Freedom Lives

August 13, 2003

Jeff Davis and Robert E. Lee

Meryl has a post starting out with an email I wrote her about Davis and Lee.
In her original post she stated that Lee should be on the list of worst Americans along with Davis.
I disagreed in, my usual terse prose, stating that Davis was more central to the rebellion than Lee was.
Tom describes a little more clearly why Davis deserves to be on the list.


Listening to: We Can Be Together - Jefferson airplane

Robert E. Lee was a great man and military leader. Had he not fought to defend Virginia but stayed in the Union army he would have been in charge and the war would have ended much sooner. Since he resigned from the army Lincoln and the north was forced to suffer through a series of idiots until Grant took over.
I maintain however that tactically Lee was not the best general in the south.
Longstreet had a much better grasp of how the war had to be fought and had he been in charge at Gettysburg it would have been a much different battle.
Jackson also had a knack of moving troops that was unequaled in the east.
In the west Forrest was a remarkable find in that he didn't have the training that the other general officers had but was just a natural. His victories, in some cases, against forces 2 and 3 times the size of his was astounding.

Posted by Starhawk at 05:55 PM | Civil War | Comments (10)