THE FOUR YEARS, THE HEMORRHAGE TO PRESEVED THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For four bloody years, Sun Tzu would articulate, “the barbarians, the Southerners, and the Northerners were busy entertaining themselves to a ruthless struggle to hang-together or hang-apart,” fantastically--they emerged as equally threatening, barbarians and Americans with a universally devastating sense of uniqueness and duty.

POLITICAL FAILURE AND COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES

January 1861 -- The South Secedes.
When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states -- Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas -- and the threat of secession by four more -- Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America.

February 1861 -- The South Creates a Government.
At a convention in Montgomery, Alabama, the seven seceding states created the Confederate Constitution, a document similar to the United States Constitution, but with greater stress on the autonomy of each state. Jefferson Davis was named provisional president of the Confederacy until elections could be held.
February 1861 -- The South Seizes Federal Forts.
When President Buchanan -- Lincoln's predecessor -- refused to surrender southern federal forts to the seceding states, southern state troops seized them. At Fort Sumter, South Carolina troops repulsed a supply ship trying to reach federal forces based in the fort. The ship was forced to return to New York, its supplies undelivered.
March 1861 -- Lincoln's Inauguration.
At Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, the new president said he had no plans to end slavery in those states where it already existed, but he also said he would not accept secession. He hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare.

April 1861 -- Attack on Fort Sumter.

When President Lincoln planned to send supplies to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in advance, in an attempt to avoid hostilities. South Carolina, however, feared a trick; the commander of the fort, Robert Anderson, was asked to surrender immediately. Anderson offered to surrender, but only after he had exhausted his supplies. His offer was rejected, and on April 12, the Civil War began with shots fired on the fort. Fort Sumter eventually was surrendered to South Carolina.
April 1861 -- Four More States Join the Confederacy.
The attack on Fort Sumter prompted four more states to join the Confederacy. With Virginia's secession, Richmond was named the Confederate capitol.
June 1861 -- West Virginia Is Born.
Residents of the western counties of Virginia did not wish to secede along with the rest of the state. This section of Virginia was admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia on June 20, 1863.
Theoretical applicability of the Amarican Civil War
I’m assuming you all recall that Clausewitz emphasized that military success would be measured by, "the political object of the war." The South's political objective was independence. Militarily this goal did not require the total defeat of Union forces or the occupation of large areas of Northern territory. The North's political goal was the preservation of the Union. This goal did require the total defeat of Confederate forces and the occupation of large areas of the South. At the onset of hostilities Confederate Secretary of War, George Wythe Randolph, wrote, "There is no instance in history of a people as numerous as we are inhabiting a country as extensive as ours being subjected if true to themselves." The North's ambitious political goal and the vast land area of the South, suggest a total war should have been declared by the PAE immediately and the South should have resorted to isolated but decisive encounters without exposing her numerical inadequacies
The Objective of war
Again Clausewitz would recommend "direct all efforts to ward a decisive, obtainable goal." The proper objective ("purpose") in battle is the destruction of the enemy's combat forces. To do this, however, subordinate commanders must be given terrain objectives toward which they move. Thus, Richmond was not a proper (terrain) objective for McClellan's army in 1862 because capturing it would not necessarily destroy the Confederate army and the loss of Richmond in 1862 would not have meant defeat of the Confederacy. It was a proper (terrain) objective for Grant in 1864-65 because it had become so important by that time that Lee was forced to defend it even if it meant destruction of his army. Although Grant's objective was Lee's Army of Northern Va. (not Richmond PER SE), by directing his efforts toward Richmond he forced Lee to stand and fight him for its defense.
Confederate Grand Strategy: - Political Objective
- Independence
Military wisdom
- No need for total defeat of Union force
- No need for occupation of large area of the Northern territory
Embraced Military Strategy:
- Offensive-defensive
Military Road Map
- Defend all resources, stockpiling supplies and taking the offensive when the supply situation warranted or opportunity was provided by the enemy.
Implications
- With the exception of a few notable offensive encounters this strategy would evolve into one of passive defense. It is vivid Davis had some knowledge of Clausewitz albeit misguided! There can be no squabble that Carl Von Clausewitz (CVC) would not have endorsed the evolved defensive strategy of the Confederacy. He would submit that a passive defense is doomed to defeat.
The Union Grand Strategy: - Political Objective
- Preservation of the Union
Military wisdom
- Total defeat of Confederate forces
- Reunification of the territory
Embraced military strategy:
- Offensive - aggressive penetration of the South
- The above was based on the assumption that only an overwhelming display of superior force demonstrated by an invasion of the South at every vulnerable point could force the Confederacy back into the Union.
Tactical Road Map
1. Several thousand miles of virtually undefended seacoast running from Norfolk, Virginia, around the tip of Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans and, in the West, almost a thousand miles of the Mississippi River, stretching from St. Louis to New Orleans, which constituted a line of access into the Deep South and, for the Southerners, an obstacle separating them from their trans-Mississippi allies--Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Moreover, the Ohio River entered the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois, and fifty miles to the east of that conjunction, the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers emptied into the Ohio, coming from a southeasterly direction parallel to each other and roughly parallel to the Mississippi. The South had to defend that river network at all costs. In the hands of the North it would leave the South vulnerable to invasion from a hundred points.

2. New Orleans was the axis of the lower South--the point where the coastline joined the great arterial waterway of the Mississippi. The Northern strategy was thus, like all proper strategies, dictated in large part by the terrain. Plans were made immediately for three amphibious operations, two combined land-sea operations, directed at vulnerable points on the North and South Carolina coast--one at Roanoke Island, the other at Port Royal, just south of Charleston; the other expedition was directed at New Orleans itself.
The Slave Question:
Let me be clear on this, a former slave master himself, could not have embarked on a four year bloody war to deprive his friends of their most treasured asset—the slave. However, skillfully, President Abraham Lincoln gradually staked his political fortunes on American slaves. Fresh, smarting from a solid re-election coup, the Commander in Chief of all the Armed Forces of the United States of America lectured, “with malice towards none”, “with charity for all,” let us “bind up the nation’s wounds” and strive to ‘achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace,” Again, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
Was the slave question part of the national strategy?
- I prefer to say no, because from get go the president categorically noted, and often clarified his mission, “unconditional surrender of Confederates forces before he could even talk of peace”. As a commander in chief, with time running out, morale sinking and the tide of war seemingly turning as presidential elections drew closer, the tool box was pretty much exhausted, but not so fast—what about the slaves? This would work out quite fantastically well! The Northerners were badly in need of condition hardened fighter that could only come from their life-carrying property—the slave.

- Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

- From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery's final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.
Bottom-line
President Abraham Lincoln excelled as a Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces, despite his preference for political commanders over military competence and unfortunate manipulation of millions of slaves into a “Federal war” of which they cared less, but were “forced” to participate. In short, the President, like a wise general planning and scheming like a starving man, was able to preserve the United States of America (Grand Strategy). He used many tools, one of which was American slaves, by doing so he guaranteed the Union Army glory for having preserved the world most magnificent collection of peoples. Master Sun Tzu would definitely have applauded Lincoln’s tactical brilliance and flexibility. He never took his eyes off the ball:
- PAL Insisted on the unconditional surrender of confederate forces before talking peace
- Willingness to risk war than let the nation perish
- He was a war president
- He spent most of his time in the War Department, reading dispatches of his own, holding conferences with Secretary of war Staton, General-in-Chief Halleck and other officials
- He wrote the first draft of the Emancipation proclamation in this office
- Emancipation proclamation laid a legal basis to application of military force, however, slaves were not citizens—they were property of their masters. I would dismiss the proclamation as a legal justification because since the “rebels” were not part of the process (emancipation document) and the constitution dubiously but conveniently omit the rights of slaves. For that reason, the EPD what just one sort of tactical tools designed by the President to fortify and eventually succeed in his overall, national strategy--- to preserve the UNION. Even if we some how fall prey to his rational gymnastic of morality, the timing would is highly suspicious.