[BenLurkin]

depiction of Ulysses S. Grant (Tom Skerritt) as a “butcher”

Has there ever been any doubt that he was just that -- once he was in the East?

Granted his brilliant Vicksburg campaign showed true generalship.

But his campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia was in your face, full frontal, war by attrition. Utilizing sheer force of numerical superiority by willingly trading the lives of his soldiers for those commanded by Lee. And he make no secret of it.

[pierrem15]

Grant didn't have any choice: he had no maps of the area and faced the full hostility of a much larger population than in the West, and had inferior commanders. It was unthinkable that Grant could wage a war of maneuver in Virginia against Lee.

The soundest strategy was to head straight for Richmond and Petersburg knowing Lee could not abandon them and grind away at the Army of Northern Virginia until superior numbers of men and materiel won.

Grant knew that the surest strategy was simple, brutal, and effective.

[DoodleDawg]

But his campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia was in your face, full frontal, war by attrition. Utilizing sheer force of numerical superiority by willingly trading the lives of his soldiers for those commanded by Lee. And he make no secret of it.

He also won. He latched on to Lee, forced him to retreat until he was bottled up in Petersburg. And then when Lee tried to break out in desperation, Grant tracked him down and forced him to surrender. I think that was the whole purpose behind the exercise, wasn't it?

[reg45]

I have long argued that the War of 1861 was a transitional war in terms of strategy and tactics. It started out Napoleonic and ended up like World War I. General Lee was brilliant in terms of Napoleonic warfare while General Grant had more in common with General Pershing.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

But his campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia was in your face, full frontal, war by attrition. Utilizing sheer force of numerical superiority by willingly trading the lives of his soldiers for those commanded by Lee. And he make no secret of it.

And in a war that had gone on for three years at that point, Grant took just seven weeks to put it into an endgame that left Lee trapped and able to do no more than delay the inevitable. And once that inevitability became apparent, who becomes the butcher then?

[Theoria]

Every side that wants to win needs a Grant and a Sherman.

Sherman was a Curtis Le May before there was an air force. He would have fit right in as a Mongol Khan.