The Course of the Civil War
The south's secession from the north, was the major starting point for the war. This is was triggered all of the battles and hostility to begin. Once the war was well underway, both the north and the south began to come up with different strategies. The south began to have more of a defensive strategy than the north, who was looking to reunite the south with the north to restore the united states back to its original state. The north had to invade the south in order to win, but the south only had to defend its land. They didn't have to conquer anything. The south seemed to have an advantage in this way. Also, they had many well trained and talented military officials. Robert E. Lee is one of the most well known generals of the Civil War. He led many battles and put the union up for a good fight. The north also had some great military officials as well. They had Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. Abraham Lincoln tried for many years to find a great military leader. He eventually found Grant who helped lead the union to victory. Sherman also played a big role in the Civil War because he led Sherman's march through most of the South burning everything in his path to the ground. The military of the north used a plan called "The Anaconda Plan" to conquer the south. They surrounded the south from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic ocean to block all ports and stop all shipping in and out of the south. This basically secured the victory for the union because the south relied heavily on the import and export of goods. In addition to that, the north had many economic advantages over the south. They had more factories and were more industrialized than the south. Not only that, but the union also didn't export as many goods as the south did, so they were still making money, while the south was loosing money. The south did have advantages however, a lot of the battles of the war were fought in the south so the confederate soldiers had more of an advantage fighting on their own land. This also helped the south improve their strategy since they knew the land better than the union. With Jefferson Davis as the leader of the Confederacy and Abraham Lincoln as the leader of the Union, the strategies of the Civil War were more intense compared to other wars.