Well, glad that is cleared up... Robert E. Lee, from all I have read about him and his life, seemed to be a decent family man who found himself in a bad situation...

And I'm not sure it was policy either other than an unwritten policy... By the time of Petersburg the Southern army was really down to the dregs in terms of troops and they were some really pissed off people... I mean, not all that smart either... Some of the tactics they used would have, in better times, had Thomas Jackson laughing on the floor... But sadly, by then there was an intense hatred that had set in... More than any kind of hatred that they thought they felt leading up to Sumpter... These were desperate times and eons beyond their successful "6 day battle" at Richmond some 3 1/2 years earlier which by then were distant memories...

I mean, it's easy to vilify and try to make demons outta everyone who fought on the Southern side but, hey, it was a fucked up war with lots of very bad and evil things happening on both sides... There was nothin' "civil" about it...

Also, toward the end of the war, with rations gone, I'm sure that what was left of the Southern army would have killed any Union troop regardless of color over capturing him...

B~