(September 11, 2017 at 1:21 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:(September 11, 2017 at 12:37 pm)Minimalist Wrote: That's only because he lost. Oh. Robert E Lee lost too.
Erwin Rommel has no less than three army bases in Germany named after him. Also two museums, a public memorial, and also Jah knows how many public streets in Germany, as well as establishments in Mersa Matruh, where he once held a command.
I suppose not entirely cottoning to the Nazi ideology helped with that; sort of why I think Robert E. Lee, who didn't particularly care for slavery, deserves a pass despite fighting for a nation whose sole raison d'etre was the preservation of slavery in its worst forms. I'm sure I've discussed to death the long-standing disconnect between why many Confederates fought for the South and why the South split in the first place.
There are not-exactly-racist reasons the Confederacy still has admirers is all I'm saying.
While I appreciate your point of view (yes, Lee wasn't a supporter of slavery per se, so much as he was a loyal Virginian in an age when people often considered their first allegiance to their state), I still find it hard to give him a pass. He was the best general in the U.S. army, and I believe that had he assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, as Lincoln wished, the war would have been considerably shorter and much less blood would have been spilled. Instead, we had a disastrous revolving door of generals (McClellan, Hooker, Burnside) whose strategic and tactical ineptitude resulted in monstrous casualties without ever managing to capture Richmond -- and all despite decisive superiority in numbers and materiel.
