successful.
Edit: I am suggesting this be moved to another section, as I don’t think it fits IMHO.
If Lee had commanded the US Army, one wonders how differently he would have conducted the war. Would there have been a March to the Sea?
There’s a good chance he’d have taken Richmond early in the war, in which case the conflict wouldn’t have lasted long enough for there to be a march to the sea.
On that subject, one important fact which is often left out of histories is that newly-minted General of the Militia Robert E. Lee more or less organized the armed forces and supply situation, and more or less put the war effort in Virginia on a rational footing. (This was actually before Virginia joined the Confederacy; there was a critical period in between during which a certain amount of negotiation took place, hence why the Confederacy made Richmond the Confederate capital.)
Without him, it’s unlikely that anyone could have assembled the militia into a credible fighting force in time to realistically fight Bull Run. moreover, he was heavily involved in the effort to move Joe Johnston over to meet McDowell’s advance.
Since this is still an IMHO thread, IMHO had Lee stayed loyal the war would have ended much sooner. Virginia would have been mostly fallen to the Union in 1861, although there would have been some fighting elsewhere. The more interesting question is if this would have triggered a reaction that would have basically dissolved the Confederacy in, say, 1862. The net result would have been far fewer deaths and far less destruction, but also slavery likely would have remained intact if more limited.