On Lee as commander: He had a cheerful dignity and could praise them (his men) without seeming to court their favor.
Both men lost speech in their last days and hours. Both died at age sixty-three, Lee long since weary of life, and Grant ready to live it again. Their war made them national icons, and their war reput...
Worse, Lee felt isolated. In Texas he skipped meals with others to avoid uninteresting men, wishing he was back by his campfire on the plains eating his meals alone.211 He avoided sharing quarters and...
Notwithstanding our boastful assertions to the world, for nearly a century, that our government was based on the consent of the people, it rests upon force, as much as any government that ever existed...
Grant was forty-two and Lee fifty-seven, Grant at the peak of health and energy, while Lee feared his weakening body and lagging faculties. Each was defending his notion of home. Grant by now was the...
