Lee, when he took command of the so called “Army of Northern Virginia” didn’t use calculated defensive tactics before Richmond. Rather he used attacks by Jackson’s corps, which mostly did not succeed, and cost the south 20,000 men.
Lee’s attacks destroyed an army. His own.
Thank you for your reply.
It is indeed true that of the Battles of the Seven Days it is only Gaines Mill that would be considered an absolute Confederate Victory, but Lee was brought in in the fourth quarter, down two touchdowns. Jackson weakened McLellan all that could be done, by playing Harry in the Valley Campaign, and with that done, Lee had to acccept huge risk and sacrifice to keep the War from ending in Spring of 1862 (it amazes me how few historians seem willing to admit how close McLellan, for all his faults, came to achieving this.)
With respect to Lee as a slaveowner, I would simply say that it is inaccurate to describe him as either a forward-looking humanitarian abolitionist or as a cruel plantation master; he was a career military man who primarily lived in Army housing, ate Army food, and breathed in air smelling of Army mule poop - not Mint Juleps and barbeque.
When I characterize him as a man of honor, I would caution anyone listening that it is awkward to judge the moral struggles of the leading figures of that time through a one-hundred-fifty year long lens.
I would also repeat that Picket was, in fact, a scumbag war criminal by the standards of his day as well as ours, and there was plenty of justification to hang him. That's why he fled the country after the war.
Please tell me what scumbag war crimes are laid at Pickett’s door.
Inquiring minds want to know.
A recent Article in “Armchair General”, that I briefly read in an airport, suggested that Jackson had an appreciation of the strength of a fortified defense, and recommended either southern use of fortified positions, or raiding attacks against the north. Jefferson Davis and RE Lee overruled Jackson.
I point out the irony that John Brown also had gained (from Kansas) an appreciation of the strength of the defense, but not having a military education, overreacted to that appreciation, not having the benefit of constraints by other officers.
I disagreed with the idea expressed in that article that Jackson making those recommendations was more correct than those who overruled him. I think that Davis and Lee had an appreciation that removing southern militia from the south would have exposed the country to servile insurrection, and southern reliance on fortification would have exposed most of the country (that could not be fortified) to northern raiders.
More Irony: Meade defeated Lee at Gettysburg using the kind of field fortifications that Jackson had appreciated. Sherman cut off Atlanta, despite the fortifications which prevented direct assault. Then Sherman’s army, after Atlanta, functioned as the kind of raider that Jackson had advocated. Wheeler, in the absence of Hood and the Army of Tennessee, could not stop Sherman, even by resorting to illegal infernal devices that were nearly sure to randomly murder civilians.