Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 133

In formulating these two strategies for the Union and the Confederacy, geography played an important role. The Confederacy’s land area of 750,000 square miles roughly equaled that of Europe, minus the Scandinavian countries. This is a huge area of land — extremely difficult to conquer and equally difficult to defend with limited resources. Geography in strategic military terms signifies the general layout of the land and how it assists or hinders the movement of armies or naval forces. Strategists look for barriers to movement (mountains, rivers, coastlines, swamps, forests); areas that allow rapid movement (rivers, mountain passes, all weather roads, major rail lines, valleys, plains); and key areas (industries, cities, ports, road/rail junctions).

From the point of view of Union and Confederate strategists, the geography of the southeastern United States divided itself into three main areas, or theaters. A theater is a subdivision of a larger geographical area where military operations take place.