"Mike Connor" wrote in message
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"Wolfgang" wrote in message
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Lee grossly misjudged men's capacity to love.
Wolfgang
Even worse, like many others, he underestimated menīs capacity to hate.
For
no good reason.
TL
MC
Lee was a pretty strange guy. He's idealized in US history, but one thing he
did, in particular, presaged one of the nastiest proclivities of American
style warfare. After the battle of Fredricksburg, during which the slaughter
of green (both inexperienced and Irish) troops was particularly gruesome,
Lee brought evangelists into the rebel camps, and launched a month-long
frenetic revival, using religion to whip up hatred and demonization of
Unionists to encourage the continued killing of wounded caught between the
lines and the execution of captured Black Union soldiers. "Fredricksburg"
became a Union battle cry. I think this episode, and not the ordering of
Pickett's charge, was Lee's personal low point. But if you really want to
look at a religious fanatic in command, Stonewall Jackson is the guy.
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