One of the leaders of the Union was General Grant. He was the commander of the Union Army. Furthermore, he showed toughness and determination that would later enable him to win many of the battles during the Civil War. His goal in helping him to win the war was to seize control of the Mississippi River. When Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner wanted to discuss the terms of surrender of Fort Donelson, Grant’s response was straight to the point. He said “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted”. Right away, Buckner surrendered the fort to Grant. His victory caused great celebration in the North. It also earned him the nickname “Unconditional Surrender”. General Grant’s ability to serve in the army Another
Union leader during the Civil War was President Abraham Lincoln. He was President all throughout the Civil until he was assassinated just before the ending of the Civil War. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The fight for slavery to end was in part due to him. Abraham Lincoln was a great impact to a lot of people during the Civil War, people still look up to his many achievements. When General McClellan abandoned the chance to pursue the Confederates on their run back to Virginia, Lincoln was keenly disappointed. Due to this failed attempt, General McClellan was, therefore, replaced by General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Two leaders during the Civil War were General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. General Lee came from a distinctive family in Virginia. After graduating with high honors at West Point, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers. His superior officer described him as “the vert best soldier I ever saw in the field.” Despite all of this, Lee hated the horrors of war. When the Civil War broke out, Lee was torn between choosing the Union and his home state of Virginia. In the end, however, Lee chose the Confederate side. “I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, and my home.” he said. After four years of war and the horror of it, General Robert E. Lee decided to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in Richmond, Virginia.
President Abraham Lincoln demanded a decisive victory. He was tired of his military leadership’s inability to decisively engage and defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Allowing the war to drag on was to the Confederacies advantage. Lincoln was so frustrated that he relieved General George B. McClellan for failing to defeat Lee at Antietam, and replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside, who proved to be very conservative in battle against General Lee. Knowing that General Lee was a student of Napoleonic warfare, Burnside feared that Lee always had a large Corps in reserve waiting to flank should he be decisively engaged from the front.
When we compare the military leaders of both North and South during the Civil War, it is not hard to see what the differences are. One of the first things that stand out is the numerous number of Northern generals that led the “Army of the Potomac.” Whereas the Confederate generals, at least in the “Army of Northern Virginia” were much more stable in their position. Personalities, ambitions and emotions also played a big part in effective they were in the field, as well as their interactions with other officers.
...ces. The weary Confederate forces were overcome and Van Dorn ordered a withdrawal. The battle had been won by the Union (Battle). Van Dorn went across the Mississippi, abandoning all of the operations west of on the western side of it. Therefore, the Union controlled all of the area to the west of the Mississippi. The Union kept control of this area for 2 more years before there was any dispute. By controlling one whole front of the war, the Union's victory was much easier and more probable than before.
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, showed weaknesses within his leadership which may have contributed to the confederacy’s loss and the unions win . Davis failed in three vital ways. These ways were: his relations with other confederate authorities and with the people, as well as in his fundamental concept of his job as president and in his organization and specific handling of his role as commander in chief . Davis failed in maintaining communication with leaders and with his people, often unable to admit when he is wrong which led to lack organization in his role . In addition, Davis was a conservative leader, not a revolutionary one which meant that his strength was often in protocol and convention rather than in innovation . Studying each of these aspects that represented a weakness in Jefferson Davis’s leadership, Lincoln in comparison provided more admirable and outstanding qualities within his leadership which in many ways affected the outcome of the war
Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman observed to a Southern friend that, "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. . . .You are bound to fail." While Sherman's statement proved to be correct, its flaw is in its assumption of a decided victory for the North and failure to account for the long years of difficult fighting it took the Union to secure victory. Unquestionably, the war was won and lost on the battlefield, but there were many factors that swayed the war effort in favor of the North and impeded the South's ability to stage a successful campaign.
Grant viewed the Battle of Cold Harbor as a means to complete his Overland Campaign, and ultimately, be the driving force for Union victory of the Civil War. Grant chose the Army of the Potomac to be the decisive operation and General George G. Meade acted as the commander. Though both Generals were experienced leaders, they had different skills, abilities and opinions that not only led to a dysfunctional command climate, but also was a major reason for the Union loss of the Battle of Cold Harbor. Grant viewed his command position as a strategic role with subordinate Meade making the tactical decisions, but Meade did not view...
General Lee said, to be a good soldier you must love the army, to be a good general you must be prepared to order the death of the thing you love, and therein lies the great trap of soldiering. When you attack you must hold nothing back." Thomas J. Jackson was both a good soldier and a good general. In the Mexican War he fought with all his heart for his country. When the Civil War came, he was a general. He never hesitated to send his men forward. He held nothing back. George McClellan also fought with all his heart for his country in the Mexican War. When the time came to send his men forward in the Civil War, he couldn’t do it. He loved the army to much to order its death.
In the historical narrative Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Leman gives readers an insight into the gruesome and savage acts that took place in the mid-1870s and eventually led to the end of the Reconstruction era in the southern states. Before the engaging narrative officially begins, Lemann gives a 29-page introduction to the setting and provides background information about the time period. With Republican Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States of America and Republican Adelbert Ames, as the Governor of Mississippi, the narrative is set in a town owned by William Calhoun in the city of Colfax, Louisiana. As a formal military commander, Ames ensured a
Grant's following campaigns revealed his determination to apply merciless pressure against the Confederacy by coordinating the Union armies and exploiting the economic strength of the North. While Grant accompanied the Army of the Potomac in its ov...
A successful army requires discipline, but Confederate soldiers refused to concede authority to anyone they did not vote for, at least in the beginning. Confederate soldiers were also prone to shirking duties they deemed menial, and some even left the army without dismissal if they believed they had served long enough. In the uppermost chain of political command, Jefferson Davis proved deficient in quelling the media outlets which railed against his decisions at nearly every turn. Davis gave deference to the right of free speech no matter how damaging it was. Donald then uses these points to highlight the Union Army and Lincoln administration’s successes. The North had the advantage of numerous immigrant conscripts who were used to being ordered around, so the pecking order was easily established from the beginning. In the political realm, Abraham Lincoln did not let Constitutional rights obstruct his goals; Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and threw defamatory journalists into prison. The Union thus had the unity it needed to achieve victory in the face of the South’s
Grant has an illustrious past. People talked about his being a drunkard but Catton says “He was simply a man infinitely more complex then most people could realize.” Grant, even though he was a West Point graduate, never wanted to be a soldier or to have a life in the military. He wanted to be a teacher. What Grant did bring to the Army of the Potomac was his ability to relate to the soldiers and made them his army. He completely retrained and re-organized the armies, and re-enlisted troops that were going to go home. They all realized that under Grant the Army of the Potomac changed which meant now that the entire war would change.
One of the most colorful characters of the Civil War was a General named William T. Sherman. During the period of the war (1861-1865), General Sherman went full circle from being forced to retire on trumped up charges that he was insane, to becoming a key player in bringing this bloody war to a close. He entered the annals of military history as one of the greatest and most distinguished generals of all time.
Early described the winner general Ulysses Grant as an unskilled killer because it was his indecisiveness circumstances that him a winner, that he did not really truly deserved it. After the fight for generalship of Grant, the person who lost it was Robert E. Lee in an unjustifiable position to the South. Since Early has a big passionate interest of how people are going to judge the Confederacy and he is a huge fan of Robert E. Lee ever since the very beginning of the Civil War. These are many of the ideas that contribute in the Myth of the Lost Cause for explaining how the secession and the defeat of the Confederate were spread around throughout the years of the Civil War. Early has an important role in how he shaped history differently, he wanted to leave a legacy for the South and that they should not be
The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves. Although Reconstruction failed in many aspects such as the upraise in white supremacy and racism, the reconstruction era was a time the United States took a lead in the direction of race equality.
By fall of 1862 the Union Army believed the Civil War was all but over. They had suffered loss after loss on the battlefield, and it didn’t seem that was going to change any time soon. Many in power held this belief also, but were not willing to give