Military Tactics Used from Union and the Confederate Army and Navy - Research Paper Example

Military Tactics Used from Union and the Confederate Army and Navy Topic: Military tactics used from Union and the Confederate Army and Navy, and including how the Union and Confederate financed the Civil War. “It is better to have the world united than the world divided; but it is also better to have the world divided, than the world destroyed”, said Mr. Winston Churchill at the time of II World War. But the question before Abraham Lincoln, a century before the II World War era, was entirely different. It was the issue of preserving the unity of the Nation, the essential dignity and the freedom of humankind comprising of whites and blacks. When Civil War became inevitable, the Generals adopted the military strategies suitable as per the prevailing conditions in North and South. The objective of both the sides was identical—to win the war! What were the consequences of the war? James McPherson writes, “The American Civil War by far the deadliest conflict the United States ever fought. At least 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives in the war. This was almost as many Americans as were killed in all other wars this country has fought, from the Revolutionary War through the Vietnam War.” (Introduction, 2002.) Military Advantage—the Army: The North had the distinctive advantage of numbers. The bigger population of the North meant more soldiers. The infrastructure, the industrial manufacturing power of the North was several times more and the army was assured of adequate food/weapons and ammunition supplies. The essential difference between the North and South can be traced to history of these areas. Bruce Catton writes, “In the North society was passing more rapidly than most men realized to an industrial base. Immigrants were arriving by the tens of thousands…In the South, by contrast, society was much more static. There was little immigration, there were not many cities, the factory system showed few signs of growth…” (p.10) The transportation, the rail/road system in the North was better. The strategy of the North was to destroy anything and everything the South would possibly use to win the war. They planned to capture the major rivers of the South like Mississippi, to subdue South. But the advantage of the South was its great military commanders who were trained in West Point Military School. Their plan was to capture as much territory of North, though they failed in their attempts repeatedly. The Commander of the newly formed Confederate States of America was Jefferson Davis. Almost all the ships were in the possession of the North. That was an awesome advantage. The Navy had the capacity to blockade the entire South. The South did not have the infrastructure to produce the arms and ammunitions and they could not import them, because the Navy effectively blocked the sea routes. In the first year of the war, Union assumed control of the Border States and created a naval blockade as both sides mobilized masses and resources. The ignition point for the Civil War was on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln called for mobilization of a large volunteer army. In the meantime, four more Southern States declared secession. In 1862 the battles at Shiloh and Antietam resulted in massive casualties. In September 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln added to the manpower shortage problems of the South, as he declared ending slavery as the war goal. This was a well-timed political strategy that helped the war efforts of the North. Many blacks migrated to the North. In the East, the Confederate Commander Robert E. Lee was on a winning spree. But the reverses suffered by Lee’s army at Gettysburg in July 1863 were the turning point. Ulysses S. Grant captured Vicksburg and Port Hudson that completed the Union control of the Mississippi river. Grant won’t mind the casualties, deliberate strategy was planned thus, and in 1864, he forced Lee to defend the Confederate capital at Richmond. In the meantime Union General William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia and began his devastating March to the Sea, through a hundred-mile-wide swath of Georgia. Confederate resistance was over after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Jefferson Davis was the first and the last President of the Confederate States. When Lincoln made Grant the Commander of the Union forces, his objective and tactics from the beginning were clear. Total war to defeat the South totally! Their military and economic base had to be destroyed. Only that would bring the war to an end. He didn’t mean killing civilians, but wished to destroy homes, farms and railroad tracks. His strategy was to strike Confederacy from multiple directions, leaving nothing to chance. Generals George Meade and Benjamin Butler would tackle Lee near Richmond. General Franz Sigel—later Philip Sheridan took over-- would mount the attacks at Shenandoah Valley. General Sherman was ordered to capture Atlanta and proceed via Atlantic Ocean. Generals George Crook and William W. Averell would control railroad supply lines in West Virginia. Major General Nathaniel P. Banks was designated with the responsibility of capturing Mobile, Alabama. The maneuvering efforts past Lee by the Union forces in the East resulted in several battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor and resulted in heavy losses to them, but Grant pressed on and on forcing Lee’s forces to fall back repeatedly. Butler failed in his mission to outflank Lee from the south. His forces were trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred River Bend. Grant persisted ignoring his heavy losses in Northern Virginia forcing Lee back to Richmond. The trench warfare between the Confederate and the Union armies continued for over nine months, in seizing Petersburg. Grant appointed an aggressive commander, General Philip Sheridan, and entrusted him the Valley Campaign of 1864. Sheridan did the allotted task well by defeating Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early of the Confederate Army in a series of engagements and giving the army the final blow at the Battle of Cedar Creek. He then turned his attention to destroy the agricultural base of the Shenandoah Valley. He later employed the same strategy in battles at Georgia. On the other side General Sherman was unstoppable, he moved from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the Confederate Generals that he defeated were Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood. Hood fell back only to threaten Sherman’s supply lines and invade Tennessee in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, but Union Major Gen. John M. Schofield routed Hood at the Battle of Franklin. Finally George H. Thomas dealt Hood the final blow at the Battle of Nashville completely destroying Hood’s army. Sherman’s army marched forward, and this campaign was known as “March to the Sea” and laid waste to about 20% of the farms in Georgia. He reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864. Thousands of freed slaves followed Sherman, with no major resistance during the March. Sherman reached to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south and this move in created pressure on Lee’s army. General was beginning to see the writing on the wall. His army faced the real issues for which he had no immediate solution in the circumstances prevailing then. Casualties and desertions! In comparison to the army of the Union his forces were getting lesser and lesser each day as the war progressed. The strength of the Union army was overwhelming. Union forces won a major victory at the Battle of Five forks non April 1, and Lee had no alternative but to evacuate to Petersburg and Richmond. The Union XXV Corps composed of black troops took control of the Confederate capital. Confederate also suffered the defeat at Sayler’s Creek and the remaining Confederate units fled west. General Robert Lee was sure about his future plans. He knew that fighting against the Union forces was logistically and tactically not possible. The surrender of Lee has been mentioned in the essay elsewhere. He was allowed to keep his officer’s saber and his horse, Traveller. That was a good gesture by Grant as he knew that Confederacy has to merge with the Union respectfully and peacefully. On April 26, 1885 Johnson surrendered his troops to Sherman in Durham, North Carolina. On June 23, 1865, at Fort Towson in the Choctaw Nations' area of the Oklahoma Territory, Stand Watie followed suit and signed a cease-fire agreement with Union representatives, becoming the last Confederate General in the field to surrender. The last Confederate naval force to surrender was the CSS Shenandoah on November 4, 1865, in Liverpool, England. Notwithstanding the immense advantage of the North, historians like James McPherson argue that South need not have lost the war. He cites the American War of Independence and the Vietnam War which were won by the side with less numbers. He writes, “In the American Civil War, however, the eleven States of the confederacy exercised a functioning government at Richmond in May 1861 with its armies in control of virtually all of the 750,000 square miles that constituted its national territory. To “win” the war that began with Confederate seizure of Fort Sumter, the South needed only to defend what it already possessed by repelling enemy invasions and wearing out the will of the Northern people to carry on the war.”(2004, p.11) Confederate should have concentrated on the defensive war to create awareness to the North that the cost of winning was too high. That was the strategy. They planned to prolong the war to break the resolve of the North. This was the strategy preferred by the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. That some 10,500 conflicts occurred during the Civil War including battles to minor skirmishes indicates the magnitude of the war. That the war lasted for about 4 years means that it was not an easy war for the North as the South held on tenaciously. War Financing: War means money. Prolonged war means the requirement of huge monetary resources. The Civil War (1861-1865) was a long drawn out war that created conditions of complicated financial arithmetic both for the Union and the Confederate. It set the politicians and the economists thinking and created a watershed moment in the history of American taxation. Innovations in government financing, varying fiscal strategies were employed by both the governments. The Finance Department of the respective governments was as busy as the War Department. The measures adopted by North and South varied much. In the long run, the line of action by the North proved fructifying and efficacious. Confederate War Financing: Before the commencement of the Civil War, the antebellum South enjoyed great economic prosperity and yet had the lightest tax burden as compared to the contemporary civilized societies. South was ready for secession, fought the war for it, but the confederate governments was hastily assembled. It lacked the expertise of the bureaucratic network. To levy and collect taxes, an efficient system was needed. The tradition of compliance or the system of remitting the taxes was not in vogue in the South. The citadel of the South was its land the cheap slave labor. Paper currency was scarce in a predominantly agrarian region. Efforts to raise war revenue were lack-luster and they lacked the punch needed in raising quick money. The taxation methods adopted did not bring forth the expected yield. The minor tariff enacted in 1861, brought forth only $3.5 million in four years. Congress also imposed a direct tax of 0.5 percent on real and personal property in the same year. But the collection part was left to the concerned States by the Confederate government headquartered at Richmond. Most States did not respond as per the procedure suggested. Instead, they borrowed money and printed notes to fulfill their quotas. At the beginning, war euphoria helped the government measures to raise finances. The Davis administration raised loans to meet the heavy expenditure devolved in conducting war at various fronts. In 1861 the treasury netted $15 million by selling the first series of bonds. The second issue of $100 million with 8 percent yield did not sell fast. The inclination for the purchase notwithstanding, many did not possess the cash needed for the purchase. The 12 percent inflation rate would also nullify the actual gains by way of interest. People were calculating the economic aspect of the bond issues. Confederacy issues $100 notes: The bills for war expenses had to be paid, the South acted under compulsion to print Treasury notes. 75 percent of its total revenue was ‘earned’ thus. The genuine collections increased very slowly over the years but the war financing efforts mainly depended on printing over $ 1.5 billion paper dollars. Market reacted, the dollar value began to depreciate, and building up the confidence of the people in the currency was the major concern for the government. Towards this objective, the government refused to establish the notes as compulsory legal tender. The government desperately wanted public confidence to remain intact and it put a picture before the people that Confederate would win the war and the notes were redeemable at face value within two years of the end of the war. A $2 note issued by the state of Georgia. Various States followed the example set by the administration at Richmond. The State of Georgia issued a $2 note. The currency was diluted further. To add to the existing woes, another issue cropped up. These poorly printed bills were easily duplicated. Soon, the counterfeit currency flooded the market. Printing paper money was no solution to a well-meaning taxation policy. Paper money was infarct a de facto tax instrument. Runaway inflation dominated the economic scene. The military reversals in 1862, made the entire economic scene tough and unpredictable. The cornered Richmond administration began to think like an economist. The burden of inflation had to be contained. They followed the lead initiated by the Union and enacted a comprehensive legislation. Measures like progressive income-tax, 8 percent levy on goods held for sale, excise etc. came in force. Ten percent profits tax on wholesalers was introduced. Tax-in-kind from agricultural product was demanded, which was 10 percent. This system of tax created anomalies between the urban salaried workers and the farmers. Political agenda was seen as well in the tax policy, most lucrative property owners were exempted from the purview of and their slaves were exempted from the purview of assessment. Racial bias was seen when the lawmakers considered a tax on slaves to be a direct tax that was permissible under the constitution only on apportionment on the basis of population. Such an exercise based on population-census was not feasible during the war and as such no direct tax levy was possible. The war debts mounted and along with it, the discontentment amongst the people over the “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” made the Government to act. The law was revised in February 1864, which amended the requirement for a census-based apportionment of direct taxes and imposed a levy of 5 percent on slaves and land. This change, however, did not make tangible impact on the war efforts as it was introduced too late. How Union financed the War: Union had the distinct advantages, as things were in proper place and well-organized. The established Treasury and tariff structure did not create any surprises for the people. With the exit of the southern representatives the Republican-dominated Congress found its task easy and enhanced the tariff rates during the war, beginning with 1862.The Morill Tariff Act reversed the downward trend initiated by the Democrats between 1846 and 1857. The 1864 Act, raised the tariff rates further. The protective tariff rates designed were popular with the important sections of the society like manufacturers, a section of the commercial farmers, and northern laborers. The high rate structure designed in the Civil War remained the hallmark of the post-war political economy of the Republican Party. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase had reasons to believe that he was proceeding on safe rules of economics but his ideological moorings created problems about the institutional advantages the Union enjoyed. He distrusted any from of exchange other than specie. This was the stand taken by most of the northern policymakers. They liked to pay government debts by physical movement of gold and not by the transfer of funds from demand deposits with checks. The established private Banks in New York, Boston and Philadelphia also did not enjoy their confidence, as repositories for federal funds. The financial transactions were rendered difficult. Chase was following the model of Albert Gallatin of financing the War of 1812 which preferred borrowing over taxation. But this procedure could not hold on for long. The shortage of specie coupled with the mounting war debts forced the Union to adopt innovate methods for internal taxation as well as borrowing as the inflation rate was galloping. The business of war bonds-the formula of Jay Cooke, prominent financier: Here is the major contrast between the strategies of the Confederacy and the Union. The former raised about 35 percent of its war finances through loans whereas Union did over 65 percent. Chase wanted to be more professional in this area. He appointed Philadelphia Banker Jay Cooke to administer the sale of war bonds. Cooke did expect banks and wealthy individuals to purchase the bonds, yet he initiated a well-meaning advertisement campaign to encourage the middle class to invest in these bonds. Imaginative newspaper advertisements that appealed to the emotions of the people to make the war efforts successful were inserted with great results. He appointed 2,500 agents to carry out the sales campaign in which he netted one million northerners and the sales topped $3 billion. 25 percent of the ordinary families had become the willing partners in the war efforts by investment in those bonds. The techniques employed by Cooke are fancied by many Nations to fund the 20th century wars. Follow-up measures were taken to make the bond program successful and the Union did not commit the same mistake which Confederate had committed in the South. To enable the bond program to be successful, the North required abundant currency supply for citizens to pay for them and a source of income to guarantee the interest. The Legal Tender Act was passed to take care of this aspect in 1862, which authorized the issue of $150 million in Treasury Notes. They were known as Greenbacks .By law it was obligatory on the part of citizens, banks, and governments to accept Greenbacks as legal tender for transacting public and private debts. Interest on federal bonds and customs were exempted from this arrangement. With this policy, the investors had the double advantage. Buyers purchased bonds with Greenbacks while the interest earned to them was paid in gold. Most bonds were acquired by the rich or by financial institutions and they earned huge profits. A good internal tax collection system played the important role in the war efforts of the Union. The damaging inflation faced by the South was not experienced by the citizens of North. It reached the maximum level of 80 percent. Most of the luxury items, extravagant lifestyles were taxed. The Internal Revenue Act of 1862, created a Bureau of Internal Revenue, the largest Government department ever organized. George Boutwell was its first commissioner. As the war became increasingly costly, touching $2 million per day in the latter stages, the government’s capacity to borrow fluctuated with the development in the battlefronts. The Confederate Navy targeted Northern shipping resulting in the decline in customs receipts. The excepted level of receipts from income and excise tax collections was not forthcoming due to administrative problems. The Union had to act to restructure income taxation. The method of taxing as per the ability to pay was introduced, comparable to the modern income tax system. Income tax proved to be the reliable source of revenue for the Union. Collections touched about $61 millions in 1865. In comparative terms, the North collected about 21 percent of its war revenue by taxation and South just 5 percent. ************ Works Cited: Catton, Bruce. The Civil War: Google Books, 1987. McPherson, James M. Fields of Fury: The American Civil War: Atheneum; 1 edition, October 1, 2002. McPherson, James M. Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam. Google Books, 2004. Read More