On Grant's Military Thinking

The thesis tells and interprets the following:1860's America emerged a group of outstanding military officers in the Civil War, Robert Lee represented the South and Ulysses Grant represented the North.Robert Lee was called one of the most outstanding strategists in the American history.Many scholar written about him,but not found the theory of his military thought. People was not pay attention to Grant enough, this thesis attempts to elaborate its military thought. Grant's military thought is formed in the American-Mexican War, it was the first time Grant experienced war.Through this war Grant had more perceptual understanding of war, laid a foundation for his military thought maturely. After American-Mexican War, Grant had experienced a succession of failures after his short retirement,but this does not affect him completely who soon become famous in Civil War. New weapons, modern communication facilities and new transportation vehicles were widely applied in the war, strategic of war also transformed from the limited war into the total war, it is called the first modern war..Grant's military thought is mature in the Civil War, so it is very important in the military history.His military thought mainly composed of war view, the strategic concept, the tactical thought and the army organization.Grant has a keen judgment, can realize the war just or not. He thinks the American-Mexican War is an unjust war which US uses strength to bully the weak, kelieves the Federation will win in the Civil War.In the strategy, Grant took the total war as the basic strategy of the war, used the annihilate strategy and the nimble reactive strategy at the same time, and operated a terrible psychological war to the people of enemy,thus corrected the Federation's strategic mistakes in the first stage of the war.In the tactic, Grant created a unconditional surrender principle, launched the blockade and the uninterrupted attacks the enemy, developed the movement tactic of the skirmishers and circuitously outflanks.In the aspect of army organization construction, Grant used the practical servant principle, assign the military officer who can truly be able to competent his duty, advocated recruited black soldiers.Through Grant's practical and effective measures, the Federal army finally defeated the south rebels, and maintained the national unification.At the end,the thesis summarizes the Grant's military thought principles, and has points out its deficiency.