141
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Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
The Military
Militarily, the south did not need to win the war by invading and defeating the north. Their belief was that they just had to hold on to what they had, hence their largely defensive ...
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80
votes
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Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
Yes and No.
What appears to be true is that the King of Siam did send a letter offering a herd of elephants to the US President in 1861.
According to the US National Archives
King Mongkut said ...
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52
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Why did Lincoln wait to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
@Peter Diehr's answer is a good one and I've upvoted it - but I'd like to expand on that, remembering that Lincoln was a very good strategist.
First, The Civil War was about slavery, and the South'...
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46
votes
Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
I do not think it is accurate to say that guerilla techniques weren't used in the Civil War. What did Stonewall Jackson do in the Shenandoah Valley?
But guerilla tactics are limited. First, they are ...
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46
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What did the Emancipation Proclamation exactly do?
Since it only applied to areas that didn't recognize Federal authority, the snarky take on the Emancipation Proclamation has always been that it didn't itself free a single slave. Like a lot of famous ...
- 117k
45
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How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
tl;dr Modern industrial warfare pushes the economy to 100% utilization; this cures the effect of an economic downturn (which is effectively suboptimal economic utilization).
Wars in general, and the ...
MCW♦
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42
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Why did Lincoln's election prompt the Southern states to secede?
The tensions between North and South had been growing since long before Lincoln was elected. While it is true than many in the South believed that Lincoln supported the forced suppression of slavery, ...
- 77.2k
40
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Was slavery really on the way out in the antebellum USA?
No, not even close.
Alan T Nolan lists this as one of the components of the Lost Cause Myth in his essay "The Anatomy of the Myth", collected in the book The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil ...
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37
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Was swordsmanship important in the American Civil War?
Generally speaking, swords were not much used during the civil war due to lack of training, lack of quality swords and lack of well-trained horses (plus, of course, improvements in firearms), but ...
- 108k
34
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Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
Whilst it's an interesting topic, unfortunately, the questions, answers, definitions and many facts are entirely incorrect.
Lets address some of the inaccuracies first and see if we can drill down to ...
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34
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Flag with 13 white stars and a crescent on red background
It might be a Confederate flag, specifically the Van Dorn battle flag:
Quoting its wikipedia description:
The Van Dorn battle flag is a historical Confederate flag with a red field depicting a white ...
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30
votes
Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
The vast wealth of the Southern plantations was intrinsically tied up with their ability to generate a fabulous annual income, at low risk. Once the Union blockade was established by autumn 1861 those ...
- 71.9k
29
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Post-war indictment of ex-Confederates in the Confederate States of America
He was captured and held over for trial in 1865 but eventually was released when full amnesty was declared by Johnson in 1868. The wording of the amnesty proclamation gives Johnson's reasons and ...
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29
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Why did Lincoln wait to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?
Lincoln waited until there was a great union victory; the early losses, and the poor showing of the Union generals did not give him a very firm place to stand and make promises.
Antietam was the ...
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28
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Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
This article on the civil war's more advanced rifles highlights that:
Most American army officers in 1861 had been schooled in obsolete Napoleonic tactics, especially since many of them had served ...
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25
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What is the context of Lincoln saying: "if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it"
Lincoln needed to write this letter because as a war-time president, two months before the mid-term election, he could not ignore an article in one of the most popular newspapers, written by a very ...
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22
votes
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Why did Gen. Lee (Civil War) surrender to the U.S?
The simple answer is that General Lee didn't want to see his men destroyed. There was correspondence between Generals Lee and Grant in the days before the actual surrender, as both recognized the ...
- 3,519
20
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Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
My understanding (which could be wrong) is that armies in the U.S. civil war were "bloody" in the sense that soldiers did not retreat or were sent directly into fire, until one side was wiped out. If ...
- 1,098
20
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Why did Union troops like General McClellan?
McClellan had been a popular commander on several counts. He had come to command the Army of the Potomac after winning two small victories in the modern West Virginia in 1861, which was two more ...
- 104k
19
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Post-war indictment of ex-Confederates in the Confederate States of America
The soldiers and officers of all Confederate Armies were exempted from treason trials by the terms of Lee's surrender to Grant. They were allowed to go home unmolested as long as they ceased to make ...
- 12k
18
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Why wasn't the American civil war fought between slaves and masters?
There are two great myths of the Civil War.
The Southern myth is that it was a matter of State's right i.e. not allowing a distant part of the country control another. In Europe, it was be like ...
- 1,128
18
votes
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What reasons did the Confederacy have for believing they would have a quick victory?
TL/DR; Hubris and false assumptions
They assumed the economy didn't matter. The era of the US Civil war tended to see relatively short, decisive campaigns with a limited engagement of the population ...
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18
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How did the Dred Scott Decision contribute to the Civil War?
Whole books have been written on this, and I find Frehling's two volume "Road to Disunion" books to be some of the best and most accessible evaluations of the American political landscape (as it ...
- 3,519
17
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Why were Union troops referred to as "lop-eared Dutch"?
The Holland Lop is a popular species of lop-eared rabbit. The accusation of being a "lop-eared Dutch" is of cowardice, an expectation that the accused will "run like a rabbit" from ...
- 71.9k
16
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Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
There were few more pretty important South advantages in addition to already listed in previous answers factors:
1. Far superior military education.
It was only one northern-located military school -...
- 1,933
16
votes
What was the South actually afraid Lincoln or Congress would do that precipitated the Civil War?
tl;dr
The 1860 election was the tipping point for the slave-owning states. It was then clear that those states could no longer command a majority in Congress, or in a Presidential election. A ...
- 77.2k
15
votes
Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
The majority of the economic and political elite of the Southern States were aware of the existential threat to their economy and culture—chiefly as these were the direct result of malapportionment so ...
- 14.6k
15
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When did Lincoln claim that "Vicksburg is the key" to winning the civil war?
The quote is from the recollection of someone who was there, Admiral David Dixon Porter. You can find it on page 95 of his book, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, published in 1886 (emphasis ...
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