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Why Did The North Win The Civil War Essay

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Comparing the Relative Importance of Political Leadership, Military Skill and Resources as Reasons for the Outcome of the American Civil War

The American Civil war was the bloodiest conflict in American history, with some 620,000 Americans to die in the four-year conflict. This 'inevitable conflict' as William Seward a politician named the great animosity between the Union and the Confederacy, was the result of years of antagonism, due mainly to the particular institution of slavery. There are numerous reasons for the defeat of the South in the civil war. The main factors to consider for each side, when examining why the Confederate lost the civil war were are, political leadership, military skill, …show more content…

Lincoln had appointed opposition such as Democrates for members of his cabinet. This ensured that the Union had the support of the Democrate supporters and so united the nation. The historian D.Potter believes that 'if the Union and Confederacy had exchanged presidents with one another, the Confederacy might have won it's independent'. This probably would have been the case as Lincoln had greater administrative skills than Davis and so with the lacking of resources he would of distributed the scarce resources with immense consideration.

The North superior resources are, probably with political leadership the foremost reason why the North won the American Civil War. The South had only nine fifths of the industrial capacity of the North. This proved to be a great disadvantage for the South, as it plagued their war effort. The North had well-established artillery works, which could supply all the guns needed for the Union armies. The South on the other hand had nowhere for guns to be made until later in the war when the Tredgar works in Richmond was established. The Confederacy had initially hoped to import all the resources they needed from Europe. However this proved difficult when the Union cleverly placed a blockade on all the Southern ports, which prevented ships leaving and entering. To surmount the problem of not enough weapons and also the problem of little specie, the Richmond

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