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military strategy in the civil war
military strategy in the civil war
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“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on,” a quote by famous United States General and President, Ulysses S. Grant, is very descriptive of the methods he employed during his time as General. He always gave his side the best chance to win. Grant was a dominant general of the Civil War. Some may ask “Was he really a superior general to his predecessors? If so, what really made him superior?” Grant led the Union to a victory over the Confederacy and succeeded in doing what his predecessors failed to do. Ulysses S. Grant was able to win the Civil War for the Union and surpass his predecessors due to his superior military experience and background, appropriate tactics, and better knowledge.
Up until 1863, Grant did not own a job as a main leader of the Union, so his strategies had less of an impact. However, in 1863, Lincoln saw his skill and appointed him to full control of the Western Army of the Union. This was just in time before the Battle of Chattanooga. Grant was given full control of the army in 1864, when he began his final campaign to end the war (Simpson). Grant had easily proven to Lincoln why he should earn the power to command. Other generals before him just did not make the cut, providing further contrast to Grant’s superior form of leadership. To name a few of the well-known generals that Grant had to surpass is an easy task. Major General George McClellan, a man of great persuasion, excelled greatly in pre-battle tasks. His communication with troops was excellent and his tactics were very good as well. He trained his soldiers to the highest degree, but these were the only things he could do. Not on...
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...would the world be like with a separated America?
Works Cited
Chesser, Preston, et al. "George B. McClellan." eHistory Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
"Gen. Grant and the Conduct of the War." Plain Dealer [Cleveland] 6 1 1864: 2. America's Historical Newspapers. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
"George G. Meade." Civil War Trust. Civil War Trust. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Grant, Ulysses S. "The Siege of Vicksburg." Civil War, 1861-1865 (1863). World Book Advanced. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Ramold, Steven. "Ulysses S. Grant." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
Simpson, Brooks D. "Grant, Ulysses S." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Smith, Jean Edward. Grant. New York: Simon, 2001. Print.
Wilson, Richard L. "Grant, Ulysses S." American Political Leaders, American Biographies. Facts on File, 2002. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
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
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.
Lee had supreme confidence in his army, and believed that it could accomplish whatever he asked of it. This confidence sometimes led him to ask too much, such as in the case of Picket’s charge during the battle of Gettysburg. In Lee’s mind he was first and foremost a Christian, and a gentleman. These facts, although not bad, certainly caused Lee to be less aggressive, and to fight the war in a very old-fashioned manner. This was not so with Grant, who seemed to believe in a more modern type of total warfare. Perhaps because this war, as many contend, was the first modern war, it was impossible for the South, and it’s leaders to adapt to the situation.
Williams main theme in Lincoln and His Generals is about the Civil War being the first modern war and Lincoln’s function in the position of President. He introduces the state of the Union army as one that has no shape to it. This includes the lack of any plan of attack, as the thought of war had not been translated into any type of scheme. The armies lacked organization and communication, and existing qualified generals were old and inept. The first task that Lincoln had was the immediate selection of Generals. Lincoln’s selection process was sometimes based on political and personal grounds, and he was in the position of selecting from a pool of generals that had no experience leading a large army. Williams tells us that even if the selection was for political reasons, Lincoln had the ‘national cohesion’ in mind. It appears that control was an important factor in Lincoln’s selections, however, Williams continually argues that if Lincoln had had generals who were more competent he would not have interfered as much. In Lincoln, one sees a willing amateur, one who had the ability to bring out the best in some men, and also learn from them (Williams 11).
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.
Kennedy, Richard S. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00394.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Sun Mar 18 12:31:47 2001 Copgyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Publish by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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...
Both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were men of integrity, determination, passion and great skill. This is where their similarities end as Lee’s empowerment ideology differed from that of Grant’s aristocratic beliefs. Bruce Catton wrote about the two men in the essay, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”. Catton, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Civil War Historian, provides a brief character analysis of both men in this essay. The beliefs that Grant embraced as a frontiersman was more admirable than those aristocratic beliefs of Lee, and more men and women of today should understand and follow Grant’s principles.
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.
In conclusion, Ulysses S. Grant lived an extraordinary life because of his intelligent military intellect. During the Civil War, this man was able to give the Union hope for a victory against the highly trained military leader, Robert E. Lee. The achievement earned him the presidency position for two terms, although he struggled to get the country functioning with unity. Grant will be remembered for his exceptional military success by guiding the Union troops through multiple battles and holding the position of the 18th president of the United States of America.
Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, And Military History Volume 2 D-I, ABC-CLIO Inc, 2000.
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.
Grant, Ulysses Simpson. Personal memoirs of U.S. Grant. Vol. 2. New York: Charles L. Webster &
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).
24.) Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 4th ed. (W.W. Norton, 2012), 759.