Word: lee
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Northern army twice repulsed, it was Lee's turn to advance. His offensive into Maryland ended with the indecisive shambles of Antietam. Thenceforward Lee was on the defensive, husbanding men and resources, retreating brilliantly, gallantly holding his own until there was no more to hold...
Burnside, McClellan's successor, stupidly massed an attack on Fredericksburg and was decisively beaten. At Chancellorsville, "esteemed among foreign critics the most brilliant action of the century," Lee, outmanoeuvered for once, literally led his men, who worshipped him, to defeat a force twice their size. But his final stab failed when a subordinate erred at Gettysburg...
Through the bloody Wilderness campaign, Lee's 70,000 men retreated gradually, slyly. They nipped the flanks, punished the weak spots in Grant's army of 120,000. Always Lee divined Grant's plans; always Grant's losses were heavier. The quiet man in gray who never touched tobacco, rarely tasted liquor and never used a curse-word, persistently outguessed the smoking, drinking, swearing leader from the North. All the next winter Grant was held to the line where he had vowed to "fight it out if it takes all summer...
...Spottsylvania Court House where trees were felled by steady musket-fire; at North Anna where Lee entrenched before Grant could arrive; at Cold Harbor where steady artillery hammering failed utterly against tall breastworks, Lee baited Grant, taunted him, hurt him. Petersburg saw Lee defending the Danville railway, source of Confederate supplies, and losing men. Grant lost more, but had more to lose. The pressure was beginning to tell on Lee. In the spring of 1865, a gallant remnant of Lee's army, to whose "tattered standards the fortunes of the Confederacy had been nailed," laid down its arms...
...great tactician, master of defensive warfare, Galahad of the South, glided out his life as president of Washington College, where he taught duty and planted trees. At his death, it reverently changed its name to Washington and Lee...