in 1861, the american civil war was the first modern total war. and in 1861, nobody in the united states knew how to fight one. men could be enlisted and war goods could be manufactured, but generals took time to train. the general in chief of the army in 1861 was winfield scott, in charge of an army of only about 16,000 men. scott was both old and old school (meaning he had no modern training). quite a few officers had been trained at west point, but at the time west point taught engineering, mathematics and fortifications. it taught very little about strategy and nothing about leading large formations of soldiers in the field. none had learned anything about staff work or how to manage an army except those few who could read french or who had any military experience in europe. one of the worst problems is that field commanders did not even have accurate maps of the areas they had to move and fight in. except in the west, local maps did not exist for many parts of the country. unlike jefferson davis, who did have military experience, lincoln had almost none.