Military Strategy and Tactics of the Civil War Essay

The American Civil War was one of the deadliest wars in American history, resulting in 620,000 casualties of soldiers and undetermined number of civilian casualties. Southern slave states declared their withdrawal from United States and formed the Confederate States of America; also know as â€Å"The Confederacy.† Northern twenty states free of slavery and five slave states in north came to knows as the Union. Many strategy and tactics were used during the American Civil War. In order to understand the military strategy and tactics of Union and the Confederacy, one must understand the manpower each side had, previous war experience of the commanding officers on both side, and using rivers and railroad to their advantages. The Union had†¦show more content†¦Along with the Irish and German immigrants there were also, British, Canadian, French, Hungarian, Italian, Mexican, Netherlands, Nowegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish immigrants that served in both sides. (Nofi, 37 2) The total casualties of Union, including killed in action, mortally wounded, battle deaths, other deaths, total deaths, wounds not mortal, were 634,703 and the Confederacy total casualties were 337,934. (Nofi, 373) It is quite clear from the number of causalities on each side that they had large number or army but North had twice as more than south. Also, it can be speculated from the casualty numbers that one of the strategy of North was to fight constantly to wear down the enemy to weaken or destroy. During the times of Civil War, there were many Commanding Generals that came along. But two stand out amongst all, Ulysses S. Grant of United States of America and Robert E. Lee of Confederate States of America. Both men had formally fought, not along side of each other, in the Mexican-American War. At one point Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant worked together in the Mexican-American War. 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