| Taken from "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Civil War": The Civil War in a Nutshell (with stats!) |
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Part Two: Rally Round Chapter Five: "We'll Manage to Keep House" 1. At the outbreak of the war, Washington, D.C., was virtually a city under siege, vulnerable to a hostile army from without and t untold numbers of spies from within. 2. Abraham Lincoln struggled with his Cabinet, but succeeded in forging a strong administration and was generally well advised. 3. Jefferson Davis, an intelligent but inflexible leader, was faced with creating an instant government, but the states resisted giving up authority to the central government. Davis' Cabinet, in contrast to Lincoln's, was weak. 4. The armies of both sides were similar in that the overwhelming majority of the soldiers were poorly trained, distinctly un-military citizen-soldiers. 5. While the Union could field a larger, better-equipped army than the South, Southern forces were usually better led. Chapter Six: The Anaconda and a Picnic Party 1. Wilson's Creek (Aug. 10, 1861): Union forces were 5,400, Confederate forces equalled 11,600. USA: 223 killed, 721 wounded, 291 missing. CSA: 257 killed, 900 wounded, 27 missing. 2. Bull Run: USA had 2,896 killed, wounded, and missing compated to CSA's 1,982. 3. Winfield Scott planned to strangle the South with a naval blockade, even though the Union navy was far too small for the task. 4. International diplomacy--especially relations with England--was a crucial aspect of the war, as was control of the border states. 5. The First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, was a contest of amateur armies, but nevertheless deadly; for most of the battle, the fighting was indecisive, until "Stonewall" Jackson rallied the Confederates and triggered a rout of the Union troops. Chapter Seven: The Young Napoleon and a Man Who Fights: McClellan and Grant 1. Shiloh (April 6, 1862): Union forces were 62,682, Confederate forces equalled 40,335. USA: 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, 2,885 missing. CSA: 723 killed, 8,012 wounded, 959 missing. 2. The Union, depressed by defeat at Bull Run, looked to George B. McClellan, a dashing young general, as the commander who would win the war. 3. Lee and Grant, destined to emerge as the central military figures of the war, began the war obscurely and inauspiciously with defeat and near-disaster. 4. Grant's capture of forts on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi rivers began the ultimate defeat of the Southern cause in the war's western theater. 5. At the time it was fought, shiloh, a narrow Union victory, was the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on the North American continent. Chapter Eight: Ocean, Valley, and River 1. George McClellan was a brilliant administrator and organizer, but he lacked the initiative and resolve to be an effective military leader. 2. The duel of the Monitor and Merrimac/Virginia, while inconclusive, ushered in a new era in naval warfare. |
| Alpha Book by Alan Axelrod |
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