Greetings. My (real) name is Peter and I live in Bloemfontein, South Africa - so we're just warming up as you are getting cold! Potted: born England, resided 27 years; moved to USA, resided 30 years Twinsburg OH; move to SA four years ago. Former Member Cleveland CWRT and NE Ohio CWRT, Meade Society. For personal pleasure, (a) write the Secret Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade (found on the CCWRT website; a couple have to do with Lincoln) and (b) am 80,000 words into the missing "Flashman" novel. The Lincoln Discussion Symposium has already helped with that personal project. My hero, GGMeade was of course Lincoln's favourite and most successful General .....
As he Secretly wrote:
Quote:Have you ever thought that since the first week after Gettysburg, now more than a year, I have never been alluded to in public journals except to abuse and vilify me? And why this is I have never been able to imagine. Grant and Sherman are puffed up in periodicals, but it cannot be argued that either of them has achieved success against a foe remotely comparable to Lee. No other commander has so mauled and baffled the famous Lee, a task which my army continues even now, with Grant taking all the credit of course.
Who after all is Beauregard, and what are Pemberton and Bragg? True, Grant has a certain plodding tenacity and a disregard for withdrawal and defeat. Such words, along with temperance and grace, are not within his lexicon. As for Sherman, he is opposed by a man indelicately referred to by some as “Slow Joe”, against whom I venture even Butler would shine. Were it not for an accident at Pittsburgh Landing, which removed the adequate rebel General A. S. Johnston at the very moment he was sweeping them both from the field, our two lions would today be roaring even further to the west, escorting government incompetents to defraud the Indian tribes.
Whatever is said today, you can be sure that time and history will vindicate my reputation. Future generations will debate the facts of our various campaigns with dispassion. They cannot fail to acknowledge that Grant and Sherman, measured against lesser foes, are not at all of the same quality as the victor at Gettysburg. Indeed, if Lee is lauded as the finest general of the Confederacy, and yet it is my army that drives his to its death, then there is only one candidate for recognition as the preeminent commander of this entire rebellion.
And er..... that's it. Thanks for putting up with it.
