No way to prove it, but strongly suspect that both Grant and Patton understood that Lee was their better.
Grant was clearly the best general in American history. Lee was an excellent tactical general in the Napoleonic tradition. Grant was perhaps the first modern general and a much better strategic thinker. His reputation is slowly rising to its proper place as the stain on his reputation soiled by a hundred years of Lost Cause revisionism has been washed away.
That being said, while I have mixed emotions about statues of Confederate heroes, I do not support this fever to remove them.
Oh, it’s pretty clear that Grant knew Lee was the better general - he didn’t let that scare him from doing what he needed to do.
Grant’s own description of his first battle as Colonel of a regiment should be required reading for ANY military officer. His simple epiphany from that scrap guided him for the rest of the war.
If anyone hasn’t read Grant’s autobiography, they should. Wonderful piece of work.
Probably not. You can still respect a man and still consider yourself a better general, especially if your record shows it. Grant, of one, respected Lee as a man and as a commander but he wasn't in awe of him. When his subordinates cautioned him about Lee early in the 1864 Overland Campaign, Grant's reply was, “Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.”
Not the words of a man who felt inferior to his opponent.