Assignment Prompt
And so the war came.
With the election of 1860, southerners made their decision and
attempted
to act on what they believed was their right
to leave the group, the club,
that they had helped found. While many
hoped cooler heads would prevail and that some
discussion would take place to
either work out a compromise or allow the split to
happen, most others assumed
some sort of fight would take place.
They thought that fight would be simple, quick and
decisive. It was none of those
things. The Battle of Bull Run
demonstrated that this war would be bloody, long and
convoluted.
After the dust of Bull Run settled, there were no major
battles in the rest of 1861. Most
people
were too shocked to do more. In the
South, people held their breath in hopes
that DC would just let them go their
own ways. In the North, people looked
for a military leader
as did Lincoln.
That most of the West Point veteran leaders had gone with the
south was
problematic. Lincoln in the end turns
next to George McClellan
one of the
most controversial figures of the war.
But, the military was not merely sitting around through the
fall and winter
they were
preparing to take over the Mississippi as part of the
Anaconda Plan. The navy was
tasked with
taking New Orleans from the south and the smaller islands and port cities
from
the north, down from St. Louis which was controlled by Northern troops.
Meanwhile, coming on the Ohio River, the army
was planning to come into Tennessee
from the West. T
hen, the Confederate army decided to ignore
Kentuckys proclamation of neutrality and march north.
For the CSA, holding the Ohio River as a northern border was
far better than Tennessee. Initially,
the CSA army found success
but once they crossed the border, the governor of KY
(a friend of Lincolns) turn to the President and asked for assistance. The army
pounced, and not only fought some
battles with the CSA army in Kentucky
but
established training bases for
recruits in Western Kentucky
on the upper reaches of the Tennessee River.
The north was poised to strike into Tennessee through its
rivers in 1862, and Generals
Buell and Grant did precisely that. They found success, though the Battle of
Shiloh was a bloody draw, slowing the Union advance.
It is in this setting that Robert E Lee was put in command
of the Army of Northern
Virginia (the Confederate main army in the East). He took over during McClellans failed attack
on Richmond, and knew that he had to act in a way to counter the Union success
in the West as well as change the initiative in the East. So, he headed north.
View the link video https://youtu.be/_8ybkoGmHww
Answer the following questions:
1. Explain the strategy of Lees first invasion of the north
in 1862?
2. Make sure you explain where he went, and was planning to go, but also
what he was hoping to accomplish?
3. How is this related to the belief that Southerners held
that they were following the
same strategy as the Patriots of the American
Revolution?