Grant knew that in a stand up fight he could not compete with the Southern frame of mind and leadership in battle. Cold Harbor was indicative of that. He kept attacking so the South would break, which it never did, and made him realize he could only win by continuing to bleed off manpower. He had the logistics and men to throw in, the South was running out.
What a load of garbage.
To quote Grant from Shiloh: "Lick 'em tomorrow."
Grant had plenty of stand-up fights against Southern armies and generals and won most of them.
Grant did not buy into the Southern mystique at all, which is one of the reasons why he defeated the Confederacy's greatest captain.
Cold Harbor was indicative of that.
Do you even know anything about the Battle of Cold Harbor?
Far from being a stand-up fight, it was an assault by Grant against a Confederate army that was so well entrneched behind fortifications that Gordon Rhea - probably the expert on the Overland campaign - describes Lee's fortifications as the most brilliant defensive line built during the war.
The Union prevailed in the hand-to-hand fighting that occurred after the Union managed to smash through part of the defenses - but were slaughtered by the well-covered Confederate artillery emplacements that commanded the entrenchments they broke through.
He kept attacking so the South would break, which it never did
Of course the Confederacy did.
Grant cornered Lee in Petersburg, and then Lee, no longer able to defend Petersburg, made a run for it. Grant tracked him down and two weeks later Lee surrendered.
and made him realize he could only win by continuing to bleed off manpower.
He won the campaigns after Cold Harbor quite decisively, and not by bleeding off his own men, but by whittling Lee's force down to almost nothing.
He had the logistics and men to throw in, the South was running out.
When the Petersburg Campaign began Grant had 62,000 effectives and Lee had 42,000.
At Antietam McClellan had 87,000 effectives and Lee had 45,000.
Grant did a lot more with far fewer men than his predecessors, while Lee's numbers were not much smaller than they were two years before.
Grant's logistics were no better than McClellan's. Numbers and logistics did not finish Lee.
Grant and his leaner-and-meaner-than-McClellan's Army of The Potomac did.
I'd say as a battle field commander in the Western theater (Belmont, Henry, Donaldson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga) Grant did a pretty damn good job of defeating the Confederates which is why he was promoted to command all of the Union armies. He then did what no one else considered -- directing not just one theater but organizing and coordinating both theaters to operate as one and finally bring the Confederacy to its knees.