During the Civil War, both sides had clearly defined goals and strategies. For the Confederacy, its major goals were to secure independence from the North as well as to establish a separate nation that was independent of the political oppression of the northern states as well as slavery (The Civil War: Goals, Strategies, and Consequences.) Essentially, for the South, the war was to be a noble battle to achieve democracy for white people only. These goals were entrenched in the belief that slavery was protected in the Constitution so that these rights had been denied by the Union. Seceding was the only way to defend these rights.
The northern forces initially aimed to reconcile the Union, but during the middle of the war the goal changed to becoming a cohesive country in which slavery was prohibited. The war was supposed to be a crusade for democracy for everyone. This goal was firmly grounded in the belief that the South had no right to secede from the union, that secession was treasonous, and amounted to an act of war against the United States (Civil War: Goals, Strategies, and Consequences.) As the war progressed, the goals of the Union changed to become the objective of freeing the slaves.
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In order to be victorious, the Confederate strategies were to defend all the land belonging to the Confederate states, to prevent the North from destroying the Confederate Army, and to break the Union’s will to fight (Civil War: Goals, Strategies, and Consequences.) The strategies of the Union initially included invading the Confederacy and destroying its will to resist, guaranteeing the loyalty of the border states, which had two thirds of the white population of the South, to build and maintain a naval blockade of 3500 miles of coastline in the Confederate states, and to prevent the European powers from recognizing and giving assistance to the Confederate states.
The Confederate cause failed in all of its goals. The army was destroyed while the Union Army continued to fight, slavery was abolished, and the Confederacy was forced to rejoin the United States of America. The Union side was victorious in all of its goals: the union was restored, slavery was prohibited, slaves were freed, the European powers did not recognize the Confederacy, and the Confederate Army was decimated.
- The Civil War: Goals, Strategies, and Consequences. (n.d.). Retrieved from Humboldt.edu: http://users.humboldt.edu/
