“He realized that the Union’s biggest advantage was its mass and firepower and that the best way to handle Lee was not to fight on the South’s terms, but to use that overwhelming numerical advantage to grind them down. “
That’s the old mythology of the Lost Cause. Grant moved his men across the Mississippi to the west bank of the river to take Vicksburg. He floated 116 boats down the Tennessee River past Nashville to capture that city. He continually tried to outflank Lee’s forces in the Overland Campaign, but Lee’s smaller force was more maneuverable. After Cold Harbor, he cut off Lee’s supplies at Petersburg before resuming pressure on the ANV.
Grant was a bulldog that would attack from the front to tear off your balls, or circle around to bite you in the ass as circumstances dictated. He always had a clear gaol in mind and didn’t give up at the first sign of trouble. For Robert E. Lee, he was Wellington and Blücher all rolled into one.
But he would KEEP attacking, that’s what I’m saying. Even if he lost, he’d keep punching, keep probing, keep wearing his opponents down. I didn’t say he was some 1860s equivalent of an early-WWII Soviet general sending his men frontally across minefields with their arms linked. He had the resources so that he never needed to let up and pause, he could keep the pressure on until it became unsustainable for Lee to hold on. Grant was skilled at not just using mass as a bludgeon, but using it effectively (with a few exceptions).
}:-)4