Compare And Contrast North And South Civil War

The North and the South were prepared to fight a war because of the political advantages each side possessed. The North had an advantage because they had an established, working government. The South had to create a new government after they seceded from the Union. The North’s government had over seventy years to fix any problems in their government. The South also had a political advantage; they were defending their land. This gives the South

Differences: The North had 22,000,000 troops and the South had only 9,000,000. During the battle the North had twice as many soldiers then the South. But, during the battle the South had about 3,500,000 slaves as their help, during the battle. 92% of the nation’s industries were in the North, very little industrial development, mostly an agrarian economy in the South. The North had 75% of the nation’s wealth banking, manufacturing, and shipping. Most of the wealth in the South was in land and in slaves. The cause for fighting was to preserve the Union at first. Later the emancipation of slaves. The South’s was to gain independence and to protect their way of life including slavery.

In 1861 the American Civil War started. The country was divided into the North (Union) and The South (Confederates). Robert E. Lee was the leading general for the South. Ulysses S. Grant was the leading General for the North. The Union had 23 states which were California,Michigan,Connecticut,Minnesota,Illinois,New Hampshire,Indiana,New Jersey,Iowa,New York,Kansas,Ohio,Maine,Oregon,Massachusetts,Pennsylvania,Rhode Island,VErmont,West Virginia and Wisconsin. The South on the other hand only had 11 which were Alabama,Arkansas,Florida,Georgia,Louisiana,Mississippi,North and South Carolina,Tennessee,Texas and Virginia. The North and many ways had a great advantage in the war because they had more men, more factories to build supplies, and a larger navy. On the other hand the South only had to defend their land from the Invading Union.

The Civil War that took place in the United States from 1861 to 1865 could have easily swung either way at several points during the conflict. There is however several reasons that the North would emerge victorious from this bloody war that pit brother against brother. Some of the main contributing factors are superior industrial capabilities, more efficient logistical support, greater naval power, and a largely lopsided population in favor of the Union. Also one of the advantages the Union had was that of an experienced government, an advantage that very well might have been one of the greatest contributing factors to their success. There are many reasons factors that lead to the North's victory, and each of these elements in and

    .The North which is the Union and the South which is Confederates both had very good strategies and advantages that helped them win the many battles The first advantage had to do with politics. The North's political goal was to was to reconquer Confederate territory and force the South to rejoin the nation. There advantage was that they had more people then the confederates. It is stated in (Michigan History 512) that the Union has over 22 million people. The North had a better advantage over the south because of the amount of people they have. They used combat to try to get them

The North and South had political advantages that would help them win battles. The North had a better political structure. Before the South had seceded there were many laws that Congress could not pass because the South feared it could hurt their economy. Since the South succeeded congress in the North passed laws like the Homestead Act, which opened up public-domain lands for families in the Union (Government During the Civil War). Congress in the North also passed the National Banking Act. The National Banking Act allowed the North to produce currency that they could use to fund things like weapons and food for the Civil war. Although the South did not have as many political advantages as the North, they still had unique features that the North did not have. The South had a “war-tax” that they would collect. They would use

The American Civil War was a time when America went to war with itself, it was a war between states. The Northern states included twenty states while the Southern states had only seven. Southern states decided to secede and become their own state because of the concern with state’s rights and making their own laws. Shortly thereafter other Southern states followed. When the South seceded, they were not apart of the US anymore and had started their own central government.

For one, the North wasn’t as united as the South. While the Confederacy fought for their way of life, the North fought for politicians (Confederate States). They were also fighting in unknown territory. In order to win, they would have to seize control over a large area of land (Davidson and Stoff pg 488). Finally, the North couldn’t find a good military leader for most of the war. Most of the military colleges were in the South, so the North was at a huge disadvantage in leadership and skill (Confederate States).

An army of soldiers requires an enormous amount of supplies, so one would therefore need to have the means to thereby create those supplies. The North was well industrialized by the time of the Civil War, whereas the South was still highly dependent on slave labor, which hindered their ability to industrialize.4 When it came to producing weapons, uniforms, shoes, preserved food, tools for more effective farming to feed soldiers, the telegraph, and other necessities, the Union was way in the lead. They could not only create these products, but they could produce them in mass amounts in a fraction of the time it originally took to make them.5 The South had a hard time enduring the war because they did not have the factories necessary to produce the quality and mass amount of supplies they needed.

Throughout the 19th century, the distinctions between the North and South in the United States were controversial. Prior to the Civil War, the North consisted of business owners and middle-class men. The South consisted of mostly farmers. The North was industrial, using railroads and factories. The South was agricultural, with mostly farms and plantations. The North paid their labor workers. The South used slaves. Not only did their opposing views on slavery and the separation of the two cultures, tensions arose that eventually led to one of the most gruesome wars in history.

Economically the Union was very strong and greatly outweighed the South. President Lincoln, as the war had begun, quickly declared a blockade, as described earlier, against the main Confederate ports. This was supposed to be under an international treaty, that hadn’t been signed yet, which had created the controversial political issues for Lincoln. Fortunate enough for the Union, when war broke out the United States Navy was small like it’s army, and its ships were scattered around the oceans. Of the American ships that were in surrounding waters, ten were partially destroyed or destroyed to prevent them from going to the Confederates when Virginia seceded. If they did this would have taken the Norfolk naval base with it.

The challenges that the Union and the Confederacy faced during the Civil War were very different. Critical weaknesses that seemed unfit for war, plagued the opposing American forces, and would serve to be a continuous obstacle that would need to be conquered by patriotism of the people, for their opposing views. To allow for both sides to be competitive, the efforts put forth had to mold to the varied needs of the armies by both the civilian population and their militaries. To the people in the south the similarity to the colonists in the Revolutionary War, was assimilated to their separatist cause in the Civil War and would be their drive to compete with the dominating Northern states. This mindset started the Confederacy in the Civil

As a result, the North was seen as the advantage and the South with the disadvantage due to the amount populations and resources. The author George M. Fredrickson explains his reasoning behind why he believes the north had a greater advantage. In the Why the North Won by James McPherson also explains the advantages of the north, he then after states turning points during the war which affected the end result. Both of the secondary sources state economic, population and resources which were all in favor of the Unions

From the onset of the war, the Union had its obvious advantages. They simply had large amounts of resources of which the South did not. "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. You are bound to fail" --Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman to a Southern friend. Over 85 percent of the nation's industry and significant material resources were controlled by the North. The North was able to use take power of their economical advantages to produce military supplies, and replace damaged equipment more rapidly than the Confederacy. On top of that, forces for the field could be re-supplied rapidly because

The North and the South had many differences such as different American Dreams that could have been the cause of the Civil War. The North was more based on a industrial lifestyle meaning they had factorises and more machinery. Unlike the North the South was build around an agricultural lifestyle which meant they farmed for a living. The American Dream for the North and South differed. People of the North wanted to grow up and be successful wealthy businessman. The Southerners wanted to grow up and own slaves and large lands in which they use for farming. These two opposing ideals formed different American Dreams for both sides which lead to the Civil war of April 12, 1861.