all right this is openstax u.s history chapter 15 section 2 early mobilization and war so after the first shots were fired first shots at fort sumter both sides were very enthusiastic about the war and both the north and the south had expectations that this was going to be a short and not necessarily bloodless but you know not too much blood we'll just use the word bloodless right that it wouldn't be a four year long war that ended up being the deadliest conflict in american history that's not what expectations were um and especially for the north you know the north expectation was to win quickly you know the north had pretty much all the meaningful advantages if you were northerner in 1861 you would expect that your side should win quickly those expectations and that enthusiasm changed you know quite uh quite quickly um the very first or the you know the most significant um i should say the very first land engagement was the battle of bull run um this was a battle that was fought in virginia um you know especially for the union side uh the north they believed that this war would be as simple as um you know raise an army and march right towards the confederate capital which was richmond virginia so richmond virginia this was the confederate capital city and because the union had a larger army a more well-equipped army um it would capture richmond virginia and the war would be over just like that uh lincoln also issued a naval blockade throughout the entire course of the war the union or the north would have naval supremacy they would control the seas but when the two armies met at manassas creek or or manassas or bulrun creek as i should say where confederate troops were dispatched in order to defend richmond virginia it resulted in a confederate victory and the confederate victory at the battle of bull run which we'll call the first major battle of the civil war at least land battle here you see it depicted in this image the confederate victory really changed expectations um especially for the north you know for the north it was realized that this war wouldn't be as simple as just you know marching right towards richmond virginia and taking over the confederate capital so both sides prepared for a much longer and drawn out conflict now when we look at the balance sheets and by the balance sheet we sort of mean the advantages and disadvantages it was the north or the union that had pretty much all of the meaningful advantages in the war that's not to say that the confederacy didn't have some advantages right uh one thing we can point to is the fact that the nature of this war you know due to the fact the confederacy has broken away it's really up to the union then to go into the south and bring the confed uh confederacy back the confederates can fight a defensive war right so we might say about the confederates um we'll say the south uh simply needs to defend you know there's really nothing motivating this or there's really no objective that the south needs to go into union territory just essentially needs to protect its own borders and also the fact that the southern geography is also an advantage the south is very big it has a very large coastline which makes you know um it makes trying to block hate it very difficult most battles would be fought in the south um there was a film familiarity with the terrain in the south by the confederate side so we might be able to point to these as you know these are potentially some advantages for the south however the more meaningful ones really didn't work in their favor so for example all during the course of the war the south would struggle with its wartime economy recall that the southern economy is pretty much all cotton right and even though cotton is a very valuable export cotton is not useful essentially for fighting a war what the south would have to do is to turn that cotton into money and then turn that money into you know things like guns and you know other war supplies and that was difficult given the blockade you know could the south continue to ship out cotton receive money in return and then purchase these items from other countries that would be very very difficult it was also true that the south was very short on finances or money especially in terms of like what we might call like liquid wealth and by that i mean you know uh wealth that you can easily take and uh you know translate it into supplies uh you know much of the southern wealth was in land and slaves you know the south was worth a lot but to take land and slaves and then you know uh you know make that into something that could be useful for a war it uh it was very difficult to do the south responded by printing that's all they could do and printing money led to very high inflation in the south you know this is something that i think is often overlooked but wars are expensive and a lot of times it comes down to which side has more money and in this case it wasn't the south and also population you know in the south there were 9 million people 4 million of those people were enslaved so of the potential population that could serve in the army there was perhaps um you know a pool of only five million men that the south could potentially draft from so all of these things the economy the finances the population all these things ended up being disadvantages for the south and again you know those things like guns money um finance or guns money and uh people right those are kind of the key ingredients that are necessary for for fighting a war for the north the north had a way bigger population 21 million people none of which are enslaved north had all the meaningful industry and railroads that means that they could make and also transport war supplies which was very important um you know the factories in the north could mass produce guns mass produce you know military uniforms other equipment bullets everything that was needed and the railroads can transport all that uh it could also transport food the south for example was very agrarian during the civil war the south could grow enough food to feed its armies but the south couldn't transport it because there was a lack of infrastructure there or the disadvantages of the north is you know the sort of nature or tactics or strategy associated with the warfare or sorry with the war um ultimately it would be up to the north to attack the south so we might say the north had to attack the south again the south is breaking away the north has to go into the south and bring them back in so that means fighting on unfamiliar territory it means stretching supply lines out you know to keep union soldiers supplied well beyond enemy lines the south is very big so that worked as a disadvantage for the north now this add disadvantage um now after the battle of bull run in which the confederacy won which was a shock of course to the north um you know the union sort of changed their strategy a little bit they brought up or called for a larger army and you know would sort of go round two so to speak now the war itself the civil war was fought primarily in two different areas the first one is surrounding virginia we sometimes refer to this as the virginia theater so we might say these are the battles in and around virginia um you know in the virginia theater this would be kind of where the largest battles would take place the most meaningful battles would take place in virginia the war would be either won or lost and essentially what each side was trying to do was to capture the other ones capital cities so richmond's the confederate capital bc is the union's capital so we might say each side wanted to capture the capital city capital city i see this cartoon here showing sort of the stalemate that occurred uh the general in chief was in charge of union forces so we'll say general in charge of union forces the man who was responsible for making the union victory possible was george mcclellan so he was in charge of the union armies the one thing to note about george mcclellan is that his tactics were far too passive the north had in the virginia theater in 1861 and 1862 had an advantage in terms of having a much larger army much better supplied army but mcclellan never really took the initiative to attack the troops or the forces that he was in charge of was called the army of the potomac this is the union army um which you know the strategy was to attack richmond virginia so we'll just say union army used to attack richmond virginia and of course george mcclellan was in charge of it right in charge charge of army of the potomac our job now like we said before mcclellan himself was too passive um ultimately mcclellan and the army of the potomac failed to capture richmond virginia this was in part just to probably more responsibility falls on mcclellan for just not using his advantage in terms of supplies in men it was also due to confederate generals such as thomas stonewall jackson this was a confederate general who helped to stall union advances and soon enough the army and the army of the potomac which initially had set out to catch capture richmond virginia found its uh itself on the retreat and instead it was confederate armies that were marching towards washington dc so sort of a a a change in terms of who was uh pursuing who at the second battle of bull run confederate and union forces met once again this time confederate forces on their way marching towards washington dc this resulted in a confederate victory and for the very first time during the course of the war the unthinkable happened or at least what was perceived as unthinkable and that was what you know what led up to the battle of antietam was fought in maryland and that was confederate forces invaded union territory right so if you think about what the expectations were initially in the war that the word be over very quickly that it wouldn't be that bloody and especially for the north who expected a very quick victory not only had the north not achieved a quick victory but in 1862 they were on the retreat uh and by that time confederate forces were essentially marching in union territory which again given all the advantages and disadvantages of the conflict um you know that was something that you can't really explain it besides just being a disaster for union forces ultimately at the battle of antietam confederate forces were defeated in a very very very bloody battle uh retreating back to the south retreating back to virginia but this prompted abraham lincoln to fire george mcclellan and really for the rest of the war lincoln uh you know will be in search of a competent general you know someone who can use the northern advantages so early on in the war virginia in the virginia theater was a disaster for the union the other main area in which the war was fought was the western theater this is pretty much all of the battles not associated with virginia not associated with trying to capture the capital city of your opponent in the western theater it was more about the union uh trying to control you know various rivers and railroads you know so the way that confederate armies in virginia were supplied was by using rivers and railroads in the west we're talking about places like tennessee um you know the goal of union generals was to invade southern territory and take over those railroads take over those rivers so that uh confederate armies could not be supplied the army of the west was the title given to union forces here and it was headed by ulysses s grant union general in the west and grant unlike virginia unlike mcclellan was very successful even the hotly contested battle at shiloh so this was a battle heavy losses but still a union victory right we might want to note that both antietam right this battle here and shiloh were especially bloody affairs and it proved that even in you know 1861 and 1862 the fact that both sides at antietam and shiloh were willing to fight essentially to death that this war would continue on and it would continue to get more bloody as the years go by