Victor Davis Hanson: [‘Response to Readership’] Why did the South start the Civil War?

VDH Private Papers ^ | February 17, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[quidnunc]

Q: After having read many accounts of the Civil War, I still don’t understand why South Carolina fired on Ft. Sumter, galvanizing the North into war.  What do you think might have happened had the South continued to let these coastal forts be manned by the Union for a longer time?

Hanson: I think conflict was inevitable, because the South had little appreciation of Northern industrial power nor of the competence of a number of formerly nondescript Union officers. The best officers of the Mexican War had joined the Confederacy and there was an erroneous general impression that all superior commanders had left the Union, and with vaunted Southern courage, a big victory or two would teach the Yankees that going into the Confederacy was simply not worth the trouble, especially for the increasingly controversial idea of emancipation. …

-snip-

[Chef Dajuan]

Eisenhower wasn't a brilliant strategist, a good president, yes. However he was too much of a politician as SHAEF.

His "broad front" lengthened the war by four months. He kowtowed too much to Churchill and the incompetent idiot Montgomery.

Had he given priority to Patton's Third Army, the war might well have been over by Christmas 1944, before Stalin had a chance to grab all of Eastern Europe. Thered would have been no Bulge in the Ardennes, either.

Instead he authorized Montgomery's stupid series of failed plans to break out of hedgerow country in Normandy, then made it worse later by giving priority to Monty's "Market-Garden" scheme. Ever read "A Bridge Too Far"? Monty was a boob who was overly-cautious and only got as far as he did 'cuz he got lucky at Alamein.

We were a better army than the Brits, and they should have been there just to cover US flanks. But Eisenhower felt since they were in it longer it would have been "impolitic", (his words, not mine), to shut them out of the big push.

[Tail Gunner John]

I agree with everything in your last post. However, with the situation being what it was in April of 1945 we were in no position to fight the Soviets. Fortunately, the policy of containment worked and the Soviets fell. It took 50 years and nearly 100,000 American deaths but this was much preferable to a nuclear WWIII or a land war with the Soviets in Europe, which would have cost millions of American casualties.

We'll have to agree to disagree about Sherman.

[William of Orange]

I think Hitler said much the same thing before he attacked them.

and they DID welcome the Germans, initially, until they found out Adolf & his Nazi friends were just as bad as Stalin, they decided to stick with the evil they knew rather than the unknown new evil. Many German generals urged the Nazis to treat the peoples of the Baltic and the Ukraine with magnanimity. It is estimated the Ukraine might have supplied a few armies in recruits to the Wehrmacht had the Nazis at least pretended to be liberators.

[William of Orange]

Strategic bombing during WWII was instrumental in winning the war.

no it wasn't, it prolonged the war because Hitler was able to use the bombing of Germany as evidence of his 'prophecy' that Germany would be razed from the map if they lost the war. He told them they had no choice but to support him. Same thing happened in Japan, until little boy and fat man struck.

[William of Orange]

It was Grant whom set the surrender terms for Lee, It was Sherman who initially set them for Joe Johnston, before changing by offering the same terms as Grant's to Lee.

true dat, but it was Lincoln who was on Grant's mind when he wrote the terms, you should be able to find material easily on the only meeting of the war where Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Porter were present.

[mad_as_he$$]

I am sorry. The Civil War was STARTED over states rights. Lincoln didn't free the slaves until well into the war and triggered draft riots in New York City, mostly by poor Irishmen who didn't want the competition from free blacks. IF the war was over slavery Lincoln would of freed the slaves first thing and then went in to enforce it - imho. As far as taking shots at coastal forts; they were only part of an elaborate blockade system that was in place. Chocking the South - not unlike Japan in 1940 when we did it with trade rules.

[radicalamericannationalist]

Not at all. It serves the important point of telling listeners that its speaker is a fool.

[writer33]

I see.

[Tail Gunner John]

Strategic bombing in both Germany and Japan destroyed the armaments industry and lines of communication, the military/industrial complex if you will. Fat man and little boy were the ultimate in strategic bombing.

Dresden probably wasn't a legitimate strategic target. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were on the short list of strategic targets because of their war making values.

Hitler's lunatic prophecies had no effect on prolonging the war. It was the German war machine. You destroy the machine and kill it's operators and the war ends.

[stainlessbanner]

So how does Sherman's jockstrap smell?

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"true dat, but it was Lincoln who was on Grant's mind when he wrote the terms, you should be able to find material easily on the only meeting of the war where Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Porter were present"

If I remember right it took place aboard ship, Lincoln wanted peace at almost any terms to end the war. Grant and Sherman were ever so worried about guerrilla warfare. The hatreds of Missouri was on their minds, at that time we had our own version of the Balkans in that state, where murder and pillage were the goals of both sides.

[DixieOklahoma]

"there is no dixie"

LOLOL Obviously not from the south are ya? see name

[DixieOklahoma]

ALL 5 CIVILIZED TRIBES FOUGHT FOR THE CONFEDERACY. thats why they belong on this thread.

[TheEaglehasLanded]

because they were Democrats that hated Lincoln and everything the Republicans in the North stood for.

[DixieOklahoma]

Filthy yankee

stand watie was the cherokee general for the confederacy... did you know all 5 civilized tribes signed to fight for the confederacy, and that maryland and deleware both allowed slavery even though they were union states? Did you also know that US Grant owned slaves? he was a union general, you being an ignorant, filthy yankee probably don't know that. Attack the south and we will fight back.

Death before dishonor!

[DixieOklahoma]

hey coward, how about maryland and delaware both allowed slavery and were union states? What do you say to that and your beloved filthy yankee ape lincoln for allowing it to exist within his own borders?

By the way what is the root word of 'slave'. The southern constitution outlawed importing slaves from aferica and had terms set up to end all slavery - on their own. we don't need the help of the sodomist yankees.

[Liberty Valance]

"I still don’t understand why South Carolina fired on Ft. Sumter, galvanizing the North into war."

Tradition!

No ... wait! that's Fiddler on the Roof...

Nevermind
;o)

[DixieOklahoma]

League of the south represents 25,000 members, the sons of confederate veterans represents another 30,000 members.

[DixieOklahoma]

Jim Crow laws and racism in the south came about because of the horrors of reconstruction. Yankees were able to turn some of the hate southroners had for them to hate against the black man. THAT is the truth. the 14 years of pillaging, plunder and rape that is reconstruction was probably the most disgusting thing that ever took place.

During the civil war one union soldier wrote home to his wife that he had stolen so much southern jewelry that he "could not even carry it and walk at the same time!"

[DixieOklahoma]

I'm of the opinion that Sherman's brutal treatment of south Georgia and South Carolina made rapprochement of North and South nearly impossible in those areas for decades.

This, with the horrors of reconstruction (the 14 years of pillaging, plunder and rape of the south and her citizens) has made reapproachement impossible.