Compare And Contrast Confederate And Robert E Lee

The Civil War was not only a time of regional tension, but of personal tension, especially for Confederate army leaders. The constant pressure from needing to defend and protect Southern independence contributed to the rise of anxiety and stress related medical disorders. Robert E. Lee, a brilliant Confederate general and skilled tactician, was such a case. General Lee 's health during his pre-Civil War years was without blemish. However, with the beginning of the Civil War, Lee 's health experienced noticeable decline. Later in his life, doctors diagnosed Lee with pericarditis, but more modern clinical evaluations of Robert E Lee 's symptoms conclude that his condition was more likely attributed to stress induced ischemic heart disease (Mainwaring-Tribble 244). Lee’s condition was accelerated by the wartime stress and contraction of malaria in 1863, leading to pains on the battlefield which impaired strategical judgment.

It can be said that the South began the Civil War from a winning position. They had declared their independence, formed their own country and government, and they needed only to keep what they already had. But this was a monumental task as the government was required to protect every inch of land within the Confederacy. As a new country, the Confederacy needed to demonstrate the ability to defend its own territory from external threat. Without this ability, the Confederacy could never receive the international recognition and support it needed to survive. Aside from this reason, the South also needed to protect the institution of slavery from outside interference. If the Northern armies took control of a particular Southern area, the Confederates felt that they would free all the slaves, thus destroying the entire structure of society and its economic value. Because of this, Jefferson Davis was forced to devise a flawed war strategy which attempted to preserve the entire Confederacy at the cost of concentrating his forces.

Soldiers on both sides interpreted the meaning of the War for Independence in differing ways. The Confederates thought they were fighting for their own independence from a tyrannical government, while northerners believed they were fighting to preserve the Union. The initial impulse of why men enlisted for war came from what the French called rage military, which according to McPherson is a sense of duty, honor, and patriotism for your country (McPherson, 16). For the North the initial anger and fighting spirit came right at the beginning of the declaration of war. For the original Confederate states, it was not the attack on Fort Sumter that sparked their enthusiasm, but the when they seceded from the union. The upper Southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee joined the Confederacy when Lincoln called for troops. The Confederates fought for liberty while the

They believed that slavery could not co-exist in a country that was founded on the ideology of freedom. However, they eventually found themselves fighting to help free the slaves rather than fighting for each other. The Confederate Army was fighting to maintain its grip on slavery as it was ever so important to their economy and way of life. They depended on it so greatly that they would be willing to risk their lives on order to hold on to it.

The Union and the Confederate Armies had many strategies in the first half of the war as they experience success and defeats from both sides. As part of a strategy for the confederacy they created an army from scratch equipping them with lots of many useful sources, while the North/Union didn’t have to as they had navy and armies. After the South separated they reorganized themselves and expanded their militias which were more like clubs. An Union plan was when the obstruction of the Southern line was taking place they had over one hundred thousand volunteers that became part of the navy who were to take hold of the Union ships. As challenging it might have been and costly they had armed their soldiers with riffles which a lot of it was imported.

The reason why most men enlisted in the Union in 1861 was for one major reason, that was patriotism and keeping the spirit of 1776 alive. The Northern view on the spirit of 1776 was the goal of preserving the Union that was created by the Founding Fathers. As one Yankee Volunteer declared, “I do feel that the liberty of the world is placed in our hands to defend and if we are overcome then farewell to freedom” . Union soldiers believed and fought for the idea that America continued to be the last best hope for freedom. The soldiers believed that a defeat would weaken America’s perception by Europeans

The American Civil War was, at this point, surrounded in controversy and every decision needed to be perfectly correct to prohibit the other army gaining any tactical advantage over each other. Also, the Confederate army had had the best start anyone fighting a war could have with many major victories. However, one mistake seemed to change a lot when a group of Union soldiers found a case of cigars with the Confederate plans and troop movements wrapped around them. Written by General Robert E. Lee’s Chief of Staff, Colonel Robert Chilton, it stated that Lee’s troops split up into five different groups, with one taking Harpers Ferry. Union General George McClellen knew then that he could take on the divided Confederates and picked Antietam as his attacking point (Hale 4). Lee’s plan however was similar. He wished to split his troops to

The union had way more troops than the confederacy, the union had the support of its immigrants. The confederacy had less troops to fight for their side but the confederate army was much more qualified to fight despite their numbers. The Southern Confederates also had Robert E. Lee as their general for their army. Robert E. Lee was at the top of his class when he graduated from the

The South also known as the Confederates was fighting to defend slavery saying it was a god given right for people to own slaves. While the North known as the Union was fighting to abolish slavery because in their minds it was unjust and not fair. This was a war like no other people were using new fighting tactics and starting prisons to enslave those captured during war. More than 409,000 men were captured and put into these camps during the war.

The North (Union) has more soldiers. The north has more factories to produce more weapons to fight. The Union has more population so more people can volunteer to fight. The North had more railroads to transport more supplies. The North fought to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln was the president in the North. Union soldiers felt like the South was disgracing the flag. About 80,000 men volunteered to fight with the Union army. The men who fought were skilled, like they could fix equipment, Make weapons, repair

James McPherson is the author of the book What They Fought For. McPherson breaks the book into three parts, “Chapter 1 will explore Confederate elucidations of this and related themes; chapter 2 will look at the Union side; chapter 3 will analyze the perceptions of the slavery issue by both Confederate and Union soldiers” Through the usage of diaries, and letters from the Union and the Confederate soldiers. Will allow us to depict the reasonings for them fighting in the civil war. McPherson state's, “That book will explore the motives of Union and Confederate soldiers for enlisting and fighting in the Civil War.”1 In my opinion, I believe there are more differences in the motivations that led Confederate (Southern) and Union (Northern) soldiers to fight in the Civil War. I believe there may have been a few

There were two main goals for the Civil War, to end slavery and to have the states as one and be under the Union. South Carolina demanded for the election of a special convention to consider leaving the Union. On December 20, the delegates had an anonymous vote. Soon after hearing this, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana and Georgia seceded as well. From this, delegates from the selected states came together, drafted a constitution and establish the Confederate States of America (provisional government). After the Fort Sumter battle, Lincoln asked for soldiers to fight against the South, from these events Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee left the Union. Many men from the South had to choose between what was right

While the central theme of the war was slavery, men on both sides had different approaches to the war. The North mainly fought to preserve the constitution and to maintain order while the South would fight for honor and the right to not become oppressed. The South felt that the North was becoming like a tyrannical government and decided to fight back much like how the forefathers fought back during the revolutionary war. The Civil War had a much deeper meaning behind it. Slavery was not the only issue that these men were fighting for and McPherson manages to illustrate this perfectly through numerous letters he gathered from soldiers. These men had patriotic reasons to fight. Whether it was about slavery or honor, the American Civil War was a time of hardship and struggling on both sides. The wounds of the nation would take time to heal but we managed to move on and eventually become a single union once

These southern states known as the Confederate states of America believed in the state’s rights and were fighting for the state’s rights to support slavery.

The Confederacy fought the Civil War because they wanted to preserve slavery in the south. The Confederacy had advantages in this conflict. One advantage for the Confederacy was their leaders. Many believed that the Confederacy had better leaders, such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whom were some of the best officers before the war. Another advantage for the Confederacy was that they were fighting in their homeland. The Confederate soldiers knew the terrain better than the Union soldiers, which aided a psychological aspect that they were fighting for their land and families, even though they were vastly outnumbered. Another advantage for the Confederacy was the geography of the south. The Confederacy’s size of 750,000 square miles