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Let me clear up U Boyz misconceptions.

1. In the Presidential Election of 1864 Lincoln was facing McClellan as the Democrat or PEACE candidate. If McClellan had won he would have sued for peace with the CSA.

2. At GB several of Ewell's subordinates pleaded with Lee to get Ewell to attack LRT on the first day of battle. Ewell was the successor commander of Jackson's corp. Other factors were that the ground that the battle was fought on was not of Lee's choosing and did not favor the CSA, in essence the battle occurred by chance meeting of several Brigades of CSA infantry running into a Brigade of Union Cavalry. Jeb Stuart was off gallivanting around with his cavalry and as such was out of touch with Lee, The second day of battle was a slugging match and a draw, Pickett's Charge of 15,000 men was a bad mistake that Longstreet knew was not going to go well. Longstreet wanted to move south around the end of the Union lines. Pickett's Charge was what essentially broke the back of the CSA's offensive capability.

Coddington wrote an excellent book on the subject called the "Gettysburg Campaign"


3. USG, Sherman and Sheridan knew that "war was he11" and one had to visit that fact on the CSA. Grant was appointed to be Commander of ALL UNION forces, Meade was technically the commander of the Army of the Potomac.What USG did differently than any of the previous Union commanders was that after getting his clock cleaned instead of retreating he advanced. Grant understood that the south could not stand a war of attrition.

In the Spring campaign of 1864 Grant moved S, met Lee at the Wilderness (Lee's choosing and favorable ground for him, Grant did get whomped), USG moved S where Lee anticipated him at Spotsylvania Court House and USG got bloodied, moved S again where Lee again anticipated him at Cold Harbor where USG got slaughtered. That was the only regret USG had during the war was the the attack at Cold Harbor where he lost so many men in such a short order. USG then again moved S and instead of going straight towards Richmond where Lee anticipated he would go, USG sidestepped Richmond and went for the James River and Petersburg. Lee was given some time and was able to adjust quickly resulting in the siege of Petersburg.

What is interesting is that USG because of the losses at Cold Harbor changed his tactical strategy of going straight for Richmond as Lee had anticipated. Instead he side stepped to the James River.