The Civil War and the Hudson

In discussing the Civil War, most American’s think about the great battles of Gettysburg or Bull Run. Areas north of Pennsylvania are often overlooked because no battles were fought in New England and New York. The war is generally thought of as involving large numbers of troops from all across the country, but the important events seemed to take place between central Pennsylvania and Atlanta. Tom Lewis’ book reminded me of the importance of industrialized cities to the northern victory. Lewis refers to the many industrialized towns along the Hudson river that played vital roles in maintaining the North’s war machine. In many ways, the Civil War represents the worlds’ first industrial war and modern technologies like railroads and steamships were as important in their ability to transport goods and men as modern firearms were on the battlefield. For these reasons, the towns and cities along the Hudson river were central in the Union’s victory.

Lewis echoes other author’s in his discussion of industrial towns along the Hudson, which flourished as a result of the Erie Canal and New York Cities fantastic deep water ports. Lewis discusses the iron foundries in Troy (228), which were vital in the making of railroad spikes and horseshoes. Both of these goods were important to the Union army in their ability to transport troops, which is very important in an industrial war where the amount of men an army can mobilize quickly can often determine the winner of a battle. Lewis also talks about West Point Foundry (234), where an engineer named Robert Parrott developed the first modern cannons that served the Union during the civil war. The West Point Foundry also produced steam engines and locomotives, which were important for all the aforementioned reasons.

In spite of New York City’s neutral attitude towards abolitionism and succession (235) the city’s industrial prowess must have been influential in the Northern victory. Lewis states that "The 1870 census found that one of every thirty-three factories in the United States was located on Manhattan Island" (241). These numbers are indicative of Manhattan’s importance as an industrial center during the Civil War, even though the date of the census comes after the wars’ end.

Beyond the industrial towns along the Hudson River, Lewis stresses the importance of the region in training many of the officers on both sides of the war (232). Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, two of the officers that Lewis mentions, were perhaps the two most influential people in the war’s outcome. The training they received at West Point undoubtably informed their decision making during the war. The towns and cities along the Hudson River may often be overlooked in discussions of the American Civil War. However, for the above reasons, the region was central to the North’s eventual victory.