Secession and Civil War

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Advantages and Geographic Factors of the North and South in the American Civil War

Summary:

The North had industrial advantages, a larger population, and better rail networks, aiding in logistics and supply. The South had geographic familiarity, which allowed for defensive strategies, and a strong military tradition. These factors shaped the strategies and outcomes of the American Civil War.

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What advantages did the North have over the South in the US Civil War?

The North had international legitimacy. Other nations recognized the North and could provide trade and credit. The Confederacy, on the other hand, never received international recognition. While Britain unofficially built commerce raiders for the South, the states in rebellion could not rely on international aid.

The North had more fighting men than the South. Eventually this would come to bear in terms of both supplying men to fight as well as men to provide supplies and food to the armies. The South could not afford a long war of attrition. The quality of troops in the North increased as the war progressed, while the South was taking the young and the old to fill its ranks before the war was over.

The North had greater infrastructure. Railroads allowed the North to ship men and supplies where they were needed most. Lee's final retreat to Appomattox was plagued by a poorly organized rail service. Even before the war, the South lacked railroad investment.

The North also had a moral reason to fight the war—to end slavery. While many in the Northern ranks resented the idea of fighting for black freedom, the higher cause for the war led to Britain and France largely staying neutral in the conflict. Britain had already freed its slaves and was a major player in fighting the maritime slave trade. While Britain hoped to receive Southern cotton, it could rely on cotton from its own colonies in Egypt and India without having to endorse the South's slave tradition.

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What advantages did the North have over the South in the US Civil War?

At first, it looked as though the Union had all the advantages and this would be a short war. First, the Union had the large population, people to fight in the war and work in the factories to make war materials.  The North also had the industrial base, the factories to make these war materials.  The Union also was wealthier than the Confederacy and could finance the war.  The Union had an established army and government, but the Confederacy would have to build their army and government from scratch.  Finally, the Union had a navy which they used to blockade the southern coast. But the Confederacy had advantages, too.  The Confederacy would be fighting a defensive war, which is much easier than having to invade and conquer a territory, something the Union would have to do. Because the Union would have to invade the south, their supply lines would be much longer, and the Confederate army’s supply lines would be much shorter.  Because they would be fighting on their own land, they could take advantage militarily of their knowledge of the land.  They would be defending their homeland which would give them a strong incentive to fight.  They would also be fighting among friendly people. Finally, some of the best military leaders, such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, chose to fight on the side of the Confederacy.  It took Lincoln almost three years to find a competent commander in Ulysses S. Grant.  It was because of these Confederate advantages that the war took so long for the Union to win.

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What advantages did the North have over the South in the US Civil War?

I would place the US Navy as the number one advantage, with the manufacturing capability as second and the population advantage as third.

The existence of a Navy meant the Union could blockade the ports of the Confederacy.  it took a while to effect this blockade to the point it was a stranglehold but it was key to the defeat of the Confederacy, just as Winfield Scott predicted it would be in his Anaconda plan.

The industrial capacity of the North and the advantage in railroad mileage allowed the North to take advantage of its industrial advantage.

Population was critical, the Confederacy had 9 million citizens, but 3,500,000 of these were slaves, and 110,000 involved in industrial production.   Union had 22 million people with 1.3 million involved in industrial production.

The U.S. had some military technological advantages, although gatling guns were not used sufficiently to make a difference, breach loading repeating rifles made a difference in a number of battles such as Gettysburg, and the US had an advantage in rifled muskets over smooth bores.  There were more telegraph capabilities in the Union than Confederacy.  The confederacy did launch manage to use submarines, but they had limited effect, and while the Confederacy had the first ironclad, it was quickly overwhelmed on that score by the Union, and the recapture of the Norfolk naval yards by the Union pretty much ended the Confederacy's efforts in that area.

Finally the Union had a stronger conception of a nation, the Confederacy less so, which meant it was forced to try and defend all of its sprawling territory rather than trying to prioritize, stretching its already thin manpower resources even thinner.

The confederacy prided itself on having better battle elan, and espirit de corps, but if you actually look at the battle spirit of Union forces, you will see that they rivalled that of their southern adversaries.

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What advantages did the North have over the South in the US Civil War?

The primary advantage that the North had over the South was manufacturing capability.  The North had already had an industrial revolution and had the ability to produce better weapons and more weapons.  Obviously, this was a huge advantage for the North! The South was still dependent on slavery and this hindered their ability to industrialize.

Other advantages the North had over the South include a considerably larger population, naval power, and superior military leadership.   

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What advantages did the North have over the South in the US Civil War?

The North had a number of advantages over the South.

First, the North was a country recognized by other countries of the world.  It would have an easier time getting loans from other countries during the war.

Second, the North had a much larger navy than the South.  This would help the North blockade the South in the war.

Third, and most importantly, the North simply had more of what you might call “brute strength.”  It had many more people.  This was particularly true when you consider that many Southerners were slaves who would not be fighting for the Confederacy.  The North also had much more industry.  This meant that it could produce all of the things it needed to feed, clothe, and equip its soldiers.  The South needed to import, which was a problem given the fact that the North was able to blockade the South.  The North had more railroads on which to move troops and supplies around.

Thus, the North had some very important advantages going into the war.

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What geographic advantages did the South have over the North during the Civil War?

The geographical vastness of the South gave it some advantages. These benefited the South for the war both on land and at sea.

The South's large size gave it leverage. The South was able to trade land for time—particularly in the Western theater of operations. For example, in 1864, Confederate General Joseph Johnston faced Union general William Sherman in northern Georgia. Outnumbered by the much larger Union force, Johnston skillfully withdrew. His plan was to trade space in order to gain time. Abraham Lincoln faced a presidential campaign in 1864, and the North was tired of the war. If Johnston kept his army intact and defended Atlanta, Lincoln might lose the election and the new president would grant independence to the South. Confederate President Jefferson Davis grew tired of Johnston's cautious strategy and unwisely replaced him with a different general; that new general failed, and Atlanta fell. Also, the North could not prevent Confederate raiders from roaming about the West. The most famous of these hit-and-run Confederate generals was the inimitable Nathan Bedford Forrest. And finally, Texas and other large areas of the Confederacy were not occupied during the war.

The Union's war plan included a blockade of the Confederate coastline. That coastline was 3,500 miles long, though. Although the key city of New Orleans fell early in the war, other Confederate port cities—such as Wilmington, North Carolina—held out until late in the conflict. The Confederacy used these ports to launch blockade runners against the North.

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What geographic advantages did the South have over the North during the Civil War?

As the other answers describe, geography gave the Confederacy the home field advantages of being more familiar with the landscape, needing shorter supply lines, and dealing with a friendlier civilian population. It also worked in their favor because they were more accustomed to the hotter climate and local diseases. Large swaths of the South are home to the preferred habitats for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Indeed, numerous battles, such as Bull Run, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and the Peninsular Campaign, were fought in the warm swampy areas that mosquitoes prefer.

Though most survive it, malaria can be fatal. This mosquito-transmitted disease killed as many as ten thousand Union soldiers. Malaria was rare in the northern states. Therefore, few Union soldiers had experienced it before. Even though the majority survived, sick soldiers were unable to fight and were a burden when the army was on the move. It is thought that as many as half of all Union soldiers contracted malaria at some point during the war. This disease greatly hampered Union efforts. While southerners still succumbed to malaria, they tended to be more resistant to it overall because of a lifetime of exposure.

The climate itself also aided the Confederacy. Union soldiers were less accustomed to the southern heat. Heatstroke and dehydration was a problem for northerners unaccustomed to the heat. General Robert E. Lee was aware of this advantage when he wrote in 1863 that "[Union] troops ordered from Virginia to the Mississippi at this season would be greatly endangered by the climate. ... The climate in June will force the enemy to retire."

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What geographic advantages did the South have over the North during the Civil War?

While the North had some significant advantages—including a sizable population to serve as soldiers, an industrial base with factories to produce necessary materials, and a navy which could be deployed to fight along the coast—the South did have some geographic advantages over the North.

First, the South was fighting a defensive rather than offensive war. In other words, they had the "home advantage" of fighting from an expansive territory which they were intimately familiar with, and had no need to "invade" anywhere. This resulted in the South having short internal supply lines (as opposed to the North's lines, which had to stretch down into enemy territory) and a strong base of local support from Southerners who were in support of the "cause." The South was able to sufficiently produce the food needed to feed civilians and soldiers. This access to necessary supplies was also aided by the long stretches of coastline in the South, which allowed for the receipt of shipments of materials from Europe and created yet another obstacle for the North—the necessity of blocking said shipments.

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What geographic advantages did the South have over the North during the Civil War?

The South had three main geographic advantages over the North at the outset of the Civil War. 

  1. The South’s territory was quite large.  This was relevant because the strategic situation dictated that the North had to invade the South.  Because the South was so large, it could use a strategy of defense in depth.  As the Union advanced, it could pull back, leaving the Union forces dispersed over a larger and larger area.  This makes things hard on an invading army.
  2. The South was going to be fighting using internal lines of communication while the North’s lines of communication would lengthen as it tried to defeat the South.  This meant that it would be easier for the South to move people and materiel around to its troops than it would be for the North.
  3. The South had a very long coastline that the North had to blockade.  The North had to try to prevent the South from getting shipments of arms and other needed supplies from Europe.  In order to do this, it had to try to blockade this coastline.

All of these were geographical facts that, when combined with the strategic reality of what the North had to do to win, gave the South an advantage in the war.

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What advantages did the South have over the North in the Civil War?

It would be more nearly correct to state that the military leaders of the South were far superior to those of the North. General Winfield Scott had offered command of Union forces to Robert E. Lee, who declined because his conscience would not let him fight against his native Virginia. Stonewall Jackson was professor of geometry at Virginia Military Institute prior to the war. Gen. Pierre Beauregard was a West Point Graduate who had studied engineering there. It was ironic that he had studied under Gen. Robert Anderson, whom he defeated at the Battle of Fort Sumter. It is noteworthy that the South had only one commander in chief for the duration of the war. The North had several, many of whom were removed by President Lincoln from command.

The South was not more militaristic, but southern men had lived closer to the earth, frequently hunting as a pastime. As a result, they were more experienced with firearms and better marksmen than draftees from the North.

It is doubtful that the South had it more easily strategically. It is more correct to state that since the war was with rare exception fought in the South, the Southern troops had something of a home field advantage. It should be noted that they did in fact invade the North twice, hoping in at least once instance to gain recognition from Europe. Both attempts, at Antietam and Gettysburg failed.

The South had no possibility of winning the war; rather its advantages allowed it to prolong the war which otherwise would have ended much more quickly.

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What were the advantages of the North and South in the Civil War?

The major advantages of the North were that most of the manufacturing interests of the nation as well as most of the railroads were in the North. The North possessed 93 percent of the nations heavy industry; 97 per cent of its firearms, and 96 per cent of the nations railroads and railroad equipment. This not only allowed for greater manufacturing of armaments and war materiel, but also for rapid transport of troops and equipment. The North had more wagons, ships and horses, and also a surplus of wheat production which was in demand in Europe. The North had a two-to one advantage in railroad lines. Complicating this was that most lines in the South were short line runs that did not connect to main truck lines. The North had a four to one advantage in population over the South, and its government was more organized politically.

Given the advantages of the North, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion. The advantages of the South only allowed it to continue the war longer than anyone might otherwise have expected. Among the Southern advantages: the war was fought primarily in the South, so the South had something of a "home field advantage." Southern soldiers were by and large better marksmen than their counterparts in the North, and therefore more deadly. Finally, the South had a strong military tradition, and much better commanders. It is noteworthy that the South had only one commander in chief during the war to the North's five. That commander, Robert E. Lee, was offered command of Union forces at the outbreak of hostilities by Gen. Winfield Scott; however Lee could not bear to fight against his native Virginia, and resigned his commission. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson had been professor of Geometry at Virginia Military Academy, and Pierre P.T. Beauregard had been a professor at West Point.

The South stood no chance of winning the war; but its advantages enabled it to prolong the conflict.   

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What advantages did each side have during the Civil War?

Each side had a number of advantages as the war began.  They included:

  • The South only had to fight a defensive war while the North had to conquer the South.
  • The South would have shorter supply lines and lines of communication, all of which would be in their own country.
  • The South would have better morale since its men were fighting for their way of life.
  • The South had a more military culture and most of the best officers in the Army were from the South.
  • The North had 3/4 of all the railroads in the country.
  • The North had a much stronger navy.
  • The North had a much bigger population, especially when you count only free men who could fight.
  • The North had about 3/4 of all the wealth in the country.
  • The North had the vast majority of the manufacturing in the country. 

From this, we can see that the material advantages were with the North, though the South did have some military advantages.

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What advantages did the North have in the American Civil War?

Both the administrations of outgoing President James Buchanan and the newly-elected President Abraham Lincoln believed that there was no legality in the secession that the eleven Southern slave states had declared. Thus, the Union--and particularly Lincoln--had a declared purpose: to reunite the United States as a single nation and preserve its territorial integrity. The previous post makes some good points: The Union held a distinct advantage in total population (approximately 23 million) compared with the seceding states (approximately nine million). The U. S. military was already established, though many of its top command defected to the Confederacy. The Union would eventually suit up more than two million men into its ranks--double that of the Confederacy. The Union held a major advantage in its naval operations, and this was perhaps it's greatest military asset. The Union artillery remained superior throughout the war, and by war's end, the Union cavalry had achieved equal status with the Confederate horsemen who had been dominant during the first three years. The sheer numbers of the Union infantry eventually overwhelmed the Southern troops, who had outfought the Federals for most of the war despite a huge numerical disadvantage.

The most important non-military advantage held by the Union was its vast natural resources and factories. Weapons manufacturers flourished in the North, while production was limited in the South. Corn grown in the Northern states became more important than King Cotton: Europe had a surplus of cotton but suffered a grain crisis during the war years. The Union threatened to declare war on any nation who recognized the official status of the Confederacy, and no nation officially came to the aid of the South. Nations were reluctant to run the Union naval blockade, which controlled both the Northern and Southern coasts. Internation public opinion against slavery also worked to the North's advantage.

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