Assess the reasons why the Union failed to win the Civil War by 1863. and How successful were t - page 1
Keywords: The American Civil war – The war 1861-63
By ROYDS on 29/09/2008
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
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The American Civil war – The war 1861-63
1. Assess the reasons why the Union failed to win the Civil War by 1863.
When talking about why the Union had not won the American Civil war by 1863 or even in any war we as historians cannot be simplistic and blame success or failure on just one cause. Yes ultimately the Union by 1863 had not succeeded in their main objectives and strategies firstly in the east to take control of Richmond, the Confederacy capital only 100miles south of Washington their own capital and their implementation of the naval blockade of the south, their ‘Anaconda Plan’ as well as, in the West, to capture and control the Mississippi and gain Kentucky and Tennessee. However we know that war is very complex and factors such as tactics, weaknesses and strengths, leadership and Turing points in the course of the war all affect the outcome and in this case offer us reasons as to why the Union had not won the war by 1863.
The Union had many strengths and in many ways were stronger than the Confederacy, or at least on paper, during the war and before the war. When war began in 1861, not anticipating a four-year blood bath the majority of the northern population and southern population thought the war would be a short sharp well-executed victory. Despite the Confederacy having certain leaders and advantages they expected to exploit, the Union had what the French Emperor Napoleon termed the advantage of ‘big battalions.’ This was the advantage of having dominant numbers of men and materials. The north’s dominant economic power did prove a massive advantage particularly in the early stages of the war when the south had to build their economy from scratch, only 2 banks existed in 1861 in the south and they didn’t have the gold to back up their money. The north had 22million people compared with only 9million in the south of which 3.5 were white. Putting those numbers into the amount who could fight the north had 7 million men of military age compared to the south’s relatively small 2million. The fact that Union numbers were so much greater that the south’s was made even worse for the Confederacy as the Union had a stronger pool of military experience and a much larger navy, which proved crucial in the Unions plan to Blockade the coast of the South to
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