Austin Peay State University Reasons why the North had the Civil Victory HW OPTION1 “1862 provided the most important year of the Civil War. As the war co

Austin Peay State University Reasons why the North had the Civil Victory HW OPTION1

“1862 provided the most important year of the Civil War. As the war continued, it imposed increasing burdens on the populations. All of these cost-physical,ideological, and psychological- became clear during 1862, yet both sides fought on. As the bloodshed increased soldiers and civilians on both sides longed for peace. Unfortunately they seen each other as a mortal enemy. This prospect worried Abraham Lincoln, who understood the devastating nature of civil wars- more energetically his commanders pursed Confederate defeat, the harder it became to achieve his goal of rebuilding the union” American Horizons Chap14-pg478

By late 1862, the course of the war had changed to take on the characteristics of total war, in which armies attempt to demoralize the enemy by both striking military targets and disrupting their opponent’s ability to wage war through destruction of their resources. In this type of war, armies often make no distinction between civilian and military targets. Both the Union and Confederate forces moved toward total war, although neither side ever entirely abolished the distinction between military and civilian. Total war also requires governments to mobilize all resources, extending their reach into their citizens’ lives as never before. Another reality of war that became apparent in 1862 and beyond was the influence of combat on the size and scope of government. Both the Confederacy and the Union governments had to continue to grow in order to manage the logistics of recruiting men and maintaining, feeding, and equipping an army.

Reasons why the North had the Civil Victory:

The North had a population of 22 million people against the 9 million in the South (of whom almost half were slaves.)
The North was more industrial and produced 94 percent of the USA’s pig iron and 97 percent of its firearms. The North even had a richer, more varied agriculture than the South.
The Union had a larger navy, blocking all efforts from the Confederacy to trade with Europe.
The Confederacy hope that France and Britain would come to their aid due to their need of cotton, but these countries had enough cotton and a bigger need for Northern corn.
The North controlled both the shipping and railroad avenues, allowing them to trade and to get supplies fairly quickly.
The Union had more support: four slave states still remained loyal and not everybody in the 11 Confederate states were on the Confederate side. There were still plenty of people in the South that supported the Union.
Many slaves fled to the Union armies, providing even more manpower.
The South squandered their resources early in the war by focusing on conventional offensives instead of non-conventional raids on the Union’s transportation and communication infrastructure.
Lee’s offensive war strategy had a high cost in casualties, destroying a large part of the confederate army.

The international trends that shaped the wars diplomatic struggle was the struggle for European Support. Both Lincoln and Davis wanted Europe’s two great powers Great Britain and France to join their side in support of the war. Although confederate emissaries traveled east, they have very little luck in Russia, who was dedicated to the North. France leaned toward the confederacy but wouldn’t move without Britain. The first major international crises revolved around the seizure of a Britain ship the “Trent” by the US navy in the Caribbeans.

In 1862 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued after the Confederate defeat. He also initiated diplomatic recognition of Haiti.

OPTION2

The North, under President Lincoln and General Grant, would be victorious in the Civil War for many reasons. They would begin the war with the advantage of a prosperous and diverse economy, the North’s forces would be strengthened by black soldiers and the confederates over confidence in “King Cotton” would lead to the North’s win.

The North had a huge advantage of a larger population, production of war supplies, and state of its economy. The Confederate troops in the south would be outnumbered throughout the war, “before war’s end they were outnumbered by 3 to 1.”1 Along with having a larger army, “the North produced 20 times as much of pig iron as did the South…”2 This production of war supplies was a result of the North’s commercial economy. Investors could direct money to the War, so the “government created public-private partnerships that enabled rapid innovation and production of war materials.”3 Despite the Confederates effective offense approach with high causalities, it would only be sustainable for a while because it couldn’t be maintained with the large loss of its fighting force. The Union would initiate a hard-war policy from the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, “which targeted the ability of Confederated to fight by destroying infrastructure, transportation networks, and food supplies for the army.” 4 Eventually, the Confederates couldn’t maintain the losses and lack of supplies and would surrender.

Throughout the beginning of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln tried to keep peace with bordering states and didn’t believe he had the constitutional authority to force the end of slavery, but made it clear he was anti-slavery5. As the Civil War continued, many slaves escaped and ran to the North in hopes of protection. Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves in Confederate areas. These series of events lead to the Union making units of black soldiers, called U.S. Colored Troops6. These new soldiers would become vital components in the North’s win and were successful because they had freedom for motivation7. Many black soldiers defended their place in war, “One black soldier commented that what his comrades lacked in military knowledge, at least early in their service, they compensated with commitment.”8 Their motivation and numbers would add to the Union’s manpower, which would lead to their victory.

Cotton was domestically and internationally valuable and known as “King Cotton”. The Confederates thought the importance of cotton could force France and Britain to side with them and, “initiated an embargo on cotton sales to Britain and France in May 1861, as they believed the economic pressure would force them to recognize the Confederacy.”9 Unfortunately, for the Confederates, this plan backfired. France and Britain both had large sums of cotton stored up. Confederates put too much stock on the importance of cotton to other nations. They failed to realize that Union’s trade was just as important to France and Britain. These high hopes of international aide and getting recognition from France and Britain lead to presumptuous thoughts they were going to win the war. They received no help from France and Britain and without any aide they were unable to succeed.

The South blinded vision of independence that they believed would be strengthen by France and British aid, would leave them blinded to the North’s diverse prosperous economy that held international importance. Also, the motivated manpower of black soldiers would push North’s toward their win.

OPTION3

Military Advantage

“The size of the Union armies in 1864 suggests the scale of the challenge. By 1864 the North would have 1,000,000 soldiers in arms with over 600,000 combat soldiers in the field—many now battlehardened veterans as proficient as any other troops in the world” (Murray, 2016). Comparatively, the Confederate Army was half the size of the Union’s Army at any given time during the Civil War. Military numbers in the North allowed Union soldiers to overwhelm the Confederates in battle and ultimately defeat them by the conclusion of the Civil War.

Lincoln and Emancipation

“Sometimes the slaves’ labor cut to the heart of the soldiers’ military mission, as slaves understood that the enemy of their enemy was their friend and were pleased to impart information about Confederate troop movements, assist in the construction of Federal fortifications, and guide Union troops through a strange countryside” (Blight, 1997). Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was key in gaining the support of black Americans. Many slaves fled the South to join forces with the union; as did many black men already living in the North.

African American Support

“In addition to adopting a new hard war policy, after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect…the Union began enrolling and organizing units of black soldiers, known as the U.S. Colored Troops (USCT). Some were free black men from the North…but many others were former slaves” (Schaller, 2018). Black soldiers were a threat to the Confederacy because southern whites had previously lived in fear of slave revolts. Confederate fear of black soldiers gave the Union Army an advantage in numbers and in power.

OPTION4

The North won the Civil war because they were the prime producers of the United States goods, and were largely industrial. Due to the massive amount of jobs available in the north, their population was more than double that of the Souths and provided, much needed, manpower to fight. While the south was primarily agricultural, the North had a greater variety of agricultural goods than the south which caused the South’s resources to quickly dwindle ( so much so that the south melted church bells in order to produce bullets, but since brass is of lesser quality it was in vain). Because the North had total control of the nation’s transportation it allowed then to replenish their loss of supplies quickly and continue fighting. Not all of the Confederate States were for the war, four states remained loyal and many of its citizens didn’t support the war, and as more and more slaves escaped they risked their lives to fight for Union and provided more soldiers to their armies.