Wednesday, July 2, 2014

What goals did the civil war accomplish and how? What goals did it fail to accomplish and why?

There were numerous goals during the American Civil War. The Union's first goal was to bring the Confederacy back into the Union. It would ultimately accomplish this through Winfield Scott's "Anaconda Plan," which involved cutting the South off from outside help and defeating its armies in the field. After four long years of war and over six hundred thousand dead on both sides, the Union achieved its goal. A secondary goal of the Union was to end slavery, but this did not become a goal until late in the war and was not finalized until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Lincoln assassination.
The South did not achieve its goal of independence. The South did not have enough soldiers, money, or an industrial base to compete with the North long-term. While the South attempted to win a war of attrition, it failed to gain the international help it needed to finally pull away from the North.

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