General Lee, was a very Great General. His defeat, can be laid to rest because of Union technical superiority - the telegraph, and the repeating rifle. At Gettysburg, these tools, gave the Federals an edge, which prevented their defeat.
Robert E. Lee, was a Virginian abolitionist. He personally freed George Washington’s slaves, part of his marital inheritance, at great personal cost.
After the war, his former slaves did not desert him. They continued to work for him with great respect. Lee was instrumental in efforts to establish black Churches and schools. Blacks who know history, know him as a liberator.
The U.S. Government only purchased 1,731 Henry repeating rifles during the Civil War. These were issued to Cavalry units. At Gettysburg only two Union Cavalry regiments were equipped with Spencer repeating carbines. Individual soldiers could by Henry Rifles, and may did with their reenlistment bonuses in 1864, most of these soldiers served with the Western armies. If you can identify a Union infantry unit at Gettysburg that was equipped with repeating rifles, I would very much like to know which unit it was, have not heard that fact before.
Actually the slaves were not part of Lee’s marital inheritance. The slaves belonged to his father in law, George Washington Parke Custis. They were not willed to Mary, Lee’s wife. Custis die in 1857. Lee was the executor of the Custis will. The will required the slaves be freed no later than five years after Custis’s death. Lee could free them sooner if he felt that the estate at Arlington would not suffer undue financial hardship without them. Lee felt that the slaves needed to be retained to improve the financial footing of the Arlington estate. Over the course of the next 5 years, Lee did free those slaves, he last of the Custis slaves was freed in late 1862.
I do believe that Longstreet had it right.
Lee wasted a large portion of his army attacking the center lines of the union.
No one forced him to attack.
That was a generalship decision. Turns out, it was a bad one.