"In "Civil War Supply and Strategy," renowned Civil War historian Earl Hess examines the decisive link between distributing provisions to soldiers and the strategic movement of armies during the conflict. Feeding men and moving armies, he suggests, became the foundation of success, es...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben

1. Verfasser:	Hess, Earl J. 1955- (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Buch
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press [2020]
Schlagworte:	Sezessionskrieg > 1861-1865 Logistik Versorgung Armee United States / History / Civil War, 1861-1865 / Logistics United States / History / Civil War, 1861-1865 / Equipment and supplies United States / History / Civil War, 1861-1865 / Campaigns Equipment and supplies Logistics Military campaigns United States 1861-1865 History
Zusammenfassung:	"In "Civil War Supply and Strategy," renowned Civil War historian Earl Hess examines the decisive link between distributing provisions to soldiers and the strategic movement of armies during the conflict. Feeding men and moving armies, he suggests, became the foundation of success, especially for the army that was on the strategic offensive. While a defending army found its logistical and supply problems minimized, an offensive army discovered that those problems multiplied. The purpose of Hess's newest study is to see how generals and their subordinates organized military resources to provide food for both men and animals under their command, especially when on the strategic offensive. It takes a chronological approach to the topic, looking at the significant campaigns of the Civil War in each of the three major theaters of operations. He devotes more attention to the West, the region between the Appalachian highlands and the Mississippi River because that is where the problems of shipping material and moving large armies were most formidable. The Union army developed a powerful logistical capability that enabled it to penetrate Confederate territory and exert control over selected regions of the South. Its strategy was therefore heavily dependent on lines of supply, road systems, pre-existing railroad lines, and natural watercourses. Union logistical power, Hess explains, was limited, and those limitations also influenced its strategy. Union commanders could efficiently operate in the upper South, but the Deep South presented unusual problems. The Mississippi River allowed its armies to penetrate the region along a narrow corridor of control, capturing all key cities along its banks, and railroads barely allowed William T. Sherman to advance as far as Atlanta. For the rest of the Deep South, however, the Union army relied on massive strategic raids to destroy resources and bring its military power into the heart of the Confederacy. One of Hess's main objectives is to delineate how logistics and supply came to empower Union offensive strategy and to limit it as well. His reveals how this influence acted in operations on the ground, making this a study of in-theater supply rather than an examination of the national lines of military transportation, which was the subject of his previous book, Civil War Logistics. Although this examination covers the entire war and all means of logistics and supply in the field, it emphasizes three main areas. First, it devotes more attention to the Western theater than to the Trans-Mississippi or the East, and it pays more attention to Union than Confederate operations because the Federals were on the strategic offensive and left behind far more information on how Union logistics and supply worked.
Beschreibung:	x, 432 Seiten Illustrationen, Karten 24 cm
ISBN:	9780807173329 9780807183779