Assess the reasons why the Union failed to win the Civil War by 1863. and How successful were t - page 4
Keywords: The American Civil war – The war 1861-63
By ROYDS on 29/09/2008
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 4 of 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
and gave them an ‘espirit de corps’, a loyalty and confidence in something, which was confirmed in October at Balls Bluff. This was something that Bell Wiley claimed the Union lacked, he said few Union soldiers really believed or knew what they were fighting for. Even if it did spur on the north, even if the north did gain some key victories in 1862-63 such as that in Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the early victories gained by the south meant the Union found it more difficult to follow up a victory and triumph over the Confederates, which reflects how indeed the Union had not succeeded by 1863.
One other major reason as to why the Union failed to win the civil war by 1863 was a combination of poor or simply over cautious Union leaders and excellent, brave, influential Confederate leaders. Key to this issue is the Union general McClellan and the constant change of personnel as leader of Union troops throughout the war, caused by the pressures of Union politicians behind Lincoln as well as figures such as Jackson and Lee for the Confederacy. Throughout the war the Union troops experienced 6 different generals and McClellan was in charge twice. McLellan did have many attributes he was very well trained, a good fighter himself and influential however he had a tendency to be extremely cautious, therefore failed to press home any advantage under his control, arguably he was better of remaining in charge of training Union soldiers. He was firstly dismissed after retreating from the planned attack on Richmond in May 1862 and secondly after he delayed for 5 weeks in following up his victory at Antieatem. It was this constant reshuffle in leaders and the Union’s inability to give the killing blow to the Confederacy, particularly from McClellan that meant the Union had not won by1863. It wasn’t until 1684 that the Union really had a leader who could win them battles. However it wasn’t all the failures of the Union. Lee and Jackson were both equally inspirational in holding back and attempting to “sap the northern will and capacity to conquer the south” (McPherson), sometimes even making offences of their own. Chancellorsville in January 1863 shows them at their most brilliant, forcing the Union to retreat and suffer 17,000 losses compared with 13,000 of Lee’s losses.
The evidence suggests a combination of sloppy administration and leadership on
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