Tecumseh Sherman Total War Analysis

After the defeat at Fort Sumter there were some northerners that tried to get Lincoln to let the south go. When deciding weather to take Fort Sumter by bombardment, one of Davis's ideas was a bargain with Washington , maybe purchase, for the peaceful turnover of the fort and other federal holding in the seceded states. Thinking Confederate independence was inescapable, Davis prayed that they would slow down long enough to recognize that they could save millions of dollars and many lives by stopping this. He believed that the honor of the Confederate States of America (CSA) would be reestablished if everyone seen Davis challenge Lincoln successfully. While dealing with all of this he still was ready to take Fort Sumter. Davis just wanted peace and to be left alone. The South was fighting a defensive war, which gave it inherent advantage.

The most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65). Began in Atlanta on November 15,1864. Union General William T. Sherman abandoned his supply line and marched across Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean to prove the Confederate population that its government not protect the people from invaders. He believed that by marching an army across the state he would demonstrate to the world that the Union had a power the Confederacy could not resist. After Sherman’s forces captured Atlanta on September 2,1864, Sherman spent several weeks making preparations for a change of base to the cost. Sherman’s March to the

“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.” That is what William T. Sherman believed in, if the people wanted war, then they could have war. William T. Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served in many battles/wars one of which was the Civil War. He was said to have played an important part in the Civil War.

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.

There were several reasons for the defeat of the Confederacy which included no industrial base, (Donald 1996, p. 99) inadequate transportation net (Donald, 1996, p. 99), and bickering among the generals (McPherson & Hogue, 2009, p. 365) etc., but the overriding factor was that the Confederacy never became a nation (Donald, 1996, p. 100). That is, they seceded because the Southern states believed they had the right as independent States to do so (Donald, 1996, p. 7). The South lost because they never stopped believing this. No state could depend on any other for full support of the war. The Governor of Georgia specifically prohibited his troops from fighting outside the state for many months. Many governors set limits on how many

Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman observed to a Southern friend that, "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. . . .You are bound to fail." While Sherman 's statement proved to be correct, its flaw is in its assumption of a decided victory for the North and failure to account for the long years of difficult fighting it took the Union to secure victory. Unquestionably, the war was won and lost on the battlefield, but there were many factors that swayed the war effort in favor of the North and impeded the South 's ability to stage a successful campaign.

General Ulysses S. Grant was a brilliant strategist and seemed to be able to plan out movements in advance. The people of the North thought the tremendous casualties to be horrendous. But Grant knew that the South’s casualties to be much more than the North’s. Grant did have the support and trust of the North though and his record did well to deserve that support. His commanders trusted his completely. Grant’s idea of “Total War” was to break down the infrastructure of the South. The Siege of Petersburg which lasted almost years, then the capture of Richmond is among the battles Grant engaged in while south of the James

Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman observed to a Southern friend that, "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. . . .You are bound to fail." While Sherman's statement proved to be correct, its flaw is in its assumption of a decided victory for the North and failure to account for the long years of difficult fighting it took the Union to secure victory. Unquestionably, the war was won and lost on the battlefield, but there were many factors that swayed the war effort in favor of the North and impeded the South's ability to stage a successful campaign.

James Madison is trying to ask congress to declare war on the United Kingdom. Before June 16, 1812 the British ships raised a blockade against the US. The causes of on June 1, 1812 is that Great Britain was locked in a long and bitter conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte’s France. They attempted to cut off all trade from reaching the enemy. Both sides attempted to block all of the United States from trading.

The Civil War took many tolls on the U.S., but the part that was mostly affected was the South. Not only did the South lose its pride, it lost its economy. At the end of the war, the Southern General Robert E. Lee said, “There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant and I would rather die a thousand deaths.” This shows that Lee lost his pride, his hope, his love in the Confederates. The textbook also says that the South lost many buildings and structures in the Civil War. General Sherman created a bold plan; a "march to the sea." This meant that the Union forces would plow through anything in their way. This meant burned houses, destroyed fields, and destruction all around. This soon came to be known as "total war." This

For example, after encountering the troops that Grant had sent forth, Lee blocked the Union advance on the Totopotomoy Creek. Grant realized how strong the defenses were and organized another move around. Grant’s army would have to bring the Army of Northern Virginia into the open and kill them all. Grant had the idea that all the union armies would move in a pattern on all fronts. This was to put many and merciless military troops onto the confederacy and to prevent the confederates to reinforce one another. Grant’s believed that if Lee’s army failed, Richmond would fall by default and the war would end. This strategy was from hard and desperate fighting and soldiers were not at their best because this plan made incredible demands on one average soldier, and the decision about making the attack was from invalid assumptions about what the enemy was capable of and poor

During the Civil War, several strategies were applied by the warring groups. The Anaconda Plan was one of them; it was a strategic plan that was used by the union with the aim of defeating the Confederacy at the onset of the American Civil War. The plan's primary goal was to defeat the rebellion by employing methods such as blocking the southern ports as well as controlling river Mississippi. By so doing, the South would be cut off and isolated from the rest of the world (Schroeder, 2017). General Winfield Scott substantially developed the Anaconda Plan after the Confederate attack which took place at Fort Sumter. The plan played a substantial role as it helped in ending the Civil War with fewer casualties from the warring groups. In fact,

According with the article “Lifestyles during civil war” the people were excited about the use of total war because they were fighting for what they believed that was good. They thought that with the use of total war their lives their lives would return to normality. We can see a cartoon where a man and a woman are observing a peaceful city with the phase “After total war can come total living” this means that the people actually believed that using the total war was good because after that everything was going to be

William Sherman seemed kind of obsessed with the idea of defeating the Confederacy. He seemed even more focused on the removal of the inhabitants of Atlanta, but then again, it was what the correspondences between him and General Hood and James Calhoun were about. Nevertheless, he was very focused on the removal of the population and he gives very adequate reasons for doing so. As a reader, it's never really certain whether Sherman had a "side" on the issue of slavery because as far as I could tell, you can only really tell his main concern is the preserving of the Union (much like Lincoln's). This is extremely evident because his intentions for the city of Atlanta were to utilize the city for fortification and to take advantage of it to help win the war. So I guess in a way his view of the war is similar to that of Lincoln's because of the fact that they both have no apparent decision on the existence of slavery. However, on the other hand, if you have to assume anything, it would be that Sherman was one of the people, that Lincoln referred to, who wanted to preserve the Union

Both the Union and the Confederacy had good military leaders who used and/or invented promising war tactics. The North used a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan. This is where the Union Forces would surround the Confederacy, cut its trade, divide it into two at the Mississippi River, and squeeze it to death. At first the Anaconda Plan was ridiculed, because both sides were originally stuck on old fashion tactics of using mass troops to attack a certain point. When both sides found the new technology in weaponry, made this old strategy suicide the Anaconda Plan was implemented. New technology caused old war tactics to change. Another strategy, I personally like to call “The Jaw” was demonstrated by the brilliant Robert. E. Lee from the South. One war tactic used by Ulysses S. Grant from the North in The Siege of Vicksburg changed the way war was fought from then on. It was called Total War. Total War involves not only war against the opponent’s soldiers but war against their civilians and economic system, in hopes of breaking their moral and in hopes that they give up the thought of winning because victory is just not worth the losses, so defeat may be welcomed. The combination of the ancient technique of total war, which