Civil War Disadvantages

Improved Essays
The American Civil War, also known as the first modern war, occurred between 1961 and 1965; and was fought mainly based on immensely conflicting ideas on slavery, politics, and westward expansion in the U.S. This internal conflict was contended by the Union and the Confederacy. While the Union was based in the North, supported Abraham Lincoln, and was primarily anti-slavery, or its expansion; the Confederacy was composed of states in the South that seceded from the Union due to their economic beliefs, and fear that Lincoln would harm their right to slaves. Despite these contrasting ideals, however, both sides have great advantages and unfortunate disadvantages of which impacted the outcome of the Civil War. The Union had the advantages of a …show more content…
Meanwhile, the Confederacy acquired the advantage “of fighting a defensive war on their own soil, as well as outstanding military leadership”, and disadvantage of an inferior army in terms of size (Zinn, 118). To continue, the greatest advantages of the Union were its superior resources and larger sized army. According to Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner, “by 1865, more than 2 million men had served in the Union army and 900,000 in the Confederate army” (Foner, 540). This demonstrates an obvious upper hand, as an increase in people signifies an increase of power and capability. Moreover, the North had superior resources by outstripping the South “in farm production, factories, naval force, and railroad lines, which were crucial for moving troops and supplies” (Zinn, 118). While the Union had 110,000 factories, the Confederacy had 18,000. While the Union had 1.5 billion dollars of goods produced, the …show more content…
The plan was formulated by Abraham Lincoln and General Winfield Scott who suggested that they form a naval blockade, take control of the Mississippi river, then surrounding Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas to the point of surrender. The North used their advantages of obtaining power over major off-land regions and sizeable army to attempt to surround the three states on land and water. With these advantages they were able to block Southern ports from receiving more war supplies, seize New Orleans, and move up the Mississippi river. However, due to their disadvantage of fighting on unfamiliar land, a city on the river called Vicksburg blocked the Union from going further on the Mississippi River (Zinn, 118). This demonstrates the ways in which all advantages and disadvantages on both sides of the war impacted the battle. Despite having a larger army and more sources of transportation, the Union’s disadvantage caused them to unsuccessfully go through with their plan. The Confederacy’s advantage enables them to stop the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Apush Dbq

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Take the cotton advantage. The south had it and it wasn’t a huge advantage. Our claim was: “The Union and the Confederate both had advantages. The Union used the economic and food advantage and the Confederate had the military advantage.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the the start of the war, 90% percent of factories were in the North, and the Northern forces had 20,000,000 eligible to volunteer compared to the 5,000,000 free volunteers in the South. The industrial revolution, amongst other things, brought heavy military advantage. One on which is the invention and use of the the railroad and train. The North used these railroads as an advantage, creating supply lines from the heart of the union to the battlefront. While the South was busy in the pre-war era maintaining agricultural and slave lifestyles, the North was building up it's industry to the point where by 1861, 71% of railroad mileage was in the North, and 91% of factory production was in the North.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even if their input could save lives or change the tide of battle, it was internalized and kept to themselves. They never questioned “The Old Man.” Lee’s right hand man was James Longstreet. A new breed of soldier. Filled with new ideas and having witnessed the changing face of war.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    They were also able to transport their equipment faster due to them having more railroads. Compared to the South’s 9,000 miles to the north’s 21,000 miles they mobilized troops and weapons faster than the south While it's been claimed that the south had better…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Near the beginning of the war, the Confederacy was fighting just to defend their position and therefore, fought defensively. As the war progressed, the confederacy changed to a more offensive strategy. When in battle the Confederacy tended to charge the enemy head on with a full frontal charge. The Confederacy as a nation did have the advantage of the defensive side in the war scenario.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The reasons that the North won the Civil War was because blockade helped the North out. The Union had more men with which to fight and couldn’t afford to lose any men. This meant that not only was confederacy losing men to them being killed but, they also lost men to the prisons in two ways. The 1st one was that men become POWS (Prisoner Of War) and were not exchanged, so as to be likely to return to the battle line. The second one, was as prison guards.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Who would win? What will happen if the North win? According to Document 2 it shows that the North had 100,000 more factories. The North had 1500 more trains and railroad transportation. The North also had 1100000 more soldiers than the South.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The north also had a advantage by having a higher military power then the south had.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The union had advantages in ample resources of just about everything the south did not have. With the north’s sheer manpower ratio were unbelievably one sided with north having an advantage of five to two not including the slaves or freedmen. The union had large lands available for growing food, hence served dual purpose of food for hungry soldiers and money for its ever growing industries, railroads, and telegraph links, a ……. Lifeline of any army, or any countries side but left the south isolated, outdated, and starving. The south developed a …………

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    So they came up with a plan to take the crossing point and then take the Confederates benefits of using the railroads. The Union would be able to stop the Confederacy from transporting any goods or materials during the war. It would make it ten times harder on the Union. In a few of my sources it talked about some important generals that were in the Civil War and apart of the Confederacy.…

    • 1537 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The artillery firepower the Confederates had gave them a clear-cut advantage. Defensive positioning and location of the guns were just a few things the Confederates had on their side. Weather and terrain took…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Civil war was a battle fought between the United and Confederate states of America, launching in 1861. The Civil war initiated, due to the country not being able to come to a compromise on the issue of slavery, and politics. The Civil war is one of the most unique wars in the history of America. Some historians believe the war could be prevented while others believe it was bound to happen. However, I feel that in many cases the Civil war could have been avoided, but the ways things were being handled in the country it was destined to happen.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Those states that were in the union were California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. These were considered a union and they are also called the North. The civil war was fighting for the economic of both…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    From the beginning of the war the North had the advantage is many aspects. One major thing the North had in its favor was the population, the northern population was about twenty-two million whereas the south only had about five and a half million white people. Southern slaves, a large part of the population, were clearly no help in the fighting. The industrial gap was another major reason for the war ending like it did, the North had the ability to produce anything it needed to win the war. The Europeans who immigrated into the United States they went immediately to the Union because they could find jobs at the surplus of factory’s, there was no reason for them to go to the south because the labor was done for free.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The CSA was low in supplies, resources, food, and weapons. They also did not have the proper fighting styles or intelligence for different battles. There were battles areas put into place by President Lincoln primarily Grant and Sherman. If the CSA had obtained the partnership with England they may have held an eve fight against the Union.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays