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Explain Why The Confederate Lost The War

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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). Abraham Lincoln in his annual message to Congress in December 1864 stated “that we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted, nor in the process of exhaustion; that we are gaining strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This is as to men. Material resources are now …show more content…

But “when the South attached less significance to its defeat than the North did to its victory, Confederate morale would no longer match the task of maintaining public will at a level necessary for victory.” (Richard Beringer, Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, and William Still: “Why the South Lost the Civil War” , Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1986, page 49). Additionally, the Confederates lacked a true sense of nationhood, for many Confederates could not agree on why they fought or what the Confederacy actually stood for. The Confederacy was in theory a nation only on paper, for “it was not in the hearts and minds of its would-be citizens. These deficiencies reflected a national will that did not equal the demands placed upon it.” (page 64 of Berringer, Hattaway,

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Worley’s argument is extensive and clear in that these Peace Societies faced tremendous retaliation from those loyal to the Confederacy. The activities and opinions of these societies were more proliferated throughout the upcountry regions than the Confederacy was originally aware of, and people in favor of the secession vote became very unsettled to find the extensive disapproval

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In Makers of America: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, it was interesting to learn that Union and Confederate soldiers shared a common commitment to fight for the cause of liberty, independence, and republican government. However, their interpretation of liberty, independence, and government are very different. The societies from the Union were more literate, intellectual, practical, and efficient. Therefore, they abolished slavery because they think it was immoral and favored a strong central government to make things efficient. The societies from the Confederate were more emotional, religious, and personal.

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1091 Words | 5 Pages

Southern soldiers viewed the confederacy as their country and were compelled to fight for the safety of it. Confederate soldiers enlisted to protecting their native lands from what they understood as invaders. The Confederacy sentiments of the Union was they were imposing upon the southern way of life. For instance, a young soldier from Kentucky wrote “sink or swim, survive or perish” (McPherson 11). The average Confederate soldier felt that they the Union was trying to destroy the legacy of the founder fathers by enslaving them and reversing the actions of the American Revolution.

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1743 Words | 7 Pages

The main idea of this book is how different people view the topic on the Confederacy’s defeat: why, how, and what happened? Most of the authors whose work contributed to this book

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One reason Lee was blamed for them losing was because he didn’t do what was best for what men he did have or to save them. A huge mistake was also stated by Fan, “General Longstreet urges a move around the Union Army flank on the right taking them from behind, however, General Lee orders famous Confederate General John Bell Hood to take his entire division in a frontal assault up a steep, rocky hill, known as

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630 Words | 3 Pages

Even though the Union won the war, it was not inevitable because of the South’s political and military leadership. Superior leadership is often seen as the main reason for the Union victory. However, the Confederacy was well led. Although President Lincoln was more superior to Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee thought Davis was a good fit for the South. Davis worked hard and did his best to motivate Southerners.

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While the popular image of the Confederacy, and indeed the Secessionist Southern States as a whole, are looked at as containing white populations uniformly supportive of the Confederate cause, the reality is more complex. As portrayed in Victims: A True Story of the Civil War and Free State of Jones there existed sizable pockets of dissent among the populace whom the Confederate government failed to convert to the cause. In places like the mountains of western North Carolina and southeastern Mississippi this led to desertion, passive resistance, and even outright armed rebellion which sapped Confederate resources that were needed to continue to fight the Union. Though this anti-Confederate feeling would often translate into support for the Union, this was not based on some inherent loyalty to the Federal government. As shown in Victims and Free State of Jones the disunity within the Confederacy stemmed from the failure of the Confederate government to get their non-slave holding lower classes to buy into the pro-slavery ideology of the nation, which was compounded by the lower classes bearing many of the harsh measures of the war including the draft and the

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Distinguished members of Congress, we the United States of America, have fought two years of this war, costly in both currency and lives, against a group of rebels, who against the Constitution seceded and formed the so-called “Confederate States of America,” but for what purpose are we fighting? We fight to end the brutal institution of slavery, to uphold our constitution and moreover to uphold this glorious union of all American states. How, you may ask, do we create a nation composed of persons of many different beliefs? We must firstly handle the issue of those engaged in the creation and protection of those treasonous states, next is the issue of use of the land of the rebel states, and finally we shall discuss the fractious issue of

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Out of all the “Lost Cause” films covered in Jones’ article, The General appears to be the tamest. It doesn’t seem to glorify the Confederacy and besmirch the Union, unlike films such as Birth of a Nation, mainly because it wasn’t focused on either side. The focus of the film was on Johnnie (the protagonist) and his quest to reclaim his train and rescue Annabelle (the love interest). He happens to be a Confederate civilian, but the film never shows him actively supporting Confederate ideals, such as slavery. In addition, he doesn’t try to enlist in the army until Annabelle asks him if he’s going to or not, suggesting that he’s primarily enlisting to please her, rather than to join the cause.

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The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.

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909 Words | 4 Pages

The rising numbers of death in the South tremendously weakened their army, which allowed for a Northern succession. William C. Davis asserts, “Industrially the South couldn’t keep up in output and in manpower. By the end of the war, the South had, more or less, plenty of weaponry still, but it just didn’t have enough men to use the guns”. Having such a small army, the South was not able to sustain a decent amount of soldiers for the war. Henceforth, the Northern advantage of having more soldiers had a large impact on the Southern loss in the Civil

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825 Words | 4 Pages

After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the rise of the Republican party, Southerners feared the tipping of the balance of political power against them; their need for self-determination parallel the colonists’ belief of rebelling against the oppressive government of Great Britain. However, the Civil War represented something more: the clash of the feudalistic, agrarian South with the industrialized, capitalistic North. These two powers differed socially, politically, and economically, and were especially conflicted over slavery. These two sections of the United States were divided against one another, and could not survive this way. Therefore, it is more accurate to state that though the Civil War resembled some aspects of the American Revolution, it was a clash between two forces who could not exist with one another in their current state, leading inevitably to conflict between the

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712 Words | 3 Pages

The South killed Reconstruction most by their resistance against the North. Reconstruction started after the Civil war between 1865-1876. During the Civil War, the North and South battled, (The North won) and the South laid in ruins. The United States was willing to let the South back in under some conditions, and that marked the day Reconstruction started. During the Reconstruction era, the South resisted the North’s help and Reconstruction died.

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1631 Words | 7 Pages

The Civil War left America in a state of disarray, with over 600,000 casualties of the war and the South founds itself in social and economical ruin. The following twelve years, from 1865 to 1877, even though one may argue that Reconstruction for the South started as early as 1863 with the Emancipation proclamation, marked an era of reconstruction that contained many challenges: first, the reunification of this divided nation, second the conversion of the South, whose economy relied entirely on slavery and finally the integration of the emancipated slaves, culturally as well as politically. It was a time of transition from a belligerent conflict between the North and the South to a political one and a time of many changes. We may thus wonder to what extent the Reconstruction Era was a rupture in American history and paved the way to a unified nation? My argumentation will consequently fall in two parts: on the one hand I will demonstrate that the Reconstruction Era marks the end of a time and then I will show that the reconstruction is far from fulfilling its ambitions.

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720 Words | 3 Pages

The economic impact of the war as is true in most if not all cases of war are that the spoils of war are the reward of the victors. The South was already in a weaker position in the industrial strength of its geographical coalition that it was amazing that they were as close to actually succeeding in their mission. They lacked the ability to replenish their troops with guns and ammunition and in many cases had to gather this gear from failed Confederate and Union soldiers. While in the north with a large population and a more sustained economy they were to accomplish the

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