American Civil War: Strategies and Battles
From the beginning of the American Civil War, both sides, the Union and the Confederacy, tried to convince the border states to join their side. President Lincoln tried especially hard to get Maryland to stay in the Union since the United State's capital was Washington D.C. which is located in the state of Maryland. Basically most of the border states stayed neutral and the people that occupied that lived in them got to decide which side they wanted to fight for, and in the midst, families were torn apart. While fathers fought for the Union, sons fought for the Confederacy or vice versa. From the start the Union had more people, mineral deposits, factories, railroad mileage, and a stronger navy while the Confederacy had better generals, career officers which left the Union to join the Confederacy, and also more experienced fighters who fought in the Mexican War. Food and supplies was always a problem, so setting camp in a food plentiful place was a big strategy most generals used, also generals began using total war as a strategy. The generals and their armies would rampage fields and houses of people on the other side of the war and steal their food to give the people a warning to stop supporting the war and to weaken the enemy. The North started by attempting to smother the South's economy by stopping their export of cotton by placing a blockade at the ports in the South. Also, after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the South. This document was the most famous document from the war. The big battles of the American Civil War were.....The Attack at Ft. Sumter, The battles at Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Sherman's march to the sea.