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Originally Posted by Praxus
If you call someone who cost the North hundreds of thousands of lives in a horrific war of atrition a great general then sure. But personally I would consider one who finishes it fast with little casulties and with positive conditions a great general.
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That does do General Grant a disservice. There is a misunderstanding about attrition warfare - that you must be able to read the enemy correctly to apply the overwhelming force. On that note, General Grant was on par, if not surpassing, General Lee.
Lee had the uncanny ability to read ground and to take ground and deny the advantage of ground to the Union Forces, however, at pyhric costs. Before Grant, few Union Generals read this, and withdrew to better ground to fight another day. Grant saw that he was in a better position against Lee after Lee took the ground than before he took the ground and continued the battle.