War is both an art and a science. The way in which knowledge is applied and principles are employed is an art. But, because it deals with specific principles and knowledge, it is also a science. To understand what happened during the Civil War, you must become familiar with some basic military concepts and learn a bit of vocabulary. This way, when you read accounts of battles in this book, or more detailed accounts of the campaigns and battles of the Civil War in other books, you will have some idea of what the author means.
This chapter walks you through some terms and concepts that give you just what you need to understand and appreciate what happened during the war and why.
Understanding the Basics of War
When the existing unfavorable conditions between states (or nations) can no longer be tolerated, there is a resort to armed force called war. War, in essence, is a contest of wills in which the opponents employ armed violence against each other to compel a change favorable to the state. The victor in war is the state that breaks the other’s will to resist. The outcome of the contest is defined in political terms. Thus, wars are fought for political objectives, but are motivated by fear, or interests related to security or survival, or prestige. Note that the first part of this book focuses on the political struggle between the North and South to establish the reasons for the war. All three of these motivations played a part in bringing the war about.
The offensive and the defensive
War employs all types of force: physical, psychological, economic, diplomatic, and moral. The physical force of armed conflict is also called combat power — the collective efforts of humans, animals, and mechanical-industrial power harnessed to fight or strike an opponent at a vital spot. This combat power is organized into armies. Armies employ combat power in two ways, through the offensive and the defensive. In the offensive, one army chooses to advance, find, and defeat enemy forces by employing decisive combat power at the right place and time. In the defense, an army attempts to protect itself by minimizing its vulnerabilities and forcing the attacking army to expend combat power until it is too weak to attack any further.
Strategy and tactics
Military operations are divided into strategy and tactics. Strategy directs armies into designated geographical regions to accomplish broad objectives defined by the political leadership. Armies in turn design campaigns — a series of battles and engagements intended to accomplish the assigned strategic objectives. Tactics deal with the way battles are fought, usually by organizations below army level (a corps, division, or brigade, for example). In summary:
Strategy: The art and science of designing military campaigns to achieve the objective of the war
Tactics: The art of employing armed units on the battlefield
The last few paragraphs give you the basics — a definition of war and the three concepts that determine the conduct of war: Strategy determines how a state’s military capabilities will be used to achieve the objectives of the war. Campaigns are designed to employ military forces to fulfill the strategic objective. Tactics are the method military units employ to fight battles.
Creating a Strategy: Three Basic Questions
A state or nation must have a strategy to fight a war. Otherwise the war has no direction or purpose. To determine a strategy, leaders must answer three basic questions that form the base of a wartime strategy:
What are you trying to do? In war, an ironclad connection exists between political objectives and the conduct of war. Both President Lincoln and President Davis had to determine their political objectives for the war. For Lincoln and the North, the initial political objective was to end the rebellion of the Southern states and restore the Union. For Davis and the Confederacy, the political objective was to gain and maintain its independence as a sovereign nation. These broad political goals become the means to determining a military strategy. War aims can change, depending on the outcome of campaigns and battles. The Union could not justify the war and its costs on its original objectives; another objective had to be added after 1862, which will be revealed soon,
What do you have (or need)? Answering this question involves an assessment and comparison of both your own and the enemy’s resources. Remember, this means resources in the broadest sense — a nation’s manpower, material stockpiles, finances, industrial capacity, and farm production. You need all of these things to fight and sustain a war. Another critically important national wartime resource is morale. Morale is the national will — how willing are the people (men, women, children) to suffer and endure to achieve victory? It is an intangible, but critical, strategic resource. A nation’s leadership can sustain and nurture morale or squander it. Likewise, a nation can have very little in terms of resources, but with high morale it can overcome limitations and hardships to still win the war. Another important factor is will. How willing is the population to suffer the strains and terrible costs of war to achieve the political goals the leaders have outlined that define victory? You can have all the resources in the world and still lose a war because the people and the leadership do not have the will to employ them because the costs are too high to sustain. In the same way, will can make up for many deficiencies if the people and leadership are willing to commit everything to achieve victory. For both the Union and the Confederacy, national morale and the will to sustain the terrible fight played a significant role in both the conduct and outcome of the war.
How do you use what you have? All of the elements of national power must be employed in the proper proportions and at the right time to assure victory in war. This sounds simple, but it is not! There are many important questions national leaders must ask. Here are a few examples: How are the nation’s strategic objectives (or war aims, as they are sometimes called) accomplished by the use of these elements of power? How do you bring in and orchestrate economic power, moral power, diplomatic power, and military power? Where is one more effective than another? When should a nation employ its power? In what kind of mix? How will these elements of power weaken or negate an enemy’s strength? These were questions that both President Lincoln and President Davis struggled to answer (as have most political leaders throughout history). Although neither leader ever answered these questions sufficiently, Lincoln, of course, in the end addressed them well enough to bring about the final defeat of the Confederacy.
Uncovering the Principles of War
This section looks at the principles that guide the formation of strategy and tactics in war — the science of war. The principles of war have existed in one form or another since military forces first existed in human history. Civil War generals certainly were familiar with them, although in a different context. The principles have been codified now, and the following list is what military professionals study today: