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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: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 12 2017, @06:13AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 12 2017, @06:13AM (#524146) Homepage Journal

    Has no one ever informed you that it was YOUR FAULT that you never studied recent American history?

    For my part, we, as a class, never really studied WWII. I, personally, devoted uncounted hours to studying Hitler, the Third Reich, the officers, and the Holocaust, BEFORE I graduated from high school. I devoted far less time to the study of WWI, but I did study it, on my own. I have even figured out why WWII was almost inevitable after the "peace" of WWI.

    Bear in mind that I grew up decades before the internet became ubiquitous, and that I had to pilfer a half dozen libraries to find all of my study material on the subjects. Because I wanted to know, I either walked, ran, or rode a bicycle to those various libraries, many many times, to satisfy my curiosity.

    It is not to late, for you. Hit Google, or any other search engine. Many books are free to download, many more are available for purchase, cheaply, on the internet. If you know little or nothing about WWII, it is because you don't care to learn. The materials are available.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday June 12 2017, @12:25PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 12 2017, @12:25PM (#524319) Journal
    Wikipedia is a genuine wonder of the world when it comes to stuff like this. It's by necessity a bit superficial, but can quickly tell you who did what, even bit players. This can lead to the discovery of connections that normal discourse on history tends to gloss over.

    For example, one of the most educational Second World War moments was when I looked at who were the Chancellors of Germany before Hitler and saw how the two before were vicious bastards. One had been working to undermine the Treaty of Versailles since the early to mid 1920s in Germany's outlawed military general staff, including alleged assassinations and other black ops, the other had dissolved the Free State of Prussia, removing by far the largest obstacle to Hitler's totalitarian reign. The kicker was that neither were Nazis! They were selfishly pursuing ultimate power over Germany as well, but were out-maneuvered by Hitler who had populist backing they couldn't match.

    It was enlightening to see what sort of thing we should be looking for in warning signs.