The Civil War Between the South and North, Essay Example

The Civil War between the South and North that followed Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 to the presidency claimed over 600,000 American lives and seriously jeopardized the balance of power in the Western Hemisphere. When Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to suppress the revolt of the South after April 1861 when Fort Sumter fell, the federal government possessed immense dominance in human and material resources needed to guide the war in an industrial age. However, the Confederacy had a number of factors in its favor. The North had to conquer large territories and crack the will of the Southern people to gain victory. The main goal of the Union strategy was to get the southern states back into the Union.

The North in the beginning of the Civil War already had a number of advantages.  Twice as much railroad mileage as the South, 22 million people, almost all of the naval power and shipyards, 85% of nation’s factories were among the North’s jurisdiction.

Speaking about the strategy of the North, during 1861-1862 the strategy was implicated to not be a sanguinary offence. The Anaconda Plan devised by the commanding general of the U.S. Army, Winfield Scott, foresaw to win this war with as little bloodshed as possible. The idea of the plan was that a North blockade of the main ports would make the Confederate economy weaker. The next step of the plan was to split the South by capturing the Mississippi River. Even though Lincoln accepted the plan, he overruled Scott’s cautions against an immediate attack on Richmond. In May 1861, Abraham Lincoln enacted the Union blockade of all Southern ports by ending regular international shipments to the Confederacy. By the end of 1861, the blockade embraced most local port-to-port traffic. This blockade started to ruin the Southern economy by shutting down King Cotton. British investors traded arms and luxuries brought in from Cuba, Bermuda, and the Bahamas with the help of small, fast “blockade runners” in return for expensive cotton and tobacco. However, the Confederate Navy ventured a fight against the Union Navy on March 8, 1862, when the ironclad ran the blockade. It seemed unstoppable against the wooden ships. The next day, however, CSS Virginia had to fight the new North warship USS Monitor in the Battle of the Ironclads which ended in a draw, and brought a strategic victory for the North. After that victory the blockade sustained further.

It took the North several years before it finally adopted a strategy that would ultimately win this war. This strategy of total war, implemented by General Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip Sheridan regarded completely destroying the Confederate armies as well as South’s economic infrastructure, including the whole institution of slavery. It was a great contribution of the African American troops who played an essential role in achieving a Northern victory. The availability of numerous black troops ultimately allowed Abraham Lincoln not to compromise on the chronic issue of emancipation.

Moreover, military innovations created during the American Civil War had played one of the major roles in the success and victory of the Union armies. Military innovations during the Civil War were demonstrated in various forms. New strategies and tactics, weapons, all contributed to the final victory of the North over the South. Today we know the Civil War to be the origin of modern warfare. Heavy artillery combined with accurate long-range guns, and the first usage of modern reconnaissance formed a deadly and efficient army that the Confederate had never anticipated. These warfare innovations created the favorable conditions for further warfare development used in the First World War.

Resources

Civil War (1861 – 65): Military and Diplomatic Course. (n.d.). The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/civil-war-1861-65-military-and-diplomatic-course

Jensen, R.,(2001). Civil War part 1 1861-1862. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/cw-1.htm