* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download 34. Behind the Battles
Cavalry in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Kentucky in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Confederate States of America wikipedia , lookup
Texas in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Seven Pines wikipedia , lookup
Anaconda Plan wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Lewis's Farm wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Shiloh wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Island Number Ten wikipedia , lookup
Red River Campaign wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Namozine Church wikipedia , lookup
Blockade runners of the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Tennessee in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
List of American Civil War generals wikipedia , lookup
East Tennessee bridge burnings wikipedia , lookup
Baltimore riot of 1861 wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Wilson's Creek wikipedia , lookup
Battle of New Bern wikipedia , lookup
South Carolina in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Gaines's Mill wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Cedar Creek wikipedia , lookup
United States presidential election, 1860 wikipedia , lookup
Conclusion of the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Capture of New Orleans wikipedia , lookup
First Battle of Bull Run wikipedia , lookup
Virginia in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Battle of Fort Pillow wikipedia , lookup
Confederate privateer wikipedia , lookup
Alabama in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Issues of the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps wikipedia , lookup
Hampton Roads Conference wikipedia , lookup
Opposition to the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Jubal Early wikipedia , lookup
Georgia in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Economy of the Confederate States of America wikipedia , lookup
Border states (American Civil War) wikipedia , lookup
Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Mississippi in the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
United Kingdom and the American Civil War wikipedia , lookup
Behind the Battles Both the USA and the CSA found it harder to supply and to pay troops than to enlist them. This fact is part of why Shelby Foote says in the Ken Burns Civil War series that this war was “the crossroads of our being.” As terrible an event as the Civil War was, it is one of the great accomplishments of our civilization that it could fight such a war and survive. In fact, the great industrial potential of the United States was asleep in 1860, but the war awakened it. All our wealth and power follows what Foote called “this catastrophe of the mid-nineteenth century.” Still, however, five out of every six Americans lived on farms. Textile factories were large, but clothing factories were small. Only 239 small factories existed in 1860 that produced firearms. There was abundant food in America, but a poor means of marketing it. There were 30,000 miles of railroads, but they had different gauges, or widths, that hampered transportation. There was no national currency and no national bank to issue it. The only armory owned by the US government was at Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois. Colt and Remington were private manufacturers who had to shoulder most of the burden of production of weapons. Mass production picked up, however, as uniforms were made in small, medium, and large sizes rather than being tailored to fit. Boots were made straight in order to speed up production. Soldiers had to break-in the boots into being left and right, but at least Union soldiers had footwear. All these supplies needed to be purchased with money. Both the USA and the CSA had empty treasuries that were run by new men inexperienced in financial matters. Taxes were thought to be a dangerous answer to the question of how to raise money because they would have dampened enthusiasm. In 1861 there had not been an excise tax in America in 35 years. The Morrill Tariff was a protective tariff so high in 1861 and 1862 that it effectively stopped imports into the United States and therefore made no revenue. The Confederacy was blockaded by the Union Navy, so their low tariffs were not productive either. The Union resorted at last to a direct tax on states. The Confederacy created a ½ percent tax on all wealth. Bonds issued by Northern states attempted to borrow from banks, quickly draining them of all gold and silver specie to pay the federal tax. This move threatened the currencies the banks issued with inflation and robbed them of the capacity for redemption, or the exchange of paper money for coins made of precious metals. Both the USA and the CSA then resorted to issuing paper currency with no specie backing it. The CSA issued $100 million by August of 1861, and even more in 1862. The USA issued $150 million in 1862. This currency was first called “greenbacks” because it was printed with green ink. Both Secretaries of the Treasuries hated the idea of currencies without any backing, but there seemed no other way to hang on. Regarding foreign diplomacy both Presidents were inexperienced and had unruly Secretaries of State. William H. Seward eventually became one of America’s best, but he began erratically. Seward sent a memo to Lincoln urging a declaration of war not only against the Confederacy, but also against Great Britain, Russia, Spain, and France for violations of the Monroe Doctrine. Lincoln took two wise steps in response to this memo. First, he filed it in the event he would ever need to face an overt challenge from Seward. Secondly, he did not immediately dismiss Seward but gave him time to come to his senses. Interestingly, word of the memo leaked to Europe and made those nations cautious in their negotiations with the CSA. The Confederacy went through two Secretaries of State before settling on Judah P. Benjamin. Benjamin is as guilty as any other individual for the great miscalculation that crippled the South’s economy. He proposed that the Confederacy use exports of cotton to lure Europe, especially England, to officially recognize the CSA and to compel the British Navy to break the Union naval blockade. Canny British merchants, however, had anticipated instability in the cotton supply prior to the Civil War and had stockpiled enough cotton to last through 1862. While the Confederate generals pulled off miracles on the battlefield through that time, King Cotton was assassinated. Lincoln and Seward expected the United Kingdom and France to support the antislavery attitude of the Union, but since Lincoln could not yet move forward with emancipation, they demurred. Lincoln even began the war by ordering the return of fugitive slaves to their masters to keep the Border States by focusing the war only on the preservation of the Union. Besides, the balance of power in Europe was too delicate at the time for any one nation to risk European involvement in America’s war. There was never any official recognition of the Confederate States of America by a European power, although many did acknowledge that a legitimate revolution was happening. On Nov. 8, 1861, the Trent Affair unfolded as USN Captain Charles Wilkes captured two CSA diplomats returning from the UK and from France aboard the British merchant ship, Trent. The Confederates were called “spies” and imprisoned in Boston. The British government sent 11,000 troops to Canada in the event of a clash, but Lincoln released the prisoners on Christmas Day. Lincoln’s restraint gave Europe hope for a speedy end to the war that would allow everyone to reinstate open commerce. As we prepare to study the battles of the Civil War, it is important to weigh the advantages each side possessed. The Confederate Army enjoyed the best graduates from West Point in the ranks of its leadership, including Robert E. Lee, who was the best textbook general (new textbooks were written after the war, of course). The soldiers of the Confederacy were also better, man-for-man. Many Union soldiers had never fired a rifle before the war, but men from across the South had done so all their lives, hunting. Young Southern aristocrats had entertained themselves by riding horses and shooting things, like foxes. The average Rebel, therefore, had more fighting spirit and skill. Furthermore, the Confederate Army almost always fought with a home-ground advantage. Their spirit to defend their homes from a Northern invader was reinforced by their knowledge of the terrain. Too, there is the distinct advantage that all the CSA had to do was to defend themselves in order to win their independence. The Union Army had to fight offensively, then. In cold numerical terms, this meant Union victories would take three times the number of soldiers of any Confederate force. Ulysses S. Grant was the first Union general to discover this ratio, and he had the determination to send each trio of his men into battle knowing that he would likely lose two. These are formidable statistics if you haven’t the imagination to realize it for yourself. When other Union officers criticized Grant as a drunk to Lincoln, the President simply responded, “Find out what he drinks and deliver it to all my generals. This man fights!” The incredible fact, however, is that the Confederacy held out at long as it did considering the numerous advantages of the North. The Union had over twenty million people in it compared to the roughly nine million people of the South, four million of whom were slaves. The greater economic strength of the North cannot be overemphasized, but railroads provide a memorable example. Of the locomotives built in America, 14 out of 15 were built in the North. The Union also owned 70% of the railroads. The Union Navy was also better and more numerous than the Confederate Navy. All of these statistics keep in mind, increased for the North during the war including the population that was swelled by immigration. All of the Confederacy’s numbers went down, except the price of food as crippling inflation and scarcity set in. A more amorphous quality also belonged to the North throughout the war. The Union Army, because of Lincoln, had the moral high ground for the duration. Physical high ground is important in battle, but moral high ground may be more important. Lincoln first inspired the Yankees to fight for Union and free navigation of the Mississippi River. When those causes seemed to deflate, Lincoln unfurled his greatest weapon, the Emancipation Proclamation. The moral high ground he seized then was expressed in the Gettysburg Address as “a new birth of freedom.” All of these qualities and quantities added up to the war being much longer than anyone thought it would be. The sides were essentially evenly matched at the beginning, but it could never remain so forever. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman recognized early on in the war that an agrarian society could never win a war against a mechanized society. Another fact that made the war more brutal was that most of the officers on both sides had learned how to make war from the same teachers who taught Napoleonic tactics. Fifty-five of sixty major battles were led by West Pointers on both sides. All of these graduates of West Point had studied the same book on strategy, a history of Napoleon’s campaigns written by French historian Baron Henri Jomini. A simple example of why this was devastating is revealed when two armies approached each other and then simultaneously used Napoleon’s tactic of flanking the enemy. When both armies flanked each other, the armies simply reversed positions on the field while coming much closer to one another. No tactical advantage was gained, but the fighting was suddenly point-blank along the whole line. The strategies Civil War generals learned from Jomini were combined with more advanced technology with deadly results. Napoleon had made use of the bayonet even as an offensive weapon, but while Civil War soldiers were issued bayonets, they rarely used them for anything except cooking spits. Napoleonic tactics were continued even after rifles were introduced that were deadly from as far away as 500 yards. Napoleon’s musket had done well to hit anyone at 60 yards. Jomini taught that armies needed to pursue three main goals. First, territory had to be conquered and kept away from the enemy. The Union accomplished this goal best. Secondly, you were to seize the enemy’s capital city. While the Union Army was the only one to do this, the threat that Stonewall Jackson, for example, would attack Washington, DC, immobilized huge Federal armies throughout the war. Third, an army had to bring a powerful, united force to bear on the enemy’s weakest point in any given battle. The Confederacy regularly accomplished this third goal, but its chance to accomplish the first and second goals was lost after their victory at First Bull Run, the first major battle of the war. A devotion to Jomini’s theories lost the war for the South and almost lost it for the North. Union and Confederate generals found themselves fighting murderous head-on battles when victory was supposed to be accomplished by finesse. Not until innovators emerged like General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson and General Nathan Bedford Forrest for the South, and General William Tecumseh Sherman for the North, could the stalemate be broken. Jackson was a master of deception, the key in Lee’s victories against Union armies seven times the size of their own. When he was killed accidentally, Lee said he had lost his right arm. Forrest is considered by historians to be the true genius of the war, and Sherman is know as the first modern general for reasons we will explore in our next installment where the battles actually begin.