How did the difference in population of the North and South affect the outcome of the US Civil War?

Answer 1

It lead to a major military advantage because there were more men in the North to participate in the war effort. The South had a smaller population and this was a great disadvantage. Only a disadvantage if the North was willing to wage war.

Answer 2

The South had a far smaller population, many of them slaves.

This increasingly tilted the balance against them, until they literally ran out of men.

When Grant became General-in-Chief of the Union forces, he calculated that he could win the war by pure attrition. And this is what happened, despite protests from the Northern public about the continuing casualties in the last year of the war.

Answer 3

The huge disparity between the populations in the warring factions meant that the Union had a lot more soldiers at its disposal than the Confederacy. This in turn meant that even though the Union seemed to come out on the wrong side of the numbers game after every battle, with many more casualties than the Confederacy, proportionally speaking the South was still losing, since it had less soldiers in the first place. Eventually, with sheer brute strength, the North clubbed the South into submission, after several hundred thousand casualties. Because they could afford the losses, and the South couldn't.

Although all of this is true, peace movements emerged in the North over the huge number of casualties the North was absorbing.

Answer 4

Clearly the number of available recruits that were in the Northern states was vastly superior to the same category of recruits available in the South. There was no secret that each side was not aware of. The future remained in doubt because:

* US President Lincoln was not sure about the North's desire to make the sacrifices required to wage a war against the South; and

* The South was counting on the North to tire of losing lives over them.