Transcript The Challenges of Command and Leadership, 1862

The Challenges of Command and
Leadership, 1862
HIST4330: Civil War and Reconstruction
Dr. Kristen Epps
Today’s Questions
• What were the overarching strategies of
the Union and Confederate armies?
• How were the Union and Confederate
armies structured?
• What were key military campaigns (i.e.
operations) of early 1862, and how did
leadership (or lack thereof) shape the
outcome of these battles?
Policy
Grand Strategy
Strategy
Operations
Tactics
George B.
McClellan
Union General-inChief, November
1861-March 1862
Jefferson
Davis
President of the
C.S.A.
Robert E.
Lee
Confederate
General, Later
Commander of the
Army of Northern
Virginia
Military
Organizatio
n
Union
Forces at
the Battle of
Wilson’s
Creek, 1861
Military
Organizatio
n
Confederate and Union
Armies
Confederate
• Army of the Mississippi
• Army of Northern
Virginia
• Army of the Peninsula
• Army of the West (CSA)
• Army of TransMississippi
• Army of Missouri
• Army of Tennessee
• Army of Kentucky
Union
• Army of the Cumberland
• Army of the James
• Army of the Gulf
• Army of the Potomac
• Army of the Ohio
• Army of the Shenandoah
• Army of the Tennessee
• Army of Virginia
• Army of the West (USA)
Animated Map of Shiloh
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/shiloh/
maps/battle-of-shiloh-animated.html
Peninsula Campaign, March-May
1862
Peninsula Campaign, May-July 1862
Conclusions
• The Union strategy was to take Richmond, break
the Confederate cordon, and control the Mississippi
River
• In 1862, the Confederates began to adopt an
offensive-defensive strategy
• Although the Confederates did not have a generalin-chief, the two armies were similarly organized
into companies, regiments, brigades, divisions,
corps, and then armies
• Shiloh and the Peninsula Campaign were
significant—at Shiloh, Grant’s leadership brought a
Union victory, and on the Peninsula, McClellan
doomed the Union advance on Richmond