Robot E. Lee revisited

How do you make a perfect idea better? 

With all due respect to Phil’s outline, I’ve reworked the original Robot E. Lee into what I feel is a more complete vision of the same idea. One act at a time.  Here we go.

Act 1:

Three billion years ago, an robotic war machine built by a now-extant alien species crash landed on Earth. The continent had not yet formed. Flora and fauna as we now had not yet evolved. The alien pod containing the robot is covered by the restlessly transforming Earth, and is forgotten. 

Two billion, nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, eight hundred and sixty years later, the pod is unearthed in a massive arsonous explosion in the armory of a Confederate military outpost in western Virginia.

General Robert E. Lee, Virginian by birth, Confederate by choice, has just routed the Union forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville. His men in the Army of Northern Virginia are gaining momentum; they are proud, eager to fight, hungry to win. Another battle like Chancellorsville, he reasons, will irreparably set the tide of the war in their favor, ending the conflict, and hopefully bring peace between the two nations. 

A lone officer rides into Lee’s camp, carrying a single, baffling message:

General Lee,  
The attack on our armory may turn out to be a blessing for our men and for our country, for from the crater we have excavated a strange machine—one not of American making, surely. I believe it will be of great use in our current struggle, and urge you to come inspect it.

Signed,
Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Harmon

Lee rides to Roanoke under cover of night, leaving command of his men with his most trusted Colonel. What he finds there will ultimately change him, the war, and the course of history.