The Myth of the Kindly General Lee

[turbinetree]

The legend of the Confederate leader’s heroism and decency is based in the fiction of a person who never existed.

The Atlantic
Adam Serwer

The strangest part about the continued personality cult of Robert E. Lee is how few of the qualities his admirers profess to see in him he actually possessed.

Memorial Day has the tendency to conjure up old arguments about the Civil War. That’s understandable; it was created to mourn the dead of a war in which the Union was nearly destroyed, when half the country rose up in rebellion in defense of slavery. In 2017, the removal of Lee’s statue in New Orleans has inspired a new round of commentary about Lee, not to mention protests on his behalf by white supremacists.

The myth of Lee goes something like this: He was a brilliant strategist and devoted Christian man who abhorred slavery and labored tirelessly after the war to bring the country back together.

There is little truth in this. Lee was a devout Christian, and historians regard him as an accomplished tactician. But despite his ability to win individual battles, his decision to fight a conventional war against the more densely populated and industrialized North is considered by many historians to have been a fatal strategic error.

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[edhopper]

1. Time to remove

the Southern myth of the Noble Cause from our history.

[yellowcanine]

2. This is the part which keeps me from thinking kindly of the "kindly" General Lee.

Soldiers under Lee’s command at the Battle of the Crater in 1864 massacred black Union soldiers who tried to surrender. Then, in a spectacle hatched by Lee’s senior corps commander A.P. Hill, the Confederates paraded the Union survivors through the streets of Petersburg to the slurs and jeers of the southern crowd. Lee never discouraged such behavior. As the historian Richard Slotkin wrote in No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, “his silence was permissive.”

[The Magistrate]

3. Lee's Reputation As a General, Sir

Owes chiefly to the low quality of the generals opposing him, most particularly McClellan. A competent fighting general, just about any of the Union leaders in the latter portion of the war, would have ruined Lee in 1862, and even McClellan nearly managed it at Antietam, after having thrown away almost every advantage in his possession for days. Even at the end, had he not been prey to the delusion Lee had fresh reserves in hand, McClellan could have finished the thing then and there.

[maxsolomon]

4. So, if he'd embraced Guerilla tactics and terrorism they might have won?

Probably temporarily.

If they'd succeeded, we'd have had multiple wars, probably far bloodier, with the South in the 150 years since.

[The Magistrate]

6. The Thing Was Poorly Phrased, Sir

In the parlance of the day 'conventional war' would indicate an emphasis on offensive operations, and taking capture of the enemy's capitol as a chief object of strategy. By taking the offensive, and invading the north on several occasions, even though he was outnumbered, and the south seriously outclassed in terms of industrial potential, Lee squandered resources a 'Fabian' policy of delay and defense would have conserved. The only hope the south had of victory was not seizing Washington D.C., as Lee was convinced, it was simply to last out the thing until the north tired of the bother.

[Srkdqltr]

5. And if horses could fly it would be different. If they had laser guns..........atomic.... Geese

This could go on forever and probably will

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Fine Article

Also, his stature as a tactician is overrated.
He won battles, but mostly against generals too stupid (Burnside) or too politically resistant (McClellan) to be effective.
He ran his troops into meat grinders on multiple occasions, not just in Pickett's Charge.
In fact, the casualty rate of union soldiers under Grant was markedly lower than those under Lee.
Yet, Grant got the reputation of a butcher.
All part of that stupid lost cause myth.
Lee was a marginal tactician & leader. His men loved him, they say. Yeah, those that didn't get slaughtered.