![]() Modeled on L’Ecole Polytechnique, West Point’s curriculum emphasized mathematics and engineering almost exclusively. Still-fledgling military, particularly in the nation’s premier military education center. From the Army’s uniforms, to its hard emphasis on drills, to its translated training manuals, French ideas pervaded and in many ways defined America’s Martial structure that other countries rushed to replicate. Though eventually defeated by his European allies, Napoleon had left behind a world-class ![]() Instead, in the decades leading up to the war, American military thought was overwhelmingly influenced by the French experience. To provide its cadets with proven doctrinal training. No wartime AmericanĪrmy had ever exceeded 14,000, such that when Irvin McDowell took the field at Bull Run in July 1861, his 30,000 troops made up the largest force ever led by an American general. In 1860, the Army numbered just over 16,000 men, a quarter of whom would soon resign. Nevertheless, virtually no one in the Union Army had any experience that could prepare him for the Civil War. Given how rapidlyĪnd large the two armies grew, the dominance by West Point graduates of the top leadership positions is striking. Out of the approximately 560 Union generals to serve during the war, about 220 were West Point graduates (in the Confederacy, the ratio was a little lower but still significant, 140 out of 400). Even though the academy’s alumni made up a tiny fraction of the Union’s fighting force, West Point graduates dominated the general staff from Fort Sumter to Appomattox. Of the conflict so right, and his seasoned generals get it so wrong? How did Lincoln, a lawyer by training with no military background to speak of - get the nature ![]() ![]() War, a wisdom that would lead him to bring in new generals and push for more aggressive engagements in 1862. Yet as the leading Union generals in the field refused to directly engage Confederate troops, President Lincoln began to display an almost intuitive understanding of the aggressive military strategy that would win the There was just one major battle, at Bull Run, and only a handful of minor engagements, most of them semi-guerrilla fighting The Civil War’s first year was one marked by inactivity and battlefield frustration. Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded. ![]()
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