The Overall Strategic Setting

Agenda

• Road to War

• Objectives

• Strategies

• Political leaders

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

States in the Civil War

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

Blockade Running

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)

Next

• Vicksburg Strategic Setting