On April 18, 1861, this man turned down an offer to be made a major general in the Union Army.
U.S. Grant
George B. McClellan
Robert E. Lee
Winfield Scott
Robert E. Lee. Lee was offered the commission and command of all forces defending Washington but turned it down. He regarded slavery as an evil in the abstract – though he sued unsuccessfully to break his father-in-law’s will that freed all of that man’s slaves – and disapproved of secession, but he asked, "How can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state?"