Advantages and Disadvantages of both forces in the Civil War At the start of the Civil War, both sides to expected this to be a relatively short one, but in reality it would go on to be 4 years. All knew that this would be the war to finish what the revolutionary war didn’t finish, first off would our nation always be one and if slavery would remain a thing even though the national was founded upon the principles that all men are created equal. Sadly, it would cost us over 625,000 lives to finish what could have settled over 50 years ago, the Civil war would go on to be one of the most destructive battles before World War I (Mcpherson, 2014). Of course, this war didn’t start out of the thin air, it had many conflicts that pushed the Southern states to succeed from the Union and declare war on the Union. Many leaders in the South had foreseen the North slowly taking away slavery from the South, keep in mind that the South’s economy was solely based on agriculture and it wasn’t the white laboring in the fields. Thinking that they couldn’t survive without slavery, they believed the only option available was to succeed which …show more content…
Their dependence on slavery and agriculture would come back to bite them in the bum, as the North had previously been industrialized which allowed them to produce the needed supplies for war quickly. Now it wasn’t like the South had zero industrial plants as they had a few but you can’t expect a few to supply an entire army. Not to mention the North had already been focused on industry for years and wasn’t able to achieve that level over night. Even if the South wanted to, there was no way for them to obtain what the North already had (Schulman, 2015) . Throughout the war, this would prove to be an uphill battle for the South, of course had ran into the problem of moving all these supplies to their
The North entered the Civil War with many distinct assets that rendered them more competent than the Southern states. Those assets consisted of having more men, more financial stability, economic strength, and far reaching transportation systems. According to the book: Why the North Won the Civil War by Donald, David Herbert, and Richard Nelson the primary cause to the North’s success was given by, “the vast superiority of the North in men and materials, in instruments of production, in communication facilities, in business organization and skill – and assuming for the sake of the argument no more than rough quality in statecraft and generalship – the final outcome seems all but inevitable.” In many ways the north, during the Civil, was more economically dominant than the South
In conclusion, it is imperative to observe that not many people could have foreseen the outcomes of the war. In fact, for many people who actually lived during the time that this war took place; the civil war to them was a thing that would just happen and end after a short while. The northerners on the other hand did not expect that the south would chose to put up a very spirited defense and the people from the south knew exactly the weaknesses of the northerners that they really felt they could face Washington and coerce the authorities to identify the confederacy. Sadly, both warring sides had an impractical outlook into the war which turned out to take a very long time that any of the factions had wanted it to last.
Southern and Northern People had different ideas about the civil war. There were problems within their country and they wanted to fix them. They knew the country was created for the people and was run by the people. They wanted the nation to succeed, but one side wanted it to be free for all people no matter the race, while the southern wanted to keep slaves. With these complete opposites ideas of thinking the southern states decided their only option was to separate from the Union. They split and this left the country confused. Confused about what was in store for the nation they had grown to love. It was no longer clear what they future held for American and it would take a couple of years to get the country moving down the path that leads to the world we live in today.
Northern Advantages of the Civil War Some people thought that the winner of the Civil War was determined by the side with the most guns, but the North's victory involved much more. The Civil War produced new technological advances and Lincoln used them to his advantage. One example is how he used trains and the telegraph to help him win the war.
As stated in Industry and Economy During the Civil War, “The North 's larger number of tracks and better ability to construct and move parts gave it a distinct advantage over the South” (Arrington). Having the trains to help move the troops and supplies aided in saving time and strength for the Union army as they moved in to occupy the Confederacy territory. The Union contained approximately 70 percent of the nation’s railroads (Strengths and Weaknesses of the Union and Confederacy Double-Bubble Map). The substantial percentage of railroad tracks was not the only advantage the Union had over the Confederates. They also had trading ships and a large naval force (Strengths and Weaknesses of the Union and Confederacy Double-Bubble Map). However, the Confederacy wasn’t completely unprepared for the war, they had numerous powerful leaders on their side to help protect their land. There were numerous former officers of the United States Army that fought for the South giving them experienced fighters to help with their strategy and they also had numerous well-trained soldiers that were excellent at shooting ("Mr. Dowling The Civil War: Strengths and Weaknesses"). The strengths of having a railroad, navy, and trading ships was a great advantage to the Union, however, the Confederacy had few to none of these except for leaders with
The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their life styles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces along with many other Northerners believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout. One did and after three bloody and costly years for both sides we come to the date of July 1, 1863.
The North had many advantages at the onset of the Civil War. One advantage that the North had over the South was population size. The North contained more than 60% of the population while the South contained less than 40%. This difference in population plays an important role in the North’s ability to supply troops into military service and continuing the production of industries. If the North did not have a significant amount of the population, their production of war materials could have fallen behind (He...
After the Civil War, America was in a lot of turmoil, especially in the southern states. A goal of the U.S was to bring the southern states back into the union and fix up all the physical damage that tore apart the south. Reconstruction had a couple main goals to bring America back together and that was to fix the southern states of all the damage that was done, explain how the southern states could be readmitted into the union, and also implement how whites and blacks could live together without slavery. Also during reconstruction, black and white teachers would help teach former slaves who were illiterate how to read and write. Thought the main goal of reconstruction was to rebuild America, there were three different plans on how America
The existence of slavery was the central element of the conflict of the north and south. Other problems existed that led to this succession but none were as big as the slavery issue. The only way to avoid the war was to abolish slavery, but this was not able to be done because slavery is what kept the south running. When the south seceded it was said by Abraham Lincoln that “ a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Because slavery formed two opposing societies and slavery could never be abolished, the civil war was inevitable. These were all the reasons why the south seceded from the union, this succession was eminent and there was no plausible way to avoid it.
No one knew that the Civil War would extend to the capacity that it actually did. On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln talked to the People of the Nation, those of the seceded states also including those apart of the Confederacy, about how the war was still engulfing their thoughts. He proceeded to inform those citizens about slavery causing the war and his theory of God controlling the outcome of it. Since he was President previously before and this was his Second Inaugural address, he was believed to be credible. Lincoln implied that he was confident in what was going to come for the future by saying, “I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.” (Lincoln, line 7-8). The excerpt from Lincoln’s address is effective at convincing the audience to stop encouraging the on going issue of slavery. For example, the wars expansion was a big problem to the nation. It would not have happened without slavery and while they had to go through this war, they were not going to settle for anything less than peace among the nations at the end of it.
The Northern states produced 97 percent of the nation’s firearms, 94 percent of its cloth, and 90 percent of its shoes and boots, providing the Union army with unlimited supplies (Keene, Cornell, O’Donnell 376). The North’s elaborate railroad system was also twice the size of the Confederates states, giving them the advantage in mobility. The South however, knew that they had certain advantages over the North. To begin with, they believed they were fighting a war for independence, much like the one that the colonists had fought against Great Britain a century earlier. The South also had a geographic advantage over the North. In order to be successful at
The South had the advantage with their very motivated army. They aimed for the same common goal, to keep slavery. The North, however, was not so motivated. They had disagreements amongst themselves over the abolition of slavery. This was an absolute disadvantage. The North had the advantage with its large population. The population was a high 22 million in the North and a low 9 million in the South. This low population came as a disadvantage to the South because they did not have as many workers as the North had. The South carried advantage in their war motives. All they had to do was protect their borders and keep the Union soldiers out and try their best to, “not lose”. The North had a completely different war motive that was far more difficult. They had to completely surmount the South. The South was at a disadvantage in terms of food. They could find and produce food but they had a difficult time getting that food to their soldiers. They did not have as many rail lines as the North did. Also, because a majority of the manufacturing and industry was located in the North, and the North had effective blockades, Southern trade was
When thinking about the necessity of war it is always hard to determine when it ever really is essential for change to be made. There are different sides of a war and while sometimes many, in simplest form there are really only two sides of a war. Both sides of a war are said to be correct depending on whom is telling the story or argument. In the case of the Civil War slavery was the main opposition through this time and the division was through the North and the South. On the subject of the Civil War being a battle to be avoid it would have to be no. The Civil War was a long time coming. There are many reasons as to why America could not have continued with such opposing views on the ownership of slaves. With such an issue of an individual’s
For generations students have been taught an over-simplified version of the civil war and even now I am just coming to a full understanding of the truth. The civil war was a terrible rift in our nation, fought between the northern states (known as the union) and the southern states (the Confederate States of America). The people’s opinions were so divided over the issues of the civil war that, in some families, brother was pit against brother. Eventually, the south succumbed to the north and surrendered on April 9th, 1865 but not before the war had caused 618,000 deaths, more than any other war in U.S. history.(1) In truth, many believe this horrible war was fought purely over the issue of slavery. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not denying that slavery was a major cause and issue of the civil war, but social and economic differences as well as states’ rights were just as important issues and I will be discussing all three.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”1 These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln, foreshadowed the war that became the bloodiest in all of the United State's history. The Civil War was a brutal conflict between the North and South; brother against brother. With slavery as the root cause, Southern states had seceded from the Union and were fighting for their independence. They became the Confederate States of America (CSA) and were a force to be reckoned with. The Union, however, put up a fierce struggle to preserve the country. If the Civil War was to be a war of attrition, the North had the upper hand because of its large population, industrialization, raw materials, railroad mileage, and navy. But if the war was short lived, the South had the strong advantages of knowledge of the land with a friendly population, superior commanders, an adaptable lifestyle, and a passion for “The Cause”. It took four years (1861-1865) before the Civil War was resolved. The first two years proved to be successful for the CSA, but as the war dragged on and after the battle of Gettysburg, the tide turned in favor of the North. Ultimately, the seceded states were reunited with the Union and are part of the United States as we know it today.