General
Robert E. Lee was certainly a brilliant military tactician. He has been praised by friend and
foe alike for the last century and a half for his political prowess and tactical mind. However,
he did make some significant mistakes and had faults of his own.
Some
historians argue that General Lee was too aggressive. He was never able to match the Union Army
in terms of manpower and supplies, yet he was frequently trying to bring the war into the North.
By taking his army out of familiar terrain and away from ready supplies on his offensive
campaigns, he ceded the advantage to his opponents. This led to two of his biggest defeats at
Antietam and Gettysburg. He came close to losing his entire army during both of these offensive
campaigns after suffering heavy, and needless loses.
It has been argued, that
if he was able to draw the Union Army south, he would have been better able to defeat it on his
own ground, or at least wear it out to the point of a stalemate. Instead, he sought grand
victories in unfavorable circumstances and only survived as long as he did due to the ineptitude
and inaction of northern military commanders.
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