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Review Of Why The North Won The Civil War

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Why the North Won the Civil War is a compact and concise collection of essays, that are short and get straight to the authors point. This book was compiled after the second meeting of the Gettysburg Conference on the Civil War, in 1958. The five contributing authors are all scholars of the Civil War and each have a different take on the question “why the North won?” Each chapter is a different authors presentation from the conference, each one looks at a different problem dealing with operation, direction, or conduct of the war by the armies and leadership of both the North and the South. The first essay “God and the Strongest Battalions,” by Richard Current. Current addresses the economic aspect of the loss. He looks first at the advantages …show more content…

It is written by T. Harry Williams. In this essay Williams takes a look at the leadership of the two armies. He points out that the military leaders of both sides were trained and influenced by the same military theorist. This is supported by the fact that out of the sixty biggest conflicts of the war, fifty-five of the these were commanded on both sides by West Point graduates. The theorist whose writings were of the greatest influence was Antoine Heneri Jomini. Jomini’s strategies were also a foundation for the ideals taught at West Point by Dennis Hart Mahan. Both sides employed tactics developed by Jomini, but in the end it was the North’s ability to transition into newer strategies that gave them the advantage that won the …show more content…

Donaldson’s claim is the excessive amount of democracy in the South killed the Confederacy. He states that eh southern army reflected his point the best. They (soldiers) saw themselves as equals to all and at times disobeyed orders on these democratic beliefs. In battle they listened to commanders, but in camp they seen no need for rank and position. This kind of thinking was not limited to the military. It was also seen on the civil front, in things like newspapers. They refused to be suppressed in what they could and couldn’t print. According to the author, “the real weakness of the Confederacy was the Southern people insisted upon retaining their democratic liberties in

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