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advantages and disadvantages of the civil war

Decent Essays

In 1861, when the Civil War broke out, the Confederacy and the Union both had numerous advantages and disadvantages and there were multiple women and slaves that contributed to the war. To begin with, the Confederacy had its significant advantages that helped it push through the war, one of which was its strong leaders. Many believed “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee were some of the best officers even before the war. Also, they had the advantage of fighting on their own soil. They knew the terrain better that of their counterparts. A psychological aspect could be that fighting for their land, for their families, could have been the driving force or motivation. Moreover, they have longer coast lines which increased the travel …show more content…

Patent Office and was given the name “Angel of the Battlefield.” Sally Tompkins was a Confederate army nurse commissioned as captain because she performed her hospital duties so heroically. Finally, Belle Boyd was honored for being a brave Confederate nurse and spy. After President Lincoln presented the Emancipation proclamation, which held a section for the enlistment of African Americans into the Union Army, African American men rushed to enlist. This time they were accepted into all-black units. The first of these was the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Colored Regiment, led by white officer Robert Gould Shaw. Their heroism in combat put to rest worries over the willingness of black soldiers to fight. Soon other regiments were being formed, and in May 1863 the War Department established the Bureau of Colored Troops. Black recruiters, many of them abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, brought in troops from throughout the North. Douglass proclaimed, "I urge you to fly to arms and smite with death the power that would bury the government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave." Others, such as Harriet Tubman, recruited in the South. On March 6, 1863, the Secretary of War was informed that "seven hundred and fifty blacks who were waiting for an opportunity to join the Union Army had been rescued from slavery under the leadership of Harriet Ross Tubman...." By the end

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