Essay on The Civil War

The Civil War has been described as one of the most important occurrences in the life of the United States. It was period in time when the United States was no longer united, but instead was split between the north and south due to the ongoing feud over of the legal standing of slavery nationwide. For four years, many people were subjected to horrific measures, especially the soldiers that participated in combat. Despite the brutality of battle, soldiers experienced a numerous amount of daily hardships that made their stint in the war almost intolerable. Being far away from their homes and loved ones, having access only to inadequate food and shelter, gaining an increased risk for diseases, barely living through harsh winters, enduring

As the war continued on the industrial capabilities of the North would prove to become one of the greatest contributing factors to their ability to sustain military operations. Tied directly into the industrial capabilities of the North is the economical superiority that they held over the South. "The economy was the greatest Southern weakness; it was the North's greatest strength. The North was not only a huge farm but a sprawling factory as well" (Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey pg. 439). Wars are expensive, and in order to sustain military operations especially one that would drag on for four years money would become of great importance. The North was comprised of approximately 75% of the nation's wealth, and they were able to maintain their trade with Europe which kept the money, and weapons pouring in. The South's inability to raise money took its toll on the pocket books of the Southern States, and in turn would be one of the major contributing factors to their defeat. A lengthy war on the other hand favored the wealthier and

Economically, the chief and immediate cause of the war was slavery. Southern states, including the 11 states that formed the Confederacy, depended on slavery to support their economy. The North used a factory system for their agriculture, which they hired cheap

By the outset of 1864, after three years of war, the Union had mobilized its resources for the ongoing struggle on a massive scale. The government had overseen the construction of new railroad lines and for the first time used standardized rail tracks that allowed the North to move men and materials with greater ease. The North’s economy had shifted to a wartime model. The Confederacy also mobilized, perhaps to a greater degree than the Union, its efforts to secure independence and maintain slavery. Yet the Confederacy experienced ever-greater hardships after years of war. Without the population of the North, it faced a shortage of manpower. The lack of industry, compared to the North, undercut the ability to sustain and wage war. Rampant inflation as well as food shortages in the South lowered morale.

At first the South relied on imported arms and munitions but soon was able to produce its own. It had more trouble with clothing and food throughout the duration of the war.

The Union blockade did not take full effect for many months, allowing the Southerners time to export their cotton harvest, and reap the financial benefits. Alexander Stephens had a plan at the start of the war that he estimated would net around $800M for the Confederacy, providing a sound financial base for the war effort. Although somewhat optimistic, and affected by practical difficulties, it is fair to say that the cotton crop would have been far better exported than stockpiled or burnt. Secondly, the Confederate government displayed an unwillingness to tax her citizens, preferring instead to print money, and suffer the rampant inflation that resulted. The Union financed its war effort mainly from taxation and bonds, while 60% of Southern funds came from unbacked paper money. The problems associated with this are clear to see: prices rose 100-fold over the four years of war, wiping out southerners' savings, and devastating the economy. The government's reaction to this, the third mistake, was to impress public goods for military use. However, rather than curbing inflation, this merely acted as a disincentive to supply, making essential items increasingly scarce. This, coupled with the poor infrastructure and parochialism of some State governors, meant that the army went hungry in a nation with the capacity to produce plenty of food. Finally, it is argued that the Confederate government should have done more to improve infrastructure and

In the midst of the Civil War, people within the Union states were feeling a lot of unrest and unsteadiness for a variety of reasons. One reason was the fact that the war had dragged on a lot longer than was anticipated by the country and its leaders. As the war raged on, more people were dying as well as getting injured which meant a call for more soldiers was happening. The

With no navy to mount a defense, the Southern government was forced to control production of cotton and raise taxes, which only furthered the disillusionment of its population (Perman, 224). Poor Southerners in particular began to see the war as benefiting a section of society that did not include them, as they were not slave owners. They were the very people forced to make the most sacrifices for the war and the government's control of their ability to produce led to bread riots (Perman, 219). Moreover, as enlistment numbers in the Confederate army dwindled, the government had no option but to turn to forced conscription and impressments of slaves, which Southerners viewed as the impounding of personal property (Perman, 221). The realities of war created a conflict that Southerners did not foresee when they had created an aloof central government.

For four years, Americans fought against one another on the battlefield. This war would come to make up the bloodiest war in American history. Over the four years, over 620,000 soldiers died in the conflict. This war became one the most traumatic event in American History. Since the beginning of colonization to the 1860’s, the people in this country were slowly being divided. From 1850 to 1861, it was apparent that the union was separating into the North and the South and battle was soon to follow. With this division, peace could not continue amongst the country, for the country was filled with problems that affected the common Americans. With the events that led up to the war, the South felt like they had every reason to secede from the

The Civil War was a very gruesome war. The war had become the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South). During the war the union and confederacy had many weaknesses and strengths. Some of them are technology, army/military and government.

The Civil war was the most momentous and crucial period of time in the history of America. Not only did this war bring an end to slavery but also paved way for numerous social and political changes. The country had already been torn by the negative trend in race relations and the numerous cases of slave uprisings were taking their toll on the country 's political and social structure. The country was predominately divided up into 3 sections, the North, the South, and the West. Each of these groups had different fundamental interests. The North wanted economies depending on farming, factories and milltowns, while the West relied on expansion and development of land for farming and new towns. The South mainly relied on agriculture like

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.

The South was viewed by many in the United States and elsewhere as a robust, self-sufficient economy (Surdam, 2001, p. 1). It produced much of the world's supply of cotton and Texans bragged that their cattle could feed the world. What the South lacked in manufacturing was compensated for by the immense wealth produced from raw cotton, cattle, and corn exports. Obviously, the predictions that the South could survive a war with the North due to its economic self-sufficiency were wrong. This essay analyzes the possible reasons for the failure of the Confederacy to win the Civil War.

The overarching theme in the section regarding the economic and social effects of the war is identity. In this section, the South finds that it carries an immense economic burden as a result of the war. Seceding from the Union had cut off the South from Northern markets and trading ports, and therefore, had made it far more difficult for the South to export cotton. With much of the Southern white male population having been drafted into the Confederate army, the lack of the male work force that powered the South now left farms and industries that didn't use slave labor no remained with no workers. Production declined vastly as a result,and the effectiveness of Northern naval blockades led to shortages of food and other necessities.

Perhaps one of the must detrimental occurrences in the Army of Northern Virginia was the act of desertion. As the siege of Petersburg and Richmond extended into the winter of 1864 and 1865 the physical hardships, re-election of Lincoln, as well as news of Sherman’s march caused many soldiers to desert. The combination of these discouraging events led to desertion rates of up