Union Win Or Did The Confederates Lose?

Did the Union Win or Did the Confederates Lose?
More Americans have died in this war than any other American conflict. Surprisingly, it wasn’t either of the World Wars, but the one fought entirely on American soil, the one where the enemy was Americans. This was the Civil War. The opposing sides were the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South) and they fought over the issue of slavery and whether or not it should be kept or abolished. Obviously, the North was anti-slavery, while the South was pro-slavery. Americans fought Americans for four years until it finally came to an end on May 8, 1865, with the abolition of slavery following the conclusion just a few months later. Ultimately, the Civil War ended with the success of the Union,

Grant, as he commanded the Union’s army to its victory during the war. His prime “opponent” during the war was Robert E. Lee, the most iconic and possibly the most respected Southern war commander. It’s ironic in that Lee had much more military experience than Grant did, but it’s clear from the actions the two took that Grant was a superior commander. While Lee did defeat armies in Virginia, he failed to successfully invade Northern soil twice. Grant refused to withdraw in battles, regardless of the setbacks and casualties, and because his troops outnumbers Lee’s, they were gradually reduced in number. Lee was forced from taking an offensive position to a defensive position, which did not give him enough room to maneuver. In fact, while he was praised for his successful offensives against the Northern Army, he “carr[ied] out an aggressive strategy with aggressive tactics that were inconsistent with what should have been a Confederate grand defensive strategy. (...) Lee acted as though he were a Union general and attacked again and again as though his side had(...)an unlimited supply of soldiers. [His] aggressiveness resulted in a single general’s record [of] 209,000 casualties for his army (55,000 more than Grant’s)” (Bonekemper). These casualties his army suffered were ones the South couldn’t afford, especially since the Southern military was already so much smaller than the Union’s. In fact, after his first 14

It was the largest battle of both the Civil War and ever fought in North America. Because of the Anaconda Plan, and the South lacking adequate supplies needed to fight the North, when they arrived at Gettysburg to fight, they were undersupplied, which largely play a part in why they suffered so much at Gettysburg. This event marked a turning point in the war, showing the South and Lee’s diminishing success in the war and Grant and the North’s growing victories. Although casualties for the North were only about 5,000 less than the South, more than ⅓ of Lee’s army died at Gettysburg. This is due to the fact that the Confederacy had a smaller population than the North, resulting in their army being smaller as well. As a result, even though they both lost relatively the same amount of troops, it was a bigger blow for Lee and the South. These irreplaceable losses to the Confederacy’s largest army was a turning point in the war because of the fact that it marked the end of Lee’s second failed invasion of the North, as it illustrated to many that it was, essentially, going to be impossible for the South to win the war. In fact, Robert E. Lee even tried to resign from his position as the commanding general of the Confederate army, but Confederate President Davis refused, and Lee was forced to remain in command until his surrender. It’s clear that even Lee