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The Truth About Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee: He Wasn’t Very Good at His Job

posted by cmn32480 on Monday June 12 2017, @12:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the south-shall-rise-again dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

In the June 1969 issue of Civil War History — Volume 5, Number 2, pages 116-132 — a renowned Southern historian attacked the legacy of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

"No single war figure stands in greater need of reevaluation than Lee," wrote Thomas L. Connelly, the late University of South Carolina professor. "One ponders whether the South may not have fared better had it possessed no Robert E. Lee."

Connelly's essay was among the first academic musket shots fired on Lee's standing as an outmatched but not outwitted military genius presiding over a Lost Cause — a reputation celebrated in fawning biographies and monuments like the one removed Friday in New Orleans.

Was General Lee overrated? Get your armchair historian on...

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  • (Score: 1) by lars_stefan_axelsson on Tuesday June 13 2017, @08:44AM (1 child)

    by lars_stefan_axelsson (3590) on Tuesday June 13 2017, @08:44AM (#524832)

    Before putting Rommel on that pedestal you might want to e.g. watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw1UJCwcgNc [youtube.com]

    It's not so black and white, and Rommel was most definitely not part of the 20 July plot. But the plotters sure wanted him to be, and that's why he was implicated.

    --
    Stefan Axelsson

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 13 2017, @04:14PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 13 2017, @04:14PM (#524978) Homepage Journal

    I'm fairly sure that Rommel is worthy of admiration, with or without the Desert Fox mystique. The video does make a very good point though. That whole Desert Fox thing is basically propaganda. At the same time, Rommel was as good as Sherman in the US Civil War, with the added benefits of mechanization. Where Sherman could move troops fifty miles, Rommel could move his troops a hundred and fifty. Sherman would probably have given both of his testicles for Rommel's motor vehicles, especially the panzers. Any of the armor, really.

    --
    Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.