- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
- Location
- Denver, CO
It happened in 1861 and the world had changed between 1787 and 1861.
1. In 1856 David Edward Hughes invented the first stable keyboard system for electronically encoding written messages for transmission. By October 24, 1861 the transcontinental telegraph wire connected California to the east. The technical means to govern a continental empire had arrived. Its 2018 and people still use keyboards to encode messages for electronic transmission.
2. Naval power was dominant in the 19th century.
Turning to Donald Stoker's Grand Strategy, Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, Oxford University Press 2010, at p. 90 Stoker notes that the United States had purchased or constructed 300 naval vessels within a year of the start of the war. At page 93 he states, the Confederates had only nine ports between Cape Charles and the Mississippi River with rail connections: New Bern, Beaufort, Charleston, Wilmington, Savannah, Brunswick, Pensacola, Mobile and New Orleans. By May 1862 the United States had captured or closed 6 of them and only Wilmington, Charleston and Mobile remained. They probably could have closed those three also, but could adequately intimidate large cargo ships from running the blockade at those ports with the installations they had, and capture some of the blockade runners.
By June 1862 the United States had closed the Mississippi as far south as Memphis, which meant the inland waters of the continent were in the control of United States. Steam driven water craft were the most efficient means of transporting cargo at that time and the south was denied the benefit of these natural highways.
3. The main all weather transportation technology of the time were with the railroads. Please study Chris Gabel's presentation to further comprehend that the Confederacy had about 36 months to win the war before it turned into an 18th century pumpkin. https://www.c-span.org/video/?320456-1/discussion-railroads-civil-war
4. It was the age of iron. This link demonstrates visually the approximate spacial distribution of iron production in the United States in 1859. http://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/135/d/ Production is concentrated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in Clarksville, TN. Clarksville changed hands early in the war due to a combined arms operation conducted by US forces on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
5. Here is the distribution of wheat production in the US in 1859. http://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/143/q/ Production is centered in Maryland, Wisconsin and Illinois. Wheat and Indian maize can both be used as a non perishable food source. Wheat was more valuable because it contains accessible niacin, and is a traditional food source for humans in England, and hence can be exported.The impact of wheat was that United States cities and armies of the United States did not experience food shortages when they were connected to a rail line.
6. The United States had an open immigration policy in the decades prior to the Civil War. Almost all of the immigrants were located in the northern states at the time of outbreak of the conflict. Here is a link to the numbers in tabular form: https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab13.html
Among influential immigrants were the naval inventor John Ericsson, the Irish/American Phil Sheridan, the German emigre Carl Schurz who wrote a state paper that changed the course of Reconstruction and the railroad manager, Daniel McCallum.
7. About 40% of the population of the Confederacy were enslaved African-Americans. Although some people think the African-Americans were willing to fight the Confederacy, the only regimental sized units composed of African-Americans to see combat in the war, in my opinion, fought on behalf of the United States.
The United States only need one commanding general who was willing to combine these advantages. Since it had a very large officer pool to work with, the odds were high that the country would find such a person.
Good night and good luck.
1. In 1856 David Edward Hughes invented the first stable keyboard system for electronically encoding written messages for transmission. By October 24, 1861 the transcontinental telegraph wire connected California to the east. The technical means to govern a continental empire had arrived. Its 2018 and people still use keyboards to encode messages for electronic transmission.
2. Naval power was dominant in the 19th century.
Turning to Donald Stoker's Grand Strategy, Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, Oxford University Press 2010, at p. 90 Stoker notes that the United States had purchased or constructed 300 naval vessels within a year of the start of the war. At page 93 he states, the Confederates had only nine ports between Cape Charles and the Mississippi River with rail connections: New Bern, Beaufort, Charleston, Wilmington, Savannah, Brunswick, Pensacola, Mobile and New Orleans. By May 1862 the United States had captured or closed 6 of them and only Wilmington, Charleston and Mobile remained. They probably could have closed those three also, but could adequately intimidate large cargo ships from running the blockade at those ports with the installations they had, and capture some of the blockade runners.
By June 1862 the United States had closed the Mississippi as far south as Memphis, which meant the inland waters of the continent were in the control of United States. Steam driven water craft were the most efficient means of transporting cargo at that time and the south was denied the benefit of these natural highways.
3. The main all weather transportation technology of the time were with the railroads. Please study Chris Gabel's presentation to further comprehend that the Confederacy had about 36 months to win the war before it turned into an 18th century pumpkin. https://www.c-span.org/video/?320456-1/discussion-railroads-civil-war
4. It was the age of iron. This link demonstrates visually the approximate spacial distribution of iron production in the United States in 1859. http://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/135/d/ Production is concentrated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in Clarksville, TN. Clarksville changed hands early in the war due to a combined arms operation conducted by US forces on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.
5. Here is the distribution of wheat production in the US in 1859. http://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/143/q/ Production is centered in Maryland, Wisconsin and Illinois. Wheat and Indian maize can both be used as a non perishable food source. Wheat was more valuable because it contains accessible niacin, and is a traditional food source for humans in England, and hence can be exported.The impact of wheat was that United States cities and armies of the United States did not experience food shortages when they were connected to a rail line.
6. The United States had an open immigration policy in the decades prior to the Civil War. Almost all of the immigrants were located in the northern states at the time of outbreak of the conflict. Here is a link to the numbers in tabular form: https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab13.html
Among influential immigrants were the naval inventor John Ericsson, the Irish/American Phil Sheridan, the German emigre Carl Schurz who wrote a state paper that changed the course of Reconstruction and the railroad manager, Daniel McCallum.
7. About 40% of the population of the Confederacy were enslaved African-Americans. Although some people think the African-Americans were willing to fight the Confederacy, the only regimental sized units composed of African-Americans to see combat in the war, in my opinion, fought on behalf of the United States.
The United States only need one commanding general who was willing to combine these advantages. Since it had a very large officer pool to work with, the odds were high that the country would find such a person.
Good night and good luck.
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