Lee & his army in Confederate history

by Gary W. Gallagher

"Was Robert E. Lee a gifted soldier whose only weaknesses lay in the depth of his loyalty to his troops, affection for his lieutenants, and dedication to the cause of the Confederacy? Or was he an ineffective leader and poor tactician whose reputation was drastically inflated by early biographers and Lost Cause apologists? These divergent characterizations represent the poles between which scholarly opinion on Lee has swung over time. Here, renowned Civil War historian Gary Gallagher proffers his own refined thinking on the figure who has loomed so large in our understanding of America's great national crisis. In eight essays, Gallagher explores the relationship between Lee's operations and Confederate morale, the quality and nature of Lee's generalship, and the question of how best to handle Lee's legacy in light of the many distortions that grew out of Lost Cause historiography.". "Relying on contemporary evidence, rather than on hindsight, Gallagher draws on letters, diaries, newspa