"Grant the butcher" is mythologizing by anti-war democrats who never acknowledged similar loss of life under Confederate leaders. See historian James McPherson's observation about the battle of cold harbor:
![McPherson states: In that [Cold Harbor] attack, ordered by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, fifty thousand Union soldiers suffered seven thousand casualties, most of them in less than half an hour. For this mistake, which he admitted, Grant has been branded a 'butcher' careless of the lives of his men, and Cold Harbor has become a symbol of mule-headed futility. At Gettysburg, Lee's men also sustained almost seven thousand casualties in the Pickett-Pettigrew assault, most of them also within a half hour. Yet this attack is perceived as an example of great courage and honor. This contrast speaks volumes about the comparative images of Grant and Lee, North and South, Union and Confederacy.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4leynpl63ctgmnkh55oittb2/bafkreieqdn2npzy6lprg2yxl67mnimvt6yx7ofoirddbdgkrnxgdqlvrhi@jpeg)
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My reading - it might have been Shelby Foote's trilogy - acknowledges that Lee made inexplicable errors/sacrifices at Gettysburg.
aug 29, 2025, 9:18 pm • 3 0 • view
Lee was an idiot at Gettysburg. But Stuart was an even bigger one and his absence ended them. 🥰 Buford was a Genius who executed the single greatest dragoon combat in history of the United States. That let Meade have the high ground and, like Obi Wan, he used it. Those three things saved the Union.
aug 29, 2025, 10:08 pm • 1 0 • view