Lee 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 cr

Lee 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.