Victor David Hanson has published an excellent review of Robert E. Lee: A Life by Allen C. Guelzo. After the destruction of so many statues by the Woke Left, this seems to be a balanced scholarly examination of Lee who was considered as an icon for many in the South, the military and Civil War Historians.
I have always been skeptical of the leadership of Lee, as he was slow to learn the destructive fire power of state-of-the-art military hardware. General Longstreet understood the brutality of the weapons of the time before Lee as was proven by his reluctance to commit General Pickett to the suicidal charge at Gettysburg. Somehow, Lee failed to understand that the war had turned into a war of men against machines and that the South was doomed if Lee practiced a type of warfare that belonged to the previous century (this mistake would be repeated fifty years later by both the French and Germans during the opening phases of World War I). Amazingly enough, he failed to realize that even if the charge were successful, he had no reserves to consolidate any gains while his opponent who outnumbered him, could quickly move in reinforcements to swamp the tattered remains of his divisions.
Gettysburg was not the only grievous error committed by Lee who failed to have a greater vision of strategy as opposed to tactics. His focus on the Eastern theater provided the North with greater freedom of action elsewhere and led to the decimation of the interior of the Confederacy and its defeat.
As Hanson shows in his review of Guelzo’s book, Lee was careful after the war to cultivate a public image (unlike Jefferson Davis) which played into the hands of the defeated South and those in the North who sought to achieve a national reconciliation. His entire post-war image was carefully crafted to support the “Lost Cause” romantic image and to protect his family and fortune. One is reminded of Albert Speer’s transformation from Nazi bureaucrat to self-confession as early as the Nuremberg trial
Although there are numerous biographies of Lee, this one appears to be objective thanks to the passage of time and passions.
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