The Overall Strategic Setting
Jan 02, 2016
Jefferson Davis
• Davis’ excellent performance at Buena Vista will catapult him to national attention and he will become a capable Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce
• However, he will also develop a confidence in his own military abilities that will not serve him well as President of the Confederacy
Civil War: Causes
• Slavery
• States rights vs centralized government
• Agrarian vs industrialized way of life
• Cultural differences
(Doughty, 102)
Road to War
• Nullification Crisis (1832) -- Responding to a high cotton tariff, South Carolina declares a state can void any act of Congress it feels is unconstitutional
• Mexican War (1846-1848) -- viewed by some as a Southern attempt to expand slavery
– Wilmot Proviso (1846) fails. Would have formally renounced any intention to introduce slavery into lands seized from Mexico
John Calhoun argued that each state was sovereign and the Constitution was a compact among sovereign states.
Road to War (cont)
• Missouri Compromise (1820) -- Maine admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave, but no other slave states from the Louisiana Purchase territory would be allowed north of Missouri’s southern boundary
• Compromise of 1850-- California admitted as a free state; slavery in New Mexico and Utah territories to be determined by popular sovereignty; the prohibition of the slave trade prohibited in the District of Columbia; a more stringent fugitive slave law
Road to War (cont)
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) -- popular sovereignty; effectively overturns Missouri Compromise
• Harper’s Ferry and John Brown (1859)
• Lincoln elected (Nov 6, 1860)
• South Carolina votes to secede (Dec 20, 1860) – Mississippi, Alabama,
Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, and Texas follow
Road to War (cont)
• Lincoln takes office (March 4, 1861)
• Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861)
• Lincoln requests 75,000 three-month volunteers (April 15, 1862)– Virginia,
Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee secede
Objectives
• North– Restore Union
• Therefore couldn’t completely alienate or destroy the South or the Southern people
• South– Hold on to de facto
independence– Continue the struggle
long enough for the North to tire of it
• Similar to American colonists
Strategy• North
– Secure border states• Still need to go on
offensive to win
– Anaconda Plan• Blockade• Secure the
Mississippi River and cut the South in two
• Wait
– Capture Richmond• Anaconda Plan would
take too long• In June 1861, Lincoln
orders an advance on Richmond
• South– Defend at the border
• Political pressure to defend all territory
• Maintain legitimacy through territorial integrity
• Protect slavery
– Offensive-defensive• Allow Northern thrust
to develop• Determine the main
axis• Concentrate and
counterattack at an advantageous time
Scott’s Anaconda Plan
• Blockade the Southern ports and stop all imports and exports. – The blockade would stop the sale of
agriculture goods drying up the money supply and the blockade would stop the receiving of war martial from foreign nations.
• Recapture the Mississippi River. – By recapturing the Mississippi River the South
would be cut in half making communications difficult between the two sections.
Scott’s Anaconda Plan
• After the wearing down of the peoples’ resolve to make and sustain a war march to and capture the Confederate capital.
• Although initially rejected, Scott’s plan became the de facto Federal strategy in execution
Comparison
• North– 20 million people– 110,000
manufacturing establishments
– 22,000 miles of railroad
– 75% of nation’s total wealth
– 16,000 man Army and 90 ship Navy
• South– 9 million people (5.5
million whites)– 18,000 manufacturing
establishments– 8,500 miles of railroad– Wealth lay in land and
slaves (non-liquid)– No existing military
(Doughty, 107-108)
Comparison
• North– Had to project forces
across large and hostile territory
– Requirement for offense
– Had to maintain supply lines
– Fighting to regain preexisting status quo
• South– Could take advantage
of interior lines– Could win by only
succeeding on the defense
– Friendly territory and population
– Fighting for homeland and independence
(Doughty, 108)