Yes, I am aware of that. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with General Lee's exact quote.
"I must side either with or against my section or country. I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children. ... --Robert E. Lee
Posted on 10/12/2018 7:13:42 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
President Trump praised Confederate Geader Robert E. Lee as "a great general" on Friday during a campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio.
"So Robert E. Lee was a great general. And Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn’t beat Robert E. Lee," Trump said before launching into a monologue about Lee, Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.
"He was going crazy. I don’t know if you know this story. But Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home, he said, 'I can’t beat Robert E. Lee,'" Trump said.
"And he had all of his generals, they looked great, they were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. There’s only one problem — they didn’t know how the hell to win. They didn’t know how to fight. They didn’t know how," he continued.
Trump went on to say, multiple times, that Grant had a drinking problem, saying that the former president "knocked the hell out of everyone" as a Union general.
"Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general," Trump added.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018 Trump has drawn criticism for his defense of Confederate statues, including those of Robert E. Lee.
He drew widespread condemnation last year following a deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., saying that white nationalist protesters were there to oppose the removal of a "very, very important" statue.
"They were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Trump said at the time. “This week it's Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”
Trump, speaking at another rally in Ohio last year, said that he can be one of the “most presidential” presidents to hold office. "…With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said to a crowd in Youngstown.
Lee turned down Lincoln's offer of command in the Union Army because he could not fight against "my country" - meaning Virginia.
The fact that Lee was a brilliant general is beyond dispute. That fact stands alone. Debates about the causes of the war, slavery, Federal vs. State power, the Constitution, and the rest are all fascinating. But they do not change the fact that Lee was a fantastic general.
Gettysburg and the loss of Jackson were huge turning points.
In that same category of Virginian and playing his cards exactly right to ultimate victory is George H. Thomas.
He was from the ‘’state’’ of Virginia . His country was The United States of America. He won battles and lost the war.
"Man was he a good general. And he’s finally being recognized as a great general," Trump added.
Grant was recognized as a great general long before now.
Both men had learning curves. But both showed their genius early on.
General Ewell was carrying out Lee’s orders. The assault on the Peach Orchard by General Barksdale’s troops was part of General Longstreet’s attack against Meade’s left flank on the second day of the Battle at Gettysburg.
Bttt
What were Malvern Hill and Pickett's Charge?
Yes, I am aware of that. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with General Lee's exact quote.
"I must side either with or against my section or country. I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children. ... --Robert E. Lee
So he raised his hand against someone else’s home.
It seems you really want to bicker, not debate. Have a good day.
How was he contacted in order to send him to Washington? It seems to me it would have taken a long time to get a message to him, and then it would have taken him some time to get to Washington.
Read Freeman's biography. Lee was ordered back to Washington on February 4th with orders to report to the general in chief no later than April 1st. He was back home by March 1st.
As for how he was contacted? By telegraph.
In reports and explanations after Gettysburg, Lee tended to blame J.E.B. Stuart and other subordinates for the defeat. Most historians attribute Lee's defeat due to his failure to concentrate his forces, seize important terrain early, and to coordinate his attacks on the Union forces.
Most historians also seem to agree that Lee's performance suffered in the latter part of the war due to age, illness, and the loss of Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. More fundamentally, Lee's preferred tactics required his troops to make costly direct infantry charges at prepared enemy positions. The casualties this incurred bled the South dry of military manpower. A more defensive strategy coupled with defensive battle tactics might have done better.
By the latter part of the war, the Union Army was well enough trained and equipped that Lee's Napoleonic tactics had become near prohibitive in casualties. The rifled musket and the profusion of accurate cannons were tilting the battlefield against massed infantry in open field attacks, a process that was completed with the introduction of machine guns in WW I.
Lee's greatest and best decision as a military commander was to surrender despite the lack of approval from the Confederate government. Lee, who was genuinely a good man and instinctively a conservative, recoiled from the alternative of breaking his army into small units and waging a continuing guerrilla war. Lee's surrender at Appomattox was met by generous terms from Grant and a national spirit of reconciliation.
As for where Lee fits in the American military pantheon, there are easily a couple of dozen whom I can think of with equal or better military records. Such assessments though are fraught with uncertainty and argument. I prefer to simply note that the US relies disproportionately on the South for its military manpower and that one does not have to dig hard to find traces of Confederate elan in the US military.
For example, although George Patton was born in and grew up in California, he was of Virginia ancestry with Confederate ties and sympathies. As a boy, young George knew Colonel John Singleton Mosby as an honored guest in the Patton household. Mosby, a dashing and capable Confederate cavalryman who served under Stuart and Lee, regaled young George with accounts of Confederate cavalry battles and tactics.
Properly understood and qualified, the Confederate military legacy adds to our national military experience and provides stories of battle that help inspire young men to serve in the military. And from time to time, the energy of the American military on the attack may owe something to Confederate antecedents.
And yet Grant had no problems cutting himself off from supply line and reinforcements in order to out-maneuver Penmberton and force him back into Vickburg.
You are way, way off the mark.
Both men led volunteer armies commanded and trained by a mix of professional soldiers and amateur officers.
All too true. In fairness to Lee, a defensive strategy was deeply unpopular with Southerners, while the weight of resources made an eventual Union victory seem inevitable given enough time. The best chances for the Confederacy thus were foreign intervention or the election of a peace candidate like McClellan. Nevertheless, since the fact of the matter is that the South bled itself dry through combat casualties, the leaders who produced such a result must bear the weight of historical scrutiny.
"I am a damned sight smarter man than Grant. I know more about military history, strategy, and grand tactics than he does. I know more about supply, administration, and everything else than he does. I'll tell you where he beats me though and where he beats the world. He doesn't give a damn about what the enemy does out of his sight, but it scares me like hell. … I am more nervous than he is. I am more likely to change my orders or to countermarch my command than he is. He uses such information as he has according to his best judgment; he issues his orders and does his level best to carry them out without much reference to what is going on about him and, so far, experience seems to have fully justified him." -- William T. Sherman
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