What was not an advantage for the North in the Civil War?

Answer 1

1 -The geographical features of the Confederacy. The territory of the seceded States formed a rough quadrilateral of about a million square's mile. No through roads penetrated this enormous area. Inside the large part of it, roads were of local significance only and didn't connect with others existing in neighbouring states.

The Appalachians offered a valuable defensive barrier against offensive from Union territory in the Midwest and protected Northern Virginia and the Carolinas from an invasion. The region could only be invaded from the north, through Virginia or the south, via Alabama or by marching round through the bottom of the Appalachians.

This region, however was hard to be penetrated because the Ohio and its big tributaries, the Cumberland and the Tennessee formed a line which protected the central Upper South and the Mississippi with which they connected, left the Union but no chance of easy penetration.

2 - The few large Southern cities were located deeply inside its territory and are difficult to approach. Only Richmond lay within easy reach but it was defended by complex water barriers.

3 - The rural character of the Southern interior and the lack of large cities, forced the Union to make long marches to bring the enemy to battle, dealing with huge logistic problems and leaving to the Confederates the advantage of choosing the ground.

4 - The Union had not only to defeat the enemy armies but also to overcome the military geography of the war fighting the country itself. It supplied the Confederates with formidable allies: terrain and landscape, the enormous distances which had to be covered, the lots of waterways to be crossed, the impenetrability of the forests, the mountain ranges etc.