ABSTRACT
Lincoln learned this the hard way, however. Before he chose Grant, he had appointed in succession three or four generals whose main qualifications were their lack of major weaknesses.
In sharp contrast, Robert E. Lee had staffed the Confederate forces from strength. Everyone of his generals was a man of obvious and monumental weaknesses. But these failings Lee considered - rightly - to be irrelevant. Each of them had one area of real strength, and it was only this strength that Lee utilized and made effective .
