Was general Robert E. Lee the best general of the US?

Answer 1

Need to re-word that one, partner - he was never a US General!

However, if you're asking whether he was the best General in America, that is indeed an FAQ, though not possible to answer categorically.

At the outbreak of war, the best General in America (still young enough for field command) was believed to be Sidney Johnston, who joined the Confederates, but was killed in the early operations in Western Tennessee. For this reason, he has become a mythical Lost Leader, and one of the great "What if's?" of the war.

Few would question that it was the Confederates who creamed off the best Generals, and that on the Union side, neither Grant nor Sherman. although victorious, could be described as 'great', either in leadership or in human quality.

This leaves two other contenders for the title, apart from Lee.

One was Joseph E. Johnston (no relation), who feuded sharply with the Southern president Jefferson Davis, partly because Johnston, however brilliant, did not display enough of the reckless Confederate spirit, being much pre-occupied with conserving manpower. (Significantly, both Grant and Sherman rated Johnston above Lee.)

The other was Bedford Forrest, an astonishingly successful cavalry leader, especially in the Tennessee mountains he knew so well. Of humble birth, rough, brutal and self-taught, he was always under-estimated by the aristocratic Davis, who later admitted that his failure to promote Forrest was the biggest mistake of his career. (Another "What if?")

The consensus might be that Lee was the best General of his kind - a quick, nimble mover, able to exploit delays and indecision on the other side (though it was Stonewall Jackson who actually carried out these bold thrusts). He also managed to inspire fanatical loyalty from the rank-and-file who followed him till they were barefoot and starving - apparently responding to his gracious, noble demeanour that was perhaps the elusive quality of human greatness.