Tom+Bradshaw+-+Battlefield+Tatics

=__GENERAL STRATEGIES OF THE UNION__= toc The strategies of the North during the civil war were very different than the South's. The North took a more aggressive strategy on the war. They did not let the South come to them; they invaded the South. Although the majority of the war was fought on southern territory, the South did start the war. The North declared they would not be the ones to "fire the first shot." Although the North did not want to start the war they were preparing for one.

media type="googlemap" key="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=216380410968318666029.0004a28e6a4b8b0c5dbdb&t=h&ll=30.986862,-83.07666&spn=11.722937,14.541991&output=embed" width="425" height="350" align="left" When the first states of t he South pulled outof the Union to form the Confederacy, the Northern states and government wanted to create a way for the two side to come to be one again. The //Boarder Strategy// was propos ed to establish "borders" around the periphery of the Confederacy, assure the Southerners of the goodwill of the North toward them, and wait for pro-Union sentiment in the South to manifest itself and lead to a negotiated  peace. As the majority of Southern states seceded from the Union, leaders like Mr. Wells grew impatient. After a period of time he r eleased this statement ". . . penetrate their territory, nourish and protectthe Union sentiment, and create and strengthen a national feeling counter to Secession.. . . Instead of holding back, we should be aggressive and enter their territory." After that statement was made by Mr. Wells, speculation of a new and even more aggressive strategy took place. This new strategy they concluded might force the South to re-enter the Union. The strategy was to overplay the strength of the North to the South showing their superiority and dominance, which would (in their minds) cause the South to re-enter t he Union. As this third strategy grew and developed into an actual plan, the president finally decided he would follow the third strategy. As the months progressed the Union leaders together with Lincoln created a plan which might bring down the South. They b elieved the Southern states used the rivers and lakes as a general source of transportation of goo ds. If they could invade and take over 3 of the most popular locations for the South regarding shipping, the North would have a huge advantage.

= **__GENERAL STRATEGIES OF THE CONFEDERACY__** = The General Strategies of the South were focused on different ideas and concepts than those of the North. The Southern States initially wanted to be the defenders and took a "Jefferson" approach to the war. Theywanted to be the defenders and not be the aggressors. The South took an approach to the Civil War very near to the approach which George Washington took during the Revolutionary War. They believed to //win,// the they would have to //not lose// which in their minds meant, all they had to do was protect their land and stay on their own lan d and defend themselves. The Southern's approach was one which received many critiques and accusati ons. Many of the people of the South believed the Confederacy should have attacked and put an attack on Washington. Due to the complaints and reconsideration of the initial plan and objective, the South decided to take another approach to the War.

Instead of locating the troops on the major points in the South, they decided to put the troops on the edge of the Confederate boarders. Again many of the people of the South believed the strategy was not going in the direction they wanted. These people thought the troops should be placed on a route to attack the northern States instead of allowing the North the come to them. After the persistent numbers of complaints of the Southern strategy, the South altered their strategy once again. They f inally decided to be on an //offensive-defensive// side to the war. The new plan was devised to defend the Confederate land sequential lines of defense and not allow the offensive Union to overtake them. If the South succeeded in defending it's land, then the second part of the plan was to move to the offensive side of the strategy and if the opportunity opened, the South would counter-invade the North.

One of the other huge idea the South developed was to implant spys into the North to collect intel. The spies created many problems for the North including having to worry about people undertaking their operations and using info against them and conveying the information to the South.

=**__DIFFERENCE IN NUMBERS__**= The Differences in numbers was huge in the victory of the North. The North contained around 2,500,000 men in arms, which gave them the advantage because they were more capable to overpower the Sout h. The South had about 750,000-1,125,00 men in the arms. Although the diffe- rence in men is almost double, comparing Union to Confederacy, the Confederacy succeeded in killing more Northerners then the North killed the Southerners. Although they won in that department only killing 110,000 still left them far from their enemy. These hight loses although lessened the North, they did not play on the South's strategy of winning by not losing.

The South produced about 110,000 deaths related to their specific orders to attack. The North on the other hand contributed 94,000 Confederate deaths. The Confederate deaths were less than the North in both aspects of K.I.A and Disease. For both sides of the war Deaths related to disease was more of an impact then the opposition army. The South would have had to kill a large number of Northerns to bring them North and South into equal numbers- for example the South would have had to kill more than one million Northerns.

The North won the civil war due to the size of their army and resources coupled with their strategy. They could continue to attack the South be cause of their strength in numbers. Lincoln knew he would have the majority in the regard of soldiers. He based his style of attack because of his knowledge of his power. The North had a primarily offensive tactic on the South. They took over the area so quickly because of their //numbers.// The North's strategy and numbers lead them to the victory of the Civil war, and ended the terrible era of slavery.

=** __DEFENSE VS. OFFENSE__ **= The easiest way to compare the differences between the South and North's fighting tactics is to simply compare //offense vs. defense.// Through out the whole civil war both side changed their general strategies multiple times, but never changed the simple tactic of offense and defense. The Southern states knew from the beginning of the war they would take the defensive side because they wanted to stay with their land and crops. They believed the best way to win was "not to lose" and that is what their whole tactic was based on. They thought if they let the North come to them and take a //defensive// side, everything would work out//.//Their thought process mainly was based off fatiguing the North because of the trips they would have to endure to come and travel to the South hence the idea of "To win they could not lose." Sadly through all of the trouble the South went through to win the w ar their pain did not succeed because of their erratic approach to their strategy**.** The North picked up on the South's strategy of taking the defensive lead, and the North conceived a plan to overturn the South's simplistic idea. The North wanted to strangle the South with a plan called the //Anaconda Plan.// The Anaconda Plan was developed to Blockade the South from receiving its resources from Europe and trading with other Southern States. The North used their vast knowledge of the ongoing Southern trading points to disintegrate the top Confederate ports.

Since the Union surpassed the South in terms of number of men which they possessed to disperse around the South. Northern General Scott proposed the idea of positioning 60,000 men along the Mississippi River with //gunboats.// His main objective of this strategy was to secure the River, so their blockade would seal off the South from France**,** and the Gulf, which would effectively seal off the South from any trading points and resources.

The plan for the North was very widely debated but after a huge decision by Lincoln, he put the plan into effect. The plan succeeded and showed the South they could no longer take such a simplistic view on the war, but by that time it was too late. The North had already penetrated the inner area of the South and their trade and had successfully cut off their trade.

=**__DIFFERENCES IN RESOURCES__** =

The differences in resources for both the South and the North made a major impact of the overall outcome of the Civil war. The Southern states lacked in the depth of necessities of war which the North excelled in. The South struggled with their economy and production of weapons and major //resources// whi ch would have been very vital for them. The North initially did not notice the South's problem, but after the war progressed, they became more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the South. They capitalized on the //simple// mistakes made by the South, which included being weak in resources. As stated above in the other paragraphs in this WIKI the North had created a plan to blockade the South from any shipments and productions from Europe or even for each other. The North overpowered the South in //every// aspect in the resources departments in the civil war. Although the South contained better position and location, fighting on home territory, they still were not organized and prepared like the generals of the North were. The South started off great in the war by winning one of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war, the //Battle Of Bull Run//, but unfortunately for them their //resources// were not what they might have anticipated. This certainly contributed to the loss of the war in the long run. They ran out of ammunition and food which led to their defeat and the North's successful tactics.

=__THE INTRODUCTION OF GUERRILLA WARFARE__=

 The beginning of widespread uses Guerrilla Warfare was in the Civil war period of the United States**.** The primary states to have Guerrilla Warfare in them were Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and northwestern Virginia / West Virginia. The States which were the primary battle zones for the civil war adopted the new type of style for both the North and the South. When the idea was first being passed around about Guerrilla Warfare, the first side to jump on it was the South. The South was struggling to create a persistent battle strategy, and thought if they could use any form of battle type to their advantage, then they would.

When the South started to implement the idea of Guerilla Warfare tactics into their strategies of fighting the civil war, the North knew they would have to counteract the new idea developed by the South. One of the first acts against the Southern Guerillas was in Arkansas. The North brought their own line of defense against the new strategies of the South. The North called their new tactic //anti-guerilla// troops. These troops which were created and trained by the North used primarily riverine forces. They used //gunboats// so they could control the rivers. When the Union discovered they also needed a main defense against the Souths ground troops, the Union started to use Calvary. Although the Union had doubled the armed soldiers, they were beginning to fear the Souths new strategy.The Union finally came up with a strategy which they believed would end the reign of the South's Guerilla Era.

The North took the unusual tactic to defeat their opposing Confederate enemies. Their main tactic was to overpower the South's small guerrila troops. After the defeat of many of the Southern Guerillas, the South's end was near.

It has been debated thoroughly by military experts whether the South could have won under any different circumstances. The fact remains they lost, and did not utilize their natural advantage. The South should have stuck with their original plan which was to //win by not losing//. Gettysburg was a prime example of this failure. = =

=__BIBLIOGRAPHY__=
 * 1) Shawhouse, John M. "Union Strategy For Winning The Civil War." // The American Civil War Home Page //. Civilwarhome.com, 02 Mar. 2005. Web. 19 May 2011. .
 * 2) Swift, Eben. "Civil War Strategy and Tactics." // The Civil War //. Son of the South, Apr.-May 2001. Web. 19 May 2011. .
 * 3) Blackwell, Shel I. "Confederate Strategy In The Civil War." // The American Civil War Home Page //. Civilwarhome.com, 19 Sept. 2003. Web. 19 May 2011. .
 * 4) Johnson, Harold T. "Casualties In The Civil War." // The American Civil War Home Page //. Civilwarhome.com, 4 Feb. 1999. Web. 19 May 2011. .
 * 5) Allen, Michael G. "Confederate Defensive Strategy (Essay)." // The American Civil War Home Page //. Civilwarhome.com, 15 Dec. 2007. Web. 19 May 2011. .
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">Peters, Tanya P. "Union Strategy." // TNGenNet, TNGenWeb Project, Inc.Tennessee Genealogy at Its Best. Home Page. // TNGenNet, 8 Nov. 2001. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.tngenweb.org/campbell/hist-bogan/unionStrategy.html>.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">Scott, James C. "The Anaconda Plan." // The American Civil War Home Page //. Civilwarhome.com, 6 Apr. 1996. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/anacondaplan.htm>.
 * 8) Anaconda Plan." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 3 Sept. 2010. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaconda_Plan>.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">Oneil, Evan L. "Resources of North and South « The Civil War Gazette." // The Civil War Gazette //. Civil War Gazette, 06 Dec. 2006. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://civilwargazette.wordpress.com/2006/12/06/resources-of-north-and-south/>.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">Lopez, Elbert M. "Civil War Primary Sources." // Civil War Trust: Saving America's Civil War Battlefields //. Civil War Trust, 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/>.
 * 11) Bush, Bryan S. "Guerrilla Warfare in the American Civil War." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_warfare_in_the_American_Civil_War>.
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 * 14) <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 2px; line-height: normal;">Civil war." //Civil war//. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/civil-war-115.jpg>.
 * 15) <span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 2px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Civil war clip image." //Civil war clip image//. Web. 19 May 2011. <http://eaglenet.culver.org/am_studies/Syllabi/civil_war_clip_image012_0000.jpg >.

= __NOTES USED__ =
 * 1) ** __[|UNION STRATEGIES]__ **
 * 2) **__[|CONFEDERATE STRATEGIES]__**
 * 3) **__ [|DIFFERENCE IN NUMBERS] __**
 * 4) **__[|DEFENSE VS. OFFENSE]__**
 * 5) **__[|DIFFERENCE IN RESOURCES]__**
 * 6) __**[|BEGINNING OF GUERRILLA WARFARE]**__

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