[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Here's a good part: "As Lee himself admitted in the death agony of the Confederacy, he had never believed it could in the long run make good its independence “unless Foreign Powers should, directly or indirectly, assist” it in so doing "

And of course, "Tersely put, dealing only with outlines, the southern community in 1861 precipitated a conflict on the slavery issue, in implicit reliance on its own warlike capacity and resources, the extent and very defensible character of its territory, and, above all, on its complete control of cotton as the great staple textile fabric of modern civilization."

So it appears that this historian you consider "awesome" believed that the south started the war because of slavery and that Lee never believed it could stand on its own without foreign help.

[kiryandil]

So it appears that this historian you consider "awesome" believed that the south started the war because of slavery and that Lee never believed it could stand on its own without foreign help.

I suppose if I was a Southern aficionado, that single paragraph out of the many, many, many other paragraphs that young Adams wrote might bother me.

I don't see how your brief snippet lessens the might of Charles Adams' paean to the greatness and Character of Robert E. Lee. :)