Sunday, May 15, 2016

Proof/Editing Critique

Critique:  The Confederate War by Gary W. Gallagher


            According to Gary W. Gallagher, the reasons for the South’s defeat were not a lack of will, a deficiency in nationalism, or a flawed military strategy. Although these theories have been widely suggested by numerous historians, Gallagher argues in The Confederate War, that the Confederacy lost because they were soundly defeated by a far-superior enemy.  The North had greater human and physical resources than the South, and most of the war was fought through the invasion of southern territory.  Even with these difficulties facing the Confederacy, Gallagher provides a sizable amount of evidence that suggests southerners had and maintained their will for the war and found their nationalism in Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.  Gallagher believes the military action Lee employed was what was necessary to sustain the support of his soldiers and of the southern people.
 Gallagher presents numerous statistics, letters, and diary entries that demonstrate the determination of Confederate supporters.  Despite a higher mortality rate than the Union, threats from Union soldiers occupying vast areas of southern land, and the realization that European intervention was not going to happen, many southern soldiers still fought to win and civilians still believed they would.  Even after the summer of 1863, which Gallagher believes is when many historians claim the will of the South began to deteriorate, many southerners still held out hope for Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.  Gallagher suggests that it is in this hope for Lee that we find Confederate nationalism.  Apart from all of the other evidence, including the battlefield victories, letters, diary entries and reenlistment statistics that Gallagher offers to support his idea that southerners felt that their Confederacy was a legitimate nation fighting for its independence, national identification can be seen no further than Lee.  He became their hero, their symbol for their national identity.  He became that sense of nationalism. With their victories, Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia gave encouragement to the other soldiers fighting and to southern supporters, while at the same time showing European nations they were capable of maintaining their sovereignty.  This is why, Gallagher argues, the South had to perform an offensive war strategy.  The Confederacy needed to sustain internal support and possibly garner European help, and a defensive or guerrilla-style warfare was not suitable for their purpose.

            Based on the information provided, Gary W. Gallagher’s interpretations of other historian’s views on why the South lost the Civil War appears to be accurately presented in The Confederate War.  It was not a loss of will or a lack for nationalism that led to the Confederacy’s defeat.  They lost simply because they did not have the manpower or physical resources that the North had.  The North could replenish men and supplies faster than the South could, and the devastation and controlling of several southern cities further diminished the few resources they had to begin with. Gallagher’s examples of the Confederate will to fight by its soldiers and civilians during the Civil War and his belief that the South found its nationalism in Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia is highly plausible and is demonstrative of the type of human behavior still seen to this day.  These people were defending what they believed to be their country and their institutions from a northern enemy who had invaded their territory and sought to change their ways of life.  As for Lee, southerners revered him as their general, and hope for victory rested with him and his offensive strategy.  Southerners might have lost the war, but they never lost the will to fight or their belief in their purpose.  

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