this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024
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[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 34 points 9 months ago (8 children)

"Best generals available" might be a bit of a stretch. That's a bit of the Lost Cause mythology still wrattling about the internet.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 24 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Crack0n7uesday@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Lee almost took it too, he didn't want to secede but he felt like he was betraying his fellow statesmen in Virginia. People forget that before the civil war people didn't think of themselves as Americans, they thought of themselves as citizens of whatever state they were from.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

From what I've read, before the War people said "...the United States are..." and after they changed it to "...the United States IS..."

Also, I like the stories that the British had agents who privately encouraged the South to fight the North in order to keep America weak. Putin didn't invent anything new

[–] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago

From what you've read in.. the script of National Treasure?

[–] grue@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

On the contrary, I think your comment is a bit of a stretch in the other direction. Leaving variances in talent among individuals aside, the officers on both sides were broadly comparable because they had all gone through the same West Point training and were colleagues in the same chain of command, with the same strategy and doctrine, until the Southern ones turned traitor.

[–] DangedIfYouDid@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

When the upper threshold for greatness available to you is a 3/10, a 2.5 looks pretty good.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

I understood that pro-union misinformation and propaganda and poor understanding of history is orders of magnitude less harmful than pro-confederate, but it still bothers me. Lee was an incredible general. Jackson, Longstreet, even Early were excellent tacticians. The union could not field anyone who was a match for them until Grant and Sherman.

[–] RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

I haven't seen that part disputed? To my knowledge there was a very good reason Lee was the superintendent at the US Military Academy and was even offered a Union command before Virginia seceded, and this pattern holds with his underlings too. A lot of Confederate victories were beating odd against bigger Union armies.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

I love "wrattling". kind of a wrestling-meets-defective-machinery.

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wasn't their general first helping to lead the Union army before Virginia turned against the Union and he turned with them?

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Lee was offered comman of the union army by Lincoln.

[–] 7u5k3n@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Well it doesn't help it any that "lost cause" is 100% what some of our elected officials are spouting currently

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy#:~:text=The%20Lost%20Cause%20of%20the,and%20not%20centered%20on%20slavery.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

That part of the mythos is fairly accurate.