text: History doesn't make the "traitorous" distinction with these people, either. No one... not Jefferson Davis, not Robert E. Lee, not even the despicable Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK... NO ONE who served the Confederacy was ever tried for treason, let alone convicted. Seems they were far more forgiving in their time than we are in ours. In point of fact, everyone who served in the Army of the Confederacy was granted recognition as *US* VETERANS by an act of Congress in 1957. 
  
  In the mid-19th Century, allegiance to State, be it North or South, was far more compelling than allegiance to country. Lee served the United States with great fealty, but when his home state of Virginia chose secession, he felt honor bound to follow. That was the way of the times, and it illustrates the foolishness of judging historical figures by contemporary standards.