What disadvantages did the south have in the civil war?

Answer 1

• They lacked the military traditions of the South which limited the number of high quality military leaders. The young men of the South were generally skilled on horseback and quickly became skilled as horseback killing and fighting.

The north had a few disadvantages.

First, they were fighting offensively

Second, they were in enemy territory and was not familiar with it.

Third, the north or the Union did not want to fight at all, the north had no will and no motivation to fight or win. The South had the courage and will to fight.

these are just the few disadvantages. Hope it helped!
They had no experence in the south
Southerners were rural dwellers used to doing with less and living a more primitive life. Most southerners could handle a weapon and were more adaptable to the life of a soldier. At the beginning of the war the South had superior calvary however after a couple of years in an Army saddle the North caught up in that area. The South was on the defensive and that means that they were most likely to be fighting on familiar ground and defense can make due with fewer troops than an attacker. In those days it was thought the attacker needed a two or three to one advantage over the defender. When you are on defense the movement of troops is much quicker. Imagine a semicircle. The ends of the semicircle are closer if you cut across the diameter of the circle than if you must go around the outside of the circle. This meant even more when you move on the battlefield by foot.
Many of the best officers of the US Army had resigned to join the Confederates.

Lack of cavalry at the beginning.

Strong chance of Britain and France helping the South.

A less inspiring war-mission than the enemy had.

A bad draft law, whereby a young man of military age could pay a substitute to do his service for him - bad for morale, and the substitutes were no use.
The burden of having to do the invading.

Answer 2

Disadvantages of the North:

The task of doing the invading

The task of blockading a long Southern coastline

Fighting mostly on unfamiliar territory

Loss of many of the best US Army offficers to the Confederacy

No emotive mission

Lack of a cavalry tradition

Disadvantages of the South:

Smaller population from which to recruit armies

Farmland increasingly wrecked by warfare

Prevented from exporting cotton in exchange for war supplies

Lack of industrial manufacturing capability

Disadvantage in artillery

A President who could control neither his Generals nor his cabinet

Answer 3

The task of doing the invading, and fighting on unfamiliar terrain.

The task of blockading hundreds of miles of coastline.

Not much cavalry tradition.

No clear war-mission

Lincoln having to face a General Election year in mid-war

Answer 4

The task of doing the invading.

Lack of a cavalry tradition.

Lack of an emotive war-mission.

Many of the best officers of the US Army had resigned to join the Confederates.

(At the beginning) Enmity from the British, who were considering helping the South.

Answer 5

The South, the Confederacy, had immense problems at the beginning and all through the US Civil War. Because it's small population compared to the Union's large population, the Union had the ability to replace troops lost in battle. With more limited manpower, the South could not easily find replacements. The South aslo began the war without a navy, This had to built from scatch, or commissioned to Great Britain to build Confederate warships. The Confederacy also never had a "central government". This required Confederate President Jefferson Davis to build one from scratch.The South did not have a strong manufacturing base, as did the North. This then required the South to build one, small as it was, and depend on England to supply them with finished goods for war.

Answer 6

US President Lincoln had to face certain issues that were disadvantages the Union faced in keeping the US in tact. One clear problem was that in executing the war, Lincoln was leading a nation that was not united in its purpose for fighting the war. The radical wing of the Republican Party made it clear to Lincoln that the war was to end the rebellion and end slavery. War Democrats were in favor of keeping the nation united and believed the slavery issue could and should be handled after the war.A sizable portion of the North had no interest in using force against a section of the US that:

1. They did not care if the South left the Union; and

2. The issue of slavery was not their problem. Or to put it another way, why give your life away to keep a stubborn and immoral Southern population from "departing".

Another seldom discussed issue was the fact that Radicals, War Democrats and high level military generals were leaning towards having a dictator run the war effort and let President Lincoln and his administration handle Northern domestic affairs. They had no faith in Lincoln's ability to run the war effort.

Answer 7

Has to invade the south

Cannot settle for a tie, Must defeat the south

Answer 8

One disadvantage the South had during the Civil War was that they had fewer factories than the North to produce things such as weapons. They South also had fewer railroads.

Answer 9

The south's disadvantages were that they didn't have much water, food and supplies although they had brilliant generals they lacked guns