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Weapons & Tactics of the Civil War · Saberian History Lectures

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Okay, so when we're getting into the weapons
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and tactics of the time. So I kind of want to
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start with the tactics first. So when you're
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looking at state armies, now by state armies
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I mean nation states, whether and so right now
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I'm going to talk about the generalities of the
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pattern of warfare going on from really the Seven
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Years' War until the American Civil War. So,
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when we talked about the Seven Years' War, the
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war between the British and the Americans, how
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did people fight? How did armies fight? In formations,
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line formation, complicated maneuvers, where
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you require a degree of synchronization and precision.
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Because the musket is not an accurate weapon
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on its own. In fact, in the earliest renditions
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of the Brown Bess, there was only a front sight.
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What else only has a front sight? Do any of you
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hunt recreationally? Okay. Shotgun has a front
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sight, yes? It does not have a rear sight because
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you're not aiming more than, I mean, what's your
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max effective distance for a shotgun? 20 to 50
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yards. I mean, not a long -range weapon. Now,
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rifles, modern rifles, have a front and a rear
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sight because sight alignment is important based
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on where you place your shot. But your early
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muskets were not, I mean, muskets are not accurate
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weapons. They are not designed to be accurate.
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They're formation weapons. And so one of the
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things that you've got going on is from really
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the... Seven Years' War into the Napoleonic War
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is people are fighting in a line formation. And
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so in a line formation, you have your people
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lined up over here. They're sending lead downrange
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towards the other guys over here. And I'm going
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to put that in another color. I actually need
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red, but I don't have red, so I'm going to be
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man enough to write in pink. And so they're returning
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fire, preferably line to line, but actually what
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you try and do is you try to maneuver your forces
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such that you are crossing the T in a way. You're
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putting more lead in the general direction of
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your enemy than he can put on you. Now, what
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you do is you fire off a certain number of volley
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shots. Meanwhile, the forces are advancing on
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you. After a certain point, the advancing force
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would then do a sprint at you with the bayonets,
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and then it's melee fighting with pointy, stabby
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objects called the bayonet, which is basically
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a spear. Okay? Now, that was line tactics, which
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was employed in warfare. Some historians go as
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far back as Gustavus Adolphus. Some would go,
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so you're talking, well, we'll just say 1640s
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until Napoleon. So 1640s till about, oh, 1800.
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Here's how Napoleon changes the game. One of
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the problems of a line formation army is that
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it requires a lot of training. In other words,
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you have to train people to move in synchronous,
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in formation, to do fancy drill maneuvers. And
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for those of us in ROTC, close order drill is
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not a natural act, is it? Throw in weapons that
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you actually have to move with on the counts,
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and it becomes difficult. Now, y 'all are using
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weapons that don't function. And y 'all are using
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variants of either the M1 Garand or the bolt
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-action 1903. These are people using powdered
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weapons that they're marching with and moving
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in a counter -column formation. That actually
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takes quite a bit of training, yes? So, Napoleon
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comes to power in France, and he's trying to
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maintain his hold on his population. He does
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that by waging a massive number... of wars abroad,
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and so he does not have time to build troops
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in quality, so he decides to build troops in
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quantity. And so what Napoleon does is he has
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actually one of the first heads of state to do
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conscription. The word en français is lever en
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masse. And my spelling of it is terrible. But
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anyway, all mass, which is basically I'm going
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to raise an army all at once, but if I'm raising
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an army all at once, can I train them to the
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same degree? No. So you have the transition from
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the line formation, which looks like this, to
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an assault column. Which way does a column go?
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So, what you would have in the French force is
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an assault column. Now, also those of you who
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are moving... Now, in this formation, can I direct
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a lot of lead towards my enemy? That's not what
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I'm doing with an assault column. What am I doing?
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I'm making a smaller target, but at this point
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it's not about lead, it's about blades. It's
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about, I am going to basically take this train
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of human beings, and they are going to say, to
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heck with the volley fire to actually lighten
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up my opponents. We're just going to come straight
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at them with the bayonets, and we're going to
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run them through. So basically, here the line
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formation is trying to peck as many people off
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as possible, and they're still coming. Going
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off the rails on a crazy train, yes? That's how
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Napoleon changes the game. That it's not reliance
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on fancy movements. It's not reliance on pairing
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your formations. It's not about surrender. These
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are wars of national existence. Now, here's the
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thing about the assault column. It's bloody.
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It's fierce. But it's sincere. Once you connect
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on that line formation, is this train of humans
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going to be stopped? No. They're going to plow
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right through and then once the line formation
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is disoriented, you finish them off. You get
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the idea. Now, that actually works because is
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the line formation even going to necessarily
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be able to connect on a smaller column from great
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distances? No. So that's the tactics of Napoleon.
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Now, one of the things that happens in American
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military history is 1802. Thomas Jefferson, of
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all people, is president at the time. 1802, the
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United States Military Academy at West Point
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opens its doors. How many of you know people
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who have applied to or who are thinking about
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attending the U .S. Military Academy at West
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Point? Okay. Why? I mean, what does a person
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go to West Point to do? The one in New York.
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It's because it's free. Yes, but in the end,
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this person is going to have a career as a what?
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As an officer, yes? The U .S. Military Academy
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is actually one of America's oldest engineering
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schools because a lot of the engineering programs
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of the world had to do with the fixed fortifications
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of the 18th century, earthenworks, projectile
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motion, stuff like that. But anyway, the purpose
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of the Military Academy was to train the militia
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officers to be proficient in the art of war.
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And so, 1802, the Military Academy opens its
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doors. By the time Robert E. Lee is going to
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the academy, everyone at West Point is reading
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one particular man? Well, close. Napoleon's historian,
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Antoine Jomini. Jomini was one of Napoleon's
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aides. He wrote about Napoleon's exploits. He
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wrote about Napoleon's tactics. And so, if you
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went to West Point and then served in the Mexican
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War, as Lee did, all of the officers are reading
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Napoleon. Are reading what Napoleon did. So everybody's
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copying Napoleonic tactics. So they're doing
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assault columns. They're throwing troops in line
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formations like that. That's how it works. Now
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there's one little awkwardness about the whole
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thing. Line formations work with inaccurate musket
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balls. With inaccurate muskets. By the time of
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the Civil War, you have one significant advancement
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in ammunition. The mine ball, or the mine rifle.
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So, why weren't rifles previously deployed? Rifles
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had been around since the 1600s. Why were they
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not deployed as a military weapon? Because it
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was difficult to reload because the ball had
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to be flush with the barrel, and so that decreased
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the time, or it increased the time it took for
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you to take a ramrod and really drive it home.
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So this is what's kind of funky about the Minet
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ball. It's not really a ball. It's actually conical.
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And so the Minet ball had an indentation, and
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then when it would become heated, it would expand.
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When you poured the powder in and dropped the
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ball in, it was very easy to ram the ramrod home
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to bring the projectile flush with the powder,
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but when the powder lit, the bullet expanded
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slightly, becoming flush with the barrel, and
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now it's hugging the barrel, and now it has a
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spin on it. What does rifling do to your range?
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It greatly increases it. So one of the things
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that happens because of the Mine Ball is warfare
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becomes a whole lot deadlier because you have
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people doing these assault columns, but now the
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defenders can reach out and touch you from a
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great deal further distance. This is what makes
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the Civil War... So much more bloody. You basically
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have people using Napoleonic tactics with the
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beginnings of modern weapons. Now, the Americans
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kind of get that feeling in the Civil War. The
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Europeans won't get that feeling until World
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War I. By the way, what makes World War I a bit
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more interesting, you have self -contained cartridges
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and you have rapid -fire machine guns in World
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War I. But you get the idea of how this makes
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the game a little bit more deadly. Now... Let's
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get into the strategy, and then once I get into
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the strategies, perhaps the battles will make
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more sense. So, how many of you have heard the
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expression that warfare is merely politics by
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another means? This is a statement by Karl von
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Clausewitz. A more appropriate translation would
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have actually been that warfare is a continuation
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of diplomacy by another means. In other words,
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you have two states that both want something.
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They can't settle it by argument. They can't
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settle it by diplomacy. And they can't settle
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it by negotiation. And so they turn to the fortunes
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of war. And so as I look at the Civil War, the
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issue, as Clausewitz put it, of the positive
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and the negative object emerges. And so, if I
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look at it, here's what we have. You have the
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South that seceded, yes? Their political objective
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was the maintenance of their economic and cultural
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uniqueness free from what they believed were
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the shackles of the federal government. Yes?
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And so their objective is, did the South have
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any pretensions to conquer the North? No. And
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so the idea is to make war so painful that the
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North would do what? Negotiate a peace. Leave
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them alone. Were there people in the American
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Union government who wanted peace? Peace with
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the South. Yes, the Copperhead Democrats. What
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was their argument? Were these truly abject pacifists,
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God doesn't want us killing people? Some of them,
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yes. But what was it for some of them? That's
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also part of it, but there's another, shall we
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say, a more baser and simplistic thing. You're
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an Irishman from New York. You're working a factory
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job. Do you really think a whole bunch of cotton
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-picking slaves are worth dying for? No. There
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was an element of racism behind even the copperhead
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Democrat pacifists that said, the heck with these...
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Slave -driving fools, let them have their own
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separate country. What do we care? You get the
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idea. So, for the South, the idea was to make
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the war painful and negotiate with the North.
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In other words, that eventually, either being
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deprived of southern cotton or that we prolong
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the war long enough that the North will submit
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and they will leave us in peace. Klausitz posited
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that in war there is the positive and the negative
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object. The positive object is concerned with
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aggression and the taking of territory. The negative
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object is concerned not with taking of territory
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in the other direction, but rather waiting for
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the more opportune time. Delay. The South is
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following a positive or a negative strategy?
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Negative. Negative. They want to delay. Yes,
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it's all a matter of delay. So the South is following
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what Clausewitz would term the negative object.
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Now, looking at the strategy of the North, when
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I look at the Northern strategy, I can actually
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divide it into two parts. The early phase strategy,
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And the later phase strategy. When I look at
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the early phase strategy, when I look at the
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early battles of the Civil War, is it obvious
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that the North actually intends to conquer the
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totality of the South and to subdue it by force
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of arms? In the early battles, if I look at the
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early battles under McClellan, Here, McClellan,
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in some battles, finds himself at an advantage,
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but he doesn't press his advantage. You have
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no large plans for a full -scale invasion until
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the Anaconda Plan. But before that, the early
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strategy would be what? To restore the Union.
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In other words, that you make the war painful,
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and that the South would submit. In other words,
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you fight enough battles that you've bloodied
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them, you've bloodied their armies and bankrupted
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their treasury. What type of warfare does that
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sound like? That sounds familiar. European. Right?
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I fight for this county, I fight for that county.
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In this case, I bloody your army, I bankrupt
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your treasury, you submit, you come back. You
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get the idea. It is a positive object here. But
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does it adequately convey... It almost assumes
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that these people feel connected. Also, whose
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strategy does that remind you of? Britain. Because
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they still looked at the Americans as their people.
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Yes? The idea for the British was, okay, if I
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can annihilate the... American army in one swift
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stroke, I've bankrupted them, I've annihilated
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their army, they will submit. Is that what happened?
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No. So then you get into the later phases of
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the plan. You have Winfield Scott Anaconda Plan.
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What was the Anaconda Plan? Have you all read
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that far? The anaconda. What is an anaconda?
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It's a big snake, specifically, and one should
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not be watching that one music video by that
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one artist. Who was the one artist? Huh? Nicki
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Minaj. Nicki Minaj's music video on anacondas
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is not going to help you understand the Civil
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War. Apparently, that particular snake is being
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used as a euphemism if I'm reading the entendres
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correctly. Yes? How does an anaconda actually
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work? It is a constrictor. It's like a boa. It's
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like a python. In which case, it surrounds its
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prey and it crushes the life out of it. Yes?
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Now, in the case of the anaconda plan... By the
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way, whose idea was the anaconda plan? Winfield
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Scott. Winfield Scott was the hero of which war?
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Not Revolution, not War of 1812. What was the
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last war that the U .S. fought before the Civil
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War? The Mexican -American War. Winfield Scott.
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Now, here's the thing that's actually kind of
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funny. When you get to, and actually I think
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I want to go on ahead and get to the PowerPoint.
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Here we go. All right, apparently we've got voices
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out in the hallway. Here we go. Okay. Oh, I'm
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hoping I have a good map somewhere in here. Hang
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on. No, I do not have a good map. All right.
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Now I know what I need to add for the visuals.
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All right, well, this will do well enough. Winfield
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Scott, first of all. Why isn't Winfield Scott
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leading the American army to victory? Why does
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it fall first to McClellan and then to Grant?
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Because McClellan sucked. Well, that's why McClellan
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sucked. Who did the Union want to be their commanding
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general first? Scott, then Lee. Why not Scott?
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Well, here's the thing. Lee joined the Confederacy.
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Why didn't they get Winfield Scott to lead the
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charge? How many of you ever saw the film Lethal
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Weapon? Oh my god, we're all doomed. Okay, over
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the holiday, go watch Lethal Weapon. For those
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of you, it was Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. So
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for those of you who haven't seen the film, here's
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the long and the short of it. They made four
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of these movies. Maybe five. Anyway. Danny Glover
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plays the role of this cop who's about to retire
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and he gets this crazy new partner played by
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Mel Gibson and the most common refrain throughout
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the entire movie is Danny Glover saying, I am
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getting too old for this stuff. The dude was
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old! The dude was ancient! He was as he's like,
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no. Getting too old for this stuff. Anyway. And
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so, anytime you've got a person who keeps talking
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about retirement, I've often said, oh, come on,
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so -and -so's been talking about retirement more
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than Danny Glover and Lethal Weapon. Anyway,
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so, Winfield Scott, it's his idea, but it is
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up to other people in the union to implement
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it. Now, here's the thing looking at the map.
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The idea was, and leave it to Scott to come up
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with this, because Scott actually truly understands
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amphibious operations. He knows that the major
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shipping ports and the major ship building centers
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are not in the American South. Where do they
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build ships? In the North. In the North, and
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partially in Virginia. Norfolk, yes. But Norfolk
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and to the north of that. So the idea was build
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a massive navy to surround and blockade the Confederate
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coast so that they could not gain access to arms,
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munitions, capital from where? Where did the
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Americans get arms, munitions, and capital during
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the Revolution? From Europe. From sympathetic
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states in Europe. And so the first idea was to
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blockade the South in the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
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And then to battle your way up the Mississippi
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to complete the choke. Because the Mississippi
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is navigable. So that anaconda would go... Once
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you have operational control of the Mississippi,
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you can have forces coming not just from the
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northern front, but also from the west. Also,
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it cuts the Confederacy to cut off Texas and
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Louisiana. Well, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas.
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Here's the thing. While Texas is vast and gross
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and populated now, is Texas vast and gross and
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populated in 1860s? No. It's just this part.
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It's plantation agriculture. And so while Hood
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did send Texas volunteers to go fight under Lee,
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there weren't a lot of replacements coming up
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because, again, Texas is not widely populated
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the way it is now. Okay. So that's what's going
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on there. with the Anaconda Plan. Now, the transition
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from McClellan. You notice, McClellan, he wins
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battles, but he doesn't press his advantage.
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Why? He's coming off of what model? Here's the
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thing that most people walk away from. Napoleon
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was successful, but did he win in the end? No.
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Who defeated Napoleon? You probably didn't read
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that because they don't do a lot of Western Civ
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in world history. The Russian winter, but that's
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not what finishes him. Battle of Waterloo where
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the British with their professional military
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force come in. along with combined enemies and
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whatnot. But he's bested by a professional army,
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so all of a sudden people start to be skeptical
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of that levée en masse of these massive armed
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mobs. And so you have some elements of Napoleonic
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tactics, but the British model of these tight
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formations where you don't necessarily press
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your advantage because you want highly trained
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troops and they're valuable. McClellan doesn't
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know, or he doesn't appreciate that he has replacements
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coming in, because again... The idea was, okay,
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our professional army will beat their professional
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army. It'll be quick. It'll be over. Alright,
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so it's... In the early stages, you have this
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idea of not pressing the advantage. Now, when
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you get to Grant and Sherman, as you get to the
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middle and the later stages of the war, you have
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a transition in the strategy of an anaconda plan
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where we're going to choke out the Southerners
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and their access to materials that they need
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because do the Southerners have many foundry
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industries for making arms and ammunition? No.
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And actually, do they even necessarily, while
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the South is big on agriculture, what's the big
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agriculture? Non -edible crops! So, could the
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Anaconda Plan work as a model for basically put
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the entire South under siege and force them to
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submit? Yes, but when that doesn't work, it transitions
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from the idea of the Anaconda choking them into
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submission to actually a mode of abject conquest.
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This is the idea of total war. Where you go in,
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you destroy their cities, you destroy their agriculture,
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you destroy every aspect of the society, every
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center of gravity, not just the army. Okay. So,
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a couple other things going on. And I actually
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want to go to the map. Okay. So... Kansas and
26:36
in the Indian Territory, you have guerrilla fighting.
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So again, this one, not nice, neat armies. This
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is partisan war going back to the bleeding Kansas
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thing. In the Native Americans, again, in Kansas
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and in the Oklahoma Territory, the Cherokee and
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the Creek and the Seminoles split. Some of them
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go pro -Yankee. Some of them go pro -Southern.
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Why? Enemy of my enemy is my... So, in some cases,
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you actually have blood feuds within the native
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tribes, and the North and the South are giving
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them weapons just as proxies. You get the idea.
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Choctaw and the Chickasaw support the Confederacy.
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Now, here's where life gets a bit interesting.
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1862, Grant defeats Johnston. Now, this is one
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of the ones where Grant captures and... A major
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victory. This is what puts Grant on Lincoln's
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radar as McClellan is floundering and not adequately
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driving his advantages when he's winning over
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Lee. Okay. So, Grant starts his battles in the
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West and then he gets reassigned to the theater
27:50
in the Virginia, Washington, D .C. area. Okay.
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Everybody got this? Yes? No? No? Holding? Okay.
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Okay. So when we look at the theater of the war,
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they basically divide it up into three areas,
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which is basically your northern frontier, and
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then your north, your west, and your Appalachian
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areas. Kansas and Indian Territory, yes, people
28:29
are fighting for these ideals, but these aren't
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major, I mean, it's bloody, but it's not the
28:36
main action. Okay, so now, after the Battle of
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Fort Johnston, or sorry, Fort Donaldson, the
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follow -up battle is at Shiloh. Now, here's your
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basic idea. Johnston is stationed at Corinth.
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Grant is planning the attack on Corinth. He leaves
28:55
his troops exposed on a plateau. Now, Johnston
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attacks the Union line in the early morning.
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So the Union line is now pressed up against the
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river, and basically Sherman shows up to save
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the day along with the naval guns. Here, I'm
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going to show it to you on the map, but here's
29:14
your basic idea. Because the Union has operational
29:17
control of the river, that's basically what saves
29:20
Grant and his army. I'm going to show it to you
29:25
on the map, but it makes a little bit more sense
29:27
when you see it on the map. Let me know when
29:32
I can cue to the map. Yes, no, maybe so? Okay.
29:40
So here's the map. And I'm going to zoom it in
29:43
real quick. Okay. So here's your basic idea.
29:54
So remember, Kentucky is southern, but does Kentucky
30:00
secede? No. And so you have... Buell coming down
30:07
to Nashville. You've got... Here you've got Grant
30:14
trying to attack Donaldson. And again, Tennessee
30:16
is contested territory. Kentucky doesn't leave,
30:20
but again, they're trying to work their way across
30:22
the west. Grant's army gets driven back to the
30:26
river, and then they get saved by Sherman and
30:28
the Navy. Meanwhile... Oops. And so this is coming
30:35
from Kentucky, which is still Union territory
30:38
moving south. Alright, now, Battle of New Orleans.
30:45
So, basically, it's a naval battle with landing
30:53
force. Basically, why is New Orleans so important?
30:57
Where is it? It's the mouth of the Mississippi.
31:01
If you're going to complete the Anaconda Plan,
31:03
you have to capture New Orleans, then you've
31:04
got to move your way up to Mobile, and you keep
31:06
moving up the river. The Southerners know this
31:09
is going to happen, so what do they do? They
31:13
reinforce fortresses on the Mississippi. Now,
31:17
were some of the fortresses already on the Mississippi?
31:20
Yes, because the Mississippi used to be the dividing
31:22
line between the United States and France. And
31:26
it used to be a contested area between the British
31:29
and the French. So, you know, the Mississippi,
31:31
you know, we don't think of it as a place that
31:33
we now contest, but it was a highly contested
31:35
place. All right. So this is the early part of
31:39
the war. Moving on. So, and I'll let you read
31:43
up on this on your own. Now, the McClellan Peninsula
31:45
Campaign is important because McClellan's failings
31:49
are crucial. One other thing I want to point
31:51
out that I don't know if the book does. What
31:58
party is McClellan? He's a Democrat. Why does
32:06
that matter? He might not fight as hard against
32:10
his classmates from West Point. Remember, here's
32:14
the part that y 'all don't fully appreciate.
32:19
These people, some of those officers went to
32:22
class together, went to school together. Now
32:25
most of you, you have had fellowships with one
32:30
another where you have lived intensely. But here's
32:32
the thing, you go to West Point, you go to Annapolis,
32:34
you go to the Air Force Academy. If you're in
32:37
a class together, you eat, drink, sleep, breathe,
32:43
study. Everywhere together. Y 'all go to a high
32:46
school of 2 ,600 people. How big is the population
32:53
of West Point right now? 1 ,200. All four classes,
33:01
1 ,200. So you're talking, your graduating class
33:07
is maybe 300 people. Because it's not an even
33:12
split between each class because you have attrition
33:14
freshman and sophomore year. You've spent four
33:18
long years together. You've campaigned together.
33:20
You have lived and died in the presence of one
33:23
another. And now some of your friends are now
33:26
your enemies. I don't think any of you have a
33:29
schema where you have to go fight your friends
33:30
like that. Okay. So. McClellan and his Peninsular
33:38
Campaign. I have a map of this that actually
33:40
might make it a bit more fun. So, here's your
33:43
basic idea. McClellan takes his army of the Potomac
33:48
and tries to attack Stonewall Jackson. He takes
33:52
the army by barge up the Chesapeake. Let me just
33:56
go to the map. Okay, here we go. Zoom in. So,
34:02
here's your basic idea. So, McClellan's army
34:10
starts in Washington, D .C., goes down the Potomac
34:13
River, through the Chesapeake, lands at Fort
34:16
Monroe, then moves its way up to Williamsburg,
34:21
Yorktown. You have the Seven Days Battle here,
34:24
Lee and Johnston. Okay, that's your basic idea.
34:28
Now, Jackson meets him in June, and here's Lee
34:31
and Johnston in the Battle of the Seven Pines.
34:33
Let me go back. Lee takes command of the army
34:39
of Virginia and he pushes McClellan back to the
34:44
sea. Lincoln recalls and demotes McClellan for
34:49
failure to press his advantage for not exhibiting
34:51
appropriate things. Now here's the other part
34:52
you have to think about. One of the things that
34:56
most people don't appreciate about Lee. So, in
34:59
the first act of the Civil War, who's on offense,
35:02
who's on defense? South is on defense. McClellan
35:07
is taking his army into Virginia. He's repulsed,
35:11
basically. Okay. Second battle of Bull Run, the
35:16
second battle of Manassas, McClellan moves his
35:18
army back to D .C. and joins up with Pope. Now,
35:21
here's the part that's interesting. Lee... Sorry.
35:33
Where is it? Jackson, McDonough, Winchester.
35:37
Where's Bull Run? I think I've got that one over.
35:40
That's got to be on another map. Basically, Lee
35:48
then presses the advantage he's got at the Battle
35:51
of the Second Bull Run. Now, the thing is, it's
35:53
interesting, and I'm going to get to this in
35:54
a moment. When Lee starts becoming desperate,
35:56
he goes on offense. All right, let me get to
35:59
that part. Slaves in the war, I'll get to that
36:01
in a moment. So, basically, slaves were treated
36:03
as contraband. Basically... And what do you do
36:09
with contraband? They can dig ditches. You collect
36:13
them. Basically, they put these slaves that they
36:15
freed to work. And more or less treated them
36:19
as slaves. Because, again, at this point, was
36:25
it really about human freedom or human dignity?
36:29
Freedom. Not even that. This was about... this
36:32
was about winning. That's why you take slaves
36:37
who were picking cotton and you have them digging
36:38
ditches and latrines. This is why you put them
36:41
on work details. Whether or not you're paying
36:42
them or not, you don't care because you're trying
36:44
to win a war. Right. Alright. Reactions to emancipation.
36:50
Now... Lincoln had promised in his inauguration
36:53
to protect slavery where it had existed, but
36:55
there's a matter of military expediency. So you've
36:58
got the Emancipation Proclamation. What's interesting
37:01
about the Emancipation Proclamation is it does
37:04
not end slavery in the entire United States.
37:09
Where does it end slavery? In the states in revolt.
37:15
Now, what's actually kind of interesting, so...
37:19
Basically, the emancipation only applied to the
37:22
states in revolt. So, were the slaves in Maryland
37:33
freed? No. Were the slaves in Kentucky freed?
37:37
No. Were the slaves in Delaware freed? No. Now,
37:44
were the slaves in Alabama actually free? No.
37:48
No. Legally, yes. But what's the thing about
37:53
law? You don't have to follow it. It only goes
37:56
as far as the people in power can enforce it,
38:00
yes? So at this point, does Abraham Lincoln and
38:04
the Union Army have operational control of Alabama
38:06
or Texas? No. No, in fact, June 19th, I think
38:11
it was either 64 or 65, Actually, I want to say
38:15
1965 is when the slaves in Texas figured out
38:17
they were free. Now, considering the war ended
38:22
in April of 1865, the news was a little late.
38:28
Rural area, not a lot of telegraphs. News travels
38:30
slow. Antietam, bloodiest day of the war. Lee
38:37
invades Maryland. Now, is Maryland part of the
38:42
South or part of the Union? Part of the Union.
38:44
Part of the Union, but... It's Southern. It's
38:47
Southern. It's highly democratic. It was being
38:50
held into the Union by force of arms. Lee would
38:54
invade Maryland. Now, the other thing is, if
38:56
I'm Lee and I invade Maryland, what do I now
38:59
basically do? What have I basically done? Take
39:02
a threat to the capital. You're on offense, and
39:07
you have basically, you have Virginia, and now
39:10
if you can control Maryland, you basically have
39:13
D .C. over a barrel. You have D .C. completely
39:16
encased. What do they call that in chess where
39:20
the king's got nowhere to go? Checkmate. And
39:23
so it fits. the southern strategy of, okay, we're
39:28
going to force them to the table, and what better
39:30
way to force them to the table than to have their
39:32
capital surrounded? The other thing I was going
39:33
to say is, if I am, and D .C. did have fortifications,
39:37
if I'm in Washington, D .C., and I've got Virginia
39:40
to my south, where am I building fortifications?
39:42
To the south. Do I necessarily fortify my northern
39:46
border, or my northern frontier of my city? Huh.
39:51
I'm thinking of another group of people who had
39:53
an enemy to the south that didn't see the elephants
39:56
coming over the Alps. Hannibal. The Carthaginian
40:03
War. Hannibal takes his army from North Africa
40:07
to Spain to the Alps. The elephants don't make
40:09
it over the Alps, but Hannibal and his army does.
40:11
Attacks Rome from the north where they had never
40:13
expected it to come. They didn't tell you all
40:17
about Hannibal in world history. Alright, now
40:18
I know. It's very upsetting. Alright. So, the
40:25
battle plan was discovered. The Confederates
40:28
were repulsed, but McClellan did not follow up
40:30
his advantage and allowed Lee to escape. And
40:34
for that, he was finally fired. So, here we go.
40:40
Let me go to... Here's the map. So, your basic
40:45
idea was that... Anyway, the Battle of Antietam
40:55
was on the way to get to Fredericksburg. So your
40:59
basic idea is here's Washington, D .C. They try
41:02
to take over Maryland from the north to surround
41:05
Washington, D .C. They get repulsed. So up next.
41:11
Ambrose Burnside replaces McClellan and he attacks
41:14
Fredericksburg. Ambrose Burnside, very famous
41:16
for his mutton chops. This is where we get the
41:18
term sideburns. December 13th, the Union Army
41:31
crosses the river into Virginia and they meet
41:36
the Confederate fortifications. Now again, in
41:38
the wonderful world of rifled, small arms and
41:41
rifled artillery, running into fortifications,
41:45
are you going to have a good day? No. No, you're
41:48
going to have a bad time. Okay? So, that doesn't
41:54
end well. All of a sudden, Burnside is replaced
41:57
by Fightin' Joe Hooker. Literally, that was his
42:02
nickname. That's an awesome idea. Hooker replaces
42:06
Burnside, Lee splits his forces, and basically
42:10
it's kind of funny. Hooker has this grand army
42:15
of 130 ,000 men. Lee is outnumbered substantially.
42:19
Lee knows he's not going to win a fixed battle.
42:21
Lee actually is one of the few great strategists
42:24
that ever came out of West Point. West Point
42:26
only has had, by most accounts of most historians,
42:30
three great strategists. Lee, MacArthur, and
42:34
Schwarzkopf. That's it. 1800, 1802 to now, three
42:42
great strategists. Just saying. The bulk of American
42:48
military history, my children, is this. Our military,
42:56
for the most, until really modern times, has
42:58
relied on the fact that we can put more men and
43:01
material in the field than the other guy. If
43:04
the kill ratio is 10 to 1 and I have 11 men,
43:07
guess what? I still win. I don't think we play
43:12
that game anymore with CNN, do we? Just something
43:18
to keep in mind. Okay. So. You get the basic
43:25
idea that basically Lee as the master tactician
43:28
is outperforming the Union. But they're playing
43:33
his game by his rules. Again, a lot of the reason
43:37
that the Union is loathe to do these large commitments
43:41
of these grand battles is these actually do...
43:44
Wait, let me make sure. Yeah, I'm still going.
43:46
Sorry, I hit my jacket. Is because they're...
43:52
thinking about it in Napoleonic terms, but they're
43:55
also running into the casualties. Now, the Confederacy
43:57
begins to falter after the Battle of Vicksburg.
44:00
So, Grant moves his army down the Mississippi
44:03
to capture Vicksburg by siege and surrender.
44:06
Now, here's your basic idea. The siege of Vicksburg,
44:09
and I'll get to that on the map, but you get
44:13
the... They lay siege, the enemy does surrender.
44:17
Now, Gettysburg. Lee once again heads north to
44:21
attack D .C. From the north. Why? Well, not only
44:29
that, he's got, and also he's trying to take
44:32
the thing to the enemy. Also, he knows that time
44:36
is not on his side. The more insertions, the
44:39
more battles that the unions stage against him,
44:42
he loses more men. He knows he has a numeric
44:44
disadvantage. So he knows if he's going to win,
44:46
he's got to knock them out of the game. So, Vicksburg
44:53
is still in the theater of the West. Okay. Moving
44:57
on. Here we go. So here's Gettysburg, if I can
45:05
zoom that in. So here's Lee, heads up to Gettysburg.
45:12
Now this is a great way off. Now, it's north
45:18
of Fredericksburg. The idea is we go up, We go
45:22
over, we take the river down, get past Frederick,
45:25
Maryland, and then get on the river here and
45:29
then attack Washington from further up the Potomac.
45:32
Notice the force is following the river. Why
45:33
is the force following the river? Water and transportation.
45:39
Because again, the rail lines don't always go
45:45
to the places you need them to go. So here's
45:49
Gettysburg. These are some dead people. Hang
45:52
on, let me go back. Okay, don't laugh that intently.
45:56
Alright, Pickett's charge is the death knell
45:58
and pretty much the end of the Confederacy in
46:01
terms of how many men they lost. After the loss
46:03
at Gettysburg, the South will no longer be able
46:06
to mount an offensive against the North. So there's
46:12
the harvest of death. Now, a couple of things
46:18
going on. The election of 1864, Lincoln is running
46:24
contested. He's running against the pacifist
46:30
intonations of the Democrats who want to make
46:33
their separate peace with the South. The Battle
46:37
of Chattanooga is where Lincoln discovers Grant.
46:43
Grant is then taken... Takes over command of
46:46
the main army and actually chief of all federal
46:49
forces. He takes command of the Army of the Potomac.
46:55
Sherman takes command of the Army of the West.
46:59
Grant crosses the wilderness. Here's your basic
47:01
idea. When Grant is taken, is put in charge of
47:04
the Army of the Potomac, and Sherman is in charge
47:06
of the Army of the West, basically it's charnel
47:09
house. They start actually throwing more men
47:11
and they're just like, no. We're not going to
47:14
do this by knocking them out of the game. We
47:15
have to totally and utterly subdue the South.
47:18
So that's when the strategy changes from a strangulation
47:23
plan to a war of conquest. And it's sort of the,
47:29
okay, we'll sort out the details and the morals
47:31
later. Right now we need to win this war. Okay,
47:34
we will finish up with this on Wednesday and
47:38
then we've got to hit Reconstruction on Friday.