Evaluating R E Lee now going mainstream

Started by besilarius, May 20, 2017, 07:57:20 AM

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besilarius

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/19/the-truth-about-confederate-gen-robert-e-lee-he-wasnt-very-good-at-his-job/?tid=ss_fb&utm_term=.8026b102fd23

Personally, I think Lee was always fighting the Mexican War.  It worked against second raters like McClellan and Pope, but ultimately bled the southern armies dry.
If Hooker had not lost his nerve at Chancellorsville, and halted his advance out of the heavy growth, Lee's penchant for frontal assaults would have led to disaster.  Instead of President Grant, it would have been President Hooker.
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One interesting fact about Lee is that of the six Regular Army colonels from Virginia who were in uniform at the the start of the Civil War, five remained loyal to the Union. Of the five, only Lee rebelled, and that against the advice of his fellow Virginian and mentor, Winfield Scott.

About the article, though, I don't really like academic narratives that point to a map and say "such-and-such general should have just moved his troops here and he would have won," without any sense of the difficulties of terrain, weather, smoke, exhaustion, etc. that must have weighed on the decision-makers at the moment. That's not to say that historical generals didn't make mistakes, but I find that those mistakes are often far more understandable when studied in context.


JasonPratt

DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS!!1!

...oh, wait, that wasn't the name of the article, but the Post's motto or something. ;)

This seems more like a hit piece predicated on celebrating the removal of Lee's statue out of New Orleans. Was Lee freakishly over-eulogized? Absolutely ("bosom and all" as the article quips, rightly enough.) Is it a good idea to puncture at least some of the myth of the Lost Cause? As long as you aren't leaping off the horse on the other side, sure! Should modern military historians sift Lee's acumen? Great, always best to learn from mistakes so as not to repeat them (if possible).

The tone of the delivery of all this makes me suspicious of a drastic lack of context, though, for sake of propaganda the other way: stop whining, Lee wasn't all that great, etc.
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