Insufficient Military Strength and Strategy - Essay Example

The Confederacy collapsed from within mainly due to an undermining of the Jefferson Davis-led government and his war policies by white Southerners. Coupled with the overwhelming strength of the Union forces versus the desperate situation of the Confederate army's loss of men due to desertion and the dissatisfaction with civilian support for the war in the South; the Confederacy was fighting a losing battle on the home front that began shortly after the 1861 Blockade.

Food riots and the Impression Act of 1863 further alienated the civilian support of Davis and his government. Southern citizens were divided over the issue of his right to rule the Confederacy’s nationhood; either they believed he now held too much power and wanted more or they believed him weak and unable to govern successfully. The absence of centralized power defeated Davis’ ability to feed and clothe his armies or gain support from European allies.

The loss of Stonewall Jackson on May 2, 1863 cost the commander of the Confederate forces, General Lee his most valuable soldier, and did a great deal to decompress Confederate military morale. June of 1863 saw Vicksburg captured by Grant and allowed the Union forces to control the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, further hurting the Southern state's ability to garner support and supplies from the Western states. President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 17, 1863, changed the idea of Union for Union’s sake to Union for Freedom’s sake and revitalized the northern impetuous to continue the war through to its end. Grant push southward using Sherman’s forces and never retreated after 1864, and Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865, sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

New York Tribune publisher Horace Greeley said that about the United States in 1854 and Davis could have paraphrased it when describing the political state of the Confederacy in 1864. Read More