The Demise of the Confederacy

A detailed Summary of The Demise of the Confederacy


Since the end of the American Civil War, historians have theorized and argued why the Confederacy did not become victorious, or maybe why the Union did. Three such examples are the essays of Richard N. Current, David Donald and James McPherson. These three essays prove that history is not an exact science and that three different men are entitled to three different theories and although not one or the other is necessarily right or wrong, there are ones that, on the surface at least, tend to give better arguments.

The essay by Richard Current seems to be the most objective paper of the three. He gives possible reasons why the South lost, and either backs it up, points out the faults, or leaves it up to the reader to decide. For example, he opens his article giving statistics to the overwhelming advantage the North appeared to have economically coming in to the war. He also shows that perhaps a contributing factor was poor leadership on behalf of the Confederate government. He gives examples of Davis doing things like failing to export cotton in grand loads and other economic decisions that in retrospect, seems nearly insane. After all this though, Current points out that yes, the leadership seems reckless in hindsight, bu


James McPherson's essay, Why the Confederacy Lost, starts out nearly the same way that both Current's and Donald's did. He explains the advantages the North had and rightly the disadvantages the South had. Hidden in between what seems to be the outcome of the war, and not the cause of the end of it, I believe McPherson's point was that the North winning the war was inevitable. Not because of her wealth and power, but because of her ideals. The Unions goal was to keep the Union together and strong. Fighting against the evil's of slavery and keeping 'democracy' alive. He makes a very vivid point that without the Civil War, the United States of America would be nothing it is today.

t during the war, they seemed to be very legitimate actions in order to win the war. Davis' goal wasn't to destroy the southern economy, but instead to devastate the North. The south also knew that with the help of England and/or France, the present disadvantages would be evenly weighed out and the tide of the war could change considerably. The idea was that if the South withheld cotton from the North, the northern textile mills would have nothing to export in order to trade with Europe. So, if Europe couldn't get the cotton from the North, they would have to get it from

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Approximate Word count = 853
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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