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It is one of the greatest military, cognitive dissonances of all time that European generals recognized how brilliant Grant was, and failed to understand every
by InTheArena 1y ago
It is one of the greatest military, cognitive dissonances of all time that European generals recognized how brilliant Grant was, and failed to understand every single one of the principles by which he eventually overcame the confederacy. It’s mind-boggling. I’ve always thought that it was crazy how much of a straight line there was between the trenches around Richmond and the trenches of World War II.
- arduanika 1y agoI believe you mean the trenches of WWI not WWII. But yes. There's a theory that Longstreet saw it all coming, too, but was unable to get the point through to Lee. That is, he saw that trench warfare was going to be the future. But yeah. The European general staffs were modeling all their train timetables on the fast Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
- Spooky23 1y agoLee was over his head. Grant saw that you have to kill everyone or kill their ability to kill, or both. Lee was looking for the illusive decisive victory to create a political end to the war. In fairness, the Confederates had an incentive to not see this, as an agrarian slave state cannot out produce a nascent industrial state.