Lee Strikes The Enemy’s 140,000 With 54,000 Men

Remembering Robert E. Lee: A Week-Long Observance

North Carolina’s Legal Holiday Observes Lee’s Birthday January 19th

Dwight D. Eisenhower said of Robert E. Lee: “

General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation. He believed unswervingly in the Constitutional validity of his cause which until 1865 was still an arguable question in America; he was thoughtful yet demanding of his officers and men, forbearing with captured enemies but ingenious, unrelenting and personally courageous in battle, and never disheartened by a reverse or obstacle. Through all his many trials, he remained selfless almost to a fault and unfailing in his belief in God. Taken altogether, he was noble as a leader and as a man, and unsullied as I read the pages of our history. From deep conviction I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s caliber would be unconquerable in spirit and soul. Indeed, to the degree that present-day American youth will strive to emulate his rare qualities…”

Lee Strikes the Enemy’s 140,000 with 54,000 men:

“There was a Confederate scout, Stringfellow by name, who on the 4th of May, 1864, the eve of the opening of that [Wilderness] campaign, reported himself to [General] Lee, when the following colloquy took place:

“Well, Captain Stringfellow, where do you come from?”

“From Washington, General.”

“What number of men has General Grant, and what is he doing?”

“He has about 140,000 men in front of you and is about to move on you.”

Without a moment’s hesitation Lee said: “I have 54,000 men up, and as soon as he crosses the river I will strike him.”

Grant crossed the Rapidan on the following day, and as soon as he was entangled in the Wilderness Lee struck him a staggering blow. In the four weeks’ campaign ending with Grant’s bloody repulse at Cold Harbor on June 2…Lee had put as many of Grant’s men out of action as he himself had under his command during the entire campaign – viz., 64,000.”

(Robert E. Lee, H. Gerald Smythe, Confederate Veteran Magazine, January 1921, pp. 6-7)

Via Bernhard
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Lee Strikes The Enemy’s 140,000 With 54,000 Men