The most overrated General in US history was Robert E. Lee.

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The most overrated General in US history was Robert E. Lee. The most underrated was Ulysses S. Grant. While Robert E. Lee was seen as some sort of a mythical figure by both sides, Ulysses S. Grant had a keen overview of the war and the very narrow ways in which it could possibly be won. Mainly by cleanly slashing the South in two using the river systems. It worked. Whatever else Grant may have been, he was perhaps the most brilliant strategist of American military history. Gen. Eisenhower followed Gen. Grant's strategies almost exactly. The South did not need to defeat the North to win. All they needed to do was to wear down the will of the North to continue the war. Had Gen. Lee fought a more defensive war for the South, rather than going on the attack, and invading the North, things might have turned out differently.