The Home Front And Battlefront In The Civil War On The Battlefront

When examining the role the home front and battlefront played during the Civil War, historians often make a glaring error by regarding the home front and battlefront as independent entities. However, most conflicts took place on Southern soil, blurring the line between the Confederate home front and the battlefield. To understand a war that split the country over regional differences, it is essential to examine the impact the home front had on the battlefront and explore the ways these two environments overlapped and impacted each other. Despite the Confederacy’s inferior resources, in the first years of the war, victory was possible. However, as the distinction between the home front and battlefront blurred, the Confederacy’s ability

Lee recognized the dwindling resource supply and concluded that success required offensive action. Lee, with the support of Jefferson Davis, hoped aggressive military tactics would push out Union forces devastating Southern soil and end the war before the home front fell apart. However, his plan to “take the war to the North, take the war out of Virginia…[and] hopefully get into Maryland” would require more soldiers (blight). But with the destruction and loss of land, particularly that devoted to industry and agriculture, efficiency on the home front was more important than ever. Approximately 61.5% of Confederate soldiers lived as farmers or farm laborers. Some of these men needed to remain on the home front to preserve some stability. However, by 1864, Lee could not “see how [the Confederacy could] escape the natural military consequences of the enemy’s numerical superiority” unless “no man should be excused from service” (gin, 252). With an army whose “ranks [were] growing weaker” and “losses [were] not supplied by recruits”, the battlefront’s strength would dwindle without additional recruits (gin, 150). Unfortunately for the Confederacy, too few men existed to sustain both the home front and the