Did Gallagher talk about Lee’s infantry tactics at all? Looking at him from a purely military angle, I always took Lee to have been someone who hadn’t fully grasped the new reality of longer range muskets (such as the enfield and springfield), and thus to be of the old school rather than the new. But to be fair, there were plenty of leaders on both sides who made the same mistake.

To my mind, anything Lee said on the newer weapons would clarify where he was at.

I think the statement that the Confederacy conducted “the first draft in American history” has to be significantly qualified. Every one of the original 13 states drafted men for service during the American Revolution, and many of the colonies did the same thing during colonial wars. This includes Lee’s own Virginia, which conscripted men for service during the Seven Years’ War. Perhaps what is meant is a “national” draft? If so, that may work, but the practice of drafting men–conscription was the word used as well in the 18th century–goes back well before the ACW.

JM