Check this site out to see a great 4 minute graphic demonstration of the civil war. It isn’t “violent”…it is a map showing the flow of territories possessed by each side during the campaign.
It raises a lot of questions, for example, why did the South continue to fight for so long?
http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/the-civil-war-in-four-minutes
That is indeed very cool. A really nice overall visual representation of what the war involved.
Wow, so many lives lost… Interesting to see how quickly the area around the Mississippi went blue after the entire length was under Union control.
I can sort of understand the South hanging on until Sherman’s March, but after that they were divided into three sections. Losing Vicksburg and being split in two was bad enough.
Wow, it seems Gettysburg was the tipping point, and I guess Sherman’s March really was the nail in the coffin.
There was an earlier thread about this map simulation, which I agree is cool. It’s also shown every few minutes at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa.
With hindsight it certainly looks like the Confederacy was doomed after Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, but remember that as late as February 1865 (just over two months before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox!), the Confederate commissioners at the Hampton Roads conference would not accept Lincoln’s offer of peace if it meant the abolition of slavery.
There’re a couple of explosions (battles) in mid- to late-1864 deep within Union territory. What’s going on there?
I didn’t notice those. Morgan’s Raid through Indiana and Ohio, mebbe?
The South fought on because the North was invading them.
There was never any reasonable expectation that the South would win it; the North outnumbered them and had much more industrial and agricultural might. Much of the southern economy was based on cotton, which wasn’t much good as food or a weapon (cannon balls were much more effective than cotton balls).
The South fooled themselves, or put their hopes in help from England or France acting in their economic interest. The Emancipation Proclamation eliminated the latter possibility: France was too weak to do much anyway, and England was in the forefront of antislavery, so much so that textile workers there were willing to make less money rather that support southern slavery.
But the South saw themselves as the new American revolution and following in the footsteps of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They didn’t think slavery was any more exploitative than the “wage slavery*” of the North. Southerners believed – with some justification – that slaves in the South were better off than workers in the North (slaves couldn’t be fired, for instance, and because they were valuable, you’d provide health care to a sick slave, where you’d merely fire a sick worker and hire someone else).
As the war progressed, I think most Southerners knew it was a losing cause. But they refused to surrender their homes to an invading army.
*Yes, the term was used prior to the Civil War, even though it sounds like something Marx would have used.
One of them was Jubal Early’s raid on (or towards) Washington D.C. I think the other one you’re referring to is John Bell Hood’s thrust towards Nashville after the fall of Atlanta, concurrent with Sherman’s march to the sea.
Very cool.
Not really. The simulation gives the Union credit for holding the land traversed by Sherman en route to Savannah, but actually the Confederacy closed right up behind Sherman’s army. The point of the march was to be free from having to physically control huge swaths of territory through which to move supplies.
And also to show that, as Sherman put it, the Confederacy was essentially “hollow,” and unable to defend even its innermost territory.
Just a teensy hijack.
What is the name of the music that’s playing and where can I get it?
Ashokan Farewell, which was widely used in the Ken Burns’ PBS Civil War series. You can do a search for it - there are lots of places to get it from.
The song is “Ashokan Farewell,” and was the theme song of CBS’s miniseries on the Civil War.
Another vote for cool. Anyone have any idea of a home software that can make something like that?
That is one hauntingly beautiful song/music.
I’ve ordered the album by Celtic Ladies.
Thanks
That really was a cool video. Knowing some about where my ancestors were and when during the fighting gives it a little poignancy for me, seeing what was going on overall.
itty bitty hijack: He did. And prior to the Civil War.
That’s really cool.
They used to have a great old-fashioned, low-tech battle simulation at the Gettysburg Visitor Center. Unfortunately, the park service decided to “upgrade” the visitor experience. The “antiquated” attraction now sits in pieces in a storage unit somewhere.