1862: Bloody Momentum

What Abraham Lincoln could never know, as 1861 closed its curtains, was what the second act of the Civil War would bring. The characters and the scenery would change rapidly in the coming year. The two generals whose signatures would conclude the war at Appomattox—Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee—would each make substantial contributions to their respective causes in 1862.

In the first six weeks of the new year, Grant (above) would begin his ascent up the ladder of command by vanquishing the Confederate forces at Forts Henry and Donelson in west Tennessee. Lee would be made commander of the southern army on June 1, 1862, and he would conclude the year with an impressive victory at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Grant and Lee added to the roster of talented West Point graduates embroiled in the fight. And while Grant had never achieved much of merit outside of the military, Lee (below) had a fortune and a family name. Lee was taller than Grant, but Grant, at five feet eight inches, was not a short man for his day. Lee is credited with being more elegant and handsome, though, as Harold Holzer notes, “Lee had by this time lost much hair, and what remained had turned grey.” And though both men have been immortalized in equestrian statuary, Grant’s horsemanship is thought to have been one of his strongest assets.

Of Robert E. Lee's military pedigree, his general and memoirist A. L. Long writes:

From the date of its origin members of the family have gained distinction as warriors, until, through Launcelot Lee, Lionel Lee, and "Light-horse Harry," the culminating point is reached in Robert E. Lee, the greatest commander of modern times, and a military genius who may fairly be placed in comparison with the noted captains of the world as in some respects the noblest and ablest of them all.

Adjectives like “noble” are usually not assigned to Ulysses Grant. Often comparisons are made between Lee and Grant as they appeared at Appomattox; Lee is usually described as resplendent while Grant is pictured as grizzled and war-torn. How Ulysses Grant is depicted by historians matters significantly less than the single word that describes him at the end of the war: victorious.  

The war picked up speed and intensity in 1862, and as it did, both generals' roles would be increased. After Forts Henry and Donelson, large and horrible battles would be fought at Shiloh, Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. The war, by the end of 1862, was fought from Maryland to Missouri and from the Gulf Coast to the Shenandoah Valley.

—Warren Perry, Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cited:
Harold Holzer, "Virginians See Their War," in Virginia at War: 1862, ed. William C. Davis and James I. Robertson Jr. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007)

A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee: His Military and Personal History (reprint; Secaucus, N.J.: Blue and Grey Press, 1983).