| A large percentage of Civil War soldiers, both | | | | time to train his volunteers and to get the supply |
| Union and Confederate, were amateurs. This | | | | services in place needed to sustain his Army |
| applied more to the enlisted men than to the | | | | because he knew that his newly formed army |
| armies' officers. The majority of Civil War officers | | | | was far from ready to go into battle against an |
| were trained military professionals and had | | | | armed enemy. Few if any of the men had any |
| attended and graduated from West Point. Many | | | | training in combat, strategy or in the use of their |
| of these officers had also seen service in the | | | | weapons. This extensive warfare training would |
| Mexican War and other conflicts. The enlisted men | | | | take more time than Lincoln had to give because |
| were largely volunteers; city business men, | | | | of the intense pressure he was getting from |
| factory workers and farmers who had taken up | | | | Congress and the public to bring the war to a |
| arms for whichever cause appealed to their | | | | quick end and a victory for the United States. |
| personal beliefs and then fought for their | | | | Even though they also received little or no military |
| respective republics. | | | | training, the Confederate Army was somewhat |
| Lincoln's top general, Winfield Scott, had fought | | | | better off as a fighting force. The majority of the |
| with volunteers during the Mexican War and didn't | | | | Southerners were farmers and outdoor types |
| appreciate them as soldiers. He had found the | | | | and more adept in the use of their rifles and |
| untrained volunteers to be unruly, unskilled and | | | | other commonly carried Civil War weapons such |
| generally men that didn't take to following orders. | | | | as pistols and fighting knives. Another decided |
| In his eyes these qualities made them useless as | | | | advantage was that the Confederate soldiers |
| soldiers and not fit for battle. Whether Scott's | | | | were fighting in their own back yard and were |
| viewpoint was valid or not was moot. The Union | | | | more familiar with the terrain. |
| had plenty of weapons but not enough men to | | | | Once the armies engaged in earnest fighting the |
| make up an army needed for the war building on | | | | soldiers on both sides quickly learned that shooting |
| the horizon. | | | | at another man, and being shot at, was far from |
| Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 militia and other | | | | deer or rabbit hunting and the reality of war set |
| volunteers to enlist for three months on 15th of | | | | in. The soldiers were literally baptized by fire and |
| April 1861. This was the how long he thought it | | | | found battle more frightening than could be |
| would take the Union army to put down the | | | | imagined. Those soldiers not killed or wounded in |
| rebellion and bring the southern states back to the | | | | their first battle became seasoned fighters and |
| Union. He got his 75,000 volunteers and more. | | | | were of great help in the training of replacements. |
| Jefferson Davis had called for and got more than | | | | Participating in a Civil War reenactment, wearing |
| 100,000 men in the South for one year | | | | authentic reproduction Confederate and Union |
| enlistments. Both the Union Army as well as a | | | | uniforms and other period correct clothing and |
| new Confederate Army was now ready for the | | | | gear, is to experience some of these feelings of |
| bloodiest war in American history. | | | | being in a shooting war. |
| General Scott pleaded with President Lincoln for | | | | |