Turning Point(s) of the Civil War for McHenry County Civil War Round Table Discussion Group This Saturday

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) Discussion Group will meet this Saturday, July 27, at Panera Bread on Crystal Lake, Illinois, at 6000  Northwest Highway (US-14) at 10 a.m..  This month's focus topic will be"The  Turning Point of the Civil War."

It should be interesting to see what folks think.

Obviously that double July 1863 catastrophe at Gettysburg and Vicksburg would receive considerable emphasis.

I'd like to add Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Union industrial might to the mix.

You don't have to be a member to attend.

Come On Down.  --Old Secesh

Other Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 6: Confederates Refusing to Cross the Potomac River

Continued from September 28, 2017.

**  Mobile as a port was closed in August 1864, but continued being held by Confederates until almost the end of the war.

**  Some Confederates refused to cross the Potomac River before the Battle of Gettysburg.

**  Inspections of equipment before military issue.

**  Grant being appointed to lead the Union armies which led to the first Union coordinated effort.

**  Did the South have the right to secede?  During the War of 1812, New England came close to it.  Plus there was the South Carolina Nullification which President Jackson forced them to back down.

Next month's discussion topic will be  "The Top Ten Blunders" of the war.

--Old Secesh

Other Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 5: Improvements in Artillery

**  A turning point of the war was the firing on Fort Sumter.  It didn't have to happen and made the Confederacy look like the bad guys for starting the war.

Fort Sumter would have had to surrender in a few days because of lack of provisions.

**  Incredible improvements in artillery velocity and accuracy made masonry forts obsolete.

**  Ironclads made wooden warships obsolete.

**  Incredible fortunes were made during the war.

**  After the war, the GAR had a huge impact on politics.

**  Was Albert Sidney Johnston as good of a general as everyone thought?

--Old Secesh

Other Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 4: Month of July 1863

Continued from August.

These were ideas put forth at the MCCWRT discussion  group on July 29, 2017.

**  Trent Affair and capture of the CSS Florida in Brazil in a highly questionable action on the part of the Union Navy.

**  Month of July 1863: Vicksburg, Gettysburg and the capture of Port Hudson.

**  Sanitary Commission and advancements in medicine:  hospital ship and Ambulance Corps.

**  Camp cleanliness.  Suturing up wounds with horsehair (after it was boiled).

**  Nevada being admitted to the Union.  Lots of silver coming out of it to finance the war.

**  1864 Presidential election.  Lincoln winning meant that the war was to continue.  Essentially the last hope the Confederacy had at this time.

--Old Secesh

20 Significant Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 3: About Gen. Butler

**  Butler declaring escaped slaves as contraband.  Everything Butler did that wasn't in the field was good. He was a good administrator and contraband addressed the problem with what to do with incoming former slaves.

There is a new book about Butler.

Butler had part interest in the racing yacht America for which America's Cup is named.

**  Trent Affair

**  Death of Stonewall Jackson and impact on Lee.  Now had three corps instead of two.  Ewell and Hill never matched Jackson's ability.

Lee was called "Granny" and "King of Spades" for digging trenches.

Capture of the CSS Florida in Brazil.  Somewhat questionable move bt the Union commander.

--Old Secesh

Others on 20 Most Significant Events Affecting the War-- Part 2: Moving Capital to Richmond

**  Slavery would have died out eventually, possibly by 1900.

**  Movement of Confederate capital from Montgomery to Richmond was a really bad move.  It deemphasized the importance of the Western Theater  Richmond as capital would secure Virginia for the Confederacy.  It was now, however, too close to Washington, D.C., and too hard to defend.

**  The North's Herman Haupt and his control and use of railroads was a big help in their cause.

**  Creation of the U.S. Military Rail Roads.

**  The firing of Simon Cameron

**  Dred Scott Decision and the Fugitive Slave Act.

--Old Secesh

What the Others Had to Say About the 20 Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 1: Battle of Ball's Bluff

It was clear that there was some confusion in the McHenry Civil War Round Table's discussion group as to what the subject's parameters involved.

Some interesting comments:

**  The Battle of Ball's Bluff early in the war caused the death of Col. Baker.  This caused an impact on political generals and led to the formation of the Committee On the Conduct of the War.

**  Lee's decision to resign from the U.S. Army.

**  The Anaconda Plan

**  The Emancipation Proclamation destroyed the Confederacy in the eyes of Europe.

**  The U.S. navy was the 13th largest in the world at the outbreak of the war.  It grew to be huge.

**  Fort Sumter

More to Come.  All of Interest.  --Old Secesh

My 20 Most Significant Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 4: Union Navy

16.  Technology: Mines. telegraph, repeating rifles, railroads.  Even though they had machine guns and submarines, those did not have that big of an impact.

17.  Lack of cooperation from Confederate states and their governors to the central government.  It was a states rights thing, you know.

18.  The Union's population and economy.

19.  The Union Navy's ability to strike whenever and wherever along Confederate coasts and deep into the interior via rivers.

20.  Confederate commerce raiders impact on the North's commerce.  At one point practically swept Northern commerce from the oceans.  Huge increase in insurance rates and reflagging ships to foreign countries.

OK. one more.  21.  The huge growth of the Union Navy.

This Sure Gets You To Thinking.  --Old Secesh

My 20 Most Significant Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 3

11.  Placing John Bell Hood in charge of the Army of the Tennessee.

12.  The large number of Southerners who did not support the Confederacy.

13.  Lincoln:  The ultimate politician and the Right man at the Right Time.

14.  Loss of Confederate ports and, to an extent, the blockade.

15.  The breakdown of the Confederate transportation system.

--Old Secesh

My 20 Most Significant Events Affecting the Outcome of the Civil War-- Part 1: Enlisting Black Soldiers

On July 29 our Mchenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group met at Panera Bread in Crystal Lakem, Illinois, with this as the topic of the day.

Interesting topic and some interesting ideas as to the significant events.

I took about 15-20 minutes to come up with my own list off the top of my head.

Here they are:

1.  Enlisting blacks in the Union Army/

2.  Northern industry superiority/ Southern industry's inadequacies and lack of

3.  Collapse of the Southern will to fight as the war progressed

4.  Advances in Naval architecture:  ironclads, turrets, steam power and bigger guns.

5.  Special-use warships (ferry boats and double enders) special-built blockade runners.

--Old Secesh