Michael Davey
2-27-2002
2nd period
Mrs. Newmark
To someone who studies
the Civil War, it is obvious that Grant was a superior general to Lee. This can
be proven by an analysis of both of their strategies, professional opinions,
and common sense. Despite the fact that Lee dominated many Eastern generals,
preformed better at West Point, and was in the army longer, Grant defeated Lee
and this makes him better in many people’s books.
Robert E. Lee had a
very good US Army record. He was distinguished in Mexico, and when the war
broke out was offered a promotion. However, when approached by Jeff Davis,
despite the wishes of his mentor Winfield Scott, Lee joined the army of the
Confederate States of America. It was a decision that would change history.
Lee was the first, and
only, head general in the Confederate army. In his accepting address, he called
them “The Army of Northern Virginia”. This was the only name that the army went
by from that day forth.
Lee had the distinct
advantage of having some of the countries best generals acting as his helpers.
He felt that his subordinates should exercise as much authority as they could
and he used this theory to his advantage. Stonewall Jackson, one of his most
celebrated subordinates, commanded his own private army, or so it seemed to many people. He was a slightly
crazy math teacher at the Virginia Military Institute before the war, but he
showed his genius during it. He was Lee’s right arm. Another of Lee’s
subordinates that received great distinction was Jeb Stuart, the head of the
southern cavalry, which dominated the union during the first part of the war.
Quick and flashy, men lined up to join Jeb and his horses.
Another of Lee’s
talents was the ability to bluff. Several times, including when McClellan was
outside Richmond and Lee made him think that he had 200,000 men, during the 7
Days Battle, and against Burnside at Fredericksburg.
Lee had the sometimes
good and sometimes bad habit of being stubborn. This was put to a climax during
the battle of Gettysburg, at Pickett’s Charge.15,000 men charged the heavily
defended Union position. There was no way that it could work, but the men did
as General Lee ordered. They surged forward, being mowed down by the Union
artilary and side arms. About a hundred of the men made it past and planted the
Stars and Bars. It was the high tide of the Confederacy. However, like the high
tide, everything went down from there. All of the confederate soldiers
retreated and only a small percentage of the men survived.
Lee was devastated. He
requested a discharge. However, Jefferson Davis denied him it. For the rest of
his days, his order that slaughtered many of his men haunted him.
After the battle of
Gettysburg, Lee had a change of strategy. In his first major battle afterwards,
Wilderness, Lee lay in wait for Grant instead of his normal assault. Lee had
figured out where Grant would move, another of his gifts, and had gotten there
first. While Grants men were marching south, Lee and his men were preparing to
spring a trap. The Battle of the Wilderness was a bloody battle on both sides,
and Lee lost fewer men
than he would have with a frontal assault. Later, when Grant tried to
sidestep and get past, Lee and his army anticipated them and were waiting.
Lee had many superb
generals in the start of the war, including Jackson and Stuart in the beginning
of the war. However, Jackson died at Chancellorsville in a freak accident.
Stonewall had been out scouting the land and preparing for another day of
battle. As he approached his lines, a group of trigger-happy North Carolinians,
his own men, shot him and wounded his left arm. It was removed; however,
Jackson died. As Robert E. Lee said, “Jackson has lost his left arm, but I have
lost my right.”
Jeb Stuart died in the
greatest cavalry battle of the war, at Yellow Tavern. He was like a son to Lee,
who was devastated at his death. As he lay dying, he asked his friends to sing
his favorite hymn, “Rock of Ages” with him. When he died, he was only
thirty-one. Lee said of his death, “I can scarcely think of him without
weeping.” Without these two generals, Lee lost a major part of his army.
After Wilderness,
everything went downhill. After a string of losses and draws, Lee “gave up” and
surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomattox.
Grant was a tough boy from
Illinois who was slow to anger and never cursed. He was a man of the people.
Grant started out as the head of a company of volunteers. He was the one who
recruited them and they said that they would leave unless he stayed on as
commander. He stayed. From there he worked his way up. He never made his men do
something that they couldn’t do. He drilled them, yelled at them, and taught
him. He was the ideal master, except for one small quirk. U.S. Grant wore an
old hat and cloak, looking nothing of the part of a military leader. However,
he was destined to become one of the all time great generals.
One of the great
examples of Grant’s strategy was on the road to Nashville, Tennessee.
Confederate soldiers heavily guarded the road and Grant had been ordered to
take it at all costs with his small force of volunteers, which was outnumbered
2 to 1. Grant did not make any elaborate battle plans. He just turned to his
men and said, “Gentlemen, that road must be taken by night. The men attacked
and they took it. This example showed how much Grant could captivate men with a
single sentence.
Grant’s greatest military achievement in the West was the defeat of the rebel fort, Vicksburg. It was the last rebel stronghold on the river and to take it would cut the Confederacy in half and take control of the Mississippi river. Grant put it under siege and around the same time that Gettysburg was won, the southerners gave up and gave the fort to Grant. This was one of the main reasons that Grant was given the honor of being the second Lieutenant General ever. This gave him command of all the armies in the USA and the chance to go up against the best the south had to offer, General Robert E. Lee.
When Grant got command
of the eastern army’s, the head, Meade, approached him. Meade had been in
command of the union army in the east and had failed. Even though he was
concerned about what history would think of him, he told Grant that if he
wanted to replace him with someone he knew better, for example Sherman, that
would be fine with him. Impressed by his honesty, Grant kept him as the head of
the army. This helped the men not be so uneasy about the new leader. This
probably helped Grant not have to spend as much time talking and getting them
to trust him.
Grant was not
intimidated by Robert E. Lee, and this helped him think clearly when he had to
go up against him. He was not worried that Lee had destroyed so many union
generals in the past. He was worried about the present.
Grant was one of the
only generals that did not have the age-old philosophy of war that if you took
the capital of the opposing country, you won the war. Grant learned from
other’s mistakes, including other generals and the British during the
Revolutionary War. The British focused their attacks on the capitol of the new
country, and they lost. The other generals had tried to get Richmond, not
attack and destroy Lee. However, this is just what Grant was going to do.
Grant did something
else that no other generals did. After the battle of Gettysburg, Lee was so weak
that if the northern commander had decided, as he should have, to attack Lee,
they could have won easily. However, they did not. Grant was aware of this and
after almost every battle, he followed Lee and kept attacking. This is one of
the reasons that Lee lost eventually, as the loss of life grew to great in the
army and they were no longer the massive fighting machine that they once had
been.
Using his cavalry to
cut Lee off at the front and then taking his advance troops to annoy him from
the rear, Grant cut Lee off. Lee had the choice to stay and fight or to
surrender. Choosing to meet Grant at the nearby town of Appomattox, named for
its courthouse, Lee surrendered to Grant. Grant gave Lee very good terms,
including that all officers could retain all side arms and all men could keep
private property. He also made a deal, because most of the men in the cavalry
owned their own horses, which they could keep to use “…on their little farms.”
Grant’s admirable terms made Lee so grateful that the only change he made in
the treaty was a small grammar error by Grant. There were several other armies,
which were surrendered, in later months. However, at the point that Lee
surrendered his mighty Army of Northern Virginia to the Army of the Potomac,
the war was over.
Many experts have
analyzed why the Union won and the Confederacy lost. One of these people is
Allan T. Nolan. He has an anti-Lee (pro-Grant) opinion. He is one of the most
famous of Lee’s criticizers. He makes several strong points in his book.
His main point is that
Lee used to strong an offensive strategy instead of a strong defense, which
would have been good. Due to the fact that weapons were not as good back then
as they are now, it took approximately three times as many men to attack, what
Lee did, than to defend. The South, due to the fact that they had fewer men
than the North, should have kept a defensive strategy, and waited until the
north was running out of men and getting tired. Then they should have attacked.
This would have been a much more man-efficient strategy than what they really
did.
Lee was a bad strategic
general, says Nolan. He was always using an offensive strategy and sometimes
took stupid risks. A prime example of this is the famed charge at Gettysburg,
Pickett’s Charge. The charge took place at a point where the North had
artillery set up and waiting for them. The Northern troops were also waiting,
sitting behind dirt walls. There was no possible way that the Confederacy could
do anything. However, Lee sent his men to certain death in a last minute effort
to avoid a loss.
Lee kept fighting after
the war was lost, claims Nolan. After Petersburg, Lee supposedly said that the
war was lost. If this is true, then Lee continued the war for several more
months. This was a selfish action that killed many more of his men for his
pride.
Margaret Sanborn is one of the many biographers that have said that Lee is the best of the generals in the Civil War. She bases her opinion on many honest facts and has a very moving argument.
The soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia all respected and obeyed Robert E. Lee says Sanborn. All of the soldiers obeyed him without a trace of doubt. A prime example of this is during Pickett’s Charge. All the men marched forward, despite overwhelming odds. Lee had mustered up much of the army, so they knew him from the start. Lee respected his subordinates, such as Jackson, Stewart, and Longstreet. Lee had the natural ability to promote confidence in his troops.
Lee dominated most of the Northern generals of the war. McClellan, Meade, Burnside, Pope, and Hooker all fell to the raged southern army. Despite the fact that all the time the north outnumbered Lee about two-to-one, Lee won many of the battles that he fought.
Another reason that he won was his varied strategy, says Sanborn. She says that Lee had several different strategies, as seen in his master plan. He would try to win battles (offense) while protecting Richmond from the powerful northern army (defense).
My own opinion is that the better general was Lt. General Ulysses Simpson Grant. Grant dominated Lee in most of the battles where they faced each other. Despite the fact that Grant had to face the living legend of Lee, the Union destroyer, Grant triumphed. He brought the downcast Union army, accustomed to fighting and then running away, into a tough group of vets that knew how to fight and win. Lee was on the run the majority of the time that Grant was in command. He eventually ended up in a box and gave up. I think that if Lee had used a defensive strategy, he would have had a better chance of standing up to the strong Union powerhouse. Even though Lee and his men fought bravely, they could not stand up to the overwhelming brilliance of Grant in the end.
McFeely, William. Grant. New York: W.W. Norton & Company
Inc., 1981.
Kaltman, Al. Cigars, Whisky, & Winning. : Prentice Hall.,
1998.
Leckie, Robert. None Died in Vain: The Saga of the American Civil War.
: Harper Collins, 1990.
Nolan, Alan. Lee Considered. : The University of North Carolina
Press, 1991.
Sanborn, Margaret. Robert E. Lee. : Homestead Publishing, 1966
Perret, Geoffrey. Ulysses S. Grant. : Random House, 1999
Smith, Gene. Lee and Grant. : McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1884.
http://saints.css.edu/mkelsey/quotes.html