What was the Confederacy's strategy for winning the war?

Answer 1

The Confederacy's strategy was to defend their homeland from foreign invaders who came to tyrannize their people.

The Confederacy's strategy on the field was essentially defensive and based upon of the professional superiority of many of its military leaders who, especially in the early phases of the war were able, almost in the Eastern Front to repulse every attempt to permanently invade the heart of the Confederacy and capture its Capital.

The Union soon became aware that the war would have been won only by the seizing

of the whole Confederacy's territory and the annihilation of its armies, with all the consequences which the task would imply: great casualties, immense waste of wealth

and an unknown deal of postwar problems.

By means of that "fatiguing" strategy, the political and military leaders of the Confederacy aimed also to undermine the public opinion of the Union (in other word the "home front"), which was not compact as that of the South, hoping to determine a general request to negotiate a peace of compromise based upon the independence of the Confederacy from the USA. Indeed this task was not far to be reached during the last months of the war, when Grant's armies seemed unable to break through the Richmond - Petersburg line.

Answer 2

Jefferson Davis, Leader of the Confederate states of America, assigned Robert E. Lee as general of his army. Davis and Lee always agreed on everything when it came to battle plans, and they both always critiqued one another's battle strategies in order to help them improve. Davis was more of a hands on type of leader, while Lee always wanted to resolve things in a more peaceful manner. I believe Lee's presence was actually helping Davis calm his inner urge to just fight and get it over with. In other words, Lee was sensible enough to try to resolve the conflict more peacefully and less violently than Davis wanted.

Answer 3

In the early stage of war Jefferson Davis's strategy was essentially based upon political purposes, that is it was conceived to take account of the public opinion choice to preserve the whole territory of the Confederacy at every point along its perimeter. That meant the stationing of military forces at the borders, which would have given battle to beat back every attempt of invasion.

Then he proposed the "offensive-defensive strategy" that is: Places of secondary importance were not to be defended, the scattered forces on the border had to be regrouped and moving through "interior lines" by railroad, sent to match the Northern armies as soon as they would come up. This allowed he Confederacy to have larger forces at disposal to set up offensive operations against the invaders as opportunity offered.

Lee adopted that strategy too, once he became Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, obtaining many decisive victories and carrying the war into the North. He made use of the "Strategic Intimidation"

against vital enemy centers, like Baltimore and Washington, in order to reach by means of the manoeuvre, a favorable ground from which giving battle exploiting a situation of maximum advantage.

Joseph Johnston, operating in Georgia adopted a variant of this strategy that is: to take up a strong position and waiting for the enemy to attack, aiming to inflict them the highest number of casualty possible and constantly acting against their communication line. If bypassed he would retreat repeating the process.

Goals.

- Lowering the morale of the Union armies and home front by carrying on a costly and endless war.

- Supporting the political movements which were acting more or less openly for e peace of compromise in the North.

- Obtaining the recognition of the Confederacy as an independent country from the Foreign Powers, especially that of Great Britain and France, which would have probably intervene in the conflict.

Answer 4

Very little in the way of strategy. And he couldn't communicate with his Generals at all.

He thought he was talking to a nation of feudal serfs, and kept appealing for loyalty.

The man was way out of his depth.

Answer 5

At first, he thought it would be a swift capture of Washington.

As the war dragged on, he realised his smaller armies would never be able to invade and occupy Northern states, so he settled for defensive tactics, and hoped that war-weariness would get Lincoln voted-out in the 1864 election.

After Lincoln was re-elected, the only logical course was to surrender and save needless bloodshed. But the Confederates were past logic by then. They just had to go on fighting, with no military objective, but just to show they weren't the kind of people to give up.

I would not like to have been the parent of a soldier killed on either side in the last six months of the war.