Advantages Between North and South in Civil War

The Civil War began in the year 1861 and ended four years later. The end result was the Union becoming victorious in 1865. There are many advantages and disadvantages that both sides faced during the war, which ultimately contributed to the final outcome. The advantages and disadvantages that each side faced shared many similarities, but the Northern advantages ultimately outweighed the Southern’s. These advantages thus contributed to the North winning the Civil War.

The Northern advantages, which would be the Southern disadvantages, would be the manufacturing capabilities. The factories in the North could mass produce weapons, whereas the South had few facilities that could produce arms, never mind in mass quantity. This was due to North experiencing an industrial revolution, leaving them with the amount of factories to substantially produce supplies vital to supplying an army. Also, due to the immigrants, who came the North looking for jobs, meant that little production was lost on account of men leaving to fight in the war. The south was greatly dependent

on agriculture and slavery, making it much harder for the South to industrialize. Since the North was not fighting on their own soil, this meant that they could protect their own industrial and transportation resources. This was an extreme disadvantage due to the South not being able to produce the items needed to fight for the war. The North also contributed to this by building a blockade, via naval ships, that prevented trade with Europe

The North also had nearly three times the population of the South. The North had twenty million people, whereas the South had nine million. Out of the nine million that the South had, four million were black slaves. The population thus allowed the North to field a larger army, which made replacing combat casualties easier. General Grant used to refuse prisoner exchange offers from the south, for the reason that the South needed soldiers much worse than the North. The North had already had a well-trained, organized standing army and navy, while the South had to build theirs at the start of the war. In addition, the North had better roadways and highways, and also seized much of the country’s railroad and canal systems, which were used as resources to supply the forces. The more railroads and transportation options meant that better communication was now possible and supply of soldiers were quicker, as well.

The South, on the other hand, had the advantage of being on the defensive side, which meant that the North had to invade and carry the fight into it. This allowed the South to prepare for the enemy, although General Lee was not typically a passive man. The geographical area of the South favored the defender over the attacked. Predominantly, most of the rivers in the South run east to west. This meant that the Union forces had to cross all the rivers to attack the south, which lead to the South having more time to attack. Simply, the fact that the confederacy was defending itself meant that the Union had to conquer all of the Southern