Personal Narrative: My First Vietnam War

In 1863, “a great civil war” (Lincoln, 1863) was raging across the land and seas of the North American continent. Union and Confederate forces were locked in a deadly struggle for control of America’s future. Yet, despite the Union’s undeniable logistical and infrastructural advantages over the Confederacy, the war was not progressing in favour of the Union. The Confederate generals had managed to outsmart and outmaneuver the Union armies repeatedly, dealing defeat after defeat to the North, greatly demoralizing the populace. As such, the Confederates, who were fighting not to conquer the Union, but rather to survive, were inching

Taking into consideration all of these ways to counter biases and fill the intelligence gaps that Gen. Cos had in this particular battle, let’s evaluate how history could have been rewritten. By eliminating the observation post, Gen. Cos and his troops

The Maryland Campaign of 1862 ended in a strategic victory for the Union despite their operational blunders and tactical failures. At the strategic level, the Union halted the Confederate’s movement towards Pennsylvania forcing them to assume a defensive posture. However, McClellan’s caution and hesitation at the operational level resulted in several missed opportunities to deliver a decisive blow while allowing Lee to consolidate and reposition his forces. Moreover, the Confederate army proved tactically superior in adapting and maneuvering to exploit the Union’s lack of coordination and mass. Given the above, the Union failed to end the war, but managed to accomplish its strategic objectives. Consequently, the Confederates escaped back to Virginia to contemplate the way ahead.

Since the final battle of the American Civil War was fought in 1865, scholars have debated the reasons for the Union’s victory over the Confederacy. Historians have attributed the war’s outcome to many factors, some of which include Lincoln’s superior leadership, the South’s failure to diplomatically secure foreign intervention, emancipated slaves enlisting in the Union army, and the military strategies employed by the North’s generals. Both the Union and Confederacy expected a quick victory, each believing it possessed several advantages over the other. In the end, however, the North’s overwhelming

The Confederacy was playing a defensive War and winning some battles but they couldn't win Northern battles (Doc A). This shows a turning point in the war because the Confederates can't win by force and the union will keep fighting. It Was

the Confederate army could win this one with a series of charges. On the second

During the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass were the main two people involved. Both of the candidates were at an equal chance of winning, now they just had to win the vote of the north or

From a military perspective, the war would have been perceived as a draw, but it was definitely a victory for us-- the Union. This battle definitely ours to take because we drew General Lee and his troops out of our land and allowed our President Lincoln to deliver his proposal of the Emancipation Proclamation which shifted the focus of the war to something far more greater than states' rights and federal authority. With the victory of this war, we can fight for a union without a system of

Throughout the Civil War, a progression of battles were fought amongst the Union and Confederate armies. The Union won battles and gained territory and the Confederates also won battles and gained territory. Throughout the war, it seemed as if the Confederate army was going to prevail, however, the Battle of Gettysburg soon changed this notion. The turning point, or when the expected outcome changes, occurred during the Battle of Gettysburg when it seemed Union troops began to prevail. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the war because of the devastation to the Confederate troops, the depletion of morale in the south, and the elevation of morale in the north.

Beginning as a battle of army versus army, the war became a conflict of society against society. In this kind of war, the ability to mobilize economic resources, the effectiveness of political leadership, and a society’s willingness to keep up the fight despite setbacks, are as crucial to the outcome as success or failure on the battlefields. Unfortunately for the Southern planters, by the spring of 1865, the South was exhausted, and on April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the war.

Conversely, if the Civil War ground on indefinitely without a northern victory or if the south managed a decisive battlefield success, perhaps at Gettysburg, it could have broken the

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Those were the famous words of Abraham Lincoln delivered on June 16th, 1858 addressed to the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. In this same speech he foretells the coming events, claiming that the issue of slavery has spread like wild fire in the south, however the north would stay strong. As a result the opponents of slavery would cease further spread, which would, in the public’s mind, that the practice was on it’s course into ultimate extinction. There is a truth in the say that ‘History is written by the victors.”(Winston Churchill). The Union certainly had the odds in their favors, however what would have happened if the confederates had won the Civil War? If this had been the case, a whole door of alternate universe are open to possibilities. If the confederates had indeed won the Civil War, America would still abolish slavery and would no longer be united resulting in a series of setbacks.

Though the North and South, or the Union and Confederacy, didn’t share views on slavery, they did share the problems they faced during the Civil War. Each side reacted to their problems differently, the North placing emphasis on taxes and the South on cotton. The problems they faced were not only affected by how they reacted but also by the battles they fought and won. Through some of the most significant battles fought and reactions had, the paths of victory and defeat were paved for each side to follow.

Gettysburg was fought during the Civil War between the Union Army of the Potomac led by General Meade, and the Confederate Army commanded by General R.E. Lee. The battle only was waged over the course of three days, but it would prove to be the most costly of the entire Civil War. In this paper, we will show how the Confederacy failed to identify certain principles of war, which lead them to incorrectly conduct a center of gravity and critical vulnerability analysis on the Union. Because of this failure, the Confederacy opened the door for the Union to score a decisive victory.

In all honesty, I was not very good at keeping up with the war. Since I was not fighting in the war, I did not hear about many battles. Through the grapevine, I was able to hear about some of the major battles, especially the Confederate victories. It seemed like in the east, the Confederacy would always come out victorious: The First Manassas, The Seven Days’ Battles, The Second Manassas, the Battle of Fredericksburg; in the west, the Union beat us: Shiloh, New Orleans. I almost thought the Confederacy had this war in the bag: “We’re going to win this!,” I would hear a lot of people say. But, there was one battle everyone heard about: the Battle of Sharpsburg in September of 1862, or the Battle of Antietam, as the Northerners like to call it. Supposedly it was the bloodiest battle in the entire war. It was a Union victory. Though I was not there, this battle changed my life. This single battle led to Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. This law banned slavery. I lost all of my slaves. At this point, I thought “We already lost.” The whole point of us fighting this war was to maintain our rights and independence from the Union. They had just removed our right to own property. Yet, the war was nowhere near over.