
Originally Posted by
Stumplicker
For once, I'm on Trump's side on this one. If anything, George Washington is worse than Lee. By all accounts, both North and South, Lee was a brilliantly minded military officer, bound by duty to his country, and respectful of both sides. He felt his country was Virginia, and declined command of the Northern forces to take a tertiary leadership position in the Confederate Army. He refused to loot and pillage the North during his invasion, first in Maryland, as he was hoping to garner a number of recruits for the army, which he did, and then in Pennsylvania, because his country was his country and he wasn't going to burn it, say like Sherman did to the South.
George Washington, by contrast, took no salary, like...let's say...Trump, but then embezzled the shit out of the treasury to the tune of modern day MILLIONS in the costs of liquor alone, and by all accounts was a selfish, alcoholic asshole with anger issues. He was a good military strategist, as was Lee, but putting the two next to each other....I'd take Lee any day, based on historical accounts of character, accomplishment, and overall mindset.
Edit: To clarify what I mean by Lee taking a tertiary leadership role, since someone's bound to mention it - Lee was given Generalship of the Citizen Army of Virginia to start with, but not command of the entirety of the Confederate forces. That didn't happen until about 2 years into the war, and it was mainly a political move giving Lee overall leadership because Jefferson Davis didn't trust P.T. Beauregard.