"To turn from assaults to losses, there is nothing whatever to justify the common opinion that Grant wantonly sacrificed the lives of his men. It is true that during the last year of the war his losses were heavy, but it must be remembered that his efforts were continuous in order to prevent the Richmond Government from reinforcing Johnston." [J.F.C. Fuller,
Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship, p. 272
Fuller provides the following tables of losses for both Grant and Lee in the first half of the war:
He says, "From these two tables we learn the following: In Grant's six battles, the average percentage of men hit, that is killed and wounded, was 10.03 per cent., and in Lee's ten the average was 16.20 per cent.." [Ibid., p. 273]
He then considers Grant vs. Lee in the last half of the war:
Here he says, "As no accurate figures exist for Lee's losses they cannot be given, which in itself shows the indifferent staff work in his army, but as regards Grant's, his average loss in these eight battles was 10.42 per cent., which compares closely with his average during 1862-1863, and is considerably lower than Lee's during the same period. Of forty-six battles, great and small, tabulated by Livermore in
Numbers and Losses, in which casualties for both sides are given, the Federal losses work out at 11.07 per cent., and the Confederate at 12.25 per cent.; both of which figures are higher than Grant's total average of 10.225 per cent., and decidedly below Lee's average of 16.20 per cent., for the years 1862-63, in spite of the fact that they include his losses. That Grant's casualties were abnormally high is thus proved a myth, and one of the most persistent in the history of this war. It may, however, be said that as the Federals were generally numerically superior to the Confederates these percentages are misleading. As to this I do not agree, because the Federals were normally the attackers, and it is a well known fact that the attacker loses much more heavily than the defender, and out of all proportion when the defender is entrenched." [Ibid., pp. 274-275]