First Battle Of Bull Run: Strengths And Weaknesses

The challenges that the Union and the Confederacy faced during the Civil War were very different. Critical weaknesses that seemed unfit for war, plagued the opposing American forces, and would serve to be a continuous obstacle that would need to be conquered by patriotism of the people, for their opposing views. To allow for both sides to be competitive, the efforts put forth had to mold to the varied needs of the armies by both the civilian population and their militaries. To the people in the south the similarity to the colonists in the Revolutionary War, was assimilated to their separatist cause in the Civil War and would be their drive to compete with the dominating Northern states. This mindset started the Confederacy in the Civil

The weather on the day of battle was hot, in the mid 80’s to low 90’s, and humid. The heat had a negative effect on Union soldiers. The Union Army set out at 2 a.m. to avoid engaging in battle during the hottest part of the day. Many of these Soldiers were untrained in road marches and lacked discipline. They would break ranks to find water, rest or collect blackberries. For these reasons they reached Bull Run three hours late and consequently ended up fighting well into the day. Both sides went into the battle with high morale. They believed that over the course of a few days they would be victorious and the war would be won in this one battle. The terrain of the Battle was mostly rolling country side. Bull Run River was running through the battlefield, which is what the battle was named after. Soldiers had to

The President of the Union at this time, Abraham Lincoln, had instructed Major General Pope to defend Washington incase of a Confederate attack. He was also told to take his army to Gordonsville to distract the Confederates away from McClellan's army. On the Confederate side, General Lee was confident enough to take

The Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas to the Confederate States of America, was the first major battle of the Civil War. The battle would be a rude wake up call for everyone entering the war. This paper will explore the various details of the battle, including its importance.

In 1861 the American Civil War started. The country was divided into the North (Union) and The South (Confederates). Robert E. Lee was the leading general for the South. Ulysses S. Grant was the leading General for the North. The Union had 23 states which were California,Michigan,Connecticut,Minnesota,Illinois,New Hampshire,Indiana,New Jersey,Iowa,New York,Kansas,Ohio,Maine,Oregon,Massachusetts,Pennsylvania,Rhode Island,VErmont,West Virginia and Wisconsin. The South on the other hand only had 11 which were Alabama,Arkansas,Florida,Georgia,Louisiana,Mississippi,North and South Carolina,Tennessee,Texas and Virginia. The North and many ways had a great advantage in the war because they had more men, more factories to build supplies, and a larger navy. On the other hand the South only had to defend their land from the Invading Union.

From the onset of the war, the Union had its obvious advantages. They simply had large amounts of resources of which the South did not. "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. You are bound to fail" --Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman to a Southern friend. Over 85 percent of the nation's industry and significant material resources were controlled by the North. The North was able to use take power of their economical advantages to produce military supplies, and replace damaged equipment more rapidly than the Confederacy. On top of that, forces for the field could be re-supplied rapidly because

The Union was invading and fighting in the South, which was unfamiliar territory for them. This highlights the Norths disadvantage as they did not know where they would be most vulnerable. The Union also had to fight an offensive war, which meant they had to invade the So the, hold down occupied territory and capture Washington or New York to win the war. This proves that they had disadvantages as an offensive war is much harder to fight than a defensive one. Grant argues that “The South had a strategic advantage as the North was compelled to invade to force the South back into the Union”.

The third major part of the North was their military. The Union had a larger population, and there for, they had a larger army. They also had more guns and rails to move supplies and troops to the front lines. They even had a better navy than the South, and were able to successfully blockade Southern trading ports, cutting off European trade (Davidson and Stoff pg 488). There were some slight issues, however, with the army.

The Civil War was a very gruesome war. The war had become the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South). During the war the union and confederacy had many weaknesses and strengths. Some of them are technology, army/military and government.

Each general that was appointed commander of the army in the east had his own plans when it came to defeating the Confederates. Beginning with McDowell, the first general to command a large army in the war, the task seemed

     The first Battle of Bull Run took place near Manassas Junction, Virginia, an important railroad junction twenty five

Union and the Confederacy. The Union and the Confederacy would have gone to war anyway without it because people already determined which side that they would choose . For the Confederacy's military strategy come to found out that they only protected its boundaries so that they could fulfill independence and political strategies. The Confederate constitution had dominated gradual emancipation. As for the Union leaders military strategy they were using a pugnacious military campaign to reinstall the Union and the political strategies were using secession as an attack on representative government. I would say that the Union was more successful because with their strategy they deciding to come up with a campaign to restore the Union and that their

The confederate army was much smaller than the Union. The Union Army had better artillery, and was able to manufacture their own artillery. The Confederate Army had to smuggle most of their artillery pieces into the country from foreign sources, and was made up very largely of non-immigrant soldiers. The general rank of the Confederacy was usually significantly superior in training and education. The South also had better cavalry, possibly because of a greater emphasis upon that branch of arms, and possibly because Southerners grew up in a horse culture and a large percentage of them knew how to ride from an early age.

In Virginia the first battle of the Civil War was fought, near Manassas, Virginia railroad junction, after which the battle is called (or First Bull Run, named after the flowing stream on the battlefield, if of the Union point of view). The armies in this first battle were not prodigious by later Civil War principles. The Federal services under Brigadier General Irvin McDowell were well thought-out into four divisions, of about 30,000 men. These divisions were commanded by Tyler, Hunter, Heintzelman, and Miles. The Confederate command structure was to some extent more unmanageable, including two "armies", with no division structure and thirteen independent brigades under Bonham, Ewell, Jones, Longstreet, Cocke, Early, Holmes,

The American Civil War was one of the deadliest wars in American history, resulting in 620,000 casualties of soldiers and undetermined number of civilian casualties. Southern slave states declared their withdrawal from United States and formed the Confederate States of America; also know as “The Confederacy.” Northern twenty states free of slavery and five slave states in north came to knows as the Union. Many strategy and tactics were used during the American Civil War. In order to understand the military strategy and tactics of Union and the Confederacy, one must understand the manpower each side had, previous war experience of the commanding officers on both side, and using rivers and railroad to their advantages.