What Took the North So Long?

“What Took the North So Long?”

In Williamson Murray’s essay he discusses the struggle between the North and the South. Also how it was the first modern war that was fought using technology and industry on the slaughtering fields. The union lacked a cohesive army and a good plan of attack. Once General Grant was in command for the North, the Confederacy was hopeless to win. The Civil War ravaged armies of the North and South, many Americans lost their lives which made this the most costly of all the wars in American history. The North won the war because they “adapted to the conditions of the war.” With the help of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, they came up with a strategy and won the war.

The North relied on its grand population, industrial assets, economic reserves, and agricultural production. There are many reasons for the length of the war. The first reason is that Southern soldiers were farmers and the only experience they had in war was shooting game and they were acclimated to the outdoor environment. Most of the Northern population lived in rural areas as well. Another reason for the length of the war is that the land area they were fighting on was huge. Geography was a major reason why the North had such a difficult time industrializing and bringing military power into the Southern states. “Without railroads and steamships, the North would not have been able to bring its power to bear and probably would have lost the war.” (pg.314)

The first problem was how to mobilize its industry and position it into the Confederacy. None of the armies were prepared for large scale operations. They each had a small army that could fight off Indians and that’s it. The politicians knew nothing about war and the military leaders knew only a little. The South had one advantage at the beginning of the war which was the confederacy had many officers spread throughout the newly formed states. But in the North, they had little or no experience in there armies of volunteers. Grant had to train the armies and made them as good as he could.

The whole first year of the war was spent raising, equipping, training, and deploying forces. Civil War armies were conducted in a different manner than in the Napoleonic war. They changed the way they deployed and defended themselves. The unknown question was how to deploy offensive tactics