MovieChat Forums > Gettysburg (1993) Discussion > Was Robert E. Lee really a great general...

Was Robert E. Lee really a great general?


Or was he just lucky before facing Grant and Meade?

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He hid the bodies and was careful about what was left there.
There also wasn't much technology available for police to use, like surveillance cameras and computers.

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Well, the real truth is neither he or any other commander on his side (except Longstreet who they would not listen to) or the union side were really that good since they all used Napolean tactics that do not work when you have rifles that can shoot bullets hundreds of feet away. Heck, about every battle in the Civil War was like this. Thousands of men charging towards thousands of other men and getting blown away before they can reach them. It is crazy nobody on either side realized those tactics did not work til after the war.

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Maybe come back when you understand what you're talking about...

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It is the truth though. Napoleonic tactics do not work when the enemy can kill you with a gun from several hundred feet away. And nobody on either side seemed to understand that. It's why so many people were killed in the war. Longstreet though was the only one who thought that but everyone steadfastly refused to believe it. I may have been too harsh as it was a different time but that very aspect annoys me. Heck the final battle shown at the end shows why Napoleonic tactics don't work.

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I am not disagreeing with you.
I am saying that you ignore the fact that, at the time, that was how warfare was lead.
100 Years from now, will you bitch and moan about Gen. Schwartzkopf because with 20/20 futuristic hindsight we then know what he could have done better?

Lee doing warfare as expected does not mean he was not a great general.

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I guess you are right. Sorry.

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You're good don't worry.

You are right of course. This form of warfare, from today's perspective, was rather idiotic.
But it was simply another time...

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It’s what they learned at West Point.

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Complex question and it is hard to say, because of the ineptitude and inaction of the North during the first years of the war.

Most military historians cite the North's blunders and inaction (playing it safe), not Lee's genius.

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Just remember this, Grant was Lincoln's second choice to lead the Union forces. He asked Lee first.

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[deleted]

Grant was about the 3rd or 4th choice

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To be fair, Grant wasn't known to Lincoln until his victories and his most vital one at Vicksburg didn't happen til the exact time this movie takes place.

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If this film is a true depiction of his character then I'd have to say one thing's for sure he was amazing at man management.

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Indeed he was...

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