How Did The French Civil War Change American Society

The art of war passed through a fundamental transformation, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. Changes involved all aspects of warfare, strategy, operations, logistics and tactics. That period saw unprecedented economic, social, and political change. Therefore, the manner in which a given society wages war is the typical product of the whole societal, political, and economic system for that society. While the economic, societal and politic order that characterized the period between the religion wars and the French revolution had limited warfare; mass politics, nationalism and the industrial revolution which marked the era of the French revolution and the U.S. Civil War remade warfare from its strategic, operational, logistic

It abolished all limits which characterized the Old Regime’s armies. Clausewitz, remarks” the colossal weight of the whole French people, unhinged by political fanaticism, came crashing down upon us”. The values of liberty and equality that fed the French revolution had changed the society of order of France. Individuals now are citizen, lives and property were at the service of the nation. Unlike the Old Regime where soldiers were social outcast, the new troops were “friends, fellows, citizens, and soldiers of the Patrie”. The revolutionary nationalist propaganda had incredibly motivated the troops. With such armies all limits on warfare aims were abolished. War was absolute. The revolutionary Napoleon wars were the living models for Clausewitz abstract notion of absolute war “war is an act of force, and there is no logical limit to the application of that force.” Soldiers deserted less and desertion mattered less, for soldiers were abundant and cheap . At the strategic level, the total destruction of enemy armies by battle was demanded. And even in defeat French armies took extreme risks to seek victory. Operationally, the new soldiers made movement that were impossible in Old Regime armies practicable. Nationalism made the logistics of plunder viable. Although, troops were allowed to forage, they rarely desert. Commanders were no longer tied to fixed bases. That, considerably freed troops and allowed them to move dispersed and bypass fortresses which were built to cripple the movement of Old Regime forces. Tactically, troops had a dispersed disposition in the battlefield instead of close-order formation. It allowed commanders to alternate skirmishers, Column or line without restriction to adapt to terrain and situation. Moreover, the mobile artillery provided close support, and