I think I have figured out the approach of Robert E Lee. He never said as much but looking at the battles of the Civil War I begin to see a pattern. It is this: Robert E Lee always changed his strategy --on purpose. He knew the Union generals had studied at West Point and knew very well all the different chess moves. For that very reason General Lee made sure to change his strategy at every turn. If one time it was a straight phalanx then the next time her reversed it.[Eg the second battle of Manassas.] Take a look and you will see that the one thing that was predictable was that he was unpredictable. He meant to keep the Union generals off balance.
This is one of the major reasons that General Grant saw right away when he became the head of the Army of the Potomac that the only possible way to defeat Lee was by shear numbers. Without that, the Confederates would predictably win at every turn. [At the beginning of the war, the South predictably won at every battle. Only around when Grant took charge, things turned around.]
I should say here that the whole thing seems sad to me. I can not see that freeing the slaves was legal or legitimate. It just unleashed a fifth column against the USA that has been trying to destroy Constitutional Government ever since then.
