Missionary Ridge was Grant’s last battle before becoming General-in-Chief, replacing the indecisive Halleck. His basic plan for the 1864 campaign was to immobilize the army of Gen. Robert E. Lee near the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, while Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led the western Union army southward … If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. Advertising Notice Grant is an unexceptional-looking tanner from Ohio—while Lee is "more patriarchical than the partriarch." His seige of Vicksburg was a remarkable campaign of combined operations with the “brown water” navy. Copying his comments to Stanton in the reply, he wrote on June 20, 1865: “This opinion, I am informed, is substantially the same as that entertained by the Government.” Lee was safe from trial, but Grant never told him how far he had gone to protect him. Grant’s haplessness as president has redounded to color his performance during the War. He didn’t beat Grant. Longstreet argued that two divisions from Lee’s army should be sent to Tennessee. . Grant served in the field, supervising Meade, who was still commander of the Army of the Potomac, but he had his eye on the entirety of the Union campaign. Lee also had the difficult task of implementing a strategy to win the war that required him to invade the northern states, which he did twice. Making Sense of Robert E. Lee | History | Smithsonian Magazine Grant is now praised for having a strategic view of the war, rather than focusing solely on the area around Virginia, as Lee so often did. Performance & security by Cloudflare, Please complete the security check to access. Not only did Lee … To this force, Grant assigned the unenviable task of crossing the Rapidan River to take on Gen. Robert E. Lee’s seemingly indomitable Army of Northern Virginia. Cloudflare Ray ID: 60f174db8efc4066 I received at a late hour your note of to-day. Here, the rough and tumble Ulysses S. Grant from Ohio faces off with the southern patrician Robert E. Lee. Vaguely resembling the Army Surplus Special in … The exhibition, "One Life: Grant and Lee: 'It is well that war is so terrible. Conversely, Grant’s military reputation suffers from his reputation as president, which historically is regarded as one of the worst administrations of all. Ulysses S. Grant - Ulysses S. Grant - Command over Union armies: Grant was appointed lieutenant general in March 1864 and was entrusted with command of all the U.S. armies. If the Southerners advanced into the Blue Grass State, the administration in Washington would pressure Grant to detach troops to the endangered region. Ulysses S. Grant was the most acclaimed Union general during the American Civil War and was twice elected President. The Confederate leadership didn’t actually commit treason. Now, Researchers Found Another, Renewing Hope for the Species, The True Story of the Reichstag Fire and the Nazi Rise to Power, Scientists Report First Instances of Dwarf Giraffes, Medieval Effigy Found Hidden Beneath English Church's Pipe Organ, Medieval Chinese Coin Found in England Suggests a Vast Medieval Trade Route, Meet Joseph Rainey, the First Black Congressman, The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger. In this context, I would think that Lee would be pleased to see Grant advance his personal fortunes. On the other hand, Lee beat McClellan. Grant’s opinion of Lee is from his own hand. A nation must expect its generals to be lucky, however; and both Grant and Lee were! He saved the Battle of Shiloh after the Union line was shattered on the first day, reorganizing his forces and counterattacking. The belief that the Confederate leaders … Lee respected Grant because he brought the defeat of his Army, However he thought him to be too willing to pay with unnecessary loss of life. Your IP: 46.101.5.73 Lee has been lionised by those nostalgic for the South’s “Lost Cause”. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. • To showcase one of history's most memorable rivalries, the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery tasked its senior historian David C. Ward with the challenge of featuring the Civil War's two most storied generals in its "One Life" gallery. In his memoir, Ulysses S. Grant, a general greater than Lee, described his feelings upon meeting Lee in April 1865 at Appomattox, as Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia. Grant on Lee. He was never formally tried by a jury, but U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at one point threatened to resign his commission if Lee was ever arrested. Ulysses S. Grant was not a blue blood. Lee also benefits from the cult of the “Marble Man” that arose after the War. The final draft of the surrender document was written by an American Indian. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. Still, Lee worked strenuously to avoid political affairs of any kind as he focussed on his remaining years and the tremendous challenge of … He remained a dedicated white supremacist and defender of … Grant had difficulty reading Lee’s dignified demeanor. Grant, who had b… Moreover, Grant recognize the new reality of warfare: that the firepower commanded by each side was making a battle of maneuver, like Chancellorsville, impossible. Suggested reading: Badeau, Adam. In mine of yesterday I did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. Terms of Use On the morning of April 9, while General Robert E . The question has intrigued historians and armchair strategists since the Civil War itself. And he gets credit for believing in civilian control of the military. And he was implacable in the final year of the war when he engaged Lee continuously from the Battle of the Wilderness to Appomatox. After their army surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the defeated Confederates returned to their homes to face an uncertain future. Grant began his military career as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1839. "They are products of their times," says Ward. Grant admired Lee for his tactics but more for what he did after the war, It was Lee that by his statements kept … She has been a member of the Smithsonian team for more than two decades. Lee was always mindful of Grant's compassion and lenient terms of surrender. Smithsonian Institution, (Alonzo Chappel, Smithsonian American Art Museum), (Unidentified Artist, National Portrait Gallery), (Charles G. Crehen, National Portrait Gallery), (Mathew B. Brady, National Portrait Gallery), (Frederick Gutekunst, National Portrait Gallery), (A. Hoen Lithography Company, National Portrait Gallery). Lt. The Gentleman's Agreement That Ended the Civil War, What 'Bridgerton' Gets Wrong About Corsets, A Tombstone Inscribed in Ancient Greek Is Found in Southern Israel, Why Robert McCurdy's Photo-Realist Portraits Stop Viewers in Their Tracks, The Way Americans Remember the Blackwell Sisters Shortchanges Their Legacy, Freed of 1,000 Years of Grime, Anglo-Saxon Cross Emerges in Stunning Detail, Archaeologists in Turkey Unearth 2,500-Year-Old Temple of Aphrodite, Ancient Humans May Have Tossed Meaty Scraps to Wild Wolves, Boosting Domestication, The 'Last' Female Swinhoe's Softshell Turtle Died in 2019. • As Grant saw it, the key was to eliminate the main Confederate armies in the field—and Lee’s army was unquestionably the center … On the other hand, Lee beat McClellan. At one point, Grant quipped that he and Lee had “had more to do with destroying railroads than building them,” but the frosty ex-Confederate ignored this attempt at levity. He scored outrageous victories against the Army of the Potomac up until Gettysburg 1863, fighting against superior numbers and better supplied troops. He didn’t beat Grant. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. The lives of the Lincolns’ guests at Ford’s Theatre ended in tragedy as well. Please enable Cookies and reload the page. The story of these men, their fallacies, their reputations, their legacies are well depicted in a number of art works, including the significant loan of a Winslow Homer painting titled, Skirmish in the Wilderness, from Connecticut's New Britain Museum of American Art. Cookie Policy Lee was born into a prominent family and was already a famous military figure at the start of the war, while Grant was an unknown who rose up through the ranks and became known as a great general through his ongoing victories. "These men epitomized their societies." Grant then responded to Lee’s letter. This seems worth citing given what Grant wrote. Colonel Ely Parker, … California Do Not Sell My Info Give a Gift. The room itself seems too small for such large personalities. On March 10, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signs a brief document officially promoting then-Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general of … His victory at Chancellorsville, where he divided his army three times in the face of the enemy while being outnumbered three to one, is a master class in the use of speed and maneuver as a force multiplier. In The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878, he wrote: I never ranked Lee as high as some others of the army, that is to say, I never had as much anxiety when he was in my front as when Joe Johnston was in front. Vote Now! ", Continue As such, Lee increasingly was seen as blameless or beyond reproach, which caused his mistakes or errors on the battlefield. Introduction[[nid:634]]By the end of the Civil War, most Americans considered either Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant to be a hero. But we asked curator Ward if he'd tell us who was the better general, and here is what he sent us. Grant in Peace. Grant said … The photographs, drawings and paintings depicting the lives of these two men seem to pulse with a kind of tension that recalls the horrifying 19th-century era when the country was riven, yet united behind their respective generals—Grant in the North and Lee from the South. For the rest of his life, he would not tolerate anyone criticizing Grant in his presence. While Grant built his forces up to perhaps 75,000, the Lee-inspired exodus of Longstreet’s troops simultaneously reduced Rebel strength in the area to a mere 36,000. I think that Grant slightly shades Lee as a commander because in the last year of the War he managed all of the Union armies, including Sherman in the South and Sheridan in the Shenendoah Valley. Lee realized that the retreat of his beleaguered army had finally been halted, U. S. Grant was riding toward Appomattox Court House where Union Cavalry, followed by infantry from the V, XXIV, and XXV Corps had blocked the Confederate path. Actually Lee did compliment Grant. The postwar prospects of Robert E. Lee, beloved commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, were no clearer than those of his men. Lee is usually accounted the superior commander. With the southern ideology of the “Lost Cause” Lee, the heroic, self-sacrificing soldier, was romanticized as the exemplar of southern civilization. After shooting Lincoln, … He died in 1870, just a few years after the war. The M-3 (known as the Lee in American service, but called the Grant when used by the British) was as ugly a tank as ever rolled on treads. Grant grew up in Ohio and his father was a tanner. Lee didn’t think much of Grant as a general, saying that McClellan was the superior foe. is on view at the National Portrait Gallery through May 31, 2015. By contrast, Robert E. Lee didn’t have Grant’s long career in public life. Grant realized that his place was in the field with the principal Union army in the East, the Army of the Potomac. Lee publicly opposed Grant's presidency and the Republican Party, which he referred to as the Radical Party. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. Lee had sent a letter to Grant requesting a meeting to discuss his army's surrender and this letter overtook Grant and his party just before noon about four miles west of Walker's Church (present-day Hixburg). You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. In my biography of Abraham Lincoln, I wrote of Grant, the decorated Civil War general, but I now confess: I did not fully know the man. or Lee didn’t think much of Grant as a general, saying that McClellan was the superior foe. He knew the South couldn’t just sit back and hold what it had: the North was too strong and some sort of early end to the war had to be found, probably a negotiated peace after a shock Union defeat in Pennsylvania or Maryland. Mr Chernow argues that “however brilliant Lee was as a tactician, Grant surpassed him in grand strategy.” In 1870, just a few years after the war the deep sadness his adversary felt having. 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