Chapter IX: Leaders

The destiny of Civil War America lay largely in the hands of four men: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses Simpson Grant, and Robert Edward Lee. Since an abundance of printed works exists on the lives and careers of these leaders, given here are but a few generalities concerning each.

In many respects, Lincoln long seemed mysteriously complex. But those who knew the man quickly dropped any impression that Lincoln was crude or provincial. "He is the best of us all," his Secretary of State, William H. Seward, once stated. The solemn-looking Lincoln was a deeply earnest chief executive who devoted his last four years to reuniting a shattered nation that he loved dearly and to raising the nation to a higher moral and spiritual level. He was kind, genial, compassionate, and religious (though he attended church without joining any denomination).

Lincoln possessed several ingredients of greatness. He had a deep love of humanity, a keen understanding of men, and a fantastic patience with the generals and politicians who tried him by their lack of strength and capacity. He was also a man of total integrity and deep humility. As a patriot he believed firmly that "this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Not once in those years of passion did he express the slightest hatred for the Union's enemies. In his second inaugural address, delivered a month before his death in 1865, Lincoln closed by stating: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us continue the work we are in ... [and] do all that may achieve a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, deserves better treatment than history has accorded him. The years have not been kind to his memory for two reasons: 1) he led the losing side; 2) when compared to his Northern counterpart, Lincoln, Davis left much to be desired in both personality and statesmanship. Unlike Lincoln, Davis was handsome, well-educated, and experienced in political and military affairs. However, he lacked administrative skill. He tried to do all of the government's work--and he was a slow worker. Worst of all, Davis was never able to gain the affection of his people in a degree remotely approaching the love heaped on Lincoln by the North.

Yet Davis did his best in an impossible job. He was harassed and criticized by jealous governors, independent generals, an apathetic vice-president, and a Confederate Congress more noted for constant arguing than for constructive activity. Ever-present from without was an enemy that heavily outweighed the South in resources.

Davis was in a sense doomed to failure from the start, but his devotion to the South never wavered. In spite of many physical handicaps, he demonstrated throughout his life honesty, courage, fortitude, and a firmness in the right as _he_ saw the right. In sectional terms, he may be adjudged one of the true patriots in American history.

Military analysts often assert that U. S. Grant was "the first of the modern generals" and that Robert E. Lee was "the last of the old-fashioned generals." What this implies is that two able field commanders fought one another differently: Grant introducing all-out, total war, Lee relying on a 500-year-old concept of limited warfare.

Certainly Grant was original in much of his strategy. To him a single victory meant very little. The long-range result of a continual hammering was the important factor. "The art of war is simple enough," he once stated. "Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him hard as you can, and keep moving on." Grant's aggression, therefore, became attrition--that is, a skillful, systematic grinding down of the South's whole capacity to fight. War under Grant became modern war: all-inclusive and brutal. He meant it that way, for he always thought of war as a cruel, bloody business to be ended as quickly as possible.

This short, unimpressive looking general succeeded where others had failed because he had the willingness to give an order and the strength to see it carried out. He did not use the lightning tactics of Napoleon or Lee. Yet he had the determination and stubbornness to keep plodding after the enemy. He was thus a soldier of the mold of Frederick the Great and the Duke of Wellington. Perhaps Lincoln best summed up Grant when he answered criticisms of the general with the observation: "I can't spare this man. He fights."

Robert E. Lee has two historical handicaps: 1) he fought against the Union; and 2) he is the only American general who ever lost a war. Yet practically everyone who studies the life of this devoted Virginian soon agrees with Sir Winston Churchill, who termed Lee "one of the noblest Americans who ever lived, and one of the greatest captains known to the annals of war."

Lee is most remembered for an almost flawless character. He did not believe in slavery, but his heart and birthright were in Virginia. Therefore, he turned down command of all U. S. forces in 1861 and offered his services to his native state. As an army commander Lee usually displayed great boldness in action, an ingenious capacity for choosing the right field positions, and an uncanny ability to anticipate his opponent's next move. With faith in his own judgment and in the fighting quality of his army, Lee would then devise his strategy. Confederate politics forced Lee to fight for the most part on the defensive, and many writers attribute the Southern nation's long life to Lee's genius in combating an enemy that sometimes greatly outnumbered him.

Lee's chief weaknesses as a general were his depthless humility and courtesy. Too often he entrusted to his principal lieutenants decisions he himself should have made. He seemed always to assume that everyone around him would strive for victory as earnestly and as completely as he did. Much of this devotion to principle did rub off on his army. One of Lee's sharpest critics eventually admitted: "Few generals have been able to animate an army as [Lee's] self-sacrificing idealism animated the Army of Northern Virginia.... What this bootless, ragged, half-starved army accomplished is one of the miracles of history."

SUGGESTED READINGS

Catton, Bruce, _Grant Moves South_ (1960).
Chambers, Lenoir, _Stonewall Jackson_ (2 vols., 1960).
Cleaves, Freeman, _Meade of Gettysburg_ (1960).
____, _Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas_
(1948).
Dodd, William E., _Jefferson Davis_ (1907).
Dyer, John P., _The Gallant Hood_ (1950).
Freeman, Douglas S., _R. E. Lee: A Biography_ (4 vols., 1934-35; 1
vol. ed., 1961).
Fuller, John F. C., _The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant_ (1929,
1958).
Govan, Gilbert E., and Livingood, J. W., _A Different Valor: The Story
of General Joseph E. Johnston, C.S.A._ (1956).
Hassler, Warren W., Jr., _George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union_
(1957).
Henry, Robert S., _"First with the Most" Forrest_ (1944).
Horn, Stanley F., ed., _The Robert E. Lee Reader_ (1949).
Hyman, Harold M., and Thomas, B. P., _Stanton: The Life and Times of
Lincoln's Secretary of War_ (1962).
Lamers, William M., _The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William
S. Rosecrans_ (1961).
Lewis, Lloyd, _Captain Sam Grant_ (1950).
____, _Sherman, Fighting Prophet_ (1932).
McElroy, Robert, _Jefferson Davis: The Unreal and the Real_ (2 vols.,
1937).
Maurice, Frederick, _Robert E. Lee, the Soldier_ (1925).
Nicolay, John G., and Hay, John, _Abraham Lincoln: A History_ (10
vols., 1914).
Sandburg, Carl, _Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years_ (2 vols., 1926).
____, _Abraham Lincoln: The War Years_ (4 vols., 1939).
Sanger, Donald B., and Hay, T. R., _James Longstreet_ (1952).
Strode, Hudson, _Life of Jefferson Davis_ (2 vols., 1958-59).
Thomas, Benjamin P., _Abraham Lincoln_ (1952).
Thomason, John W., Jr., _Jeb Stuart_ (1930).
Vandiver, Frank E., _Mighty Stonewall_ (1957).
Wiley, Bell I., _The Road to Appomattox_ (1956).
Williams, T. Harry, _Lincoln and His General_ (1952).
____, _P. G. T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray_ (1955).