> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Cabell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 10:39 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Those darned revisionists again
>
>
> I don't want to take my technically challenged brain through a lot of
> hoops if it is going to be bad news.  Can you give a two-sentance
> synopsis of the article?

I'll be happy to give it a stab, though the historian in me won't allow it
to be a mere two sentences.  Wouldn't do it justice.  ;)

September 30, 2000

A Bull Market for Grant, A Bear Market for Lee; History's Judgment of the 2
Civil War Generals Is Changing

By Janny Scott

The article starts out:

"For the better part of the last century the images of two of the greatest
icons of the Civil War remained fixed in the American imagination: Robert E.
Lee as the noble and tragic leader of the Confederate forces, the brilliant
tactician fighting against overwhelming odds, and Ulysses S. Grant as the
heavy-drinking butcher who used the North's superior resources to grind down
the South, then became one of the worst presidents in the nation's history.

"Those characterizations are now being challenged by a string of books that
are both more admiring of Grant and more skeptical of Lee than would have
seemed imaginable only a short time ago."

Scott then goes on to review the recent scholarship into Lee and Grant.
Lee's generalship has been criticized by authors "faulting him for his
aggressiveness, accusing him of having squandered limited manpower and
arguing that he needlessly prolonged the war. The long-held idea that Lee
opposed slavery, at least at times, has also been discounted."

"Meanwhile," writes Scott, "several new books on Grant portray him as an
extraordinary general who gave a new dimension to American military
strategy, whose casualties were proportionally fewer than Lee's, who not
only fought to save the Union and free the slaves but also worked hard to
enforce Reconstruction and black equality in the South long after it ceased
to be popular. Even the extent of his drinking is in doubt."

The article further traces the historiography on the two generals.  Some
historians argue that the glorification of Lee can be traced to the turn of
the century, when he was used as a reunifying force to help move the country
past the war.  The Confederacy was distanced from "the taint of slavery" by
the Lost Cause writers, who suggested the war was fought over constitutional
issues and not slavery.

As for Grant, John Y. Simon argued that his reputation was at its lowest ebb
in the 1930s, when the country completely abandoned the Reconstructionist
policies that he'd championed.  But recent scholarship reviews his support
for racial equality during and after the war, as well as his support of a
peace policy for dealing with the Plains Indians.

The books mentioned are:

Examining Lee:
_Lee Considered: Gen. Robert E. Lee and Civil War History_, by Alan T. Nolan
_Uncertain Glory: Lee's Generalship Re-examined_, by John D. McKenzie,
_How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War_ by Edward H. Bonekemper III
_Robert E. Lee's Civil War_, by Bevin Alexander
_Lee Moves North: Robert E. Lee on the Offensive_, by Michael A. Palmer.


Examining Grant:
_Grant_, a biography by Jean Edward Smith (due out from Simon & Schuster on
April 9)
_President Grant Reconsidered_, by Frank J. Scaturro
_Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier & President_, by Geoffrey Perret
_Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865_, by Brooks D. Simpson
(second volume on the way)

Also mentioned: Three novels about Grant published last summer; the PBS
series "American Experience" is working on a two-part biography of Grant;
and a book on the memorialization of Grant in the 19th century is being
written by Joan Waugh, a historian at the University of California at Los
Angeles.

The historians quoted in the article:
Gary W. Gallagher
Jean Edward Smith
James M. McPherson
Alan T. Nolan
Joan Waugh
Eric Foner
Jean Edward Smith
John Y. Simon

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