Sunday 8 June 2014
Though Jackson fell from friendly fire, the battle ruined the Union's ability to take the offensive for that year. Lee imagined that his chance had come and launched an offensive into Union territory himself, which met its tragic finalé at Gettysburg. Nevertheless, despite losing to Meade at Gettysburg, Lee managed to extricate himself skillfully and arrived back in Virginia with all of his remaining forces.
In 1864 President Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant to the supreme command and Grant took personal control over the Army of the Potomac in the decisive theatre against Lee. Grant had 120,000 men at his disposal against Lee's barely 60,000. At the Battle of the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House, Lee defeated Grant, inflicting twice the amount of casualties on him as Lee received. Grant also failed to turn Lee's flank and the resulting Battle of Cold Harbour ended with Lee once again victorious.
To be consistently victorious against such odds is incredible. Lee, like Napoleon, and Hannibal, was defeated by attrition, not by his opponent's skill. Lee's reply to an enquiry by the Post-Master General of the Confederacy reveals the extent of his achievement.
"If he (Grant at Cold Harbour) breaks your line what reserves have you?"
"Not a regiment. And that has been my condition since I took command."
Sadly, on 9 April, 1865, General Robert E. Lee was nevertheless forced to surrender the main Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.
It was the end of a glorious and exemplary command. Lee had performed miracles with his outnumbered and outgunned forces. Using guile to compensate for weakness, Lee proved a master tactician and an expert of positioning. Time and again he defeated greatly superior forces.
But even Lee's genius was not enough. After taking command, Grant intended to launch a systematic offensive against the Confederates to force them to stand before Richmond, the Confederate capital, and there be destroyed.
While the conception was sound, the Union Army proved incapable of implementing it in practice. Lee was far too agile and far too wily. He continued to inflict defeats on the Union in a campaign reminiscent of Napoleon's defence of France in 1814. But like Napoleon, Lee simply wasn't strong enough to win.
Though he could defeat his opponent, Lee could not definitively eliminate Grant's army. Every victory he gained, no matter how impressive, was merely delaying the inevitable. And finally the overwhelming force of the Union at last began to tell. On 2 April Grant defeated Lee at Petersburg, Virginia.
With this Lee retreated west, leaving Richmond to fall to Union forces. With the latter's fall the war was all but over. Grant had quickly sought to cut off Lee's escape, which was effectively done at Appomattox on 9 April. The Confederates made a spirited attempt to break out to the west, but Lee decided it was all over and surrendered his entire army to Grant.
Lee's defeat was the swansong of the Confederate States of America. Lee had always been the Confederacy's best commander and its only hope. Given his command of the primary army, Lee's defeat was in reality the defeat of the entire Confederacy.
Despite his ultimate failure, Robert E. Lee remains a popular figure in the United States and as a military commander, whose merits have been recognised as very extraordinary.
Pictured is General Robert E. Lee (standing) receiving the information gleaned by General Jackson's scouting of the Union positions.
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