Why Was Mississippi Important In The Civil War

Improved Essays
Mississippi was important during America’s Civil War. It played a huge part as an aid of the south, and was genuinely excited for the war in the beginning. The first battle of the war in Mississippi, the battle of Shiloh, cited Mississippi’s resistance against the Union army and their advancements to take over a vital source of transportation in the state, Corinth. With this town, the Union would be able to take over the railroads and the Tennessee River. Unfortunately for the Union and fortunately for the Confederacy, this battle was claimed a draw, because neither armies could claim victory. Another significant battle that would take place in Mississippi is the battle of Champion Hill. For the victor of this skirmish, they would receive control over the Mississippi River, another source of transportation for the south. The Confederacy would eventually lose this battle due to starvation. During these battles, smaller battles between individuals were also taking place. General Sherman, who produced …show more content…
The soldiers were unprepared and had no intentions in becoming ready. With little training, the war did not have a slow start. Instead, it took off without the Confederacy’s preparedness. Because of this unpreparedness, the south would soon witness what war is. After the battle of Shiloh, “The sounds of wounded men screaming for water or for home could be heard through the night across the darkened battlefield” (78). If the soldiers did not pass away immediately from battle wounds, “the diseases” and the “poor food and egregiously improper sanitation” would sicken and slay them. The men would also deal with the “struggle that would keep survivors away from their homes for an extended period of time” (83). Since the soldier’s notion of a short war proved to be false, the soldiers longed for home, but home longed for them as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Shiloh National Military Park was established on the 27th of December in 1894 to commemorate the battle that occurred around the Shiloh Church dating from April 6th to April 7th of 1862 consisting of more than a total of 23,000 casualties making it the largest battle in the Mississippi Valley campaign during the Civil War. In early 1862, US forces won victories in regions of Kentucky and Tennessee which paved a path for invasion to disassemble Confederate rail communications along important railroads, Memphis & Charleston and Mobile & Ohio. With this conflict, the Confederate commander, General Albert Sidney Johnston, arrived to protect the rail communications by scattering his forces around the town of Corinth. The opposing side, the Federal,…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The civil war had a huge effect on mississippi's economy. Most of the Civil War was fought in the south's territory which made more Union troops come into mississippi. The union army intended to destroy mississippi’s railroads because they would have a lesser advantage at getting into other places and going to the north. Since mississippi’s railroads were destroyed mississippi could not export their crops and gain money. The Union had also destroyed their crops and fields which made it to where they did not have crops and they also could not grow crops for a few years because the fields were torn up so badly.…

    • 135 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Early morning yesterday, April 6, 1862, nearly 44,000 Confederate soldiers lead by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston attacked unsuspecting Union soldiers at ground near the log church Shiloh Meeting House at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River under cover of surrounding forest. The Confederate offensive drove surprised Federal forces from their camps, nearly triumphing over Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s command of 40,000. Federals refused to surrender and Rebels soon became disorganized; by afternoon, Union soldiers had definitively and heroically established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the “Hornet’s Nest.” Rebel attacks were unsuccessful until massed artillery helped Confederates gain the upper hand as they surrounded Union…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1st Lieutenant Michael Salvo January 13, 2017 2nd Lieutenant Jerry Chen Private Ashton Benn The Battle Of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans started with the Union wanting the lower part of the Mississippi river. The Union wanted the Mississippi river because it was the only remaining area for the Confederate and it took away their huge port to receive things and trade their southern goods that they grew or made.…

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Giavanna Hunt Mrs. Schools APUSH 18 December 2017 Antietam Book Review Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson September 17, 1862 is remembered as the bloodiest day in American history. On this fateful day during the American Civil War, Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in Sharpsburg, Maryland along the Antietam Creek. In total, approximately 23,000 American lives were lost on this gory day, including 12,400 Union soldiers and 10,300 Confederate soldiers. Although the Union claimed this battle as their victory, the Americans on both sides suffered great losses that changed the course of the Civil War and altered American history. In choosing to read this book, I knew that I would gain a greater understanding of the military strategies and actions performed by both the Rebels and the Yankees.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book I chose to read was For Cause & Comrades by James M. McPherson. McPherson is an American Civil War Historian, and is also the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He has written several books on the American Civil War and has received awards such as the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, and the Lincoln Prize in 1998 for his book For Cause & Comrades. McPherson was also the 2003 president of the American Historical Association, and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopedia Britannica.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Marion Glenn 11/18/2016 The year 1865 could be described as one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. It was the inevitable fallout following the civil war and represented an uncertain future for many southerners who now had to rebuild their lives after losing the war. The book A Year in the South by Stephen Ash, describes the exceedingly different lives of Louis Hughes a slave determined to obtain freedom, Samuel Agnew a man of God coming to grasp with his spiritual and worldly troubles, Cornelia McDonald a widow battling despair and poverty brought on by the war, and John Robertson a former Confederate soldier seeking to separate himself from the remanence of the war, all of whom struggled throughout this year to survive and find their new places in a changing world.…

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All across the South, young men were hearing this call to action in hope that they would pledge themselves to service, but in this brutal, bloody war, what made them put their lives on the line to answer the call? The Civil War was our nation’s most devastating war, with over six-hundred thousand casualties, so the question begs; Why did Texans fight in this disastrous war? Simply put, we chose to fight in the Civil War to protect states’ rights, preserve slavery, and most of all to defend Southern honor. First off, many Southern states felt that the Union was eradicating their…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ulysses S. Grant and his army sieged the river city of Vicksburg. Union is victorious and Confederacy has lost it’s last Mississippi river stronghold. This gruesome battle has been one of the major turning points bringing the favor of the war more to the North. Grant wanted to block all ports stopping troops, food, and other supplies from reaching the river city of Vicksburg.…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the great schism between the industrialized North and the agriculture dominant South over the issue of states’ rights staring with the election of president Lincoln, war was declared between two halves of a country. Although the land battles are more renown, maritime shipping and Naval strength soon showed their importance to the war effort. Naval battles and military marine interactions took place in all of the maritime domains, from the brown water of the Mississippi river to the blue water of the Pacific Ocean. The naval strategies used by both the north and the south varied depending on which maritime domain the battles would take place in. In the brown water domain of the Mississippi river the Union and Confederate navies engage in a Guerre d’escadre.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The essay, “Long-Legged Yankee Lies” was a surprising essay – not what I expected to read after reading James M. McPherson’s other works. The focus of this essay was to thoroughly explain one of the main interpretations of the Civil War – the “South’s Lost Cause.” The Lost Cause, as the Southerners perceived themselves after the Civil War, is explained in that the South was incredibly outnumbered by the North in both men and resources. The South perceived themselves as righteous men who fought for state’s rights, freedoms granted by the Constitution that cannot legally be infringed upon by the government, and the approval of the people with actions taken against them by their government.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Civil War was a devastating war that wiped out much of America’s population. The book written by James M. McPherson, What They Fought For 1861-1865, describes the views of the soldiers that fought in the war. McPherson uses letters left behind written by different civil war soldiers to portray a more round view of actions that took place on the battlegrounds. McPherson’s thesis does not present from both sides of the war what the soldiers, volunteers and enlisted men, of the Civil War had to faced, how they dealt with their emotions and experiences, the bond made between comrades, and how it affect their overall psychological, physical, and mental well-being of each combatant. This book contains diary entries from Union soldiers that were from the northern states.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Civil War, a war within the United States caused by the sectional crisis, affected each state in a variety of ways. Unlike other areas, Arkansas’ experience in the Civil War differed from those of surrounding states. This was due to Arkansas being a border state, the main battles being fought east of Arkansas, and a collapse in Arkansas government. During the war, the states had split into two distinct political factions, known as the North and the South, over the issue of the future of slavery in the United States. Arkansas, however, was considered to be a border state because while slavery was significant in Arkansas, it was not near as vital as it was in states located further south.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “We see men living with their skulls blown open... we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces… on every yard there lies a dead man”(Remarque page 134-135). The war has inflicted so much trauma that some soldiers try putting themselves out of their misery, so they don’t have to live in a never ending nightmare. When they fight, they become inhuman not caring about the causalities and the aftermath. “We have become wild beasts”(Remarque page 113).…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War has been a constant part of human history. Whether it was World War I or World War II, war has greatly affected all aspects of life. Soldiers, families, countries, and societies, have all suffered through these times. Ultimately, the effects of war are extremely detrimental. Timothy Findley’s masterpiece The Wars portrays the detrimental effects of war and how these effects are endured on a personal level, familial level, and a communal level.…

    • 1571 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays