i heard that baez changed it to the steamer robert e lee because she felt that the song was too sympathic to the south(which i always thought was the point of it in the first place) and that she didnt want to mention the general by name so she changed him to a boat which to me never made a lick of sense ,i mean there is something sad in seeing a defeated leader of your troops go by and soemthing else completly to seeing a boat go by...but thats just my taste i guess