Robert E. Lee is an American tragedy. One thing he did do that has always struck me as significant for the future of the U.S. was in his surrender he was defying Confederate President Davis' call to switch to guerilla warfare. Guerilla tactics would have been devastating ...

to Union morale and its (already waning) appetite to continue the conflict. After his surrender, Lee worked to persuade the other confederate generals still in the field to surrender as well (most notably Joe Johnston)—none of that eclipses that he chose the wrong side...

for the wrong reasons, nor does it take away from what Grant and Lincoln accomplished, but like a slave-holding George Washington, it matters to understand and see as completely as possible the full person in the context of their actions and the events of history.

We tend to take the outcomes of history for granted when in reality the way things played out was anything but a given. Jettisoning our hindsight bias, we can more fully appreciate what happened (and didn't happen!) more—and learn from history all the more.

// Books that informed this thread:
April 1865, Jay Winik
Grant, Ron Chernow
Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow