Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 122

For the Union and the Confederacy, any strategy had to be based on an assessment of resources. What were the nation’s elements of power? How could they be used to accomplish the war aims of each nation? These elements of power become the resources (both tangible and intangible) that the Union and the Confederacy would rely on to fight this war. Whoever would win would apply these resources in the best manner over time. Sometimes, as in the case with the Union, some resources were not instantly apparent before the war. During the course of the war, the Union’s moral power proved to be a very important factor in negating the Confederacy’s resources. But no one understood it or appreciated it until two years after the war began.

Let’s take a look at the resources the Union and the Confederacy possessed at the beginning of the war and compare them by category. The military men of both sides had a very tough assignment in assessing strategic resources and deciding how to marshal them to support the conduct of the war. No one had any experience in taking on such a monumental task to support military operations across a vast territory that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Chesapeake Bay. Physical and material resources would be required in as yet unimaginable quantities. The will of each country to sustain such a monumental effort would play an important role in determining victory or defeat.