Essay on Civil War: Total War and it's Impact on society
Submitted By bear323
Words: 852
Pages: 4
It is important to note that when the phrase “total war” is applied to the U.S. Civil War it has a total opposite meaning than when it is used to describe 20th-century conflicts. In the more recent case, total war indicates the use of air power and strategic bombing to disable an enemy’s infrastructure, such as roads, power plants, and so forth. But the total war policy also indicates to target whole cities and the civilian populations within them. This kind of total war brings out the extensive use of lethal force, as indicated by the number of non-combatant deaths during World War II. However, in the Civil War, we can see that both sides selected the targets of lethal violence with fairly high precision. Actors on both sides committed inhumane acts and sometimes violated the rules of war, but when you compare the Civil War to other conflicts, civilians here suffered little direct physical harm. Although many of the Civil War’s participants viewed the conflict as a total war, they did so largely because, for the South at least, the war demanded that all of the nation’s resources be devoted to fighting the war. However, the North and the South consumed and destroyed each other’s vital resources, leaving the citizens left behind to suffer as a result. The strategy of logistical demolition practiced by Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman late in the war was consistent with just war theory.This concept of total devastation to government and food supplies played a key role in the American Civil War. It had its effects on both the Union and the Confederate states. Southern agriculture failed to uphold the standards that needed to be met in order to supply food for the Confederate Army. More importantly the South had an inefficiently designed transportation system that only linked the plantation territories to port cities because they relied heavily on imported goods. But the North’s transportation was connected to more highly populated food-producing areas, making their’s more efficient. There was some railroad construction during the war though it didn’t necessarily fix the issue of connecting the railroads. The new railroads only improved the movement of troops and did not do much more for the supply of food and necessities needed to fight a war, such as tents, horses, uniforms, etc. The war was supposed to be short, so they say. But as time lagged on, resources were being cut off and it was a fight to even survive a night for most troops on both sides. When passing through towns civilians provided medical care, food and shelter for wounded soldiers. The war effort of the civil war expanded to those of all ages and genders, since at the very least families had to sacrifice the breadwinners of their family to war and learn to survive by themselves. In addition, there were riots in almost every state throughout the war where soldiers from both sides would pillage villages and towns for food, clothes, and shelter with little or no compassion for the people living there. In a political sense the Civil War had become a total war, as well. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was a direct attack on the Southern institution of slavery. Though Lincoln considered
Related Documents: Essay on Civil War: Total War and it's Impact on society
Title Course Instructor Date Women’s Progression Through Employment and Labor Laws The United States of America is known as the land of the free and home of the brave. Americans are privileged to live in a society where there are laws created and continuously enforced to ensure the protection of the citizens’ rights. Law-breakers have consequences and punished for their wrongdoings and not obeying the law. The government is expected and challenged to practice equality in all decisions…
The True Meaning Of Humanity The destruction of an entire race, though it seems impossible it has happened before, such an act is known as Genocide. Throughout our civilization’s history we have fought wars and killed to protect our country, but some have killed in the name of something else, something much less commendable. The act of genocide is a recurring blemish in our history’s timeline that has claimed the lives of millions. This atrocity has been committed for many different reasons including…
Us leaves the biggest footprint Canada worst per person A foot print is a metaphor for the results of the interaction of a society with its ecosystems A society that lives in harmony with its environment is said to tread softly and leave a gentle mark on nature. (low impact) many human activities have severely interfered with or changed ecosystems. Pollution (high impact) examples extraction of natural resources oil exploration loss of wetlands loss of forest land rain forests are home…
Fords theatre. Booth opposed abolition and Lincoln’s plan to free the slaves. He hoped to create a new civil war; he also planned to kill the VP and sec of state but that plan failed. African American Men received the right to vote after the civil war. 2. Presidential reconstruction (1865-1867) Andrew Johnson now president. He was a southerner but remained loyal to the north during the war. Yet, he was racist and showed very little sympathy to the newly freed slaves. Johnson proposes a new…
States that changed the aspects of life and sciences. People like Martin Luther King Jr., the peaceful sixties counterculture movement, and famous events like the competition of the Space Race have all changed history in the United States by promoting civil rights, equality for different cultures, and advances in science and exploration. Entering the 1960s, a new culture appeared and quickly gained popularity. This culture was known as the counterculture, the flower children, or hippies. They…
of violence helped him to make more progress during the Civil Rights Movement than Malcolm X... Martin Luther King realized that the country needed integration to become truly equal. Equality is a mindset. King was a better leader because he knew what paths would succeed. I mean when you hear civil rights movement who do you think of? Do you think martin luther king jr or…
Term 4 yr 10 History Assignment- the Vietnam War Men aged between 18 and 30 during the 1960s. 1. Synopsis In today’s Australian society, young men from the ages of 18 to 30 are usually starting their lives as independent citizens- graduating from school, going to university, getting employed- even starting families. But in the 1960s, this age group faced other issues- the effects of the Vietnam War. Reduced supplies, national disquiet, and even conscription threatened these young men’s way of life…
protecting women from the factories. His reason was that women had weaker bodies so they needed to be protected. Though it was discriminatory toward women, who could no longer get male jobs, it was able to shut down the female activism and gave employers total control over the workplace. Women protection became larger than women suffrage for men. 6. WTCU Women’s Christian Temperance Union, whose founder was Frances E Willard, was the largest women organization in the world. Found an ally in the Ant Saloon…
difficulty for democratic states is that attempts to limit the freedom of action of terrorists necessarily impact adversely on a wider group of people, interfering with the liberties enjoyed by many citizens.” In other words, to protect the country from terrorism, the government invades the right of privacy. Another example of government attempting to impose rules for the better of society was obvious last month. Indeed, it would be hard not to miss in current news discussion of outlawing certain…
6George Orwell Literature and Totalitarianism I said at the beginning of my first talk that this is not a critical age. It is an age of partisanship and not of detachment, an age in which it is especially difficult to see literary merit in a book with whose conclusions you disagree. Politics — politics in the most general sense — have invaded literature, to an extent that does not normally happen, and this has brought to the surface of our consciousness the struggle that always goes on between…