Military Strategy of the American Civil War

The American Civil war, best remembered as the war that freed the slaves, was between the northern United States known as the Union and the seceded states of the southern United States known as the Confederates. The war’s first conflict was in eighteen sixty one. It will always be remembered as one of the deadliest conflicts that the United States of America has been involved in because after all the United States was taking casualties on both sides. It was an interesting war both in the reasons that it was being fought, by the south to gain its freedom and become independent of the United States and by the north to preserve the Union, initially it was not a war against slavery it was not until Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation that the war became one against slavery. It was also interesting in the way that the war was fought. No matter the reason the war was fought and its outcome the war it self was a change in the ways that wars had been fought. There are several things that attribute to the ways that wars are fought. Such as the men fighting them, the men who lead them, the conditions of the fighting, the strategy used to fight, the terrain, and the weapons used to fight. Each of these things was a part of the civil war. Of these this some rather important factors stand out which were the use of artillery, the small arms used by the troops, and the two main generals of the north and south and their impact on the war.

Artillery

Artillery has been part of war since its creation. The use of cannon has played its own part in the making of war and even though the concept and idea behind artillery has not drastically changed, firing a big round at your enemy with large cannon to do damage, there were some changes that were used in the civil war and also some advancement in both technology and tactics. First of all one must realize that there were two fronts of the war the Trans-Mississippi being the western area in the fight and obviously the other front being the eastern states. The North being a more organized military force, having been already established, already had artillery and found it much easier to have artillery in both fronts. But the South had a much harder time with acquiring artillery. There were three ways that the South could get artillery for their army by capturing the artillery in battle, by making the artillery themselves and by bringing in the artillery from outside the United States. On the eastern front it was much easier for the confederate army to acquire artillery. But the Trans-Mississippi front did not fair so well, in the beginning of the war they had little to no artillery pieces so the ones they did acquire were captured pieces. These captured pieces were prominently the standard weapons of the eighteen fifties all of them being smooth bored weapons, and were able to get ranges of up to one thousand and one thousand five hundred yards but worked the best in short ranges. Soon after the fighting began the south started to bring in artillery to the Trans-Mississippi region. The most promising of the arrivals was a smoothed bored weapon that was, “developed in France under Napoleon III and named after him.” The Napoleon became the standard artillery piece in the east for the Confederates but in the western regions although they were imported they never became the standard because the western artillery was prominently captured Union pieces. The act of rifling cannon was a newer development and the United States had not adopted it at the before the civil war. But when rifling did show up in the beginning the only rifled cannon that was in the Trans-Mississippi was from field capture from the Union army. But in the early years of the war rifling became to make its way on the battlefield and in fact with the Confederates in eighteen sixty two their artillery consisted of more rifled cannon then smooth bored, but this balanced out in the following year. In the west through battlefield capture there were well known rifled cannons, the Parrott rifle being the most recognizable. The Parrott was developed by Robert P. Parrott who was a WestPoint graduate, with rifling the Parrott rifle was able to fire ranges of six thousand two hundred yards but had its best kill zone in the range of two thousand yards. Along with cannons that were made in the United States the armies of the civil war purchased cannon from other countries.< The best known of these imports to the Confederate army was English cannon known as the Whitworth. The Whitworth had many models and one of the twele-pounder models incorporated breech loading showing yet another advancement to artillery of the time. The Whitworth was made of cast steel which allowed for a longer barrel, this longer barrel gave a greater spin of the shot and a greater pressure from the charge with this came a higher velocity of the shot and a greater accuracy. While these things all made the whitworth famous the one thing that made it infamous was its design of the barrel, the whitworth had a hexagonal bore and when fired it not only sent a deadly projectile in the direction of the enemy but it also had a distinct screeching sound that soldiers of both the Union and the Confederates knew by heart. One problem that faced the Confederate army was the supply of ammunition to the artillery; many of the specialized pieces need unique ammunition which became hard to keep up with. And also there were the different types of ammunition that were used and for different purposes there is the most recognizable round the solid shot which was used to, “bombard fortifications, gunboats, and enemy batteries of formations from long range.” Some other types of ammunition that was used was spherical case shot or shrapnel which had lead balls within also explosive shells both of these types of ammunition were used on troops and ships at a close distance of five hundred yards. And then there was grape shot which is Iron balls that were wrapped in bags around a solid core and were combined with case shot or canister, this round was used for troops that were at extremely close ranges of three hundred to four hundred yards, its firing dispersal can be compared to a modern day shot gun. One interesting advancement in the field of artillery came not in the form of new equipment or the development of old equip but rather in the addition of new personal with a new job. During the Civil war the first time artillery used a forward observer with great success, and although this was the only case of such an act in the war some aspects can be seen in other tactics in the war and it laid the foundation for these units to be developed to increase the proficiency of artillery. This one event took place at Fort Monroe in Virginia which, at the time, was the home to the United States artillery school. At Fort Monroe there was a man by the name of Major Alber J. Myer, a Union soldier specializing in signaling, Myer would be the one to be in charge of a team that would be the first forward observers. The time came that General McClellan was making his way toward Richmond with one hundred thousand men accompanying him. With them was the Union navy that was covering their advancement from the James River, the problem was that the Confederates still held Norfolk so the navy could not advance. The artillery from Fort Monroe did not have the range to bombard Norfolk but there existed a man made island with another fort by the name of Fort Calhoun where Norfolk was within range of their guns as long as they had sight on Norfolk. When the need to bombard Norfolk arose Major Myer was at Fort Monroe instructing using flags and torches as signals, it was apparent that this was a method to directing artillery that the school had developed prior to this engagement. Myer and his team used a steam tug boat to maneuver to a position where they could see the effects of the guns from Fort Calhoun. During the engagement Myer and his team used their system of flags and torches to signal to the men at Fort Calhoun the effects and how to change the aim of their guns to better acquire the targets. Myers success was the only time that a forward observer was use in this way although it was very effective but the military took note of this achievement and used both the means of rapid communication, with the telegraph and important part of communication in the war, and aerial observation. Artillery no doubt played its part in the civil war but not all aspects of artillery were positives. There were mistakes made, the most easily recognizable mistake with artillery is a loss that is not usually attributed to that of artillery, this being the disaster of Pickett’s charge. Pickett’s charge was the charge of Confederate troops led by Major General George E. Pickett and Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew; it was the final day of battle at Gettysburg Pennsylvania on July third eighteen sixty three and it was a charge that ended with the slaughter of Pickett’s men. General Robert E. Lee the man in charge of the Confederate army was the man behind the plan and those that doubted this plan often reassured themselves by saying, “Gen. Lee had planned it.” The plan was for the artillery to unleash a massive attack on the Union troops both decimating them and frightening them, where upon Pickett and his men would rush in and seal the deal, an aggressive plan but this was Lee’s nature, and the plan would have worked if it had not been for the ineffective use of the artillery. The artillery did release a massive bombardment that day, in fact they were firing so man cannons at once and to quickly that it created a thick layer of smoke that Pickett and those that were supposed to aim the artillery as well as call off the charge if the bombardment was unsuccessful could not see its effect. Little did they know the artillery rounds went right over the heads of the Union soldiers and had no effect on them so Pickett and his men ran straight into a force that was unaffected and they met a bloody end, those that survived were said to have received a personal apology from Robert E. Lee himself and Lee took full responsibility for the results of the charge, in a way it was his fault being that he was the top general, but the man under him in charge of the artillery that Lee left with the responsibility was the man who was directly at fault, that man was Brigadier General William Nelson Pendleton, Pendleton had proved prior to the conflict that he was inadequate in commanding but Lee put him in charge anyway. Pendleton did not combine the different aspects of the artillery in Gettysburg but rather left them independent of themselves; this was the main thing that was at fault without working together the artilleries job was unsuccessful. This example of artillery shows how it’s not just the advancement of technology with better range and accuracy but how it is used and who commands it. Technology has fewer faults than man.

The Rifled Musket

The largest advancement that took the biggest impact in the war did not come in the form of some large super weapon, it was carried by almost every soldier and with it the soldiers changed the face of the civil war and how wars would ever be fought for the rest of history, this advancement came in twofold, the rifled musket, and the minie bullet. The rifled musket and the minie bullet can be attributed with ninety percent of the deaths of the civil war while, “artillery projectiles accounted for less than nine percent, and swords and bayonets, less than one percent.” To understand the advancement of the rifled musket you have to understand its predecessors and their effectiveness, the smooth bore musket was rather inaccurate, “at forty yards, the flintlock smoothbore could usually hit a target measuring one square foot, but at three hundred yards, only one shot in twenty would hit a target of eighteen square feet.” The Rifled musket had a much better accuracy, with rifling grooves on the inside of the barrel it spun the projectile which kept it in a straight line increasing the accuracy, rifling had been along before the rifled musket but the problem was that it was hard to load because the ammunition had to fit snugly to the barrel so it took longer to load and over time the grooves gathered grime on the inside of them making it even harder to load them, the reason armies before the civil war used smooth bored rifles was because the smooth bore could put out four times the fire of the rifle in one minute and it was better to just fire in the direction of an on coming army then take out one single soldier. Another advancement that actually took place before the rifle musket was a ignition system that rather then a shower of sparks that would ignite gunpowder the rifle musket used a percussion cap, which was an iron cap filled with mercury fulminate which was struck by a flat nosed hammer, this then detonated and set off the gunpowder in the barrel. This ignition system was more reliable then a shower of sparks and would work even when wet. But there was one more component that was needed to finally make the rifle musket and that was the minie bullet, and it would take two countries and three men to finally make it. Starting in England Captain John Norton created a conical design that was narrower and hollow at its base so that it would easily fit down the barrel, later William Greener advanced Norton’s design by placing a wooden peg in the narrow hollow end which when the weapon was fired would be pushed further in the round expanding the narrow end making it fit the barrel which then was able to use the rifling. The next step camp from Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France, where the bullet gets its name, Minie’s bullet looked like Norton’s but it incorporated a metal cap on the inside of the hollow narrow end which functioned like Greener’s wooden post which when fired expanded and pushed out the walls of the bullet. But there was one final change in the round before it was used in the civil war. When the Americans got a hold of the design to save money and ease of manufacturing they eliminated the plug and just thinned the walls of the bullet which achieved the same results. Ironically it was Jefferson Davis the future president of the Confederate States who was at the time the Secretary of War who adopted both the rifled musket and the ammunition that came with it, the minie bullet. The final model of the rifle that was used by the Union was the eighteen sixty one Springfield and it is said that, “untold numbers of Confederates captured the weapon and used it themselves.” The Springfield was extremely accurate and with, “a competent shooter could hit a twenty seven-inch bull's-eye at 500 yards, the best performance to date for a standard-issue infantry weapon. A trained marksman could consistently hit a four-inch target at two hundred yards and a six-by-six-foot target at five hundred yards. At one thousand yards, he could even hit an eight-by-eight-foot target half of the time.” The Confederates had their equivalent to the Springfield which was the Enfield rifle. These new weapons were deadly accurate and they changed the ways that wars were fought, no longer could two armies just be marched at each other and if this tactic was used there would be appalling losses on both sides and this can be seen in the civil war where not everyone saw this change, with the advancement of accuracy the tactics in the battlefield shifted to defense rather then offense. Not all soldiers and their Generals adapted to the new warfare. Some were stuck in their old ways and it cost lives. One of the greatest examples of this was Major General John Sedgwick a Union general who was killed by a Confederate sniper. Sedgwick saw his men dodging an ducking from enemy fire and walked over to them standing tall and proud, while he stood by his men he said, “They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance,” referring to Confederate Snipers when a soldier told the general that he had nearly been killed if it had not been for ducking the general said, “All right, my man; go to your place.” These were the last words out of the general’s mouth because moments later he was shot in the head by an enemy sniper. The sniper had been wielding a Whitworth rifle, which had the same hexagonal design as the artillery and produced the same screeching sound, the rifle had an extreme range of three thousand yards and some even had telescopic sights which made these soldiers snipers out for blood of high ranking officers, which they got with the death of General Sedgwick. Sedgwick’s death shows how some high ranking soldiers refused to accept the change of the times and it led too needless deaths, it took sometime before warfare would be changed completely.

The Men Behind the Strategy

You can not address military strategy without addressing the men behind the strategy, because what it really comes down to is the Generals that command their men and the way that they decide to fight. The most recognizable of the Generals in charge of the Confederate army is Robert E. Lee. Lee was a rather aggressive tactician and his methods in the civil war have been scrutinized. Some believe that he should have been fighting a entire guerilla war, but the problem with this is that in order for the Confederate states to exist and for slavery to remain this was not an option because he had to defend the borders of the Confederacy. Another suggestion is that he retreat to the Florida region but the problem with this is that Lee would lose the ability to make war because they would lose key areas of industry and this would result in far too much loss of personal, so he had to defend the regions of the Confederacy. Lee was a brilliant military man but he was much better when he was on defense then when he was on offense, this is where his foible really lied, he was aggressive by nature and would go on an offense and would end up splitting his army and making it weaker. The problem with Lee’s views was that he was trying to fight a war of annihilation and inflict casualties so high that the Union grow tired of the war but it was risky and put him on the offense where he made aggressive moves that turned into mistakes. But what Lee could have done is just maintain, if they had taken up just a defensive strategy they would have been stronger and it would have been capable for the North to finally just give up, Jefferson Davis recognized this and this was his plan but Lee wanted annihilation. Lincoln realized that in order to stay in office and continue the war he needed a General that would turn the war around, he made his decision and went with a man that many doubted because of his personal issues of alcoholism, that man was Ulysses S. Grant. After Lincoln gave him command Grant was swift to act, he had a plan that was not unlike the ones before him the one difference was that Grants plan was going to work. Grants plan was not unlike that of Winfield Scott’s Anaconda plan which squeezed the Confederacy to death using a navy blockade and avoiding large bloody battles. Grants plan could be described as a continuation of this because like this plan he wished to avoid major battles because he knew that he could not defeat the Confederate army in direct battle, he devised a plan to destroy their means of making war. In a four pronged attack, on four fronts the Union army would strike at once, he gave to General Sherman the main offensive which took him deep into enemy territory. Grant told Sherman to advance against General Joseph E. Johnston of the Confederacy defeat him and continue his advancement, Grant said to Sherman, “You I propose to move against Johnston's army, to break it up and get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage as you can against their war resources," he only gave Sherman the objective but he did not give him the means of doing so, Sherman came up with this and is now remembered as brutal raid, but affective. The second prong was in a Virginia offensive which Grant gave the duty to Major General Franz Sigel, his orders were to advance south and deny Lee his harvest and to stop further soldiers to reinforce Lee’s army. The third prong was directed at the capital of Richmond where they cut off the railroad supplies to the city and were in distance of threatening the city itself, this he left to Major General Benjamin F. Butler. And finally to General George G. Meade and his army of the Potomac to them the job of following Lee and his army, Meade was ordered to, “outmaneuver Lee and hold him in place.” With these plans Grant hoped that Lee would not be able to last for long with out supplies and reinforcements, Grant respected Lee but he, “questioned whether he could fend off such pressure for a long time.” The main concept that really strengthened Grants plan was that all his forces were working together and this had been the fault of the Generals before him. Grants strategy like Lee’s was one of exhaustion being that he cut off vital areas for the Confederate Army. Grants idea was rather then fight Lee straight forward, a fight he knew he would lose, he would cut off Lee’s way of making war making victory impossible for him. This strategy of Grants was brilliant and successful.

Conclusions

It is without a doubt that the military strategy of the civil war had its good and bad. And it had an impact on how wars were to be fought from then on. The technology and the means that they were used certainly had its affect both with artillery and small arms. Also the leader ship of both sides was different then wars had both been fought to that point. Both Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant were brilliant military men. The civil war was the first modern war. And although it was only an American Civil War it greatly effected the way that war would be made throughout the world.

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