[Non-Sequitur]

One comment on the raids, Lee never sought to occupy or conquer, I believe the intent was to gain recognition of soveriengty for the Southern states.

Try again. His goal was to feed the Army of Northern Virginia off the Northern population for a while, and to gather enough food and supplies by to maintain his army when he returned to the South. He accomplished this by stripping the countryside of everything edible and which he could use for his men and sending it South. That goal occupied his thoughts, governed his actions, and was somewhat successful. Even after his fiasco at Gettysburg he returned to Virginia with most of his looted goods. Of course, it was at the expense of leaving 7,000 wounded behind.

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Those words about Lee and Gettysburg were from the Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference section on Military Strategy - Confederate (see pg 337-338).

Guess who wrote the forward for the CW Desk Reference? James MacPherson..... the same author of this article.