"I suppose there is nothing for me to do but go and see General Grant," he told an aide. "And I would rather die a thousand deaths." These words were said by the war hero, Robert E. Lee. The Civil War is the central event in America's history and probably will forever be the most memorable part of our country's past. The war would be one of the bloodiest wars in history. It last four dreadful years from 1861-1865. The Civil War determined what kind of nation America would be, and also resolved two questions that could not be resolved in a courtroom or in a house of government. For one, it determined whether the United States was to be a nation with national government or a confederation of sovereign states. It also solved the argument of wether …show more content…
Lee was the superior general even though he was not victorious. I say this for several reasons. He was victorious against the Army of the Potomac and continued to be until Gettysburg in 1863. He was succeeding while fighting against the Union which had many more men, better supplied troops, and more money. One of his most historical victories was his win at Chancellorsville. At Chancellorsville he divided his army three times, keeping his men hungry for a victory even when they were outnumbered three to one; he fought quickly and forcefully. Lee was also faced with a very difficult task of finding and using a strategy to win the war that required him to invade the northern states. This was such a difficult thing to do because of the obvious advantages of the Union. Lee also never stopped moving forward, attacking, using new strategies. He did this because he knew that the North was too strong to sit back. Another way which I decided the better general was by looking at the respective casualty figures in the war. The Union in which Grant lead, had about 154,000 casualties while causing 191,000 casualties against the Confederacy. Looking at the other side, Lee suffered about 209,000 casualties while imposing about 240,000 casualties on his opponents. Lee managed to kill 55,000 more en then Grant did. It was almost risky for Lee to fight offensively with his lack of supplies, men, and …show more content…
In 1859 Lee, accepted a position at a cavalry outpost in Texas. In October of that year, Lee was summoned to put a revolt led by John Brown at Harper's Ferry. Lee's attack took just a single hour to end the uproar. His quick and easy victory at Harper's Ferry brought him much attention from displaying the leadership and the strategic mind he possessed. This made him a good candidate to lead the Union. Lee's character showed when he turned down an offer from Abraham Lincoln to command the Union forces. He said no because he was committed to his home, Virginia. Lee resigned from the military and returned home. Lee also was not a big fan of focusing the war on the slavery issue. When Virginia seceded from the nation, Lee did along with it. Lee took control of the Army of Northern Virginia where he drove back the Union Army in the Seven Days Battle. Later that year, he gave the Confederacy yet another victory at Second Manassas. Lee and his men did face defeat and loses referring back to the battle of Antietam. There they tried to cross the Potomac, barley escaping from one of the bloodiest battles in the war. Nearly 14,000 of his men were captured, wounded or killed. Lee's forces had another crushing defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg. This battle almost completely destroyed his army. Ulysses S. Grant had gained the upper hand when he won over the majority of Richmond. A reluctant Lee surrendered to Grant at in
In the confederacy there was many leaders. General Lee was one of them . his reputation and and being one of the finest officers
Robert E. Lee was a confederate general for the south. "Lee led one of the largest Confederate army and ultimately was named general-in-chief of all Confederate land forces." He went to West Point Military Academy. Lee was known for surrendering to Ulysess Grant in the Battle of Gettysberg. His tactics were strong and he was known as a good general in the south.
A difference between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee was that Grant was the Commanding General of the Union and Lee was the commander of the Confederate States Army. Before Ulysses S. Grant was the Commanding General of the Union, President Lincoln offered Grant’s position to Robert E. Lee. During the time, Lee was considered one of the best officers in the United States Army. He was seen as a fearless battle commander after serving under Winfield Scott in the Mexican-American War in 1846. In 1859, Lee was successful with ending a slave rebellion at Harper’s Ferry. However, Lee declined the offer because his home state of Virginia decided to separate from the Union. He thought his state was more important
in the war and he was a senior military advisor to President Jefferson Davis. Lee took command of the main field army in 1862. He was a brilliant military tactician. He won most of his battles with his far superior
The American civil war was by far the bloodiest battle america has ever faced with great general from both sides. General Ulysses Simpson Grant and Robert Edward Lee. Grant and Lee had similar backgrounds like attending west point academy, becoming general, and fighting in the american civil war and the mexican war. These two generals had tremendous plans and strategies. General Ulysses S grant was better general than Robert E Lee due to Grants war strategies, unique tactics, and his superior commanding.
Lee was a large presence in the war, and he is arguably what held the Confederacy together. Robert E. Lee never started out in field command, but in the battle of Fair Oaks, Joseph E. Johnston was wounded and Robert E. Lee was finally given field command (Dowdey 2017). As Dowdey (2017) stated, “In three weeks he organized Confederate troops into what became the famed Army of Northern Virginia; he tightened command and discipline, improved morale, and convinced the soldiers that headquarters was in full command.” (Dowdey 2017). This is just an example of one of the simple things Robert E. Lee did to turn the tide of the war to benefit the Confederacy. With Robert E. Lee’s experience, he started to get results for the confederacy, even with his small army he still defeated forces that were much larger than his. As best said by Dowdey (2017) the best example of this is the battle of Chancellorsville (May 1–4, 1863), with his army outnumbered two to one, he defeated the enemies and achieved a momentous victory. He did this by breaking up his army and encompassing the enemy troops, this is considered one of the most audacious moves in military history (Dowdey
Robert Edward Lee was the Confederate leader and it was his job to lead the Confederates to victory. His decisions shaped the actions of the Confederate army and arguably caused the outcomes of the war.
Introduction Ulysses s. Grant was the commander of the Union Army. Robert E. Lee was the Confederates commander. Even though Ulysses s. Grant and Robert E. had completely different backgrounds they were both different and great in their own ways. Many of their beliefs were completely different. But they had surprisingly a lot in common.
In war, the commander in chief makes or breaks the efficiency and effectiveness of the army. The Civil War involved 3 main commanders in chief of the Union and Confederate Army. Through letters written by these three leaders, Ulysses S. Grant, George McClellan and Robert E. Lee, it is evident that their opinions and strategies differed greatly. While Grant considered himself part of the army, Lee separated himself as a ruling commander. Grant’s humble nature and vast knowledge on war technique also made him a more efficient leader, compared to the egotistical George McClellan, another commander of the Union army. Ultimately, Grant and the union army won the war, because of Grant’s hands-on leaderships skills, while Lee lacked confidence in his troops, causing him to remove himself from his men.
Grant and Lee are different in many ways. General Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition. He had embodied a way of life that came down through the age of knighthood and the English country squire. General Grant was the son of a tanner on the western frontier. He had come up the hard way and embodied nothing in particular except the external toughness and sinewy fiber of the men that grew up behind the mountains. He was one of the body of men who owed reverence of obeisance to no one, who were self-reliant to a fault, who cared hardly of anything of the past but had a sharp eye for the future.
Louis, New York, Mexico, Baltimore, and West Point.After duty as superintendent at the Military Academy in the early 1850s, Lee transferredfrom the corps of engineers to a newly formed cavalry unit assigned to Texas. Hisfrequent separations from his wife and children often caused Lee periods ofdiscontentment. The death of his father-in-law, G. W. P. Custis, forced him to take aleave from the military and return to Virginia in 1857. Lee took up farming at ArlingtonHouse and confronted the challenges of managing the Custis family slaves. Robert E.Lee (1807-70) served as a military officer in the U.S. Army, a West Point commandantand the legendary general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War(1861-65). In June 1861, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia,which he would lead for the rest of the war. Lee and his army achieved great successduring the Peninsula Campaign and at Second Bull Run (Mansassas) andFredericksburg, with his greatest victory com ing in the bloody Battle of Chancellorsville.In the spring of 1863, Lee invaded the North, only to be defeated at the Battle
The Commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was General Robert E. Lee. General Lee graduated second in his class from West Point in 1829 and served throughout the country, but is best known for his leadership during the Mexican-American War. General Lee believed in unity but when the state of Virginia decided to secede from the Union in April 1861, Lee decided to stay with Virginia. Confederate president Jefferson Davis asked Lee to serve as his senior military adviser and General Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 1, 1862.
Grant and General Robert E. Lee were great at being Generals for their armies but only one could come out on top and that was General Grant. President Lincoln made an amazing choice when he chose General Grant to come and combat General Lee and try to end the Civil War before the end of his term; President Lincoln was up for reelection at this time and know that if he lost the election who ever won would sue for piece and the past four years of fighting would have been for nothing and President Lincoln did not want the lives lost to have been for nothing in the end and the fight for slavery and to keep the country together to have been for nothing as well. General Grant won the war because he did not back down from General Lee and even though it cost him a great deal of men in the process he ended the war and kept the country as a whole instead of two different nations or the south having won and slavery lasting for longer than it actually did in the United States. General Lee on the other hand did put up a good fight and was able to hold off for a while but did in the end fall to General
Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee are two of the most effective military leaders in American history. These men have become symbolic of the two nations at conflict during the Civil War. Both had very different backgrounds and personalities that caused them to differ in their military leadership and accomplishments. Even though General Lee would surrender his army to General Grant, Lee throughout the course of the war proved himself to be a better military leader.
The focus of this investigation will be, “To what extent was Robert E. Lee an effective leader of the Confederate Army?” The investigation will analyze Lee’s strengths and weaknesses that contributed to his effectiveness and the overall loss of the Confederacy in the Civil War. The overall character of Lee throughout his lifetime is too broad, therefore, this investigation will focus solely on the testimony of his military background, and the personality traits that led to Lee’s decisions during the Civil War. As a result, Lee the American by Gamaliel Bradford Jr. and Robert E. Lee: The Soldier by Sir F. Maurice are important sources to this investigation, due to the background they give on Lee’s military training, personality, and victories in the battles leading up to Gettysburg.