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Since we are, bizarrely and stupidly, talking about Robert E. Lee, worth noting that Tuesday is the anniversary of the Civil War's D-Day: Grant's crossing of the Mississippi south of Vicksburg. The landing achieved total surprise thanks to a helpful slave 1/ 
It was, however, preceded by daring river operations, as Union gunboats and transports ran past the batteries at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf. And it was followed by the 19th-century equivalent of blitzkrieg, as Grant outflanked the rebels, then penned them up against the river 2/
My read of Virginia 1864 is that Grant in fact repeatedly outmaneuvered Lee, only to have his operations undermined by the sluggishness and timidity of his subordinates, who had served under too many bad commanders in the past 3/
But all of this is, of course irrelevant. As I suggested in an earlier tweet, Erich von Manstein was probably WWII's best general: Third Kharkov was an incredible victory against the odds. But he was a war criminal serving an evil cause. And he has no statues in in honor 4/
