Civil War

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Civil War
Community Support will Make or Break 2011 Civil War event in Fredericktown
The 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War will begin in 2011. Only 340 communities in the entire United States were directly involved with battles of this historic war that divided families on both sides The Battle of Fredericktown took place on October 21, 1861, just one mile south of the courthouse.
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Civil war???

I am doing a report on the civil war and i need to know EVERYTHING!!! What were both sides about, which side are you on and why, and tell me everything i will need to know or give me a website

1. True, the original focus of the war was NOT on slavery. But anyone who tries to argue that slavery was dying out or that slavery was not a huge factor in driving the war is engaging in revisionist history:
--the States Rights argument (which was a huge focus issue for many seccesionists) was in part about slavery, the argument that future states added to the US should be slave states or should not be banned from holding slaves.
--look up "Bleeding Kansas". Right before the civil war started, that bloodshed between the Bushwackers and Jayhawkers was completely about slavery.
--Yep, slavery had been abolished in Europe. But the number of slaves (as total numbers in the population) grew every year in the South from 1845-1860. Slavery was GROWING, not dying away. And the richest individuals in the south and the prime industries (cotton and tobacco) were dependent on slavery at that time.

2. Wow, the claim that the South had the best soldiers, the best shots, inflicted significantly more casualties, the best generals and the worst camp was in the North...again, that's a bit over the top.
--The South lost or drew every single major battle in the Western Theater in 4 years of war except for Chickamauga. That's a stunning record of military incompetence. Throughout the war in the over 300 military engagements of consequence, the North won 2/3rds of them. Make a list of great Southern Army or Corps commanders and you come up with Cleburne, Lee and Jackson (maybe Longstreet--though he was unimpressive in the West). Make a list of impressive Union Army commanders and you'd have: Grant, Thomas, Sheridan, Sherman, Meade, Hancock, Sedgwick, and Reynolds (peers who knew them both regarded John Reynolds as Lee's equal). Look at it this way, the South couldn't replace Jackson, Cleburne, Turner Ashby or Jeb Stuart when they died but the North had no problem replacing Sedgwick, Reynolds, Richardson or other good senior officers. That's because they had a lot more good officers than the Confederacy did. As for casualties, Union battlefield deaths came to about 110,070. Confederate battlefield deaths came to about 94,000. That's not much of a difference in total numbers. As for your claim that Southerners were better shots, the reality is that the Union (because of industry) had more rifled guns (with too many Southern boys depended on their own smoothbore muskets they brought from home). Accurate killing range of a smoothbore muzzle loader would be about 100 yards (48 of 50 shots in a test at the time) but at 200 yards only 24 of 50 and at 300 yards only 7 out of 50 shots. Using a rifled musket on the same range with the same marksmen the results were....50 of 50 at 100 yards, 41 of 50 at 200 yards (double the muzzleloader accuracy), 29 of 50 at 300 yards (4x the accuracy of a muzzleloader) and 7 of 50 at 500 yards (the smoothbores made no attempt to fire at 400 or 500 yards). Well, the Union (because of industry and better supplies) had far more rifled muskets and were far more accurate and at greater distances too.

3. Camp Douglas vs. Andersonville. Yes, both were terrible prisons and the records for BOTH sides during the war was terrible. Camp administration at both camps was inexcusable and criminal. More than 6,000 Confederates died at Camp Douglas. 26,000 were held there (80 acres of ground) but the most at one time was 12,000. More than 13,000 Union prisoners died at Andersonville with as many as 32,000 crowded into the camp at one time (26 acres of ground). Additionally, while both sides did some terrible things, the Confederal execution of prisoners (because they were black) at the Crater and Ft. Sill is also embarassing, especially for those who want to argue that the only reason slavery came up was due to manipulation by Lincoln.

4. A very quick summary of the war:
--The southern states seceded. Forces fired on Union troops at Ft. Sumter in Charleston SC harbor. Newly elected US President Lincoln insisted that he would crush the rebellion and force the Southern states back into the Union.
--In the East, the initial conflicts were mixed with the South nearly losing First Manassas (until troops arrived by train to turn the day and make it a rout). Other early battles led to Confederate losses until Joe Johnston was replaced by E.C. Smith who was then replaced by Robert E. Lee. That led to a series of Confederate defensive successes in the East. In the West, the Confederacy failed at all strategic efforts. The Union engaged in a strategy of blockading the South (so they couldn't trade) and succeeded at this. They also adopted a strategy of cutting the South in half (by seizing the Mississippi river)--a strategy that would prove successful and doom the Confederacy. The ineptitude of the Confederate Navy and their inability to defend the Mississippi cost the South the war.

Every time the Confederates tried to go on the offense, they failed either tactically, strategically or both. Shiloh led to massive casualties, a strategic failure and a retreat. Stones River led to the loss of vital agricultural support and two states. Antietam failed to gain any new recruits from Maryland and virtually destroyed Lee's two best units: the Stonewall Brigade and the 1st Texas Brigade. After Gettysburg the South was incapable of offensive warfare any longer. Think of it this way: in the West, the major Southern offensives were at Shiloh and Stone's River and both led to defeats and withdrawals with loss of critical territory while failing to accomplish the initial objectives. In the East, Lee's two offensives were Antietam and Gettysburg. Both failed to accomplish their objectives and both crippled his army in terms of casualties (manpower and generalship).

In the West, the Union was dominate, pretty much running the table against the Confederacy. Vicksburg was probably the single most important battle of the Civil War--once Vicksburg fell, the Union controlled the Mississipi which meant that moving troops and supplies was nearly impossible for the South. In the East, once generals such as Hancock and Meade gained more responsibility, the South started to have problems. When Grant was shifted East, Lee was forced to basically fight just to buy time--trading lives for a few more weeks or a month--the end was pretty much never in doubt at that point.

Grant began to seek out Lee and destroy his army. In a series of engagements in the East, Grant continued to try and circle Lee or beat him to a crucial crossroads in order to get to Richmond. Lee was forced to play reactively and in a totally defensive role. In the West, Sherman led his army through the South, into Georgia and then cut to the East Coast and headed North through the Carolinas, anhialiating every force he faced. Grant continued to stretch his lines knowing that Lee didn't have the manpower to match him. Eventually, Lee conceeded Richmond (so the South's capital fell to the North) and tried to manuever away from Grant but failed, surrendering his forces at Appomattax Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War (fighting continued but it was inconsequential in terms of impact or numbers of casualties).

With hindsight, it's amazing that the Confederacy ever thought they had a chance. They failed to win a single naval engagement during the war. The Union consistently had more and better artillery that was better organized (and this played a decisive role at the 3rd day of Gettysburg, Shiloh and Stones River--probably deciding all 3 battles). They inherited more outstanding officers from the regular army. They had more industry, more people, more agriculture (south produced more cotton and tobacco but the north produced more fruit, corn, wheat, cattle and horses), infrastructure (so supplies were always a problem). Plus after 2 years of fighting, the Union suddenly added 200,000 fresh and highly motivated soldiers (the US Colored Infantry). By the end of the war, every major Confederate city and industrial center had fallen. Every competent or outstanding Confederate senior officer other than Lee had been killed or wounded. As noted historian (and MIssissipi native) Shelby Foote liked to say, the North fought the entire war with one hand behind their back.

The American Civil War is the most defining event in American history. The twentieth century, the American century was moulded by the carnage and devastation of the Civil War. It marked the end of slavery, the fading of the great Southern aristocratic families, the dawning of a new political and economic order and the beginning of big business and government. It was the first time that the world witnessed modern war and the monstrous being that it is.

There is a rippling of inevitability about the Civil War, the very genesis of the nation is wrapped in the insidious nature of slavery, indeed before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Dutch ships had been arriving with their horrific cargoes of slaves stolen from Africa.

History has taught us over and over again that all citizens must be treated equally and not ignored like the black population was during the American Revolution when everyone was patting themselves on the back with the belief that "all men are created equal". But that doctrine had roots in truth and so it blossomed; abolitionists increased greatly in the North and slavery was at the base of most inter-regional disputes.

Simply, there can be no justification for such a heinous policy and eventually it has to be faced, branded what a monster it is, hacked down and done away for good. Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, it sold in the hundreds of thousands, shocking readers with it's account of the hell that was daily life for their fellow Americans.

By the presidential election of 1860, the Democratic party had splintered over the issue of slavery, the Republican Party under Abraham Lincoln romped home to victory. When he was elected, there were thirty-three States in the Union, but by the time of his inauguration there were only twenty-seven remaining.

The secessionist States adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their temporary capital at Montgomery, Alabama. Confederate forces seized most of the federal forts within their boundaries. Ford Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina was one of the few that remained in Federal hands and Lincoln was determined to hold it.

So when Confederate artillery bombarded the fort in the early hours of 12 April 1861, Lincoln sent out the call for the federal states to raise troops to recapture the captured forts, the Civil War had begun. The secessionists struck out to capture Washington while the North's forces were still in disarray, however the cavalry arrived just in time securing the city. There ensued something of a stand off between the two rival capitals glaring at one another across the lush countryside of Virginia.

The two sides eventually clashed in on 21 July 1861 at the Battle of Bull Run, the Northerners had the best of the initial fighting but then stepped up Thomas J. Jackson whose Virginians stood like a Stonewall, forever defining the man. It was the turning point of the battle, the rebels were soon yelping the Johnny Reb shout, which was to become a rallying cry across thousands of battlefields in the coming years, as the northerners were forced into retreat.

The Northern armies were in disarray, the Confederates never followed them, if they had, that might have been that. Many within the Union considered abandoning the secessionists, leaving them to take control of the South, Lincoln refused, calling for the enlistment of a hundred thousand men and placed Henry McClellan in command. McClellan transformed the rabble into the Army of the Potomac, high on confidence and faith.

In the spring of 1862, McClellan attacked Virginia, he made great advances before being halted by Johnston at the gates of Richmond, before been defeated by Lee in the Seven Days Battles. The Confederacy emboldened by their successive successes, invaded the North, Lee leading his forces into Maryland. McClellan met him at the Battle of Antietam on 17 September 1862, halting Lee's advance and forcing him to return to Virginia.

McClellan was relieved of his post and replaced by Burnside who was subsequently defeated by General Lee at the Battle Fredericksburg. General Lee appeared invincible humiliating Hooker, Burnside's successor at the Battle of Chancellorsville. However, Hooker was replaced by Meade who defeated Lee at the definitive Battle of Gettysburg, it turned the tide in favour of the Union forces.

In the Western Theater, the Union had been scoring successes against the Confederates under the master tactician Ulysses S. Grant, including at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Vicksburg. At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln appointed Grant as Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army, who thought similarly in total war, and believed that only total annihilation of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war.

Grant devised a coordinated strategy, outlining plans for his generals to follow, directing Meade and Butler against Lee at Richmond; Sigel to attack the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to capture Atlanta; Crook and Averell to operate in Virginia. It worked, Lee although fighting gallantly, found himself back-pedaling, losing conflict after conflict, eventually realizing that further resistance was futile, he surrendered on 9 April 1865. Small pockets of Confederates continued fighting for a number of months but by the close of June 1865 all fighting had ceased and the American Civil War was over.

Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net http://www.visitscotlandtours.com

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