The Civil War by James I. Robertson (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) đź“•
Read free book «The Civil War by James I. Robertson (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: James I. Robertson
- Performer: -
Read book online «The Civil War by James I. Robertson (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕». Author - James I. Robertson
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Civil War, by James I. Robertson, Jr.
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
Title: The Civil War
Author: James I. Robertson, Jr.
Release Date: December 26, 2018 [EBook #58549]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CIVIL WAR ***
Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
by
JAMES I. ROBERTSON, JR.
Washington 25, D. C.
U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission
1963
Thousands of student requests for information on the Civil War prompted the publication of this booklet. Its purpose is to present in simple language a survey of the eleven most popular aspects of the 1861-1865 conflict. This guide is intended as a supplement, not a substitute, for American history textbooks.
Space limitations prevented mention of each of the 6,000 engagements of the Civil War. Thus, while such actions as the battle of Picacho Pass, Ariz., and Quantrill’s sacking of Lawrence, Kan., had import for their particular locales, they of necessity had to be omitted. In those battles herein discussed, statistics for armies and losses are those generally accepted. The map midway in the booklet may help familiarize the student with the various theaters of military operations. After each section is a list of works recommended for those who desire more detailed information on the subject.
Relatively little consideration of the political, economic, and social history of the period was possible within the limits of this small work. However, the Commission can supply upon request and without charge the following pamphlets treating in part of those subjects: Emancipation Centennial, 1962: A Brief Anthology of the Preliminary Proclamation; Free Homesteads for All Americans: The Homestead Act of 1862, by Paul W. Gates; The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities, by Allan Nevins; and Our Women of the Sixties, by Sylvia G. L. Dannett and Katharine M. Jones.
The Commission is deeply indebted to the Editorial Advisory Board members, each of whom rendered valuable assistance toward the final draft of the narrative.
James I. Robertson, Jr., Executive Director U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I. Causes of the Civil War 5 II. Advantages of North and South 7 III. Summary of Military Campaigns 11 1861 11 1862 in the West 13 1862 in the East 17 1863 in the West 21 1863 in the East 23 1864 25 1865 30 IV. Losses 35 V. Navies 37 VI. Diplomacy 42 VII. Prisons and Prisoners of War 45 VIII. Arms 48 IX. Leaders 52 X. The Common Soldiers 57 XI. The War’s Legacy 62 XII. Suggested Topics for Further Discussion 64Construction of the U. S. Capitol was still in progress when civil war began.
I. CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WARHistorians past and present disagree sharply over the major cause of the Civil War.
Some writers have viewed the struggle of the 1860’s as a “war of rebellion” brought on by a “slavepower conspiracy.” To them it was a conflict between Northern “humanity” and Southern “barbarism.” James Ford Rhodes, who dealt more generously with the South than did many other Northern writers of his time, stated in 1913: “Of the American Civil War it may safely be asserted that there was a single cause, slavery.”
Other historians, such as Charles A. Beard and Harold U. Faulkner, have argued that slavery was only the surface issue. The real cause, these men state, was “the economic forces let loose by the Industrial Revolution” then taking place in the North. These economic forces were strong, powerful, and “beating irresistibly upon a one-sided and rather static” Southern way of life. Therefore, the 1860’s produced a “second American Revolution,” fought between the “capitalists, laborers, and farmers of the North and West” on the one hand, and the “planting aristocracy of the South” on the other.
A third theory advanced by historians is that the threat to states’ rights led to war. The conflict of the 1860’s was thus a “War between the States.” Many in this group believe that the U. S. Constitution of 1787 was but a compact, or agreement, between the independent states. Therefore, when a state did not like the policies of the central government, it had the right to withdraw—or secede—from this compact.
Still other writers believe “Southern nationalism” to have been the basic cause of the war. Southerners, they assert, had so strong a desire to preserve their particular way of life that they were willing to fight. This then became a struggle between rival sections whose differences could not be settled peacefully. The result was a “War for Southern Independence.”
Slaves working in a field across the river from Montgomery, Ala., first capital of the Confederacy.
A recent group of historians, known as “revisionists,” rejects these earlier theories. Leader of the revisionist school was the late James G. Randall, who once stated: “If one word or phrase were selected to account for the war, that word would not be slavery, or economic grievances, or states rights, or diverse civilizations. It would have to be such a word as fanaticism.” Another revisionist, Avery O. Craven, agrees. The Civil War, he wrote, resulted because the great mass of American people “permitted their short-sighted politicians, their overzealous editors, and their pious reformers” to control public opinion and action. Primarily through the slavery issue, these radicals created more and more hatred between North and South. In the end, and as a result of these radicals, the differences between the sections, swelled by “a blundering generation,” burst into a war.
Fort Sumter in 1865, as viewed from a sandbar. The fort’s battered walls are clearly visible.
II. ADVANTAGES OF NORTH AND SOUTHFew nations have been as unprepared for a full-scale war as was the United States in 1861. The U. S. Army consisted of barely 17,000 men. Most of the soldiers were stationed at remote outposts on the western frontier. To make matters worse for the Union, a large number of army officers who had been born in the South and educated at West Point resigned from the army and offered their services to the Confederacy.
The U. S. Navy was in an equally bad state. It had performed little duty since the War of 1812. The Navy had a total of 90 ships, but only 42 of them were in active service at the outbreak of civil war. Of this number, 11 fell into Confederate hands with the capture of the naval base at Norfolk, Va., in April, 1861. The remaining vessels were scattered around the world. Moreover, 230 of 1,400 naval officers joined the forces of the Confederacy.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the North seemed to possess every advantage:
(1) 23 Northern states aligned against only 11 Southern states. (Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were slave states, but they remained in the Union. Also, the western counties of Virginia revolted and formed their own state when the Old Dominion cast her lot with the Confederacy.)
(2) The population of the Northern states was approximately 22,000,000 people. The Southern states had only 9,105,000 people, and one-third of them (3,654,000) were slaves. The great difference in population, plus a steady flow of European immigrants into the Northern states, gave the Union tremendous manpower. Over 2,000,000 men served in the Federal armies, while no more than half that number fought for the South.
The “General Haupt” was one of several locomotives seized by Federals on the Orange & Alexandria (now Southern) Railroad.
(3) The North had 110,000 manufacturing plants, as compared with 18,000 in the Confederate States. The North produced 97% of all firearms in America, and it manufactured 96% of the nation’s railroad equipment.
Although the South possessed few manufacturing plants in 1861, Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works produced such items as machinery, cannon, submarines, torpedoes, and plates for ironclad ships.
(4) Most of the country’s financial resources were in the North.
In view of the North’s statistical superiority in so many areas, people often do not understand how the Civil War lasted four long years. Many reasons account for this:
(1) Both North and South needed many months of preparation before they were ready for full-scale war.
(2) For at least the first eighteen months of the war, the Confederacy was able to obtain many supplies from sympathetic nations in Europe. Not until late in 1862 did the Federals have enough ships to blockade effectively the major Southern ports.
(3) Southern armies generally fought on the defensive. It does not require as many men to hold a position as it does to attack and seize that position.
(4) Moreover, every time the Federals captured a city, bridge, road junction, or other important point, men had to be left behind to guard these places. To the Northern armies also went the task of sheltering, feeding, and to some extent training thousands of freed or runaway slaves. Therefore, even though the Federal armies greatly outnumbered the Confederate forces, the North needed more men to fight the war.
(5) In that age armies rarely fought in wintertime, a season of cold weather and deep mud. Most of the military campaigns took place between April and October. Hence, little activity occurred for about half of each year.
Before surveying the military campaigns, the student should bear in mind two more important, but somewhat confusing, points: each side named its armies by different systems, and each side used different methods for identifying battles.
The North named its armies for large rivers, while the South designated its forces by large areas of land. For example, the Federal Army of the Potomac fought against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. This difference of names could and did sometimes become perplexing. An illustration of this occurred in the Western theater, where the Federal Army of the Tennessee (river) campaigned against the Confederate Army of Tennessee (state).
Likewise, both sides used different methods in naming battles.
Comments (0)