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Essay on civil wars
Chapter 16 civil war us history
Essay on civil wars
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This is only two battles in the whole Civil War yet countless lives were lost in each one. These battles were only two months apart. The goal of this paper is to give information on these two Civil War battles Chancelorsville and Gettysburg. The Battle of Chancelorsville In the Battle of Chancelorsville, Hooker was the Union general and Lee was the Confederate general. Hooker had 130,000 men and Lee had 60,000 men. Hooker had more men and supplies and Lee was outnumbered. Before the battle Hooker said, “May God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.” In the morning of May 1, 1863, Hooker was condensing his forces waiting for Lee to attack. That afternoon fighting started, with Hooker and Lee having skirmishes outside of Chancelorsville. Hooker then pulled back to Chancelorsville to wait for Lee to attack. Lee took advantage of this and divided his force. Lee was in charge of one group and he put Jackson in charge of the other group. Lee had 15,000 men and Jackson had 25,000 men. Jackson, the next morning was supposed to attack Hooker’s flank. On May 2, 1863, 10:00 A.M. Jackson’s force began to move towards Hooker’s flank. Union scouts found Jackson and reported it to Hooker but Hooker thought it was the Confederates retreating. By 3:00 P.M. Jackson had made his way across the Orange Turnpike towards Hooker’s flank. At 5:00 P.M. Jackson’s force attacked Oliver O. Howard 11th Corps near the Wilderness Church. Jackson’s attack was so swift the Union didn’t have time to form a line. By 8:00 P.M. the Union had formed a secondary line. That night when Jackson came back to camp from a scouting mission he was shot by his own guards who didn’t recognize him. Command of Jackson’s portion of the Confederate force then we... ... middle of paper ... ...tt of the Confederates led a charge straight at the Union’s middle in the famous “Pickett’s Charge” across an open field. The attack failed and the Confederates pulled back to the other side to await a counter-attack but it never came. On July 4, 1863 Lee retreated back to Virginia. Over the course of three days the Union lost 23,000 men and the Confederates lost 28,000 men. This was only a small portion of how many brave men were lost in the American Civil War. It was a big step forward for the United States of American but at very high cost. Works Cited Borrit, Garbors. “Civil War.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1998 ed. Creason, Pamela B. and Larson, Rachel C. The American Republic for Christian Schools Greenville: South Carolina, 1988 Symonds, Craig L. A Battle Field Atlas of the Civil War Baltimore: Maryland, 1983
Both Armies repositioned their artillery to the most advantageous position but it appeared that the Army of Northern Virginia had surrounded the Army of the Potomac but in a less defensible position. When two Armies meet on a battlefield the overall objective is to eliminate the opposition, so one of them would have to make a move. Lee ordered Generals Longstreet and Ewell to attack but due to a lack of decisive action on Longstreet’s part, the day would end in the bloodiest offensive of the battle and Longstreet would suffer great losses by Cemetery Hill .
As students, studying battles such as this, we have the advantage of hindsight, knowing the outcome. Nonetheless, we can still learn valuable lessons from it. To do so, this analysis will explore some of the decisions of the leaders at Gettysburg, and how they were affected by the operational variables. This essay will scrutinize some of the leaders at Gettysburg, and the impact of their actions. The outcome of this analysis will show that what was true in 1863 is still true today.
The Valley Campaign of the Shenandoah Valley of 23 March to 9 June 1862 saw the rise of the Confederate Major General (MG) Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. The Shenandoah Valley campaign allowed for MG Jackson to incorporate the principles of maneuver, offensive and surprise operations (US Army Center of Military History, 2012) through the use of his cavalry and foot soldiers.
McDowell’s opponent at Manassas was General Beauregard, commanding the 22,000 troops facing McDowell, while at the same time General Joseph Johnston commanded the Army of the Shenandoah with some 10,000 troops. When Beauregard determined that the Union forces were on the way toward Manassas, he asked for help, at which time the Confederate Government sent Johnston east via the “Manassas Gap Railroad,” to act as reinforcements for Beauregard. Their arrival at Manassas at a critical time turned the tide in favor of the South,...
The famous Battle of Gettysburg was a major part of the Civil War. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate army had the advantage. Although the casualty tolls of both armies were relatively close in numbers, the North and the South’s attitudes towards the war completely differed after the Battle of Gettysburg. The events occurring in the months following the historic battle were what gave the Union Troops the greatest advantage leading to their victory at the end of the Civil War.
The novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara depicts the story behind one of the bloodiest, and highly significant, battles of the American Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg. The battle consisted of 51,000-casualties between the Union and Confederate army forces. Mainly focused on letters, journal entries, and memoirs, Shaara tells the story of Gettysburg by using characters from both sides of the war. The characters chosen grasp the divergent views regarding the impending days of the war, and countless numbers of those views develop throughout the novel. Such views come from the Confederates own General Lee and General Longstreet, and the Unions own Colonel Chamberlain and soldiers from both sides. From those depicted
crutial mistake. Many things caused the outcome of the battle like Longstreets soldiers and officers got confused and were backtracking for half the day. Longstreet saw the union position as nearly impregnable. Lee saw
The battle began with Stonewall Jackson ordering the soldiers to attack General Pope’s troops at Brawner’s Farm August 28th. The fight seemed to be even but the Confederate Army felt Stonewall Jackson’s men were trapped. When Confederate reinforcements came with 28,000 solders led by General James Longstreet, Pope Union army was overtaken. Pope had thought Major George McClellen was coming to help him but he had stayed to defend Washington and was delayed in getting there in time to help. The loss was a big upset to the Union Army and almost cost McClellan his
The Union actually had 8 men killed, and had 35 wounded men. Some reports say that a man had his arm blow off and he took his knife and cut the still connected sinews. The Confederates had lost six men, had 33 injured men, and 13 men were missing in action. The missing 13 were later discovered had been taken prisoner by General Reynolds. The Union attacked about eight o’clock in the morning and forced back the picket lines, driving them back with rifle fire. The Confederates were so out gunned that they were getting one shot in for every four Union shots. General Rey...
The first battle of Fredericksburg marked a new low point in the civil war for the Union. With over 200,000 soldiers on the field, it was the largest battle in the war. Notwithstanding his overwhelming superiority in numbers, Major General Ambrose E. Burnside’s frontal assault, conducted from disadvantaged terrain, against Lieutenant General “Stonewall” Jackson’s soldiers proved disastrous. The lack of speed in the attack and the inability to synchronize efforts when the attack was made allowed the numerically inferior force to defeat Union generals piecemeal. However, through the darkness of defeat there shined a promising light—the leadership of Major General Meade and the heroic actions his division.
By May 6, Hooker lost 17,278 men, while Lee lost 12,826 men, along with Jackson. This meant that Lee had earned the victory in Chancellorsville, which led to the battle of Gettysburg less than a month later.
Two years after the start of the Civil War, the Union and the Confederate armies came to meet in one of the most famous battles of the Civil War; the Battle of Gettysburg. A battle that played a critical factor in determining how both sides would continue to fight future battles. The Battle of Gettysburg took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the first three days of July in 1863. Though not victorious, it is in the Battle of Gettysburg in which General Robert E. Lee can be proclaimed as a master of the organization of war. It was in the summer of 1863 that would mark a turning point during the Civil War. It is estimated that tens of thousands had already perished as a result of the war from both the Union and the Confederacy. With no definite side to be declared victorious, there were still thousands more to die by the time the Civil War would come to an end. The Battle of Gettysburg was a decisive triumph for the Union despite the fact that the South continued to fight for two more years.
"Battles of the Civil War". Civil War. 2013. Civil War Trust. Web. 9 Dec 2013.
...as the turning point of the American Civil War. The battle proved to show the most casualties of any battle throughout the war and resulted in a crushing and demoralizing defeat of the Confederates. Coming off of his “perfect battle”, Lee’s overconfidence proved to be a downfall as his expectation for his men greatly exceeded the reality of his army. Added to this, his disorganization and lack of coordination led to numerous disjointed attacks that failed and in turn exhausted his men. Finally, Lee ultimately knew less about his opponent throughout the entire battle, which was a huge switch from previous meetings between the two sides. He was forced to fight arguably the most important battle of the Civil War with insufficient intelligence of the enemy, its positions and its intentions. All of these factors are what caused the Confederates to fail at Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.It was a turning point for the Civil War , the South or the Confederates lost the battle , and the Union won the battle.If the Confederates would have won the battle they may had been able to win the war.