The Confederate invasion caught the Union forces off guard. The Union found themselves scrambling to defend New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Colonel Canby decided to reorganize his forces in the area and consolidate at Fort Craig, a main supply depot and fortified position in the area. Col. Canby successfully defends Fort Craig but in the First major battle after the confederate invasion, the Battle of Valverde, the Union loses the city of Albuquerque. Before the Union forces are defeated, the Governors of Colorado and Kansas receive word and assemble a volunteer force. The Unions outcome at the Battle of Glorieta Pass would ultimately be decided by the volunteers from Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico. In March of 1862, Colonel P Slough marches his volunteer force of roughly 900 men, most of which were miners, to Fort Union, New Mexico. Once there, Col. Slough joined with the 1,500 New Mexico Volunteers and marched on the Santa Fe Trail to establish a defensive position in Glorieta Pass. Once Col. Slough left Fort Union, he moved his forces to the entrance of Glorieta Pass. Just to the east of that position he established Camp Lewis. Colonel Slough’s …show more content…
Colonel Slough would continuously use tempo to keep pushing the Confederate forces back without delay. He refused to let the Confederate forces have the time necessary to regroup and reorganize. Colonel Slough would also change from offensive operations to defensive operations and fight the Confederates with a defense in depth. A defense in depth requires an extreme amount of tempo and Colonel Slough would continuously flank the Confederate forces as they would advance through the canyon. Using primary, alternate, supplementary, subsequent positons, the union force were able to attrite the Confederate forces as they gained ground. The loss of personnel always outweighed the gain in ground by the Confederate
First of all the geography forced the Confederates to switch from offense to defense. The Battle of Gettysburg was the first and last battle fought in the North. All the other battles were fought in the South so the Confederate’s people and towns were constantly in danger. Document A illustrates that the General Lee were tired of being on the defense and wanted to be on the offense for a change. Document A states that even though the Confederates tried their hardest they were pushed back onto the defensive and ultimately lost the war (273).
Even though the Union won the battle, it is clear that Sherman’s strategies that create a major loss on the Union as well. They have lost more men than the Confederate’s army. Sherman’s strategy
By the time Grants division get there and start shooting at the Fort, Confederates go after McClernands division. The confederates new that the first ones that shoot, the Union is trying to distract the confederates. So the confederates storm all over McClernands division. Grant then pushes back while McClernand is still fighting. Smith had sent reinforcements to McClernand (Dougherty, 2007).
This was profound that the great minds of the Civil War and this particular battle looked past elementary obstacles such as food and water for troops. This was the cause of most of Bragg’s troop’s demise, not bullets but starvation. The length of the battle lasting only three days brought its own challenges that the Confederate leaders did not for see such as the logistical support for such a battle. The Union Army had the supply lines and the firepower to fend off the offensive attacks from Braxton and Bragg which left these two war hardened masterminds to muddle in poor decisions such as overruling General Breckenridge’s strong resistance of taking a high point in the Union line that would prove to be a strong point of heavy artillery for the South. This poor decision left the south once again under cannon fire from a numerically superior foe that was the Union Army.
One Union leader was Ulysses S. Grant. He was “commander in chief of the Union army” (Stoff 505). Grant helped the course of the war by being determined to win. Also he thought of the idea to “wage total war against the south” (Stoff 508). This meant that “civilians in the south suffered the same hardships as the army” (Stoff 508).
The Hill needed to stay in Union forces for the remainder of the three day battle, or else a Union victory would be lost from view. The Regiment was determined to defend and stand strong against the 15th Alabama. They would not collapse, and they would defend with all that they had. A brutal, all-consuming fight, first with elements of the 47th Alabama, then with the entire 15th Alabama, brought the Mainers to the breaking point. In the midst of the battle Chamberlain realized that his flank was exposed, and while under fire he reorganized his line so that it bent back on itself and protected the vulnerable flank. "...we cannot fall back, if we do the rebs will sweep up the whole Union Army from here all the way to Culp's hill...
Lee’s strategically placed troops. Early in the morning with darkness and fog surrounding the soldiers, the attack began. The Union corps assembled a 7 mile long line and advanced. As the confrontation started the Union's corps began to get separated and confused by all of the heavy vegetation and swamplands, losing contact with each other. At this point Lee’s army was able to annihilate the Union troops because of his angled lines of troops.
A Defense Minded Position Fort Wagner was located on the northern end of Morris Island to the southeast
The affects of this specific example on the confederates were devastating with 29,491 officers and men being surrendered to the Union, but more importantly it resulted in the union gaining control of the Mississippi River. As Lincoln said, “Vicksburg is the key. The war can never be brought to a close until the key is in our pocket.” This shows how this use of warfare directly correlated to the result of the war, and therefore how Grants use of siege tactics caused the Union to
Due to high causality figures and with constant confrontation, Sherman come to a decision to broaden the weight and Emotional distress of the war further than rebel soldiers and to include the civilian advocators Particularly, the common People in general of the Confederacy who filled the ranks of the confederacy. Sherman considered that forcing civilian to feel what he called the “hard hand of war” was a military essential. Making the war ruthless and remorseless would bring victory more swiftly and with a minimum loss of life. He considered that by doing this Confederate morale would be weakened and irregular armed force that were fighting the union forces by sabotage and stalking would withdraw. This would disseminate the message that
The location remained in the Union’s possession for two years after the battle. This battle also aided the Union army in having a stronger control over the
General McClellan made the South flee causing the Union to win another battle. In Mississippi General Grant led another battle to victory with the surrender of the Confederacy. General Sherman led the Union army in Savannah and destroyed the cities and broke the spirit of the Confederacy. This was another victory. The final battle of the Civil War was led by President Lincoln.
The Overland Campaign was a decisive moment in the Civil War: it was a strategic victory for the Union, but consisted of heavy losses on both sides. In just 40 days, the Union lost 55,000 men. The Confederates lost 36,000 men, but with an army roughly half of the Union’s to begin with, their losses were proportionally much greater. The final battle of the campaign, Cold Harbor, led to extremely high losses on both sides, but was a defensive victory for Lee. Anti-war sentiments grew in the North and Grant was labeled “the butcher.”
General Lee’s troops were in the middle. However, they were worn out and hungry. They just watched and waited as George B. McClellan’s army was positioned on the east side of the creek. Though the Union outnumbered the Confederates,
Many military strategies of the Civil War Many military strategies of the Civil War which made it the deadliest of all American wars. During the Civil War many strategies were used by the South and North, to fight hard but the hardest will win. There are many battles, many weapons were used, along with spies and navies. There were many battles, navies were important, spies were used in the war, very much, along with many weapons, and the South won the war. There were many major battles of the Civil War, the first one was Fort Sumter, others were the First Battle of Bull Run, Shiloh, Seven days battle, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg ("Civil War Battles”).