The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.

He soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander winning numerous battles against far superior Union armies. Union General Ulysses S. Grant's campaigns bore down on the Confederacy in 1864 and 1865 and despite inflicting heavy casualties Lee was unable to turn the war's tide.