Lee Federal Opinion of General Lee

Strictly speaking, he wasn't. Lee was offered command of the units around Washington, not all federal forces.

R

Strictly speaking you are 100% right.................Still shows how highly Lee was regarded, as he was offered command of Federal Forces around the nation's capital..


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Respectfully,
William
 
One reason Northerners praised Lee's abilities to the high heavens so often was simply because they so often lost to him. It makes one feel better to lose to a brilliant opponent, because you can then explain your failure on the opponent's brilliance rather than your own shortcomings. The British did much the same with Rommel during World War II.
I was thinking the same thing in terms of Rommel...
 
Great comment, lots of insights -- except for "Sherman flipflopped." Huh??
Sherman's comments throughout his life and army career were not consistent always. He would be mad in one direction, then stop and go charging off, angry in another. Not really flip-flopped, that is a bad choice or words. But, his quick and bombastic public speech often made him have to take another tack later. Such as his early comments about not wanting to fight the war "for the ******s". Even thought I don't think his thinking completely changed, his comments surely did as he knew it would be career suicide to defy Stanton and the diehard New England Senators on matters of their new batch of voters. Who they would also make a cursory stab at freeing, then abandon a few years later in the face of southern defiance.

Sherman weaved and bobbed would be better. Sorry if I discredited any of your ACW heroes, because I didn't mean too. I love Sherman and Grant and Lee and Stonewall and.....Cleburne....Hardee......Forrest.....Mark Jenkins...wait he is a modern day information hero.....yourself....wait, I am confused again......Longstreet...my memory fails right now....the lady who authored Uncle Tom's Cabin....thousands of preachers trying to bring peace and Light....little old ladies first writing, then sewing for freedom of slaves.....Robert E Lee's wife and daughters sending him socks, even though one daughter never got them quite right....so far though....Lincoln is not my hero, how weird is that?
 
You're right. I lived for many years in the two biggest Texas cities -- but when I married a Kansas farmer, I married into a particular piece of earth and a particular community as well. My husband's gone now -- although still near, because buried in the heart of that same dear community -- but I am still a part of this piece of land and this community, and expect to be so until I die myself. This was something I never could have envisioned as a young person in the big city. Oh, I had inklings of it in the little Houston neighborhood I lived in for many years -- but until I became part of an agricultural community, I never knew it in my bones. I still don't know it completely, and probably never will, for it's way bigger and deeper and older than me -- but let's just say I can at least understand, in some small way, why people like Robert Lee and Alexander Stephens and the rest of them were more loyal to their home states than they were to the larger nation.

Exactly. Somehow a person develops an unbreakable bond with the land and the local people in rural areas. It's in me very strong. That is why their is so much disagreement on this site about culture and loyalty to a smaller geographic and demographic. It's real. Some just have never felt it. And maybe are built where they can't, unless they were born right in the middle of it and raised from a baby. Like the preceding several generations, because that almost always does it.
Great post.
 
My favorite assessment of Lee has to be W.T. Sherman's magnificent 1887 essay "Grant, Thomas, Lee."

He comes down hard on Lee for treason, but the piece is quite a bit more calm and measured than the letters at the top of the thread! Maybe 22 years distance from war's end gives a bit of perspective. (Plus, no matter how much of a hothead Sherman's usually considered to be, you gotta admit the guy was brilliant. 6th in his class at West Point, etc. And as anyone who has read his letters knows, he did have a way with words!)

Sherman was great. He was super intelligent and his brain ran out ahead of his pen and his tongue. And he didn't even have to try! He was intuitive, admittedly, and couldn't even explain it. Maybe ladies understand that better than he did himself. Sometimes it was a curse, sometimes a blessing.

If we can back off now and give credit to ALL the players from that war, for their good points, we would be better served. I like your loyalty to those you admire...I have that too. When somebody trashes ALL confederates I picture Crazy Tom quietly teaching some negro the Bible and even how to read. How huge was that from this later Confederate general? He apparently knew they were fully human if he wanted to save their soul and teach them to read. Good on you for your level headed, and super intelligent, placing of these amazing people.
 
I was thinking the same thing in terms of Rommel...
Rommel was good, though. As late as the 1980's some of his tactics were still being studied in the US military. I like him because he hated Hitler and the Nazi's and only fought to save his own skin. He was not brainwashed or swayed by that evil Austrian corporal.
 
Strictly speaking you are 100% right.................Still shows how highly Lee was regarded, as he was offered command of Federal Forces around the nation's capital..


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Respectfully,
William
Don't you think Scott was also crafty enough to know that if he bound Lee by honor to protect DC, he could not waiver in his duty or rethink his decision? If Scott had only offered him some fairly distant, say department command, the same bonds on Lee would not have been there. Scott was very smart and many do not give him credit for his depth. Shoot, everyone get's old and fat, that doesn't make them less intelligent. (Even though we do begin to go into rooms and come out with something other than what we went in for....LOL)
 
And much more of a navy. :wink:

"Wherever his fleet can be brought no opposition to his landing can be made except within range of our fixed batteries. We have nothing to oppose to its heavy guns, which sweep over the low banks of this country with irresistible force." -- Robert E. Lee, 8 Jan 1862 [referring to Union operations along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts]​
Stop @Mark F. Jenkins ! You are making me develop a deeper interest in the navy and I already have too much to read! And I would be starting from zero.
"See wooden boat. See boat float. See the sails? They make it go fast. See the big gun? It shoots far."
Dick and Jane for Naval history initiates.

In fact, I need a Dick and Jane series on so many things.
US Navy
Naval and Land artillery
ACW and modern military organization
Army Engineers in the field
Smart Phones
Women LOL
Grand daughter's emotions
Buying Clothes
Oh.....sorry....I got off topic.
 
Rommel was good, though ... I like him because he hated Hitler and the Nazi's and only fought to save his own skin. He was not brainwashed or swayed by that evil Austrian corporal.

I´m not sure I´d agree with hate. He didn´t like the Nazis. And whatever feelings Rommel had about Hitler strongly changed over time ... it´s a long way from being commander of the personal security troops to hate. He surely became disillusioned and disgusted ... no wonder though.
 
I´m not sure I´d agree with hate. He didn´t like the Nazis. And whatever feelings Rommel had about Hitler strongly changed over time ... it´s a long way from being commander of the personal security troops to hate. He surely became disillusioned and disgusted ... no wonder though.
I guess your right. I had forgetten that part. By the time he talked with outside people I think he didn't want anything to do with being a Nazi, just a German.
 
Rommel was good, though. As late as the 1980's some of his tactics were still being studied in the US military. I like him because he hated Hitler and the Nazi's and only fought to save his own skin. He was not brainwashed or swayed by that evil Austrian corporal.

Some recent scholarship has challenged that perception of Rommel as well as his strategic acumen.

R
 
Sherman was great. He was super intelligent and his brain ran out ahead of his pen and his tongue. And he didn't even have to try! He was intuitive, admittedly, and couldn't even explain it. Maybe ladies understand that better than he did himself. Sometimes it was a curse, sometimes a blessing.
You've got a way with words yourself! Love your description of Sherman. "His brain ran out ahead of his pen and his tongue": perfect! Can't you just imagine watching the guy actually sitting down at a desk or table writing? Hand moving across the paper at a hundred miles an hour leaving smoke trails behind and steam coming out both ears?!
 
Sherman is known for speaking and writing before calmly thinking about what he wanted to say. This is in defense of a complex, close to brilliant man, and has nothing to do with the thread.

General Lee was, after the first year, was and ought to be considered more than adquate. Lincoln brought Grant East to deal with him, which Grant did. How he did it is open to a lot of discussion, but it remains that Lee's signature was on the surrender document.

Lee was bearing the burden of a failing "country" on his back. He bore that burden valiantly. But he didn't have the resources to prevail. Lee was and is a man deserving of the utmost reverence. "Lost" ought not be his legacy.
 
Rommel was good, though. As late as the 1980's some of his tactics were still being studied in the US military. I like him because he hated Hitler and the Nazi's and only fought to save his own skin. He was not brainwashed or swayed by that evil Austrian corporal.
I meant more in terms of enemies that respected him as a general and somewhat envied his prowess in battle...
 
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