The American Civil War was one of the deadliest wars in American history, resulting in 620,000 casualties of soldiers and undetermined number of civilian casualties. Southern slave states declared their withdrawal from United States and formed the Confederate States of America; also know as “The Confederacy.” Northern twenty states free of slavery and five slave states in north came to knows as the Union. Many strategy and tactics were used during the American Civil War. In order to understand the military strategy and tactics of Union and the Confederacy, one must understand the manpower each side had, previous war experience of the commanding officers on both side, and using rivers and railroad to their advantages. The Union had twenty states on its side including five that were slave states. That meant that they were able to put up a mass number of Army from each state. When the war came, the North had a total population of twenty-two million people of which 1.3 million were industrial workers. Whereas, the South only had nine million people with 110,000 industrial works. But many Southern counties had a majority of non-white persons, slaves, which were not drafted into the war effort other than looking after agricultural enterprises. Especially in South Carolina, white population was outnumbered by slaves by approximately 100,000. Before start of the war and during the course of war, immigration remained steady in both Union and the Confederacy. Immigrants were somewhat a part of Civil War as well. Immigrant pattern had remained steady before and during the war. Many different types of immigrants had come to America before and during the Civil War. Of those, Irish and Germans were the biggest migrating group. Over 200,0... ... middle of paper ... ...son’s idea of fighting a complete defensive war. Creating blockades on coastal lines and controlling railroads were used as well. Even today, similar tactics are used to cut off enemy from supplying their peers. Though Civil War was the deadliest war on American soil, many tactics and strategies are learned from it and improved. Works Cited 1. Book Titile: The Art of Command in the Civil War. Contributors: Steven E. Woodworth - editor. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press. Place of Publication: Lincoln, NE. Publication Year: 1998 2. Book Title: The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Contributors: Robin Higham - editor, Steven E. Woodworth - editor. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996 3. For the Common Defense. Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994.
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Show MoreAfrican Americans also participated actively in the military during the Civil War. After Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, African Americans were officially allowed to enlist in the army. Most of the slaves remained in the south while tens of thousands abandoned southern plantations to join the Union (Doc A). About ten percent of the total Union enlistments on both land and sea were consisted of blacks. African Americans joined and fought willingly (Doc B) and bravely now that they had a cause to fight for—the removing of slavery. More than thirty-eight thousand died in war for the Union, suffering in the Fort Pillow Massacre and serving in units such as the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts regiments and other black military units. Due to prejudice and ideas, the Confederacy did not enlist slaves into the army until the war was nearly over; confederate slaves worked on farms while white men joined the army. The novel idea of African Americans engaged in the war, marching and fighting for the Union, changed many whites’ view and treatment of blacks.
The American Civil War was from 1861 to 1865 it was a civil war between the United States of America and the Southern slave states of the newly-formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis. The Union included all of the free states and the five slaveholding border states and was led by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, and their victory in the presidential election of 1860 resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office. The Union rejected secession, regarding it as rebellion. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a large volunteer army, then four more Southern states declared their secession. In the war's first year, the Union assumed control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides massed armies and resources. In 1862, battles such as Shiloh and Antietam caused massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, which complicated the Confederacy's manpower shortages. In the East, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won a series of victories over Union armies, but Lee's reverse at Gettysburg in early July, 1863 proved the turning point. The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by Ulysses S. Grant completed Union control of the Mississippi River. Grant fought bloody battles of attrition with Lee in 1864, forcing Lee to defend the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Union general William Sherman ...
...n his volunteer-troops, rather than an “exceptionally well drilled and experienced army.” The Civil War required a “quickly improvised…realistic standard for mid-nineteenth century America.” Which, as Griffith points out, they either did “ineffectively or reverted to outdated tactics disastrously.” The developments of technology certainly had a very large role in the way the war was fought but what truly caused the shift from Napoleonic to modern warfare was the fact that America was not Europe and the battle was for a cause much more powerful than land acquisition and discourse with another nation, but rather ideological dissonance within. Both authors analyzed how the United States’ differed from the countries across the Atlantic in order to provide some explanation regarding the nature of the Civil War and why it took so many lives before it came to an end.
Several factors played in to the American Civil War that made it have the outcome that it did. Although the South had better trained officials due to their military school, the North was far more advanced than they. The North had the advantage over the South in several ways. However, the outcome of the Civil War was not inevitable: it was determined as much by human decisions and human willpower as by physical resources, although the North’s resources gave them an edge over the South.
The Civil War was a huge piece of American History. Without this large blanket of events, the United States would not have developed to be the way it is today. The Civil War, which has also been called the first “modern war,” was an extensive, dirty one. The constant struggle of the North versus the South went on for a little over four years. This struggle lasted so long because each side had its own challenges to face, along with benefits of their own. The North, though it possessed various advantages in terms of their military, socially, economically, and politically, still had multiple disadvantages. The South went by the same idea, possessing their own benefits, but having some costs as well.
The Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in the history of the United States of America with 618,000 deaths, and numerous injuries that left many on both sides of the war maimed and handicapped. Due to the four years that the war lasted, the tolerance for war had grown very thin as time dragged on with the citizens of the United States. Many military officers and politicians were falling out of favor with the citizens, and with drastic times come drastic measures. The siege of Petersburg, Virginia had been dragging on for eig...
The Civil War was unlike any other war ever fought in America and had many effects on the home front for both the North and the South. It is stated to be the first ever total war, which is a war against not only the civilians but also the armies. The Civil War is also considered the first modern war fought by the U.S. troops. Lincoln asked volunteers to sign up for only three months. Many people thought the war wouldn’t last long. However, the war continued on for four years. The Union armies had around 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men and the Confederate army had approximately 750,000 to 1,250,000 men. The entire North and South society was affected by the war and desired for many social and economic assets. The Civil war brought new military techniques which caused the armaments to be more destructive. Ironclad ships and railroads were sufficiently used within the war. The north had a motive; they wanted to weaken the South’s longing to victory. The North tried to achieve this last motive by inflicting wholesale destruction upon the South (Janda, 1995). More than a hundred people seemed to be spies or secessionists in Maryland. In time, they were arrested due to not being faithful to the union and their state. Pro-secessionist newspapers were shut down, and telegrams and mail were censored (Perret, 2004).
As stated in Industry and Economy During the Civil War, “The North 's larger number of tracks and better ability to construct and move parts gave it a distinct advantage over the South” (Arrington). Having the trains to help move the troops and supplies aided in saving time and strength for the Union army as they moved in to occupy the Confederacy territory. The Union contained approximately 70 percent of the nation’s railroads (Strengths and Weaknesses of the Union and Confederacy Double-Bubble Map). The substantial percentage of railroad tracks was not the only advantage the Union had over the Confederates. They also had trading ships and a large naval force (Strengths and Weaknesses of the Union and Confederacy Double-Bubble Map). However, the Confederacy wasn’t completely unprepared for the war, they had numerous powerful leaders on their side to help protect their land. There were numerous former officers of the United States Army that fought for the South giving them experienced fighters to help with their strategy and they also had numerous well-trained soldiers that were excellent at shooting ("Mr. Dowling The Civil War: Strengths and Weaknesses"). The strengths of having a railroad, navy, and trading ships was a great advantage to the Union, however, the Confederacy had few to none of these except for leaders with
The Civil War was the most ruthless and devastating war in American history. After being pushed too far by the Northerner’s anti-slavery antics, the South decided to attempt to peacefully succeed from the Union. However, the North almost automatically disagreed with this attempt, and what was supposed to be a peaceful situation turned out to be the war with the most casualties that has ever been known to happen, the number being over 600,000 lives lost. While it originally seemed that this war would be an easy victory for the North, it’s predicted six months turned into a bloody four years. Nevertheless, the North came out victorious, due to the conditions and the advanced technology that made the North superior to the South.
The north in contrast has suffered from lack of leadership and military success, but the Battle of Gettysburg would be the turning point and would end with southern forces being forced to retreat. The book is first broken into four days, June 29, 1863, just before the battle began; July 1, 1863, the day of the initial Confederate attack; July 2, 1863, the first full day of battle; and July 3, 1863, the final day of battle. Each of these four sections are broken down into chapters with each chapter written by a different viewpoint of key leaders, in this review I will focus on General Robert E. Lee of the confederate army and Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain of the union
The American Civil War, a war between the North and South, Union and Confederacy. During the Civil War, the North and the South fought with their own advantages and disadvantages, though one 's advantage would be mainly the other’s disadvantage. So instead of thinking it as strengths and weakness, there were aspects that were either good or bad for the regions during the war. The main factors between the North and South were their morale, the type of society each had, the location of the war, their leadership, and their population. Each of these topics helped decide the outcome of the war.
The North had many advantages at the onset of the Civil War. One advantage that the North had over the South was population size. The North contained more than 60% of the population while the South contained less than 40%. This difference in population plays an important role in the North’s ability to supply troops into military service and continuing the production of industries. If the North did not have a significant amount of the population, their production of war materials could have fallen behind (He...
The Confederate state’s strategy for winning the war was to try to weaken the North and to enlist the help of England and France. The South was out numbered in terms of men, ammunition, and supplies. The Union army had 2,100,000 soldiers compared to 1,064,000 Confederate soldiers. Ninety-seven percent of firearm production came from the Northern states, and the North controlled over 70% of the railroad miles. Th...
Wakelyn, Jon L. Confederates Against the Confederacy: Essays on Leadership and Loyalty. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”1 These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln, foreshadowed the war that became the bloodiest in all of the United State's history. The Civil War was a brutal conflict between the North and South; brother against brother. With slavery as the root cause, Southern states had seceded from the Union and were fighting for their independence. They became the Confederate States of America (CSA) and were a force to be reckoned with. The Union, however, put up a fierce struggle to preserve the country. If the Civil War was to be a war of attrition, the North had the upper hand because of its large population, industrialization, raw materials, railroad mileage, and navy. But if the war was short lived, the South had the strong advantages of knowledge of the land with a friendly population, superior commanders, an adaptable lifestyle, and a passion for “The Cause”. It took four years (1861-1865) before the Civil War was resolved. The first two years proved to be successful for the CSA, but as the war dragged on and after the battle of Gettysburg, the tide turned in favor of the North. Ultimately, the seceded states were reunited with the Union and are part of the United States as we know it today.