The New York City Draft Riots

During the civil war, both the northern and southern Homefront’s each had their own issues that involved the loyalty of the people and problems within the government. After initial setbacks, many northern civilians experienced an increase of wartime production. Throughout the war, iron production and coal mining reached their highest levels. Sales with merchant ships increased. During this time the railroads and the Erie Canal traffic rose over by half.

The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 was the eruption of working class frustration. The draft that Congress put into place in 1863 called for even more men to fight in the Civil War. The War was about freeing black slaves, but blacks were exempt from the draft. This caused major resentment for the working class, white men of New York, who did not believe in abolition of black slaves in the first place.

Many historians offer various reasons for the defeat of the South (Confederacy) in its battle against the North (Union) during the Civil War. Some of the theories historians offer include the overriding Union power in people, manufacturing, raw material and other reserves; financial failure, due to the Union blockade of ports and ruining the railway structure; political infighting among the Confederacy; and persistent loyalty to states’ rights causing opposition between the government in Richmond and the assorted Southern states. This paper’s purpose is to espouse a theory that a combination of these factors provides a thorough explanation as to why the South lost the Civil War (1861-1865).

There were numerous key roles that played victory in the northern military’s success. Some included the railroad links, the monopoly in shipping, and the industrialized economy. The most important thing the North had was the more commercialized economy system, whereas the south invested in land and slaves. One thing that stood out the most in the North’s victory was the fact that they were superior in numbers. The ten times more manpower than the south had. Not only did thousands of European immigrants join the Union but also those who joined were freed and escaped slaves that joined the Union after the Emancipation Proclamation happened.

Confederate soldiers were fighting to maintain their way of life. Troops fought on familiar home terrain. The South could produce all the food needed, but getting it to troops remained difficult even with shorter supply routes. There was a strong military tradition that encouraged military service and training. By war’s end, the Confederacy had built foundries and armories in several areas to produce gunpowder and cannon balls.

Even after wisely gaining victory over the British during the revolutionary war, problems for America did not stop, the biggest issue of rising sectionalism was yet to be solved. This time the conflict was not with any foreign power, but it was between the northern and southern American states. David Donald, the editor of the book titled, “Why the North Won the Civil War” attempts to cautiously scrutinize the reasons behind the outcome of the civil war by inspecting major advantages and disadvantages of the confederate states which prevented their victory. In my opinion, Donald seems to argue that the biggest reasons behind the failure of the confederate states were not a shortage of resources, but the absence of economic unity, weak military leadership, European neutrality, surplus of democracy, and numerous partitions within the political parties. The five essays written by various expertise and compiled by Donald to provide in-depth information on major factors involved in the Civil War are impeccable for answering the question in focus, why the North won the Civil War?

If the Confederacy would had won the war, the United States would not be like it is today. The Unions states believed that slavery was not moral and wanted to abolish slavery but the Confederacy did not like the idea because they needed slaves for their farms. The Confederacy also did not like the ideas of the Union and the United States was segregated between the northern and southern states. This caused Americans to fight against each other and the nation was being torn apart.

At the beginning of the war, the South’s economy was almost completely agricultural and dependent on the sale of crops, mostly cotton. Even though the south produced the majority of the country’s cotton they had no manufacturing capabilities. The north, on the other hand, was a commercial and manufacturing based economy. Despite their use of slave labor, the South was unable to keep up with the North’s growing industry, which caused its economy to come to a halt. The South relied on imports from the North to meet their needs, and with the country divided they were no longer receiving the resources and services they required. The Confederacy had hoped to be recognized and supported by Great Britain and France during the war. They were confident

In the 1800’s the Civil War, a war between the Northern and Southern states, erupted into a massive conflict after President Lincoln was elected and after eleven states seceded from the Union. Following the secession from the Union, The Ft. Sumer conflict erupted, and this four-year tragedy between the Northern and Southern United States began causing an innumerable amount of casualties. This immense number of casualties, reaching approximately 600,000, resulted from economic and social differences of the North and South, the Dred Scott Case, and the election of President Abraham Lincoln. These causes of the Civil War were all created on conflict rather than intervention. They led to the creation of the Confederacy, a league of confederate states that embodied various disadvantages: the creation of weapons manually, the lack of railroads, the small population, as well as various advantages: tough fighting, devastating the Union’s army and unity that brought the people of the Southern states together. Alongside these advantages came devastation, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves, and led to the Confederacy 's defeat in 1865.

The war between the North and the South, also known as the Civil War, was caused according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author James McPherson "….because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.”1 In this essay I will discuss the following: the primary causes of the civil War, the reasons the South decided to secede from the Union, the advantages and disadvantages each side had, the effects of the war on the home front and lastly, which side was the victor and the vanquished.

This historical study will define the causes of the Civil War by understanding the divisive nature of the southern agrarian and northern industrial economies. In the Antebellum era, the South relied heavily on the production of cash crops, such as cotton and tobacco, that relied heavily on a plantation economy. Southern plantation owners also relied heavily on slave labor, which prevented more fluid labor markets from encouraging industrialization. Plantation owners did not want the advanced agricultural machinery used by northern industries, since the slave trade was highly profitable system of trade in and unto itself. In the North, the rapid advancement of industry had a greater mobility in labor markets, since wage labor replaced the slave

The North has begun its attack on Southern freedom and way of life. It is one’s duty to understand and navigate the situation in such a way that the Confederacy can gain victory from the grip of the Union. Certain resources that the Confederacy has will ensure its quick victory. Although the Union has their own resources, they are to be quickly dismissed because they are not sufficient enough to win a war. It is also true that the resources that one cannot dismiss must be brought down and destroyed. The following information should be used to ensure that the Confederacy would live on.

—Editorial from the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, published in August 12, 1865—as the re-United States reels back from the divisiveness of the Civil War (Abbott 156)

The Southern home front during the Civil War was plagued with many shortages. The South had lacked clothing to keep their soldiers warm. Almost all of the shoes that the South had worn were manufactured in the North. Shoes were very limited because of this. The South had lacked money. They had printed more money which led to unbelievable increases in the cost of everyday items. There were also food riots. The roles of women had changed dramatically. There was an absence of men which meant that women were now the heads of their households. Women had staffed the Confederate government. Women were denied permission to work in military hospitals at first but that had quickly changed once casualties rose to the point were men were dying in the streets

The American Civil War is frequently called the first modern war. Never before had mass armies confronted each other on the battlefield with the deadly weapons created by the industrial revolution. The resulting casualties dwarfed anything in the American experience. Beginning as a battle of army versus army, the war became a conflict of society against society, in which the distinction between military and civilian targets often disappeared (pg. 403). President Abraham Lincoln controlled the transformations in northern life. He provided the determination to construct the resources and also not only that but enhance the power of the federal government and the growing class of industrial entrepreneurs. Unlike the South, with a devastation in