Response 1
The Western Theatre was a major milestone in the history of American civil war. One of the major hallmarks of the military action was that it involved many states such as Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida. The civil was the result of previous constitutional changes that formed the United States, while there were some dissidents who were against the new constitutional order. The union military forces had to do all they could to defend the integrity and retention of the states. Although the union won the war, it was not without major challenges that are outlined here. The challenges not only served to slow the pace of the pro-union forces, but also seem to have increased the resolve of the military to conquer more ground.
One major setback that was a great embarrassment was the battle of Glorietta Pass. The challenge by the Confederates against the Union forces was not anticipated to be as fierce as it was where finally it claimed some casualties. It was so severe that at one time the Confederates controlled the battlefield before their final fall. Another challenge was the uprising of the Sioux Indians who were feeling short changed by the turn of events when they did not receive the much-anticipated payments that were due to them as per the treaty. Their anger led to the killing of 113 unionists, while the Indians were sentenced to execution. The blood bath at the banks of Stones River in Tennessee towards the end of the Western Theatre was another big humiliation that was suffered.
Response 2
The confederates were not ready to lose their battles and cede ground without a fight. It is for this reason that in a number of cases they put up a spirited fight against the union military and any other pro-union groups. The final result, however, was a failure of the confederate efforts.
The battle of Chancellorsville was one major defeat for the confederates led by Robert Lee. Although he had carried out a lot of preparations and survey, he suffered a major setback when one of his most trusted lieutenants, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was fatally wounded in the battle and finally succumbed and died on 10th May 1863. The fierce battle that led to his death was fought between the troops of Robert Lee and those of the Army of Potomac, a pro-unionist force under Major General Joseph Hooker. The most unfortunate thing for Lee is that Thomas Jackson and Joseph hooker had a fierce encounter near the mansion of Chancellorsville and in the ensuing confusion, Thomas was wounded by his own soldiers.
Another big failure for the confederates occurred in mid-June 1863 when again Lee had a severe encounter with the Army of the Potomac, this time under the command of George Gordon Meade. In the battle, Lee had made very promising progress by capturing most of the grounds in the southeastern Pennsylvania. The most expensive mistake he made was to order a frontal attack on the pro-union army, across an open field. The attack terrible failed, leaving many of his soldier’s dead and forcing him to retreat and lose the ground possessed.
It is apparent that the confederates had equally well organized armies but they lacked some coordination that cost them a victory that would have been retained.
Response 3
In every battle, the victory is a combination of repulsing the enemy armies, capturing the territory of the enemy, and most important, retaining control of the captured territory. If any of the three components is missing, then the work cannot be termed successful. Unfortunately, this was the case in many of the battles fought during the civil war, when the victories were not decisive.
In the battle of Shiloh, the forces allied to the Unionists and those of the Confederates attacked each other in equal measure and both groups heavily suffered casualties. No group, however, claimed complete victory in the war. In the battle of Chancellorsville, Lee had a good lead in the attacks against the strongholds of Army of the Potomac led by Hooker. A good example is a fierce encounter on April 30, 1863, when the two armies had a physical encounter in which Lee managed to repulse the Army of Potomac. Nevertheless, his victory was not complete since he never retained the territory. In the battle of Chattanooga, the Confederates had one of their greatest victories but they never capitalized on it.
In all these battles, one of the major reasons why none of the sides made a completely decisive victory is that they were riding the wave of their victory and they forgot that the opponent was not readily and easily conceding defeat and surrendering. In all the cases, the repulsed enemy had a chance to regroup and strategize on how to recapture their lost ground.
If only either of the sides had a success strategy on how to retain the conquered grounds, the success story would have been different and the victory would have been more decisive.
Response 4
By the end of the first year of the American civil war, both sides of the divide; the unionists and the confederates realized that they were suffering a common problem, which was dwindling numbers of volunteers. They had to urgently come up with mechanisms of dealing with the shortage, in the form of conscription laws.
One interesting common scenario between the two sides is that in their conscription laws, the promised great rewards for cities and inhabitants in return for enlisting into their armies. Each state was expected to have their quota in enlistment to both sides of the army, but when the numbers were not easily forthcoming, they allowed substitution in attempts to reach the numbers. The conscription laws were mainly aimed at meeting the deficiencies from the quota for volunteers.
The conscription laws were also different in that the Confederates were the first ones to have mandatory three-year military enlisting for all males aged between 18 and 35 years. The legal application of this requirement was challenged. Later, the Congress in 1863 passed the enrollment act that gave way to regulations of military enrollment for citizens between 20 and 45 years. Both camps had challenges in their conscription laws as most families never wanted their kin to enlist, owing to the dangers involved, and some opted to pay money or even capture slaves and give them up in substitution.
Response 5
The whole encounter during the civil war had two commanders in chief depending on which side of the divide one was looking at. The two were Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, and both men were prepared band stopping at nothing to take full control of the forces and the entire United States of America.
Jefferson controlled the confederates while Lincoln had control of the Unionists. Preparations and fighting were fierce in bids to take over the entire country but in terms of planning and army forces, Abraham seemed more prepared. The fact that in most of the cases he was perceived as the stronger of the two opponents gave him an edge over the rival. Jefferson, on the other hand, suffered several major defeats that only served to weaken his attempts of taking full control
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- Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1998.
- Noe, K. and Perryville, W. This Grand Havoc of Battle. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.
- Whitlock, Flint. Distant Bugles, Distant Drums: The Union Response to the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2006.
