What advantages did the South have during the US Civil War?

Answer 1

They had very little as an advantage. The southern states had an ag based economy that depended on the cotton and other products. The cotton sales to England were vast and it was thought that with the start of the war the English would help to protect the cotton imports. Yet England had stockpiles of cotton bales and didn't need more. The north had all the industry, most of the railroad lines, an prepared military, and a government. None of this was in the Confederate states so they really began with all the disadvantages. The ONE advantage might be considered is the large percentage of military officers left the union for the Confederate states. Robert E. Lee the leading West Point graduate and foremost union officer became the commander of Confederate troops. He was a brilliant officer and did give the Confederate states a short term advantage.

Answer 2

The South had two major disadvantages in the US Civil War. One was that their troop strength could never match that of the Union's , The North had over 23 million people compared to 11 million in the South. Also, the North's manufacturing capability could not be matched by the cropland economy of the South. These Confederate disadvantages were the advantages of the North.

Answer 3

In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union possessed a number of advantages. The population of the North was higher than that of the South. The Union had an industrial economy, whereas the Confederacy had an agricultural one. The Union possessed the majority of Natural Resources, including as coal, iron, and gold, as well as a well-developed rail network.

Answer 4

Basically, it was a battle between an industrial power and an agrarian power, fought almost exclusively on Southern soil.

The North had a larger population base and a huge industrial base. It could produce more finished goods such as guns and armaments. There was more money in the North. The United States was better recognized by foreign governments as an established nation, so the Confederacy had a harder time obtaining foreign credit and aid. The states in the Union had an easier time recognizing a central government so organizing the army was easier, and Lincoln's authority was better recognized. The North also had a better developed system of roads and railroads.

* A detailed comparison of Northern advantages in wartime:

Manufacturing Capabilities

• The primary advantage was the North's manufacturing capabilities. Their factories could mass produce weapons while the South had few facilities capable of providing the arms needed.

• The North had greater production of war materials and comestibles.

• The North had experienced an industrial revolution which left them with many factories to produce supplies necessary for outfitting an army. Also, with immigrants coming mostly to the North to settle (they were looking for jobs in the factories), little if any production was lost because of men leaving to fight in the war. Women and immigrants had been the main workers in the factories that now would be producing goods to be used by the Union soldiers.

• The Southern dependence on agriculture was a major disadvantage and the dependence on slavery made it even harder for the South to industrialize. Being unable to industrialize was a real disadvantage because it meant that the South could not produce all the things they needed for war such as weapons. The Northern blockade also prevented trade with Europe making the situation even worse!

• The North was much better equipped with the foundries and factories needed for producing weapons of war. The South was much more geared toward producing raw materials, primarily agricultural products, and sending them elsewhere for conversion into finished goods. The South was thus hard pressed to keep its troops adequately equipped.

Population

• The North's had nearly three times the population. (20 million vs. nine million in the South, four million of whom were black slaves.) The larger population provided a steady source of military and civilian manpower.

• The North had a larger population which translated into the ability to field a larger army. However, while many men (and boys) eagerly went to enlist during the opening months of the Civil War, they lacked the experience needed to fight a war and time had to be taken to properly train the troops.

• The North, being more populous, was also able to field a larger army, and to replace combat casualties. Grant, for example, refused prisoner exchange offers from the South, for the strategic reason that the South needed their soldiers back much worse than did the North.

Naval Power

• The Northern navy prevented many supplies from being imported by the South. They blockaded ports.

Agricultural Capacity

• The North grew most of the country's food, and a fighting army can get very hungry. The South had the plantations, but mostly cash crops were grown there.

• The North had more farm land to produce crops.

Transportation Infrastructure

• The North had better railroads and highways, including naval and civil shipping resources used to resupply forces in the field.

• The North possessed a large amount of the country's railroad and canal systems. These would be vital in the quick and easy transportation of troops and supplies.

• The North several times the amount of railroad mileage upon which to transport their armies and supplies to the battle fronts

• More railroads meant better communication as well as better transportation.

• The North had about 22,000 miles of railroad and the South only had about 9,000 miles of railroad. This means that they could not reinforce troops as quickly as the North could.

• [Note that "interior lines" is cited as an advantage of the South, meaning that their transportation infrastructure was where it was needed most.]

Not Fighting on Their Own Soil

• This helped protect their industrial and transportation resources.

• [Note that "Fighting on Their Own Soil" is considered a Southern advantage for other reasons.]

Political Stability and Recognition

• The North also possessed an existing, working government while the South was struggling to put their government together and fight a war at the same time.

• The South had to worry about their slave population revolting and causing trouble for the troops.

• The world recognized the Union as the legitimate government, allowing loans and trade concessions. [Note that South's cotton was desired in England. There was concern that England would side with the South despite England's stance against slavery.]

Military Infrastructure

• The North already had a well-trained and organized standing army and navy. The Confederacy had to build theirs at the start of the war.

Military Leadership

• The North's tactics, if not their leadership, was a clear advantage. The North's Anaconda Plan was to blockade, divide, and conquer the South. They literally constricted the South into submission. The North also did not set a specific time limit for which they thought the war would end. The South, however, only planned for eighteen months of fighting. This restricted their options on war tactics. [Note that military leadership is often cited as an advantage of the South.]

Money

• The North had much more money with which to pay for it all

The weaknesses of the South in the Civil war

Logistics

The South did hardly any of their own manufacturing. They even had to buy their shoes from Northern industry. They had little iron and steel production for weapons and materials. The North had the production, the South had to pay dearly for it, and try to import during the war. Importing meant bringing tons of supplies through the Northern blockade on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. So the North had all of the things they needed to fight a war and remanufacture what was used up, while South had only stockpiles that eventually ran dry when European countries decided not to deal with them anymore.

Manpower

The northeastern portion of the USA in 1864 was more populous, although few were as well-trained in horsemanship. That may be the one area that the South believed they had covered: horsemanship. Being primarily a rural lifestyle, the South used horses all day long for long distance movement, while the North was more urban, and used their feet.

The strength of the South was its motivation! The South believed it was being invaded and that its farms and homes and women were at risk from the Yankee hordes. Northerners, on the other hand, were much less interested in a war to sustain the Union and had to pay their recruits a sign-up bonus, similar to what is being used to recruit reluctant soldiers today. In the South, every boy over the age of 14 wanted to join, and a great number of them did.

The North had the advantage in almost every way. They could make iron faster and cheaper. Cannons, rifles, railroads, even tools, all played a part in the war. The North could produce all of those things much faster than the South. Railroads are a great example, in the South the rails would be destroyed, they would have to find rail that was not needed and recycle it. With no means to produce new when it was all gone that was it. The North, on the other hand, could mass produce rails. Mass production cut the time to replace damage rails and meant for quicker transportation. just with that example the North had a huge advantage over the South.

A Slightly Different Opinion:

While the South did not have the major factories of the North, it did have some manufacturing, especially Alabama and North Carolina. At the beginning of the Civil War, North Carolina had 2,000 independent forges producing products from iron ore. While most of Alabama's factories were destroyed, at the end of the Civil War one factory remained producing over 20,000 tons of steel a day.

(After the Civil War Birmingham, AL was a major steel producing center. It has sources of iron ore, coal, and limestone, all within 75 miles. It joined the rust belt when new technologies made steel less expensive and the old companies could not afford legacy costs.)

Arsenals in Athens, Georgia, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and other places produced cannon throughout the Civil War.

While the south lacked the factories, it did have many shoemakers. Southerners wore shoes. Keeping the army supplied with shoes was a low priority.

One European Historian disagrees with American about the most important event in the Civil War. He puts the Battle of Chattanooga as the most important.

Most points in Alabama were not far from navigable rivers. It was possible to take a steamboat from Rome, Georgia, to Mobile, Alabama. A short rail road trip followed by another steamboat ride brought a person to western Virginia. War materiel, whether manufactured in Alabama or imported in Mobile, took the same path.

When Sherman destroyed the short railroad from Rome, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, he gave the Union control over an important choke point.

When Sherman destroyed the railroads in Atlanta, he destroyed the remaining center of transportation.

When Sherman destroyed the arsenal in Athens, Georgia, he destroyed a source of Confederate cannon.

Sherman's 60mile wide destruction on the march to the sea made it difficult to rebuild transportation. (The factories could have made the rails but the horses carrying rails and cross ties would have also needed to carry fodder. The logistics were horrible!)

When Sherman destroyed the arsenal in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he destroyed Lee's source of artillery ammunition. Without artillery, Lee lost the ability to defend Petersburg.
The South was defending their homelands and so they had knowledge of the terrain, and had the motive to actively fight for their homeland.
The North had a stable government and a standing army and navy. It controlled the land that bordered the Confederacy and had guarunteed British neutrality. The North could supported itself, but when the south was blockaded, it couldn't make money or get what it needed.

Answer 5

Industry. The North had plenty of manufacturing and industrial capacity; the South had had little before the war.

And railroads; the North had far more mileage of train track than the South did.

Answer 6

South's Advantages

• Outstanding general
• Strong military traditions
• Strong motivation
• They were fighting on home ground
• Skilled with guns & horses
• Cotton exchange

Answer 7

The North was more industrialized than the South. The north way able to use railroads to move supplies to the front lines. Re-suppling played a major role in the Civil War. The North could have more rations and fresh soldiers could come to the front lines to fight. Lee's Army was badly starving and in bad health while new Union soldiers were ready to fight.

Answer 8

The North was much more advanced and industrialized than the South. Whilst the South was more agricultural. The North produced more weapons. Plus, the North had much more people, while in the South, most people were spread out, living two or three miles away from each other.

Answer 9

The advantage of the South was knowlege of the terrain and fighting from a defensive position that helped to offset the Norths numerical superiority. Prior to the war 75% of federal government revenue came from the South, losing this revenue caused the North to borrow money from foriegn banks. The Southern Army was integrated with over 30,000 black freemen fighting side by side with their white counterparts. The 1860 censes registered over 300,000 black freemen in the South owning business, mills, shipping companies with some more successful and wealthier than white owned business. They not only fought for the South but paid taxes to support the Confederate Army while the North had a segregated army that relegated black troops to menial tasks such as cooks, dishwashers, porters, trench builders, unloading supplies and orderleys. When blacks were allowed to fight they were segrgated with white officers and used as cannon fodder agianst forts that white companies had failed to take due to the high number of casualties. The had an extensive railroad network that allowed them to move troops and supplies where they were most needed. The South also had superior military leadership while Northern Generals were to cautious resulting in huge casualties for the North, for every Southern soldier killed he took over three Northern soldiers with him. Support on the homefront was another advantage as the South was s majority volunteer army with the civilians viewing the war as a defense against a foreign invader while in the North the war was so unpopular that protests in New York City errupted in a riot that had to be put down by the Union Navy firing cannons on the civilian rioters. A rich man in the North could pay a poor man $300 to take his place but had to provide for the family of the poor man if he was killed in action. This caused the war to be viewed as "A rich mans war and a poor mans fight." The South had also bought up all supplies of saltpeter a key ingredient of blackpowder prior to the war leaving the North with a shortage of blackpowder, Mr. Dupount had to travel to Great Britian to purchase large quantities of saltpeter which aroused suspision of the British government that was nuetral. Mr. Dupount decieved them by convincing them that it was to be used in his chemical plants. What turned the tide of the the was when General Lee went against his own strategy of all battles were to be fought on Southern soil from a defensive position when he went in to Pennsylvania and went on the offensive against a numerically superior force that held the high ground at a place called Gettysburg.he South never recovered from this loss although they fought on for two more years even winning some battles along the way. General Lee looked upon his barefoot illfed troops and the ever expanding Union forces made the decision to surrender under protest from his troops that would rather fight to the last man tham surrender. General Lees surrender did not end the war as it continued in the west in Arkansas under the command of a Cherokee General with a force made up of whites, native tribes, blacks, creol, hispanics and cajuns that had never lost a battle. They kept themselves supplied by raiding Union supply wagon trains. It was feared that younger Confederate officers would lead troops to fight a guerilla war that was estimated to have lasted twenty plus years. General Lees appeal to them to end the bloodshed is what stopped the younger officers from intiating their plot. As far as President Lincoln being "the great emancipater" look up the Corwin Amendment that Lincoln had signed three years prior to his Gettysburg Address. The northern abolitionst wanted to end slavery but didn't want the slaves. They bought a nation called Liberia on the west coast of Africa where they planned to deport all former slaves willingly or unwillingly another Trail of Tears with Lincolns full support. Many former slaves that had escaped the prewar South had gone to Liberia willingly and their descendants make up the upper class currently in control of the country. More soldiers were killed in the war between the States than all other wars we have fought combined. Things are not so cut and dried as we have been lead to believe, hide the ugly truth about our history. This has lead to the social injustice we have today. Its easier to villify the South and place all the Nations guilt and shame upon all things Confederate. But remember, slavery existed in the United States from 1776 to 1866 and in the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. Small farmers that owned no slaves that made a huge sacrifice leaving their wives and children to run their farms made up 98% of Confederate forces, why? They certianly didnt fight for some aristocrates right to own human beings, so why did they fight and fight so well? Could it be that they were fighting an invading aggressor trying to defend their homes, communities, and their families. We all share the blame!

Answer 10

United States' greatest advantage in the war was the moral superiorityo of our cause. ehT