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Civil War Research Paper

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Broderick Perlman December 10, 2014 Professor Padgett History of the Civil War Final paper Research Paper The dictionary defines a leader as “the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country.” It takes a great leader to make a country run smoothly, properly and have it be as successful as possible. Abraham Lincoln was that great leader, he was able to command respect, think rationally about all decisions and lead his nation to great heights in the mist of such a terrible tragedy. Unfortunately the south did have such a leader to run their country in the time of the Civil War. Jefferson Davis was an inept leader that sealed doom for his nation in the most important war of all time for the confederacy. Although he was very …show more content…

As a new nation it was time to choose a leader to run this country. In 1861 senator Jefferson Davis was promoted Major General of the Mississippi army. However, he needed for greater things. Jefferson Davis at this point had such a decorated resume that he seemed like an easy choice for a candidate to begin to run this new nation. He was willing to do whatever his country needed of him. The election was held and he won by a majority. After receiving this honor he did not show jubilation, but rather concern for the years ahead for him. Early in to Davis’s presidency he was already facing the toughest choice of his life. Fort Sumter was up in the air for who was going to control it, the North or the South. Davis has to decide whether or not to use military force to take it and potentially start a war between the North and the South. He thought it would show weakness to not use force to take it and thus started the Civil War. Davis quick thinking realizing how brutal the war could possibly immediately assigned one of the best generals in the world at this point, Robert E. Lee, to lead the troops if the South. From that point on most the military strategy came either Davis himself or from Robert E. Lee with very few others making any impact on the strategy. Davis ended up becoming consumed with power and started making bone headed decisions. He chooses to ignore Robert E. Lee’s advice and tried to defend every part of the south with the same amount of effort. This ended up spreading his forces much to thin and made them very vulnerable to any sort of attack. “Throughout the devastation, although not without objection, Davis maintained his position as the military and civilian leader of the Confederacy” . “As President of the Confederacy, Davis orchestrated a war effort that resulted in the death of at least 620,000 Confederate and Union soldiers and an

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