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Checkmate, Lincolnites! E7 - "Did the CONFEDERACY Have BETTER GENERALS?!?!?!"

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Billy Yank: If [Confederate generals] were so good, why didn't they win? Checkmate, Davis...ites? ["The Battle Hymn of the Republic" plays as a Checkmate, Davisites! graphic appears onscreen]
Johnny Reb: I'm sorry, Billy, but it simply does not have the same ring to it as... CHECKMATE, LINCOLNITES!

The seventh episode of Checkmate, Lincolnites! This episode is a deep dive into the Common Knowledge belief that the Confederate military's high command (Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, etc.) were brilliant tactical geniuses and only lost the Civil War because the North had such overwhelming resources and manpower to throw at them. As a bonus, it also examines attempts by the Lost Cause to posthumously exonerate Confederate generals of some of their more unsavory traits.


  • Double-Meaning Title: This episode examines the claims that Confederate generals were "better" both at military matters and in terms of morality.
  • Extra-Long Episode: At almost a whopping 50 minutes long, this episode is nearly twice as long as every episode before it and several times as long as the first two episodes. This is because it deals with the nitty-gritty of highly specific military actions undertaken during the Civil War, which Andrew Rakich both has experience and an interest in as well as him generally wanting to do the history justice.
  • Strategy Versus Tactics: Billy Yank points out that many of the Confederacy's most famous victories were tactically impressive, but strategically pointless — as brilliant as their maneuvers may have been, they didn't actually do much to further the Confederacy's war aims besides temporarily defeating and driving off Union armies, and bled manpower and supplies they could scarce afford to lose. In contrast, Union commanders like Grant and Sherman didn't score nearly as many "epic" victories in battle (though, as Vicksburg shows, they had their fair share), but rather aimed at tearing out the Confederacy's logistical base at its roots, while grinding down the Confederacy one region at a time.
    Billy Yank: You thought small, we thought big. That's why we won.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Billy describes Robert E. Lee as fighting the Civil War as if it were some kind of dramatic propaganized Napoleonic-era war, with flashy tactical victories and heroic charges at the forefront and logistics as an annoyance. Meanwhile, Grant fought the war much more like the proto-World War 1 it was swiftly becoming and put much more of his focus on logistics and micromanagement, which allowed the Union army to become the Mighty Glacier that eventually destroyed the Confederacy

Johnny Reb: See you in Hell, Billy Yank.
Billy Yank: See you in Hell, Johnny Reb.

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