Military System Of The American Civil War

The American Civil War is the first large-scale war after the Industrial Revolution. It has important Position in the American military history and the world military history. This paper tries to consider the American Civil War from the vision of Military System. The Military System contains two components: the Military Thinking and the Military Building. The relation of these two parts is mutual influencing. At the same time, it also influenced by the external factors, such as political, economic, science and technology.The first chapter of this paper recalled the changes of the American military system before the American Civil War. The colonial era is the embryonic stage of the American military system. Militia system is the main feature of this time. During the War of Independence, the militia army and the regular army help the United States win the war. After the founding of the United States, Washington and Hamilton made many important recommendations on the military construction of the American. The constitution of the United States signed in 1787 established the basic military principles: centralization, civil official control the military, separation of powers. The years before American Civil War is precisely the regularization time of the U.S. army. The modern military thinking is gradually maturing. The professional building of the army is entering a new stage in this time. In general, the character of the American military system's evolution is standardization and modernization.The second chapter describes the military system of the North in the American Civil War. The strategic thinking of the North changed several times in the civil war. At the beginning, the North takes the strategy with limited goal in the war which limits the superiority of the United States. For this reason, the North failed in the early time of the war. Finally, the strategy of total war stood by Grant help the North win the war. The main means of the manpower mobilization of North is recruit volunteers, adopt compulsory military service also. The manpower mobilization for the North provides a large number of troops, so that the North has established a powerful military force. The north has a powerful economic strength to ensure the army's arms and logistical supply. Despite the initial lack of the military logistics, changed by the military reform lately, the North has established a good logistics supply system that complete of the mission successfully. In order to raise funds for the war, the North takes measures to tax increases, the issue of war bonds and government-issued currency.The third chapter describes the military system of the South in the American Civil War. The South's economic foundation is weak, but the preparation for the war is more fully than the North. The main purpose of war of the South is to maintain their independence, forcing the North to recognize this reality, so that they could preserve the south's economic fundamentals– Slavery. Therefore, the South takes the defense strategy in the early time of the war. As the war escalated, the South's weak economic and demographic resources can not maintain the war, so the South has taken the offensive strategy. South took the lead in the compulsory conscription, the scope of recruitment is expanded gradually, and the measures were also increasingly tough, because of the recruitment difficulties. The southern confederation had a weak industrial base, although they made a lot of efforts, the logistics support system of the South was finally worn down by the war. In order to raise the funds for the war, the South increased the tax as well as issued a large number of government bonds and bonds which eventually led to the collapse of economies. One of the Southern confederation's important strategic thinking is to seek the European powers to interfere, but, Accompanied by the failure of diplomacy of south in Europe, these ideas also come to naught. Chapter IV describes the confrontation of the military system of both sides and the advantages and shortcomings showed in the confrontation. In the first phase of the war, the North continued to be defeated in the east battlefield. Study from the view of military system, in this stage, the North was weaker than the South in military thinking, command systems, the armed forces combat capability, manpower mobilization, military logistics, etc. In the civil war, the North reformed the military system, amended the irrational factors of the system, fought in a revolutionary approach. North began to win on the battlefield, reversed the war and win ultimately. This article pointed out that when the American Civil War proceed under the mode of total war, the military mobilization and the military logistics is more important than the other military factors. The North has a strong economic base as a guarantee, which is the reason for the ultimate victory of the North.In this paper, the fifth chapter considered on the status of the American Civil War in the history of warfare, analysis the changes in the civil war, highlighted the importance of the military system of American Civil War. This chapter analyzes the changes of military thinking in the civil war, while the impact of the military system of American Civil War on economic, social life and the military construction after the civil war. In the closing remarks, I give a simple reflection on the strategy total war. So we can avoid the one-sided determinism of armed forces, moral and economic strength.The main innovation lies in the fact that this paper establishes the concept of the military system, try to study the outcome reasons of the war from this overall perspective. At the same time, this article pointed out that the various factors in the military system play a role is different in a limited war and a total war. In addition, this paper analysis the origins and make a new evaluation on an important factor in the military system---- the strategic thinking, and give a comprehensive display of the military system of American Civil War.