How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
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)
Should Lee have just run away? Should he have just refused to fight? Would that have been nobler? Did he have any choice? Are these questions going to stop? This quote hearkens back to the quote at the beginning of the book, where Lee resigned his post in the army, saying that he couldn't fight against his own family and his friends—Virginians, specifically.
Quote #5
"I was trying to warn you. But… you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only the soldiers who die." (4.5.61)
Lee admits to Longstreet that there's no hope at this point. He doesn't believe that they can retain their Southern way of life after Pickett's Charge. Just fighting for the sake of fighting won't be enough.