The American Journey Essay

The American Journey

The American Journey is a book that tells of the events that shaped the modern-day America. The wars and the leaders that defined those early eras are exhaustively covered. Chapter 5 focuses on the civil war between the Union and the Confederacy as well as the emancipation proclamation. Since each side was pursuing different objectives, their strategies were also expectedly different; however, the implementation was the deciding factor on who would emerge victorious.

Chapter 5 details the struggle between the Union under President Lincoln, and the Confederacy under President Davis. The war was as a result of disagreement on the issue of abolition of slavery. The Southern states were dependent on agriculture, and they used the slaves to in their plantations as free labor. Therefore, slavery was important to their economic system and hence could not give in to the abolition of slavery. Consequently, the rebellious states decided to undergo secession. Secession is when a territory withdraws itself from a larger parent state. This withdrawal led to the formation of the Confederacy States of America. The complaint states remained to be part of the United States of America, otherwise simply referred to as the Union or the North, which gradually replaced slave labor with cheap labor offered by immigrants.

The strategies applied by both sides played a significant role in the victory of the civil war. The union was clear on its objectives; it wanted slave trade abolished as well as the Confederacy. In line with this, Lincoln's army planned to take over key areas of the South including towns such as Richmond. Also, the union purposed to cut the Confederacy from its supplies by taking over seaports and the river towns. Correspondingly, the Union played an attack-oriented strategy while being led by Commander Ulysses S. Grant. On the other hand, the Confederacy, also referred to as the South, wanted to maintain slavery so as to support its cotton-based economy. Therefore, they played a defensive strategy initially under the command of Joseph, E. Johnston. Fortunately, the tactic went in their favor as they were able to conquer the North during the attack on Richmond as well as the Bull Run battles.

Blunders started creeping in the Confederacy's strategy when their winning streak made them have the confidence to switch their defensive role into an attacking one. The ill- informed confidence led them to attack Maryland to what was known as the Antietam war. What unfolded was the deadliest single-day battle in American history. Almost 5,000 soldiers died, and 18,500 men were wounded that day (Goldfield et al. 408). Even if the casualties were equally divided, it was a huge win for the Union due to the strategic location of Maryland. If Robert, E. Lee, the commander who in charge during the Antietam, would not have compromised his initial offensive strategy, the Confederacy would have stood a winning chance. Lee was a much better army leader than George B. McClellan, who was in charge on the Union side. McClellan had a poor record and was characterized by applying too much caution in battle even when the odds were in his favor. As a matter of fact, Lee had arrived with only 39,000 fighters at the Antietam, which was only a fraction of the 75,000 men the Union had at that battle, yet the outcome was a draw in terms of casualties. Had the army sizes been equal, Lee would have emerged victorious. Two issues manifest themselves with this outcome. Lee was a ruthless commander who was viewed by many as invincible, but he was blinded by his victories, an error that led him drop a winning formula and thereby to lose the Antietam Battle. The Union, on the other hand, had the advantage of more resources, but they jinxed their chances by constantly changing the major generals. Every new general brought along different ways of implementing the Union's strategy and thereby led to a lack of a deep foundation.

Still on the strategies, the Confederacy's aim of lengthening the war so as to buy time to gain sovereignty recognition from the other countries in Europe was ironic at best. The South had fewer resources and even fewer fighters to sustain a lengthened conflict (Goldfield et al. 404. Their territory had been split into two, and a majority of their supply routes were already captured by the North. Additionally, their men were so careless that they dropped disposition orders along the way (Goldfield et al. 407).  There was no logical way of successfully prolonging the war. On the other hand, the North had more resources and a much sober objective of ending the war quickly and declaring the abolition of slave trade.

In conclusion, the strategies both sides incorporated defined who would emerge victorious. The Confederacy had the invincible Lee on their side, but they lacked in numbers and had unsustainable strategies. In contrast, the Union had more resources, a clear and well-informed strategy, the noble cause of abolishing slavery, and not to mention the support and recognition of sovereignty by key world countries. The conspicuous upper hand of the North, coupled with sound strategies guaranteed their victory in the American Civil War.

References

Goldfield, David, Carl Abbott, Virginia Dejohn Anderson, Jo Ann Argersinger, Peter Argersinger, William Barney and Robert Weir. The American Journey: A History of the United States. New York: Pearson, 2011.