Thursday, October 17, 2013

This will only hurt for a minute...

After Fort Sumter when the Union Army began to mobilize, the general consensus was that the US Civil War would be quick--violent, but fast.  Yet in hindsight, we know that the war was anything but  quick--from General McClellan's hesitancy, to bloody battles with high casualty rates but little to no forward momentum.  Plus, it was a constant struggle to adequately staff, clothe, feed and arm each army.

What do you see as the major setbacks in the early stages of the Civil War?  Evaluate the military leadership of the Confederacy versus the sheer lack thereof in the Union.  Why did Lincoln struggle so much to find an adequate military leader?

9 comments:

  1. After reading the articles, I believe that the major setback in the early stages of the civil war was the fact that many saw it as a quick, violent battle instead of a long tedious one. This mindset allowed soldiers to go into battle with a different thought process than if they knew how long the Civil War would really be. They entered with great enthusiasm thinking they would do their jobs quickly and return to their families. The Confederate army was viewed as, “ ineffective and beset by a wide variety of problems,” by Northern newspapers. Unfortunately for Mclellan, Stanton and Lincoln when the Peninsula Campaign “failed,” they were the ones at fault. Lincoln struggled to find an adequate military leader because, “when reaching political decisions, [he] was sensitive to the opinions and influence of the press.”

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  2. All the major setbacks, in a word, is the lack of prepare of the Civil War.
    The Civil War began with only a quick moment while nobody had enough prepare or even didn't have any idea that the war had already begun. Both sides engaged with a fast tempo and fought with many problems that needed to be considered before fighting (adequately staff, clothe, feed and arm each army). The North made mistakes in tactics at the early stage of the Civil War so it failed, while the South was attacking aggressively. At the same time, the war cost a lot not only in money and resources, but also a lot of time, which was unpredictable because many people believed this war could as soon as it could. I think Lincoln struggled so much to find an adequate military leader was because his tactics were not successful and he needed leaders who could make the decisions that could change the whole situation and decided who was the winner.

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  3. I think that Lincoln could not find a general comparable to Robert E Lee because there wasn't as much passion to fight in the North. The South was fighting for their land and their way of life while the North was just fighting for an overall cause that was somewhat skeptical in their own part of the country. Lincoln originally wanted Lee to join the Union forces but he denied and stayed true to his home state of Virginia.

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  4. After reading these articles, I feel like the major set backs of the Civil War were that throughout the 1850s, tensions between the North and the South escalated with violent confrontations. This was especially happened in "Bleeding Kansas." Some Northerners became convinced that Southerners unfairly dominated the legal system in many court cases, especially the one's that said slaves were property and not citizens. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 raised tensions further, as Brown hoped to seize the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in what is now West Virginia to arm the slaves in the South. The raid failed, and Brown was executed. Also, the North made mistakes in there tactics in the early stages of the Civil War. So it failed. While the South was attacking aggressively. Lincoln struggled to find an adequate military leader because, when reaching political decisions, Lincoln was very sensitive to the ideas and influence that the press had.

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  5. The major setback in the early stages of civil war was the miscomprehension's of what most thought it would be. People thought it would be quick, it wasn't, people thought it wouldn't be violent, it was. It caught many off guard and the lack of preparation played into the role of lengthening the war and making it more violent. No side really had a "game plan" which made it a sloppy war.

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  6. Even from the beginning you can see the luckiness of the Union and the military prowess of the Confederacy. Grant incurred casualties of more than 65,000 to reach almost the same position that McClellan reached with approximately 22,000 casualties. Yet McClellan was still considered timid and lacking initiative while Grant was seen as brave, courageous and bold with his vision of "total war". Also as an affect of this sensationalist news journalism there was a spreading idea that the Union will quickly, powerfully, and achieve an overwhelming victory of the Confederacy, adding a profound weight on the shoulder of the Generals. This new power the media had influenced political movement a lot more now that the public opinion can be more easily know, especially with Lincoln. Lincoln had a great respect for the media also, trying to get it to support the war; he understood the news revolution for what it was.

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  8. After reading these selection, one of the major setbacks to the Civil was the Norths's total underestimation of the South's intelligence and drive. North believed that the war would be a violent, but quick war, and that they had already won the war. Southerners had more passion then the North because they were fighting for there "way of life" basically. The influence that the press had on Lincoln when he was making political decisions made him sensitive to the situation at hand and he had difficulty finding an exceptional leader for the Union.

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  9. After reading these articles, I believe the major draw back was that the war was too hastened. Soldiers lacked the knowledge about how much time they would have to spend during war. They thought it was like going to the office and going back home to watch your favorite soap opera at 7pm. They did not understand this was war and it would consume their time and effort. I think that Abraham Lincoln could not find a compatible leader for the North because the north did not really have the true passion to go into the war whereas the south was fighting for a purpose; slaves and their land.

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