A lead in to understanding the scope of the south’s history would be incomplete without a brief look at arguably the most devastating era of United States history.

The era leading up to the Civil War undoubtedly proceeded in dramatic effect while impacting 3 million soldiers who fought for the cause, burdening the life of their families while wreaking incredible strain on the social, political and economic resources of the country. Prior to the war’s start in April of 1861, decades of contrasting patterns in development between the north and south had emerged, causing strong ideological differences between them. Population growth specifically, had quickly trended upward in the northeast owing largely to the arriving immigrant population from areas across Europe eager to find opportunity in the booming industrial centers around New York, Pittsburg, Boston and other big towns. At the turn of the nineteenth century America’s population was only around 5 million but by 1860 it had swelled to 31 million with two thirds living in the northeast. The south accounted for 9 million, approximately a third of whom were African American slaves. At that time it was certain that nearly all of the African American population had been born on US soil since the ban of slave importation took affect in 1808.

Sadly the practice of forced unpaid labor with it’s conditions being often insufferable was not uncommon in other parts of the world during the 19th century. Yet it had become a contested issue at different times throughout the century amongst various countries that had allowed it and obviously would have a deeply dividing effect on the upper and lower regions of America. England and much of the rest of Europe had universally implemented abolishment by around 1840.

For those nations that were experiencing the transition from an economy once predominantly based upon agricultural to one based largely on industry, new systems of beliefs were being adopted amongst various groups of society including not only philosphers and thinkers but many within the general population. This onset of the Gilded Age soon enough helped encourage the notion and perceived virtue that opportunity should be provided to all men regardless of race. Thus the opinion of many in the northern states had advanced this ideal beyond the harsh inequality that slavery propagates, seeking instead one’s self determination based upon merit that was to be afforded to anyone willing to work for it.

But even by the mid 19th century, the United States stood separately divided upon the subject and sadly it would remain so in many regards for years to come. So too were conditions mostly inhumane for those vying for factory jobs where northern workers were put into repressed conditions with severe endangerment. But as a new age was coming to be for much of the modernizing world, an individual’s sovereignty was progressively being thought of as a natural right.

For the southern United States very little in the way of such industrial modernization had developed. Little to no factory production existed largely due to the complacency in the adapted quality of life that had become standard for the influential white population living there. Nearly the entire economic means consisted of agriculture. The region had become extremely profitable in the harvests of it’s key cash crops that included rice, corn, tobacco, and most of all cotton.

The cotton export business had become a hugely lucrative element to the economy and the wealth of large plantation owners were attaining a standard of life beyond what had been experienced before. Not only was cotton the highest grossing export business for all of the United States but southern production was supplying 75% of the world’s demand with much of it being shipped to textile centers in England and other European nations. The agricultural success that was being had in large part due to the conjecturable economic model of slave labor had it’s portion of advocates in the west as well.

Major questions looming for America around the middle of the 19th century as large parts of territory that stretched from Canada to the Mississippi once belonging to the French prior to the Louisiana Purchase were now vying for statehood. This land that had not yet been officially chartered was still left to face the question of whether or not to allow slavery in what would soon become Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah. California was admitted as a free state in 1850 which had been a contested agreement given that demands of labor were high during the ongoing gold rush.

The mid century decade leading up to the presidential elections of 1860 witnessed the most contentious difference of opinion on the issue that the nation had ever before experienced. It would be safe to say that certainly the time had come for the question over slavery to be decided, it just wasn’t one that was to be easily resolved.

The south, mostly considered Democrats, vied for expansion of their ideals into the soon to be chartered states out west. The Republicans, Whigs and other groups on the other hand either vehemently opposed or sought to leave it up to the states to decide. Several landmark legislative measures were enacted that tried answering the question. The first being the Missouri Compromise. It seemed to settle the political disagreement of the issue temporarily by establishing a line of demarcation between free and slave states along the 36 30 parallel. This ruling served to coincide with what had for many years before established along a similar geographical line in the east, the delineation between the free and slave states. But while the MO Compromise intended to settle the question for the expansion westward it would soon prove to be contested in further legislative decisions.

One of the modifications to the original agreement involved a political maneuver that was being jostled for by Stephen A Douglas. He hoped to win approval for one of the two proposed rail routes of the Union Pacific Line that would eventually connect the transcontinental. He argued that the slavery question was best left to the new western state’s to decide rather than a largely arbitrary geographic decision that had influenced the annexation of Missouri several years before. Douglas’s motive was implicitly based upon the hope of winning this rescission of the parallel clause as a trade off to be presented to the southerners while he planned to favor the track construction running through Kansas and Nebraska territory rather than Mississippi and Texas. Thus Stephen Douglas had vied to repeal part of the Missouri Compromise to win southern support for his rail ambitions.

A subsequent ruling that carried considerable weight in addressing the issue over determining how much a state would influence the slavery decision was in the Supreme Court case of Dread Scott in 1857. The man for whom the case was named would bring to trial the question of whether a black man who once had been subjected to enslavement in a southern state would still be considered property when moved into a free state upon the relocation of his master. The question went through the system, ultimately making it’s way to the highest court where it was ruled against a man of color from bringing such a question to US court under the premise that he is not a citizen and largely void of individual rights. It was a 5-4 ruling that further afforded protection for the continuance of a states right to decide upon the issue.

But as the presidential election of 1860 approached, how concisely these court decisions would be applied in the west and how such a question would eventually evolve to affect relations between the north and the south would have an extremely intense road ahead for changing the ideological differences over the matter. The presidential elections in 1860 hinged almost entirely on the issue, pitting four candidates against one another. John Breckenridge, carrying the support almost entirely of the south supported the protection of rights to slavery in the west. On the other end of the spectrum was Abraham Lincoln who denounced any acceptance of what he considered a social injustice for those that were subjected to it and planned to outlaw the practice for all western states. As mentioned, Stephen A Douglas took a middle ground by leaving it up to each individual state to decide. The Republican candidate Abe Lincoln aided mostly by capturing much of the northern vote went on the win the popular election with just under 40% of the nation’s votes while securing a majority of the electoral college.

For years prior to the election it had been considered among those deeply rooted southern states that their steadfast opinion would remain such that someday secession from the Union might be their only recourse. The notion became ever more astute as the eventuality of their hope in expanding their means of existence to the western states showed dimmer prospect of occurring. Especially after the election of Abe Lincoln, it would quickly transpire that those of the most hard lined of southern states would soon plan to exit the Union. Political bodies had already been given strong preliminary consideration for who might lead a newly established Southern nation. The relatively moderate Jeff Davis of Mississippi was chosen mostly due to the belief that his mild tone on the issue might draw favor from many in the western states.

South Carolina was the first to claim it’s secession nearly one month following the election results. A wave of six other states would soon follow including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. All would have already removed themselves as part of the Union by inauguration day in February of 1861. Lincoln had largely kept quiet on the secession issue up to that point as seeing as their was little that he could do before being seated in office. Meanwhile the southern state legislators had quickly galvanized a spirit of independence as they replaced the waving of Union flags with their own and coordinated plans for it’s newly comprised Confederacy. A few weeks following Lincoln occupying the nation’s most coveted position, he was vexed over whether military action was going to be the appropriate course of action. Did the southern states have any right to secede as had the colonies originally declared their independence from England 75 years before or was this simply a matter of treason to be repressed accordingly by force. An article in the New York Times reported , “if two sections can no longer live together, they can no longer live apart in quiet till it is determined which one is the master.”

Their remained only a few occupied US forts in the south that had not succumb to the Confederate cause shortly after inauguration. One that was still in the hands of Union loyalist officers was a base named Fort Sumter located along the coast of South Carolina whose commander was Robert Anderson.

Early on, a man’s reasoning for choosing which side of the war to support was a test of one’s sense of patronage involving geographical heritage and ideological beliefs. For some it was a difficult choice that was met with great indecision. Anderson, a fifty year old long tenured navy captain was faced with such a dilemma. Anderson was from Kentucky which on through the war would remain split in it’s sympathies. His wife was from Georgia which he showed a great concern for and having spent much time in one of the most staunchly pro-secessionist states of South Carolina, prompted him some hardship. Yet he never conceded in his loyalty to the federal government.

Soon following the withdrawal of the nine southern states, Anderson found it necessary to evacuate his eighty two troops from a slightly inland base location to a more securely defendable position just off the SC coast. For nearly the next two weeks, it came to symbolize a holding ground effort for the Union to maintain this military position in the south. The Federal government was forced with the decision of whether or not to allow the fort to succumb to an effortless surrender. At first, nonmilitary supplies were sent via an unarmed Union merchant vessel named Stars of the West to replenish the aid of the naval crew. Upon the ship making it’s entry into the waters of Charleston, SC though it was fired upon by Confederate gunners who forced the ship to return back to safe waters. The question would loom for whether it was in the best interest for Lincoln to dispatch a naval force to pursue the high cost of protecting what seemed to be little more than a test of principal. An initial vote of 5-2 rejecting Fort Sumter’s defense and preferring to allow it’s surrender was made around April 1. Such wasn’t yet the case though, as Lincoln wasn’t convinced upon relinquishing it.

Lincoln had in the weeks before received many messages from political supporters calling for him to do what might be necessary to preserve the Union. In the early days of Fort Sumter, naval ships had been ordered to stand ready while the uncertainty remained on what might soon be done. Dispatches of strong rhetoric were sent back and forth between South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens and the US secretary of state William Seward. Soon demands were made by the South for the Fort to surrender less it begin receiving shots of attack. Anderson’s refusal to call for the surrender soon led to the first military action of the war where several hours of early evening cannon fire and artillery fell upon Sumter. Soon after, the occupying general surrendered, with no causalities to report up to that point. It was commonly understood that with the differences having been well beyond reconciliation at the time of Ft. Sumter that once military involvement began, their was to be most certainty a war. But few ever expected it to be to the extent that would transpire for the next four years.

Soon following the fall of Fort Sumter, 75,000 troops were called by Lincoln to be brought up to duty for a ninety day term of service. Then largely in response, four of the not yet seceded southern states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas abandoned their position of preemptive abstention and withdrew to the Confederacy, bringing the total to eleven.

By the end of May, a new capital of the south was proclaimed at Richmond where more fervent activity and attraction managed to consume the interests of those appointed politicians better than the initially named location at Montgomery, AL. Apprehension over the decision to relocate the southern political headquarters after the first two months had been voiced by Jeff Davis, a Mississippian himself. But being overruled, he quickly conceded and went in favor of surrounding himself amongst the most developed town of the south. Risks did exist concerning the vulnerability of Richmond being located just one hundred miles from Washington D.C. But with the Virginia area being a resourceful procurer of agriculture, supplies and soldiers it well enough fit the bill.

A force of 50,000 southern troops had by mid July become stationed in the nearby Virginia area. Jeff Davis having had experience assigning men to war as a former secretary of such affairs under President Pierce and having been a former West Point graduate himself was a capable leader for recruiting the new army’s commanders.

A rebel raid earlier in May of a Federal supply garrison at Harper’s Ferry in Northern Virginia had caused a scare to Lincoln’s newly appointed Union commanders for whom George McClellan was the top general. But the situation was soon quelled and the munitions factory placed back into the hands of the US military. Several of those who had been major figures at the skirmish of Fort Sumter on the southern side was commander Beauregard who soon was ordered to the Richmond area. For the few Union men involved in the initial show down, General Anderson was requested by the Federal Secretary of State, Seddon to move north and serve as a general in charge for overseeing the borders of Kentucky in hopes of preventing their defection. Several other states remained on the fence mostly those that had not left the union but were slave owning states including Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri.

Around the 20th of July Pierre Beauregard called for enforcements from another appointed general, Joe Johnston of Virginia who would go on to be an important figure for the south throughout the war. He helped in mobilizing troops north from Richmond into Manassas, Maryland a strenuous journey across the Shenandoah mountains about several hundred miles beyond the north Virginia border.

The fervor of the war by this time had been growing. Participation in it’s cause became the thing to do amongst most common men for want of finding their own glory, or out of boredom and with the belief that the conflict would soon be over. There at Manassas, the first significant battle of the war broke out in July in what was known as First Bull Run. It would amount to a strenuous fight for both sides but ultimately a major southern win led by Stonewall Jackson. This was the first of two fights at this location as the Battle of Second Bull Run would take place in August the next year with General James Longstreet claiming a bigger win for the south.

The majority of the war did not occur beyond the borders of the south but with both sides keeping significant enforcements near their respective capitals, several major campaigns led the southern armies northward where one of the biggest occurred at Gettysburg, PA in July of 1863.

By the spring of that year with the duration of the war having surpassed what most would have imagined significant trouble for much of the country had already incited. Several landmark battles had since passed with convincing victories for both sides. These first two years encompassed a large geographic territory where fighting took place but a preponderance of troops had remained stationed in the east within reasonable ability to mobilize to each respective capital city in case an attack by the enemy seemed imminent.

The generals in command of the two armies by 1863, were Robert E. Lee of his home state northern Virginia Army and John Hooker as the third of such generals to hold the position of command for the Union troops. Hooker had gained his appointment from the blessings of federal secretary of war Edwin Stanton and Abraham Lincoln in January 1863. The frequent changeover of command over Union forces was a result of the perceived disappointment in leadership for the North at periods during the first two years. Thus justification for reassigning the commanding general being an indication of weakness in the eyes of the south had nonetheless become a regular occurrence. Prior to John Lee Hooker, the Union was commanded first by McClellan and then by Henry Halleck, John Pope and Ambrose Burnside all of whom had experienced some unfavorable results in the eastern territory. Several of those battles which seemed to bear fatefully upon each man’s inability to remain in command of the Union included southern victories at the Battle of Shiloh(April 1861), First Bull Run(July 1861), Second Bull Run(Aug. 1862) and Fredericksburg(Dec. 1862).

What was soon deemed a necessary plan of action for the Federal Army was to forcefully engage the western region of the divided union along one of it‘s most treasured resources, the Mississippi River. Supply lines for the Southern Army were very much dependant upon this body of water for facilitating shipments of military and civilian provisions to the various rail lines that ran through much of the southern heartland. Thus prior to the onset of the 1862-‘63 winter, large encampments of Union forces were assigned to the upper Mississippi in preparation for obtaining a strong position that could be deployed downriver once weather permitted the following spring. Thus the banks within Arkansas from where the Mississippi River travels before going into the state for which it is named became a holding ground for a large number of Union forces eagerly waiting for cooperative warm weather.

General Ulysses S Grant was in command of a large force of 44,000 troops that when combined with the sizeable number of Maj. John McClernand’s troops and a force of naval vessels steaming downriver made for a 75,000 strong position to strike defeat upon the waterway. Such was their objective to march the Union troops along either side of the river securing it as possession for the federal ships. Many hundreds of miles downriver is where Grant’s troops headed in the Spring of 1863 accompanied by many of his lieutenant collogues of whom his most trusted was William Tecumseh Sherman, the hot tempered red head from Ohio.

Grant’s predilection for top command though was surely to be questioned by those slightly under his rank who might have been in position to overtake his post had orders ever been sent from Washington. The reason being, that Grant despite some effort to discredit these allegations and his ability to often emerge victorious in battle, was at times a regular whiskey drinker. A humorous tale described by a Chicago journalist sent to cover the war’s western theater of activity in 1863 was confronted first hand with what was later published as being a two day bender by the general. Anecdotal to General Grant’s foremost responsibility for gaining possession of the River, the tale of his outlandish inebriated jaunt, kept secret by the Mid Western journalist for thirty years, apparently occurred upon a steamboat in May, 1863. For periods of the campaign, Grant could afford to relieve himself of overseeing the one sided fighting that was taking place among his troops along the river. Thus ridden with boredom Grant purportedly boarded a vessel heading upriver along the Yazoo tributary and with the captain’s knowledge, secured for himself enough liquor as one could fathom for commencing a solo rendezvous of drunken adventure. It was here, as one of the regular passengers onboard that the newspaper correspondent noticed what was affront. Much to the benefit of the General, the literary Union sympathizer consoled Grant by attempting to preclude the general from further drunken embarrassment. For the next two days until they returned from where the boat had departed, the journalist like that of an impatient friend trying to corral a disorderly mate took pains to look after him until being safely placed back into the presence of his advisory lieutenants, most of whom looked intolerantly upon such behavior. But such habits aside, the demonstrable action taken by Grant or maybe more proportionately by those who aided his command, would certainly achieve their objective.

By early June, 1863 Union artillery had narrowed in decisively upon the large rebel outpost at Vicksburg along the Mississippi River where it’s repository for weapons, powder, munitions, and many soldiers were stationed. The shelling of large mortar rounds coming from the Yanks just beyond the north of the deteriorating fortifications at Vicksburg lasted for over a month. The southern soldiers were holed up under extremely harsh conditions of dwindling food rations and no answer for the blows that they were being dealt except for the hope that a force of Confederate troops might be ordered from Tennessee many hundreds of miles away to counter the repulse. But despite heavy consideration by the Southern commanders in sending a force of Joe Johnston’s troops from Knoxville, the top southern military brass including Robert E Lee, president Jefferson Davis, native Georgian Braxton Bragg and General Longstreet opted that such an effort to save Vicksburg and the Mississippi was more than they could muster. It would thus be that surrender of the fort occurred in early July. Due to having seized the Mississippi River and an annihilation that was dealt the city of Jackson by General Sherman in July, the state had nearly been considered all but entirely defeated by the North.

It soon become the priority quickly upon the south conceding a western defeat, that troops ought to focus a resumed plan of attack in the area near the opposing capitals where a majority of highly commanded soldiers were already stationed. One sentimental and military set back that would arise in the east was the loss of one of the south’s most revered generals, Stonewall Jackson. The incident occurred at the Battle of Chancellorsville, which nonetheless, soon became viewed as big confederate victory. The fight involved several divisions that were to launch a surprise attack just before sunset upon a larger Union force.

The venue of the battle was in northern Virginia within easy marching distance of Lee’s area of convalescence near the point where the Rappahannock and Rapidon Rivers converge before flowing into Potomac. It was to take place about three miles from where the previous rebel victory of Fredericksburg had been claimed in December.

The evening was May 4th when the initial charge of Chancellorsville began moving against several locations of targeted Union soldiers. What soon erupted was a chaotic battle lasting for hours into the night. Lost in confusion of the moonlit sky caused soldiers to inadvertently turn against one another. Such was the case with General Jackson who had been compelled to order the fight in the first place. Stonewall was accidentally shot in the arm by one of his troops leaving a wound that required prompt medical attention. It was days later though during the general’s expected path to recovery that an unexpected illness of pneumonia overcame him which would within a week turn fatal.

Despite the sentimental as well as effective loss of such a general, and the damage suffered along the waters leading to Vicksburg, the eastern spirit of the war was high for the southern cause and preempting a major advance northward with a newly reorganized army instilled great confidence for what was to come.

With the blessing of Jefferson Davis, Lee had assigned the hierarchy of leadership to Gen. Longstreet, Richard Ewell of Tennessee, and the South Carolinian A.P. Hill to command three corps who would march beyond the Federal lines, making their way again into Pennsylvania. There they calculated that many good locations for battle existed for encountering a deciding fight that might tip the scale of war strongly in their favor.

Embarking on a month long march would that included troops from the Northern Virginia Army and enforcements totaling 75,000 men beyond the enemy lines compelling them to face an army in rather unfamiliar territory. For all the roads along the route of this large confederate mobilization, the army’s seemed destined to cross over the small college town of Gettysburg. There were no fewer than ten roads intersecting the area within just a few miles of this eastern Pennsylvania hillside community. Lee would make headquarters a short distance away at Chambersburg. Not far away would be General Longstreet and many of the other fifty-two rebel generals who had made the journey expecting to carry out tactical assignments of war handed down from the powers above.

For the Yanks, once again the top commander for their army had been reassigned just several days earlier, replacing Hooker with General George Meade, nicknamed ’old snapping turtle’ of Pennsylvania. Meade’s major force now consisted of the Army of Potomac which had made a similar shift northward from their prior location around the capitals of Richmond and Washington D.C. in accordance with the southern arrival. Thus many of the same forces that had once seen action against each other during the earlier campaigns of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Sharpsburg would again test one another’s strength. The dense concentration of opposing armies around Gettysburg would soon undergo battle on a larger scale than ever before seen in the war.

The fields of battle set to take place upon three key sites including Big Round Top, Little Round Top and Cemetery Hill with each experiencing separate yet disastrous bloodshed over three consecutive days. Enormous efforts for positioning each sides multitude of soldiers, artillery firepower and cavalry coupled with intense decision making would be put to the ultimate test in the early days of July. Lacking any scope of detail in this short summary nonetheless needs mentioning that what transpired were similar confederate strategies consisting of repeated rebel offensives for the first two days against Little and Big Round Top. The Union held the advantage of occupying the higher ground in both locations that made for a downhill defensive strategy and advantageous tactics of observation for the north.

After the first day, a short fallen effort by the rebels to summon a victory upon the Union troops that were split among eight divisional corps led by the Generals Meade, Joe Chamberlain, John Caldwell, George Picket and four others nonetheless left the south with confident optimism that an effective day two could compensate for the initial day’s defeat. A similar offensive strategy as the previous day was thus undertaken beginning late morning of July 2 but with similar results upon Little and Big Round Tops which were located two miles apart. On the third day, the determination of General Lee was to see to it that all efforts were made to overcome it’s more forceful opponent despite the seemingly valiant efforts which his beleaguered southern units had shown so far.

General Longstreet among others going into the what would be the last day of Gettysburg were suspect about the hope of salvaging the losses already dealt to their forces. Lee had in mind an unused strategy from the previous days. He planned to exhaust much of the remaining artillery fire that was in rebel possession including cannon supplies and long range mortar rounds with a frontal attack upon the crest of Little Round Top while a coordinated attack by General Ewell could be carried out on an opposite side.

The timing would not to be fortuitous, as Ewell became sooner consumed in his fight against Union forces at Big Round Top than had been expected. Partially as a result but more to do with the sheer advantage of Union positioning, Lee’s intended objective in staging the early afternoon charge under cover from preliminary artillery bombardment failed to end in the manner that the General had envisioned. Losses of nearly fifty thousand soldiers, by all counts occurred over the course of the three day battle with General John Reynolds, Daniel Sickles and Winfield Hancock accounting for most of the Union’s losses while Johnston Pettigrew, George Pickett, AP Hill’s regiments suffered heavily for the south.

In what could have been one more final day of attempting to unseat the Union of their victory, General Lee and his advisors called for a retreat. Within the following days and weeks of July, a tenuous march and freighting of army supplies upon pontoon boats led the rebel army of just over 50,000 back to where they had began more than a month before. The North’s army remained in hot pursuit for a time with great disgrievance coming from Abe Lincoln that a more decisive blow to the enemy couldn’t have been made.

This being a big turning point in stemming much of the earlier momentum for the South in the Civil War still would not come close to bringing an end to what had by been by that time two years of ongoing conflict.

In the autumn months of that year the brunt of activity occurred around southern Tennessee where strong forces of General Longstreet, Braxton Bragg of Georgia, General Lee, Joe Johnson and others were faced up against a large number of union forces under the command of newly appointed Rosecrans, Halleck, Meade and others. Late September would prove a mettlesome test of strength particularly for the south in the specific battles fields of Chickamauga and Missionary Hill around the town of Chattanooga. Over several hard fought days the south proclaimed a meaningful victory which would yet again shift the order of command into the hands of the questionable yet successful western commanding general of Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant would have his work cut out for him though and the first measure of duty would be with his arrival at Bridgeport near the site of the recently deposed General Rosecrans after the union defeat in Tennessee. From mid October through the remainder of the year, enforcements to that area of would be called from other Union forces stationed in Kentucky, Missouri and those not already deployed from the Army of the Potomac back east. Hard fighting well remained with Grant at the helm and to whom he would soon owe much credit to in his trusted cavalry man and general, William T. Sherman.

The state of Tennessee for the remainder of 1863 and on into the next six months of ‘64 would experience the preponderance of activity during this portion of the war. Sherman was given control over his original army of the Ohio plus the Tennessee and Cumberland amounting to a total of a hundred thousand soldiers. Knoxville would quickly fall to the Union and soon Chattanooga would undergo a reversal of it’s previous confederate victory at Chickamauga and concertedly slip into the hands of Sherman’s forces that summer.

Meanwhile General Grant had turned his own troops towards Richmond, VA. There Grant faced some of the largest losses of any single effort throughout the war. Nearly half of Grant’s 70,000 eastern forces died in attempting to overtake the formidable defenses that surrounded the capital city.

Richmond had before the war been the largest manufacturing city of the south but the war necessitated relocating many production facilities to locations elsewhere after the first two years. With the capture of places around the Mississippi and the challenge of maintaining facilities near the areas of battle, the very deep south became the best option for manufacturing. Private businesses that had once been dedicated to a certain type of production soon were forced to become specialists in the supplies that were needed for war. The Confederate government contracted with such business to maintain their arsenals. Georgia soon led in production with various towns specializing in different products which could then be sent by rail from Atlanta to their destination.

Columbus, GA provided an assortment of manufacturing capacities with including heavy steel for long range guns, rail line supplies and even gunboats. Macon provided much of the small arms production. Athens dealt a great deal in textiles including uniforms and shoes. Approximately 95% of all gunpowder used by the southern army came from Augusta.

Needless to say, with all efforts to expand manufacturing capacity for supplies in the south, it in no way reached a level near what the north was able to produce. For one, prior to the war, the North was the world’s largest producer of weaponry and steel. Their ability to conduct the assembly line process for parts, including rifles, ammunition and heavy artillery was vital. The best that the south could do was replicate copies of these weapons at a monthly rate of about what the north could do in a day. Throughout the course of war, a major source of requisitioning supplies was based upon seizing the enemy’s. This became a major strategy for both sides to be achieved either through battlefield success or the often performed cavalry raids.

For those leading the Union effort, the ability to end this war hinged on what stamina remained for the south. The mentality amongst many civilians towards the fourth year was exasperation and their existed a lost faith that the war could actually be won. Slim support for Lincoln’s reelection was the consensus among many in the north partly due to the non support of his plan for conscripting several hundred thousand more troops if necessary.

The Union won Chattanooga in what amounted to a nearly five month campaign of Sherman’s troops fighting in southern Tennessee. A still much needed show of victory farther south though was what could bring a convincing end to the war. That of course is just what Sherman had in mind that soon prompted his movement of Union troops southward into north Georgia.

For the remaining time that the conflict prevailed, a new tone of impatience and impending destruction would take place under Sherman’s command that instigated what became known as total war. This meant destruction of anything that could be of value to the southern effort including agricultural production, rail lines, farms but was supposed to preclude destroying private homes despite such orders often being neglected.

Confederate defenses for the city of Atlanta which at the time had a population of about 15,000 were tightly enforced in anticipation of a looming attack on this vital artery of supply lines. Heavy fortifications had been established consisting of the best methods capable of being utilized at the time. Large pieces of timber, breastworks of man moved dirt embankments and other impressive engineering feats became a major part of securing the army and city’s position.

John B hood was placed in command of approximately 70,0000 rebel soldiers after Jeff Davis had relieved General Joe Johnston of command upon suspicions that he lacked the patronage to well enough protect Atlanta. John B Hood took the position on July 17th 1864. But over nearly two months he often resorted to overly aggressive counter attacks against the heavily stationed artillery positions that the Union forces aimed into the city. Atlanta’s center was located farther south than were it is today and it would become the area that needed to be attacked if surrender was to occur.

Tactics that had been adopted in the later stages of the war in order to overcome such secured defenses was utilizing the flank maneuver. The design of well constructed fortifications had made the task of an attacking army incredibly more challenging. In addition to artillery fire which both the north and the south employed with disastrous effect, the offensive army needed to advance beyond the enemy lines in order to engage a decisive battle. This normally required determining which part of the enemy’s defense lines were the weakest and ordering an attack at that precise location. Once the weak spot of the fortification could be penetrated, an attack could be carried out in hopes of winning the infantry fight that would lead to a retreat and the capture of territory, supplies and soldiers.

Thus was the case for Atlanta where Sherman’s troops managed to move beyond the defensive lines in the southern part of the city and fulfill their objective. Once Sherman’s siege passed through the southern defenses, his troops soon began tearing up railroad tracks making the vital supply lines running through the city totally inoperable.

The people of the Atlanta were forced to flee in fear of being held captive by the sudden occupation of the enemy. The fall of the city of course meant the loss of what surviving transport existed for sustaining any effectiveness to the confederate army. The loss was just as much a blow to the morale of the southern cause in the war as it was a strategic defeat for the north. Soon the Sherman campaign moved onward into Savannah and up along the coast of South Carolina inflicting severe destruction along the way. Atlanta’s surrender in the war was essentially the last straw in keeping any chance alive for the southern effort.

Several more months followed before the ultimate capitulation occurred. The surrender of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia troops and at Appomattox Courthouse occurred on April 9, 1865 is viewed by many historians as the final end to the war. It was still a few weeks later though on April 27, 1865 that Sherman forced the surrender of General Joe Johnston’s 30,000 strong forces in North Carolina. This for all purposes marked an official end to the vicious four year long struggle. There the Ohioan also general ordered his troops to cease the path of destruction that had been the total war policy during the previous nine months.