Advantages And Disadvantages Of The North And South

In the nearly 150 years since the official ending of the Civil War, we have had the privilege of being able to look back and see why things happened the way they did. We can see that both the North and South came into battle with certain advantages, as well as disadvantages. One question that remains involves whether or not the North was an inevitable victor. Here we will examine the advantages and disadvantages of both sides and come to a conclusion to this question. We can begin with the most obvious advantage for the North, which was in sheer manpower. The twenty-three Northern states had a total of nearly 21 million citizens, compared with 9 million for the South, in their eleven Confederate states. Included in the number for the South …show more content…
In order to bring the South back into the Union, this would be a difficult challenge. The South was more familiar with the North than the North was with the South. In today’s society, we have maps, GPS and the like. In the 1800’s, this was still uncharted territory for some northerners. The South had its own share of disadvantages. With more of the industrial development happening in the North than the South, the South was at a disadvantage in regard to having fewer factories, which were needed to produce things such as weapons, railroad tracks, and various supplies that were needed to fight the war. It was mentioned previously that the North had well over 2/3 of the nation’s railroads at their disposal. In turn, this was a significant disadvantage for the South in regard to being able to move people and supplies quickly. The railroad was the fastest means of transportation of the day. It was also mentioned previously the difference in population between the North and the South. As it was an advantage for one, it proved a disadvantage for the other. With many lives lost in the Civil War, over 600,000, the attrition would be felt more significantly by the South. This 600,000 is the combined amount of American lives that have been lost in every other …show more content…
This reduced the available soldiers to approximately twenty-five percent of that of the North. The question that remains involves whether the Northern victory was inevitable. It would seem, on paper, that the sheer numbers, the technology available, and the transportation advantages would make for an easy victory for the North. They also had more tradition on their side, even though it was relatively short for both North and South. The South did not make this easy. Their fighting spirit, their incredible drive to defend their homeland, and their desire to protect slavery as their right was enough to keep them on the battlefield and fighting hard until the end. Just like the football team that seems to be outnumbered and overmatched, the team concept and the fighting spirit cannot be discounted. If the North had taken the position that they had had it won due to all of the things just previously mentioned, and not fought the fight, the South could have been primed for a victory like David over