Reconsidering Grant and Lee

CNN.com ^ | January 8, 2003 | AP

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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) --Ask most schoolchildren and they will tell you that Robert E. Lee was a military genius while Ulysses S. Grant was a butcher who simply used the North's advantage in men and material to bludgeon the Confederates into submission.

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Our beloved General Lee.

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General Lee Bump!

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[TomServo]

Dixie Bump!!!

[arly]

Deo Vindice!... General Lee was #1

[VOA]

So was Grant the better general?

Just my aamateur opinion...built while growing up just about atop the Mason-Dixon Line...

They were both great.
Lee made do with miserable logistics and inferior material support...
Grant had to prees on when a fair chunck of the folks "back home" didn't
really have a heart for the sacrifices.

Just my humble thought:
Grant gets the nod for doggedness in doing what had to be done...
Lee gets the nod for being more bravado for getting "the mostest
out of the leastest"...

[Slyfox]

I get a lump in my throat when I think of both the Generals at Appamattox.

[BenLurkin]

Lee was the greatest American general. Grant was a capable and intelligent general who figured out how (under the circumstances) to beat Lee.

[4CJ]

Lee ahead 54% - 46%. Bump for a man of honour.

[Mike Darancette]

Grant could be said to be among the first generals to wage modern warfare. To re-organize and continue the attack even if defeated.

Grant knew that the North had an overwhelming advantage in men and equipment and utilized it. In 1864 Grant knew he could afford to lose every battle and Lee couldn't afford to lose one battle.

[Tax-chick]

Ask most schoolchildren and they will tell you that Robert E. Lee was a military genius while Ulysses S. Grant was a butcher who simply used the North's advantage in men and material to bludgeon the Confederates into submission.

Actually, the test results these days show that most children would say, "Who?" Most have no idea what or when the Civil War was. (Goodness, my syntax has declined since I got this temporary crown on my tooth!)

I've warmed a little to General Grant in recent years ... it seems he was a very decent man, anyway ... but as a general he brings to mind P.J. O'Rourke's description of the Roman emperor Titus: "Using a great deal of slaughter, and some tactics, he put down the rebellion."

Heading off now to find this poll ...

[Spirited]

", but his reputation, even as a general, suffered from his time as president, which is usually considered "pretty much a disaster," Rhea says."

Give the man a few years and he will put a spin on the presidency which will make Grant look beter than Washington. It certainlly will sell books.

[redbaiter]

General Grant, as given hilarious voice by Ev Ehrlich, begs to differ:

"I still hear it today - Grant was a butcher, he was lucky, he had superior numbers, he was outsmarted by Lee every step of the way. A choir of know-it-alls will offer every explanation for Bobby Lee's surrender in McLean's parlor at Appomattox, except the obvious one.
I whipped him, and whipped him good."

Grant Speaks

[LibKill]

I wouldn't put Grant in Lee's class for genius, but he had something that Lincoln's other generals lacked; true fighting spirit.

"I can't spare this man, he Fights. (Abraham Lincoln, commenting on Gen. Grant)

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Thanks for the ping

[stevem]

Grant proved on as many occasions as did Lee that Grant was a military tactician absolutely up to the challenges of the day.

It's way to much an over simplification to say that Grant just did it with superior numbers. He won the war with far less loss of life than all his predecessors lost while accomplishing nothing. The type of war waged in those days suggested that the old adage favoring the defenders was in operation. That is, the aggressor must vanquish, the defender need only survive.

Every place Grant went there came to pass an overwhelming sense of competence.

[yooper]

To say that Grant calculated the charge at Cold Harbor as the proper military move is correct. To imply that he may not have regretted it is not. He never made the same mistake again.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Prussia's General von Moltke criticized Grant for not landing 50,000 men along the North Carolina coast instead of losing them in the Wilderness, while still pinning Lee down there. Grant used to say that the Confederate rebels fought valiantly but "for one of the worst causes anyone has ever fought."

I agree with von Moltke and Grant.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Shooter 2.5]

There is a book called "The Military 100" by Lt. Colonel Michael Lee Lanning. He lists Grant as number 33 and Lee at number 60.

I think Grant may have been a better general but Lee was a better leader.