The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them

The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them. Never was this more true than the Civil War. the country was less ready for what proved to be its biggest war than for ant other war in history. In early 1861 most of the tiny 16,000-man army was scattered n seventy-nine outposts west of the Mississippi.

J. M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 312-13