Why did Lincoln not have Lee arrested after Lee declined the offer to lead the Union troops?

Forget that such a move was illegal. Lincoln made a number of constitutionally illegal moves during his presidency.





By taking Lee and others out of action for the CSA, the capacity of the CSA to wage an effective war would have been greatly reduced, saving countless lives and leading to a much earlier end to the war.





The only reason I can come up with is that Lincoln underestimated the effect Lee and others would have for the South. Or, Lincoln was afraid of the legal and political consequences of such a move so early in his presidency.|||Yours is a question for the ages and which Grant addresses in his memoirs. It is a given that such a move would have been illegal and unpopular, even among pro-union officers. But it is equally certain that Lincoln knew the political leanings of Virginia and that Lee, a professional soldier, would join forces with them.





Grant suggests that Lincoln feared a rebellion among pro-Union officers, many of whom loved Lee like a father. But Grant also writes that with events moving as rapidly as they were at the time, such a fear would not be justified. And though Grant was not in the army at the time, he would later have been able to make that assessment.





The guy who mentions 'timeline' doesn't appear to have a clue.|||Arrested for what -- resigning from the army? Check your timeline: Virginia was part of the Northern tier of the South and did not secede right away. Many Virginians simply wanted to remain neutral. It was only when Lincoln called on Virginia to supply troops that Virginia joined the others. By then, Bobby Lee was home.|||Definitely political consequences; as trying Lee for treason would have fueled the already scorching fire in the South. Lee had been an exemplary soldier.|||Lee was an incredibly handsome man, and Lincoln was worried about what might happen to him in prison.|||i mean either way, the south would have found a new leader and still rebelled.|||To many people the Glory of the American Civil War lay in the Eastern Campaigns. Battles that are forever etched in the minds of young Civil War Buffs - Bull Run (Manassas), Seven Days Battles, Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas), Shenandoah Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor. Petersburg, and Appomattox; however, the Civil War was won on the Western Front and in the Atlantic. Lee is glorified for his achievements but it was, in the end, his decisions that caused the war to be inevitably shorter. Late in June 1863 the Union army was besieging the key city of Vicksburg on the Mississippi. The fall of Vicksburg would result in the Union controlling the entire Mississippi and be able to move units, and supplies with ease to all parts of the South to destroy the will and means for the armies of the CSA to fight. When presented with this information, Robert E. Lee convinced his superiors that he should be allowed to take his army North to Pennsylvania in an attempt to resupply his army instead of sending reinforcements to Vicksburg in an attempt to turn the tide in the West. After his loss at Gettysburg on July 3rd, Vicksburg fell on July 4th. The war would then drag on for another 2 years only due to the invincible spirit of the soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Had Lee assisted Vicksburg the War may very well have lasted years longer, and maybe have turned into a Confederate Victory. After the fall of Vicksburg, Lee was forced to send some of his best commanders West anyways to deal with Sherman as he marched to Atlanta.





It is, in my opinion safe to argue that had Lee been retained as a General of the Union the War may have lasted longer than it did.