As they prepare to evict Robert E. Lee from his pedestal in the heart of Richmond, I’ve been thinking about one of my relatives, whose “heroism” was the opposite of Lee’s. He was a deserter from the 22nd Regiment of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Unlike Lee, Virgil Marion St. Clair wasn’t rich. Unlike Lee, Virgil wasn’t a slave owner. He lived in the Appalachian mountains, grinding out a hard living as a yeoman farmer. More

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