I have to disagree with you Vito. Lee is in the North. His supplies are easily cut off. He cannot spend a month fooling around. Longstreet will offer reasonable alternatives, as we shall see, but Lee chooses to press the fight prematurely.

Rob finds Lee's decision to attack to be the central theme of the book and calls everything else an interesting side show. I suppose that is correct if you don't already know the story. I think that is the background for the book, the main point of which is despite all circumstances, men will do incredible, unimaginable things for a cause.

Now that we have our conclusory statements out of our systems, we can either abandon this thread or continue. I'm fine either way. Please don't tell me you want to go chapter by chapter if you want to just let it all hang out. I really don't need to take the time to look back at each chapter and try to stimulate discussion if everyone just wants to get to the end. I'm not trying to impress anyone.

 

From GODS AND GENERALS:

Lee: "...we must not only take the fight out of Virginia, but we must take it out of Tennessee and Carolina and Lousiana as well. In Virginia we are winning the battles. Elsewhere, it has not gone as well. The more time that passes, the more we are simply used up, and so, General, we are losing the war, and that will not change unless we take the war...unless we strike them right in their heart. We must point our guns straight into Lincoln's door, and then it will end."

Longstreet: "Attack Washington? Directly? Sir.....the fortifications--"

Lee: "No, General. We do not have to attack the city. We just have to convince them that we can, that if they do not end this war, we will! Lincoln is already under pressure...great pressure. Their own generals hang their heads in public and ask forgiveness as the dead fill their cemeteries. The people have had enough of this. We have paid a terrible price, and so God has opened the door. We must march through it."

 

If Lee was successful, the move would upset Union plans for the summer campaigning season, possibly relieve the besieged Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, and allow the Confederates to live off the bounty of the rich northern farms while giving war-ravaged Virginia a much needed rest. Lee's army could also threaten Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington and encourage the growing peace movement in the North.

 

 

Chapter by chapter.

 

I'm enjoying the discussion as it is proceeding and hope we'll continue. I don't generally read books such as this one and this discussion is bringing it all alive to me and forcing me to think critically. As I said before, living 20 miles from Appomattox, I've lived the Civil War since I can remember and have taken much for granted. This is the first time I realized the utter respect the Union officers had for those in the Confederacy. Please continue.

 

Lee knows if he keeps the war in the south, the south will lose the war in time. Lee is a warrior inside. Losing is unthinkable. So he thinks up a way to win, to threaten Washington, and force a fight close by. If he wins the battle, so close to Washington, no matter what happens at Vicksburg, he can force peace.

Fight in the south and lose the war, or fight in the north for a victory?

 

Why?

 

The Union blockade, the North has more men, more factories, ammunition. They can send supplies down south with relative impunity by land/sea. The South cannot win in a war of attrition. They are winning all the major battles, to date, but Lee knows they will likely lose the war. So, he devises a very bold plan, the invasion of the North.

 

Was the Union blockade that effective? I had thought that the South wasn't going to get much in the way of help from Europe anyway.