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Compare And Contrast Civil War Union Vs Confederate

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The Civil War, lasting from 1861 to 1865, was fought by both the Union and the Confederacy with fervor and zeal. Though both the Union and Confederacy had advantages, the Union had the upper hand due to several benefits which resulted in their stable economy. These benefits include their extensive army, industrial strength, and economic self-sufficiency. The Confederate states, on the other hand, had skilled fighters and were on known terrain, but they were dependent on a variety of factors for their production, making their economy inadequate. The Northern states in the Union had a variety of advantages on their side, allowing them to become victorious in the Civil War. One of these benefits was that they had nearly double the army that …show more content…

Furthermore, nearly halfway through the war, slaves from the Confederacy were emancipated through the Emancipation proclamation, and they joined the union army and provided them with the strength to gain victory. On the other hand, the Confederacy consisted of just over 10 states, and this small population was significantly reduced by the fact that a substantial amount were slaves who was unsympathetic to the cause. Yet another advantage that the Union had was their abundant resources. Even before the war, the Union was highly dependent on industrialism and free labor. They had 1.3 million industrial workers, as opposed to the Confederacy’s 110,000 workers (Divine, 479). These workers made the Union self-sufficient and aided it to produce much more warfare material than the South. The south depended upon the transactions of other nations and the work of slaves to produce their materials. The result of having a greater workforce meant the value of production was …show more content…

To begin with, Confederates only had to protect their land, which was a much more feasible task than that of the Union, which was to completely conquer southern land and protect their own land as well. Because of this, “the Confederacy faced a less serious supply problem” (Divine, 478). Because there was less territory to secure, the South didn’t need as much supplies or army to protect their land. Furthermore, the Confederates had the advantage of fighting in familiar territory, since this was where other wars, such as the Mexican American war, were fought. The territory was familiar to fighters, and they knew various war tactics based on the geography of the land. However, these benefits were not enough, and one of the greatest disadvantages that the Confederacy faced was its dubious optimism. Many confederates believed that the war would be short and straightforward, “expected their armies would be better led” and “if external help was needed, major foreign powers” would come to their aid (Divine, 478). This was a grand miscalculation, since later in the war, foreign powers such as France and Britain “hesitated to intervene unless the South won decisively” (Divine, 486). This miscalculation caused the army to fail and lose to the north. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the Confederate army was greatly outnumbered by the Union, and their resources were

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Although, both the North and the South had advantages those that the South believed would led them to victory such as; trained soldiers, prepared leaders and economic stability, had in time led to their defeat. To begin, with the first advantage the Confederacy displayed over the Union was the leading experience. The South had reasons to believe that this would be a powerful element, since Abraham Lincoln had no experience in military training. Even though, this seemed to be a beneficial factor to succeed at war, it wasn’t. Jefferson Davis was doing a terrible job, he failed

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820 Words | 4 Pages

The North also produced 17 times more cotton than the South, 30 times more leather goods, and more essentials to the war. All and all, the South was seriously out supplied by their counterparts, and still nearly pulled off the upset. This is the first reason why Robert E. Lee is the greatest general of the Civil War. Reason 2: The Confederates had much less men than the Union and Lee nearly still won Going into the war, the Union were the

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118 Words | 1 Pages

Confederate Army had trouble arming all their troops .Confederate Army didnt have many uniforms, men usually just fought in what they brought with them .Confereate Army was better trained .Union had a bigger army .Union had a more powerful Navy .The

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958 Words | 4 Pages

The clash between the North and South over slavery, states’ rights, and several other conflict led a civil war in the United States. The Confederate South, which is known for its profound military history, turned out to be no opposition for quickly developing North in the Civil War. The North that was industrialized, strongly equipped realized that a lot of their triumphs were somewhat easily obtainable. Strong leadership, number of troops, and economy are only few of the factors that led to the Union's victory over the Confederate succeeded states. Number of troops, army supply and finance of the war played a role in which side was to win the war.

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The Battle of Cold Harbor took place from May 31st to June 12th, 1864, with the most important fighting occurring on June 3rd. It was one of the last battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most disgusting battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Robert E. Lee's army. On May 31, as Grant's army once again swung around on the right flank of Lee's army, Union cavalry controlled the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor, about 10 miles northeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia holding it against attacks from the Confederacy until the Union

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251 Words | 2 Pages

The Union and the Confederacy had many soldiers to fight in the war. The Union had a population of 22 million soldiers and workers. The Confederacy had 5.5 million soldiers and workers. One of the best advantages the Union had been 22,000 miles of railroad tracks to move the soldiers and supplies like, guns, tents, and plates and utensils. The South only had 9,000 miles of the track

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806 Words | 4 Pages

During the 1800s the country was torn into two over whether to allow slavery to be legal or not and the North wanted to keep the country as one that did not allow slavery. So Finally, In the year 1860 the Civil war between the North and the South broke out. the civil war first broke out when the Confederate South attacked the North at Fort Sumter. Then in 1865 the confederate south finally had no choice but to surrender to the North ending the Civil War with the North on top. However, the Civil war was not an easy battle to win for the north, and many causalities occurred.

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The North had many advantages over the South the helped them win the civil war. These reasons included a central leadership, more resources, and recruiting black men for their armies. These reasons helped the North win the civil war and play a big part in how successful they would be. With having advantages, better tactics when fighting, and also a higher population, the North would use strategic planning to fight the South and ultimately win the civil war.

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With the Union having around 200,000 troops in 1861, and with having the Confederates half that, they were already at a disadvantage. As the war went on, the Union had

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Why The Confederacy Lost the War Confederate General Robert E. Lee in his farewell speech to the Confederate troops at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865 summarized why the Confederacy lost when he stated “The Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources” (Lee, Robert E. Orders No. 9 –Lee’s Final Order to the Army of Northern Virginia,” Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 10, 1865 in Boritt, page 19). The Union simply had more manpower with a population of 22 million versus the Confederacy’s 10 million. Additionally, the North could just out-produce the South with the North’s more abundant and productive industry by a factor of more than three to one. (David Donald, below, page 21).

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682 Words | 3 Pages

The Union had just about every edge over their counterparts and interestingly, held population and industrialization advantages. This would enable them to produce more goods such as weapons or other highly demanded industrialization driven products. The Civil War was also driven by major gains in technology; the introduction of non-wooden ships or ironclads, railroads, grenades and trench warfare with long rang rifles introduced an unorthodox, but new way to edge competition. Another edge in mobilization that the Union had was the lack dependency on importing goods. The cotton driven south would attempt to accommodate Union efforts to blockade goods by transitioning to nontraditional crops.

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Their military advantage was the way that they had skills that made them great soldiers and solid military convention, this implied they battled a cautious war. Their trained soldiers had hunting skills and went to military school. The confederates knew the domain they were fighting on unlike the North. The North's fundamental disadvantage was that they were attacking unfamiliar land with few prepared soldiers, which implied they were left going into obscure domains attempting to conquer an large area to bring the South over into the Union. In some ways it appeared like an unjustifiable fight since the North had a long way to transport troops and supplies, however they had advantages, as well.

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909 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War was a monumental bloodshed, which was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States, from 1861 to 1865. The primary cause of the war was the Southern states' desire to preserve the institution of slavery, which did not please the beliefs of the North. At the beginning of the Civil War, twenty-two million people lived in the North and 9 million people, which included four million of whom were slaves, lived in the South. The North, led by President Abraham Lincoln and his trusted generals, had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more food than the south. These advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States, which ultimately led to Northern victory.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

The Confederates strategy was a defensive attack, whereas the Union's strategy was an offensive attack. The Confederates had the idea that if they drew out the conflict long enough, they would be capable of convincing the Union that it was going to be too costly to support. The one downfall of the Confederates was that they had less men, less industrial capacity and less capital support then the Union. They attempted to convince England and France that victory for them would be greater than a victory for the Union. The Union strategy however was to fight and win an offensive war.

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837 Words | 4 Pages

After four long years, the Unions won the war which saw to it that both parties ended up as a united nation once again. The North overpowered and defeated the South due to a number of reasons as illustrate below. To begin with, the fact that the South majored in agriculture made them to be left behind in terms of industrialization, an important factor during the civil war since fabricated merchandise was highly regarded than agricultural products. The North was therefore privileged to be in a better position in production of armory since it was able to host firms that manufactured ammunitions and war locomotives. The South was poorer, since cotton was no longer making ready income and they only had a few manufacturing origins.

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