Pacey KuhnMr. HorneAmerican History 1 Honors P.212/11/17The strategies of the war During the American Civil War with the help of the generals of the Confederate army, they out strategize the Union army. With the leadership of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson and other generals, the Confederate army had better war strategies than the North. The Confederate army fought a defensive war making the Union army fight a mostly offensive war, therefore, the south had the home field advantage.The first “battle” of the American Civil War was Fort Sumter the Confederate army put the Union army into a tough spot when they surrounded the fort.
They knew that they couldn’t reinforce the fort because the Union didn’t want to anger the slave’s states that had not succeeded, they couldn’t leave the fort because it would make them look soft and they couldn’t just have over the fort because that recognizes the Confederate States of America as a sovereign nation. They didn’t want that to happen so finally the Confederate States of America bombarded the fort with mortar fire and cannon fire. At the end of the battle the South had come away with the win, they took over the fort and then after taking over the fort states like North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded the union.What was weird about this is that there were zero casualties in the bombardment of Fort Sumter the only death was after the battle in an accidental explosion during a plan 100 gun salute.The most famous generals during the American Civil War was Robert E Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson for the Confederate army and for the North their most famous generals was GeorgeMcClellan and Ulysses S Grant.The south had better generals Robert E Lee actually attended West Point Military Academy and then later became the superintendent for west point that’s how good of a general he was.
McClellan also had experienced he was a commander in the Mexican American War along with Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses Grant and George McClellan. A major advantage that the Confederate army had was that most people in the Confederate States of America knew how to shoot a gun and had pretty good aim so the generals for the south could make better battle plans because they had better soldiers than the Union. The Union troops were so inexperienced and barely could shoot a gun because some people in the Union army came straight out of factories and had never shot a gun in their lives, so they had to spend time teaching them how to shoot guns and that took time away from making strategies. Another advantage for the Confederate army is that some troops even fought in the Mexican-American War so they had some knowledge of strategies and with shooting a gun.
During the war, 620,00 troops died.In the battle of Chancellorsville, the generals were Robert E Lee for the Confederates and for the Union, Joseph Hooker. During this battle, Robert E Lee told his troops to flank the Union troops, this is an example of how excellent of a strategist Robert E Lee was back in the American Civil War. Some believe that this is Robert E Lee’s greatest victory in the American Civil War. It was almost a complete victory but nightfall prevented that from happening. The reason why people believe that this is the greatest victory for Robert E Lee in the American Civil War because the Union had twice the amount of troops that the Confederate army had.
Many believe that if it was flipped and if the Confederate army had twice as many troops as the Union army had.Many believe that the Confederate army would destroy the Union. So, because of the great strategist that Robert E Lee was, he was able to put a battle plan in place to take advantage of the Confederates advantages and win the battle.During this battle, 30,764 casualties in this battle 17,304 casualties were Union soldier the other 13,460 casualties were Confederate troops Some say that the north had better war strategies because the North had some good strategies like the Anaconda plan.”The Anaconda plan, the military strategy proposed by Union General Winfield Scott early in the American Civil War.
The plan called for a naval blockade of the Confederate littoral, a thrust down the Mississippi, and the strangulation of the South by Union land and naval forces.”(The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica).This is how the union won the war because they made it a war of Attrition not a war of strategies but this is only one good strategy that the Union had the Confederate had many good strategies like flanking and other strategies that helped them when many early battles like the battle of Bull Run, the battle of Antietam but then the anaconda plan took effect and the South ran out of supplies and had to surrender.Another strategy is Sherman march is was an act of total war on Sherman’s march he burnt down everything in sight because he’s thought was that people in the Confederate troops would lose moral and then their troops would leave the army because they had to go home to protect their family from Sherman’s march to their house wouldn’t get burnt down or they would pack up and leave so they didn’t get burnt with their house. Another battle in the American Civil War is the battle of Gettysburg that started on July 1st the leading general was Robert E Lee for the Confederate States of America and for the United States of America the leading general was George G.
Meade.Robert E Lee was the better general in this battle because he was more experienced.A good thing that the Confederate States of America did was before this battle Robert E Lee gathered his troops 35 miles southwest of Harrisburg Pennsylvania to get all their plans together and also to make sure they all had good strategies so that they will be better prepared to take on the Union army.But this did not battle didn’t go as planned for the Confederate army so Robert E Lee had to make a decision on what to do a decision he made was a bad decision because he sent Liternet Richard S Ewell on a march on Cemetery Hill in this battle he sent troops into an open field to attack the south during this march they faced some obstacles because they had to jump over fences with no cover to hide from gunfire also during this battle the Union had an uphill advantage so the Confederates had to go up a hill with people shooting cannons, guns,and mortars and them with no cover to hide from the gunfire so 28,063 Confederate troops died in the three day battle of Gettysburg. In conclusion, I have shown you with all the flanks and tough spots the South has putthe North making them not give any reinforcements at all to Fort Sumter, I know people will say that the Union had better strategies than the Confederates because of the anaconda plan but I’m here to say that Confederate army had better war strategies than the North. The Confederate army fought a defensive war making the Union army fight a mostly offensive war, therefore, the South had the home field advantage.
