The American Civil War Issues - Essay Example

Civil War Question 1 The American civil war, generally known as “The Civil war”, was fought in the period of 1861-1865. The Civil war burst out between the American state (the United States of America) and Southern slave states (‘Confederates’), which declared secession and rebelled against America; one of many triggering causes for that was slavery and poor lifestyle. The war centered in the areas of Mississippi and Appalachian Mountains. President Lincoln had to face many challenges and embarrassments in the Western theatre of the civil war. The primary disaster for the United States’ federal army came when Lincoln planned to launch a campaign to get Mississippi as it was of primary and paramount strategic importance. Lincoln thought that Vicksburg, Mississippi, would be a key to success if the American army managed to get through mountains. He ordered General Grant to move with around 32,000 men in the parallel of Mississippi river where other 40,000 men would meet him to start a joint offensive. But supply line of Grant was cut and the mission was foiled. This is considered as one of the major setbacks in the western theatre of war. Another major military embarrassment was the Battle of Shiloh when Confederate forces attacked the federal army on April 6. There were casualties of around 13,000 shot down dead out of 63,000 soldiers who took part in the battle, and the main reason behind this was that the exhausted federal army troops did not retreat in time. Similarly, The Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) was a military disaster of great significance, which taught a good lesson to the federal army. On May 31, 1862, the confederate army attacked federal forces having killed the majority of their soldiers there. The above three military failures were a very few of the overall military vulnerabilities that surfaced during the civil war. The American federal army learned a lot from these war scenarios and the top hierarchical leadership strived harder to overcome the readily available supply lines as this matter was of the grave importance during the Civil war. Question 2 The American civil war was a clear defeat for the confederate forces if the overall theatre of war is taken into account. There were many attempts from the confederate forces that were foiled by the federal army and there was a massive retreat by the confederate army from time to time. In the spring of 1863, Abraham Lincoln ordered another attack to gain Mississippi. This campaign was going to be the turning point of war as the confederate forces had foiled a great attempt from the state army to get the mountain of Mississippi which was regarded as a place of great military and strategic significance in the western theatre of war. This time the state army did not risk themselves by routing a supply line from the northwest of Mississippi rather they used the dirt roads from the western sides which were drying after the rains. With the help of US navy boats and some massive supply routes, they were able to get the mountain of Mississippi. This campaign is regarded as a great success for the American army. On 10 April 1865, General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, of the confederate army surrendered to the State army. This surrender is regarded as the key turning point in the civil war as it magnified the social division inside the confederate states and the morale went down which started the psychological defeat process of the confederate army in the region. Question 3 Accompanying the highest number of casualties, the civil war came with many blood bathed war theatres and battles were very less decisive with self-depicted results of these battles. Some of the examples from the war history are given below which show that the primary intentions of many battles were not achieved; rather foiled at the end. After a great rest at Tullahoma, General Rosecrans planned to flush out General Bragg of the confederate army out of Chattanooga, a great strategic place having the high mountain areas which can be used effectively in reconnaissance and spying. He crossed the Tennessee River, and there were some supply line issues at the initial level of battle which was sorted out. A great military vulnerability in the communication systems and protocols of the state army surfaced when there was a mere misunderstanding of a command from the lower level rank officer. Due to this gap, there was a strategic gap created between the reinforcements of the state army and the personnel who were already fighting in the woods. Seeing this gap, General Longstreet of the confederate army attacked the state army and took the gap to his advantage. Rosecrans made their armies retreat to the city of Chattanooga. Bragg took the advantage of the retreat and again captured Chattanooga. Similarly, another battle was fought in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville, in which complete victory was not gained due to some minor military mistakes by the state army. General Hooker remained on the defensive line; seeing this as a military weakness General Lee of the confederate army ordered his men to march and as a result there were a huge number of casualties at the union side, which forced them to retreat, thus, victory was not ensured completely at this front. Question 4 The main advantage which the Southern states had in the civil war was the military drafting of the Confederacy’s Conscription laws, which they did soon after the start of the war. They managed to do that earlier than it was expected by many as the main purpose was to hire volunteers in this war in order to gain a military advantage over the state army. The problem with the southern states was that they only relied upon the volunteer army to fight in the civil war whereas the main theme of the volunteers was limited to the supply lines and other military crafts. Because the confederates were the first to draft the Conscription laws, they were the ones who got the advantage in the war. There was also a great determination among the Southern states to volunteer in the civil war because they were going through the agrarian rules of the central government and struck with slavery and poor lifestyle. The only deficiency was the lack of training and military equipment whereas the central army took advantage of this fact in the overall war scenario. Question5 Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was the president of the United States and the Commander-in-chief of the union army in most of the civil war period. His strategies were offensive and the major war victories were gained as a result of his fearless tactics. Lincoln started to convey the message to the masses persuading that the war would not end until the rebellion from the Southern states was suppressed to the core. After the assassination of Lincoln, there was a new president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the army called Andrew Johnson. He was a vice president in the Lincoln’s era. The war policy shift was not huge. There was a strategic retreat as General Lee had surrendered with thousands of his men and the war was coming to an end. There was an internal pressure from within the masses to end the war. The victories of the civil war are regarded to be the results of clear cut and brave policy of Abraham Lincoln and his unconditional support of the military leadership when it came to separatist plot, which endangered the unity of his country. Bibliography Encyclopedia Britannica. "American Civil War (United States history) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." n.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/19407/American-Civil-War (accessed 1 Feb 2013). History.com. "American Civil War." 1870. http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war (accessed 1 Feb 2013). Historyplace.com. "The History Place - U.S. Civil War 1861-1865." 1860. http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/ (accessed 1 Feb 2013). McPherson, James. "A Brief Overview of the American Civil War." 1861. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html (accessed 1 Feb 2013). Nps.gov. "The Civil War -." 1998. http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/index.htm (accessed 1 Feb 2013). Read More