twenty five years in the U.S. Navy, retired as a Lieutenant Commander. Yep, Malvern Hill and Pickets Charge are textbook examples of basic infantry tactics at it’s finest.
“Some people claim that Lee himself didn’t own slaves, they were his wife’s.” The slaves at Arlington and other Custis properties were to be freed per the GWP Custis will. Custis died in 1857. He named Colonel Lee as the estates administrator. The Custis will gave the executor the discretion of freeing the slave once the estates debts and legacies had been paid in full, but they were all to be freed no later than 5 years after Custis’s death. Lee over the course of those years freed the slaves as the financial condition of the estate improved and freed the last of them in Nov 1862.
“Grant’s wife also owned slaves” Julia never owned the slaves in question. They remained the property of her father Fredrick Dent. They only attended her when she was in Missouri. He would not allow the slaves to accompany her outside the state. Those slaves were freed when Missouri outlawed slaver in January 1865.