Impact Of Geology On The U.S. Civil War: War From The Ground Up

Whisonant and Ehlen also studied the terrain at Antietam, the site of the bloodiest battle in the Civil War, where on 17 September 1862 up to 23,100 soldiers were killed, wounded, or declared missing. "What's so striking at Antietam," says Whisonant, is that "two geologic units underlie [that area]. One is a very, very pure limestone that as it erodes it literally melts. Mostly what you get with that is a very even, level, open surface -- there just aren't a lot of deep holes and high hills that give soldiers a place to hide." On one area of this flat surface, known as Miller's Cornfield, "armies just shot each other to pieces until absolute exhaustion set in."

Nearby, however, a different formation lies beneath the terrain, made up of limestone and dolomite with some shale. "It makes for a very different kind of topography -- dissected topography" that provides good cover and concealment, and according to this study, "the casualties are much lower on that part of the battlefield."

Confederate casualties were 13,724, Union casualties were 12,410, and that was with the tough going (due to poor leadership) on the Union left. Lee knew he had to get out, McClellan's timidity permitted him to get away. One more day of that level of engagement would have used up the ANV.

One could make a case for your suggestion if Burnside's push to cross the bridge had been the whole battle, because the Confederates in that part of the battlefield were relatively few in number and chewed up a larger force for hours, but A) it wasn't, and B) A.P. Hill's corps arrived at the nick of time after Burnside's troops finally broke through -- but they had broken through.

Total casualties were very high, but even with a big chunk of the Union forces at McClellan's disposal being held in reserve, making it nearly an even matchup, and with the grueling, stupid hours Burnside's forces were exposed, the Union still had fewer casualties and Lee still had to retreat.

The tactics used on both sides were just horrendously inappropriate in a number of battles, that's a good bit of the reason for high casualty rates. I loved this description: "In general terms, casualties of Civil War battles included 20% dead and 80% wounded."

It's strange to me that most of these generals -- even the most successful ones on both sides, but particularly the spectacularly unsuccessful ones -- never quite learned that firepower was the key *all the time*. During the early weeks of Grant's advance into Virginia, Lee must have used a trainload of ammo (and received at least as much back), and the bloodshed was incredible, but battle continued at a lower level (still intense) for months, leading to the siege lines at Peterborough and a war of attrition.

Yeah, we’ve been making a little bit of fun of the way it was stated, but the conclusions can’t really be gainsaid. And, understanding of the importance of ground in a battle — plus an ability to deal with “impassable” geography, such as swamps, sheer cliffs, raging deep rivers — help distinguish the good or great officers (and troops) from the not-so-good. Earlier in the year I got a special issue of some ancient history mag, devoted entirely to ancient battles and warfare. One article discussed the changes of approach and the development of strategic thinking during the Peloponnesian War, a struggle which was restructured three or four times, culminating (sez the article) with the final transformation of Sparta’s approach, leading to the strategic defeat of Athens.

IMO, the PW wasn’t yet over — the final chapter of a two generation war was when Sparta, in decline for a long while before the war had started, and chewed up pretty badly by the time it defeated Athens, wound up taking on one of its former allies, Thebes, which had remained outside of most of the previous fighting and grown large and prosperous. Thebes destroyed most of the remaining Spartan army at Leuctra, and then insisted on collecting its dead before Sparta did. Seeing the sheer number of dead Spartans devastated the survivors. The Theban general then marched all around Sparta’s occupied territories, freeing the thousands and thousands of slaves, including those of Messene, building walled towns for them to live in, and destroying Sparta’s slavery-based economy.

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