How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
He believed in a Purpose as surely as he believed that the stars above him were really there. He thought himself too dull to read God's plan, a servant only. And yet sometimes there were glimpses. (3.6.13)
Lee believes he gets glimpses into the destiny of the nation—but in this case, he's actually blind to the workings of destiny. If he weren't, he wouldn't have ordered Pickett's Charge. Is it his fate to lose? Or does he just get himself into trouble by being too confident?
Quote #5
And so he took up arms willfully, knowingly, in perhaps the wrong cause against his own sacred oath and stood now upon alien ground he had once sworn to defend, sworn in honor, and he had arrived there really in the hands of God, without any choice at all; there had never been an alternative except to run away, and he could not do that. (3.6.25)
Lee couldn't run away, because he felt too devoted to his family and friends in Virginia. He couldn't put a principle—opposition to slavery—above the people he grew up with. But why couldn't he have refused to fight? Could he have taken his family and run away to Europe? Do you think Lee might just be making an excuse? Or not?
Quote #6
It was all set and fated like the coming of the bloody heat, the damned rising of the damned sun, and nothing to do, no way to prevent it, my weary old man, God help us, what are you doing? (4.2.69)
Longstreet can't understand Lee's actions. Lee feels that the course is set: in his mind, he's following a predestined pattern. But Longstreet wants to alter fate: he wants to swing the army around and cut the Union forces off from Lincoln in D.C.