[Cincinatus]

Lee was a great man and a great general. But Gettysburg was not a stunning example of his brilliance.

And yet, for all that, for all the miscalculation, slowness of his subordinates, the failure to properly support his frontal assault -- he almost pulled it off! Pickett's Charge was a nearer run thing than most remember.

I think Lee's real sin at Gettysburg is that he just didn't pull it off. Splitting his army at Chancellorsville with Stonewall Jackson's flank march around the Federal right was a much riskier move than Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, yet the former is remembered as genius and the latter as stupidity. Victory has a thousand fathers; defeat is an orphan.

[Conan the Librarian]

You are so right about Pickett's Charge. Pickett's Charge wasn't the great defeat that many set it out to be. The ANV (Army of Northern Virginia) didn't collapse after the charge, there was no great rout or disaster after. The AVN left the field in an ordered march. Hood's army is the only major Confederate army to run away from battle.

[Restorer]

he almost pulled it off!

Horseshoes and hand grenades!

If we're going to talk almost lost or won battles, Lee is undoubtedly the winner in the first category. In several cases, he had really lost the battle in tactical terms, yet managed to bluff his opponent into retreating from a winning position. Antietam is a classic example.