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The Army and the Politics During the American Civil War 1861-1865
Borna Andrej Bubanj
Abstract
At the beginning of the American Civil War the deficiency in professional military personnel tied up with political corruption resulted in occurrence of political generals. The basis for the corruption was institution known as spoils system. The basic principal of spoils system was: the political parties would award an individual or group different lucrative positions in exchange for political support. The system of appointing the politically competent but military incapable generals led to real catastrophes on the battlefields. The battle against corruption conditioned the establishing of military commissions which dismissed the large number of incompetent officers. Inspite of this the political generals held their positions until the end of the conflict and the spoils system itself lasted for several decades.
Keywords
spoils system; political generals; the Civil War; the Confederat States; the Union
Hrčak ID:
202420
URI
Publication date:
10.6.1998.
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