Assess the reasons why the Union failed to win the Civil War by 1863. and How successful were t - page 7
Keywords: The American Civil war – The war 1861-63
By ROYDS on 29/09/2008
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 7 of 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
the myth of lees invincibility was broken and the Union were now on a tide of high moral. It meant lee never launched another attack again and from this point on there was no other major fighting in the East. Up until this point the Confederacy had the upper hand but Gettysburg changed all this, now the Confederates were vulnerable and July 1863 offered a huge chance for the Union to come crashing down upon the Confederacy. Not to say the south were not capable of inflicting a loss upon the Union but moral was certainly at an ultimate low.
As for the fighting in the West it was another story. Initially similar to that in Virginia the Confederates experienced early successes. Well only one in fact at Wilson’s Creek in August 1861. This can be partly be put due to the fact that the Union have shortages of equipment and transport is poor at this stage – stretches communications and supplies. However the situation was turned around before 1863. They Confederates were even more so out numbered in the West and the Union generals in the West, namely Grant and Buell were much more capable than those in Virginia. This meant that Confederate experienced looses at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, (Feb. 1862) which was particularly bad because it meant the Union gained control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee. Still by the end of 1862 Confederate troops were by far from defeated, they still had control of the Mississippi and rebellions were constant in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was in July 1863 that the Confederate war effort was really hit hard. In the battle at Vicksburg the Unions troops gained control of the Mississippi something that they had been trying to do since August 1862 and when they did southern moral plummeted. Even Davies recognised that the Mississippi was “the nail that held the south two halves together. ” from this point on southern successes were very limited and they never gained the initiative after Vicksburg by the end of 1863.
Confederates had what could been seen as an early honeymoon period in the civil war. Initially the Union was hopeless and military forces in the south were most successful in 1861 (and 1862 in Virginia) than any other stage in the war. Success were however inconsistent and deteriorated as the war progressed. By 1863 the Union was sorting
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