Even before the Civil War really started. the North had already enjoyed two distinguishable advantages over the South. Although it besides benefited from some first-class strategic determinations as the war progressed. those two pre-war factors finally spelled licking for the ground forces of the secessionists from the South. The first of these advantages was the North’s border in population. While the southern provinces merely had a combined population of 9 million people ( including their slaves ) . the population of the North was 22 million ( including some liberated slaves ) .
That ratio of 2. 44:1 subsequently proved decisive since the North possessed the capacity of raising and fielding more active work forces to prolong its war attempt ( Murphy. 2008 ) . The 2nd factor was the difference in their economic pushs. Whereas the North concentrated on industry and commercialism to hike its economic system. the South relied on an agricultural economic system. In other words. the North had industrial workss while the South could merely tout of its farms. The high quality of the North’s economic development became evident when the war dragged on.
It was able to change over its mills to war stuffs production to back up its ground forces in the field while the South had to trust on its foreign trading spouses for the refilling of its war thorax. Now. since the North had a stronger navy than the South. it was able to govern the seas and managed to form an effectual encirclement. thereby forestalling the South from securing war supplies from other states. The consequence was a diminished southern ground forces due to a depleted supply.
These were the two primary grounds that gave rise to the observation that the South was doomed from the start ( Murphy. 2008 ) . Some perceivers believed that these advantages which the North enjoyed at the beginning were ab initio offset by two factors which worked in favour of the South. The first was the fact that the Confederate Army was commanded by better military leaders. Before the Civil War broke out. bulk of the finest and more senior commanding officers in the United States military came from the South.
This was because of a southern civilization which prized a military calling for their work forces. Because of this civilization. it had been customary for rich households to direct their boies to the West Point Military Academy which was located in the North and get down their calling in the military. Equally shortly as the sezession was announced by the southern provinces. many of them resigned from their stations to function with the Confederate Army. Some of these officers were Generals Robert E. Lee. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Albert Sidney Johnston. James Longstreet. P. G. T.
Beauregard. and Joseph E. Johnston. Most of them held more senior ranks in the United States Army compared to bulk of the officers who remained with the Union Army of the North ( EDSITEment. n. d. ) . The 2nd advantage of the South. harmonizing to perceivers. was the theatre of operations and the character of the war itself. Since the Union Army invaded the South. the war was fought on southern district. This means that the Confederate soldiers had the advantage of cognizing the terrain better than the enemy who had to contend in unknown district.
It follows. therefore. that the soldiers of the Confederacy were more nomadic and flexible. There was besides the fact that for the Southerners. the war was defensive in character. War strategians believe that triumph is easy achieved in a defensive war since the guardians have merely to support their land and have on the encroachers down. The North had the more hard undertaking of busying the South and coercing them to give up ( EDSITEment. n. d. ) .
In add-on. the Confederate soldiers were more passionate and more despairing for triumph. They were supporting their dirt. their establishments. and most of all. their households. Person said that When you believe that you are supporting your married woman and kids from encroachers. you care more about your cause than those who are merely being paid a pay to travel battle for a cause that does non act upon their lives as straight. This made a important difference on the battleground ( Murphy. 2008 ) .
The soldiers of the Confederate Army. therefore. enjoyed a higher morale on top of their high quality every bit far as command of the topography of the countries where the war was fought was concerned. Unfortunately. these were non plenty for them to win a drawn-out war. In fact their “home court” advantage was believed to hold worked against them as the war progressed. For every successful push on the portion of the Union soldiers which resulted to the gaining control of a piece of Southern district. the inauspicious consequence on the morale of Confederate soldiers had been significant.
This was peculiarly evident when the Union Army succeeded in capturing an country situated between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains and when the Confederate Army was efficaciously cut off from their of import industrial and agricultural resources as a consequence of successful runs waged by the Union Army in the cardinal and western parts of Tennessee ( EDSITEment. n. d. ) . The South was similarly believed to hold acted based on a false premise which contributed greatly to their licking.
This false premise was echoed by South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond in 1858 when he said that the South was in such a valued station that no state would even believe of declaring war against it. Specifically. he declared that “The universe was so dependent on cotton that Southerners could hale any foreign state into coming to their assistance simply by endangering non to sell it” ( EDSITEment. n. d. ) . Indeed. if Great Britain. who was a major consumer of the South’s cotton. sided with the Confederacy. the war could hold ended otherwise.
The South was so confident in their clasp of the universe cotton market that when the encirclement was declared by Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson Davis. who was so moving as President of the Confederacy. did non make anything about it. He was certain that when the states in Europe would be starved of cotton. they would voluntarily direct their naval forcess to destruct the encirclement set up by the North. declaring war against the Union in the procedure. Unfortunately. this was non what happened.
Alternatively. the European states simply turned to Egypt and India for their cotton demands. covering a difficult blow to the economic system of the South ( Newton. Poulter. Simon. Symonds. and Woodworth. 2005 ) . In the terminal. the great military commanding officers of the Confederate Army could non make anything with a low ground forces and were forced to give up. The devastation of the economic system of the South proved to be the most decisive factor in the Civil War ( Murphy. 2008 ) .
Mentions
EDSITEment. ( n. d. ) . On the Eve of War: North vs. South. Retrieved April 28. 2008 from hypertext transfer protocol: //edsitement. neh. gov/printable_lesson_plan. asp? id=745 Murphy. A. ( 2008 ) . Strengths & A ; Failings of the North and South During the Civil War. Retrieved April 28. 2008 from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. associatedcontent. com/article/532303/strengths_weaknesses_of_the_north and. html Newton. S. H. . Poulter. K. . Simon. J. Y. . Symonds. C. L. . and Woodworth. S. E. ( 2005 ) .