“...both sides, in the civil war, committed mistake when they put engineer officers at the head of large armies.... -- JAMES LONGSTREET (referring to George McClellan and Robert E. Lee), Interview with the Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1871.” Civil WarEngineersRobert E LeeJames LongstreetGeorge Mcclellan Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South Source: Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
“Grant believed that generous terms were essential to pacification. In Grant's eyes, the surrender was a triumph of right over wrong: proof of the moral and material superiority of the North's free-labor democratic society over the South's slave-labor autocratic one. Grant's hope, in extending clemency, was to change hearts and minds--to effect Confederate repentance and submission. In Lee's view, by contrast, the United States' victory was one of might over right, attributable to brutal force, not to skill and virtue. Although Lee rejected the option of guerrilla warfare as impractical and dishonorable, he did not admit moral defeat or counsel submission.” Civil WarRobert E LeeUlysses S GrantNorth Vs South Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South Source: Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South