Advantages And Disadvantages Of The South In The Civil War

By: Jeremy Beaudet

Course: United States History

Coach Greer

13/1/2016

Northern Advantages

•The North had large factories

ㄴIn war, this meant more and better weapons, like cannons. In fact, in 1860, Northern factories made 97% of the nation's firearms. The combined factors of manpower and weaponry made it seem that the Union's infantry would dominate the battlefield.

•When the South seceded, the entirety of the United States Navy remained in the hands of the North.

ㄴThis meant they could easily blockade all of the South. While they had blockade runners that weren’t too dangerous, and could bring in small amounts of foreign goods, the South did have trouble transporting large amounts of infantry and cavalry, because they

couldn’t use boats.

•The North had a much larger population

ㄴMuch of the South’s population consisted of slaves.

Around the time of the war, the South Carolina population was approximately 75% slaves. The North’s soldiers were much more expendable, for lack of a better word, to the generals during the Civil War.

Southern Advantages

•The South was fighting on the defense

ㄴ While the North was fighting to invade the Confederacy and reunite the United States, the South only needed to fight enough that the Union troops lost morale, and didn’t want to continue fighting.

•The South was home to many powerful military leaders

ㄴQuite a few strong leaders were from the North, but the South was home to famous generals such as Robert E. Lee. On top of that, many of the Southerners fought in the Texas war, so they already knew how to fight.

•The South had a strong cavalry

ㄴThe South was mostly rural farmland. A big majority of the people fighting for the South had been riding horses their whole life. They also commonly used horseback for hunting back then. This meant many of the Southern cavalry-men already had training.

J.E.B.

Stuart

James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart was a cavalry commander in the Civil War known for his reconnaissance missions. He also assisted in the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. He became a significant man for the Confederate when he led approximately 1,200 troops around McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Stuart's scouts discovered the exposed flank of the Union army—the Eleventh Corps of Oliver O. Howard—enabling Jackson to execute the famed flank march that crushed the right wing of the Union army. With the wounding of Jackson and his senior division commander, A. P. Hill, Stuart was given temporary command of Jackson's corps, with which he harried Hooker's wing of the Army of the Potomac back across the Rappahannock while Lee, with the remainder of his force, met and defeated John Sedgwick's wing at Salem Church.

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Lieutenant General for the Confederacy. He is the only general from either side that began his military career at the rank of Private. He is well known for his saying “Get there first with the most men.” Prior to his rank as a Lieutenant General, he was promoted to Brigadier General in 1862. With this new rank, he also gained command of a cavalry unit. These soldiers were his “special forces” and were the best of the best cavalry-men in the Confederate Army. This unit typically consisted of 40-90 men.

George Custer

General George A. Custer was not expected to do well in the military. In fact, after graduating last in his class at Westpoint, he left the military as soon as possible. However, he was soon called by the Union to help fight in the war. He fought the Native Americans quite often, leading a large regiment of Cavalry. Unfortunately, he met his demise at the Battle of Little Bighorn. At the start of the war, Custer was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and immediately joined his regiment at the first battle of Bull Run, where he was assigned messenger duty. After this battle, he was assigned cavalry duty, and served on this throughout the Peninsula Campaign in 1862

General Robert E. Lee General “Stonewall” Jackson

of the Confederate of the Confederacy

Army

Union General and General W.T. Sherman

18th President, of the Union Army

Ulysses S. Grant

Technological Advancements in the Civil War

Sewing Machine

ㄴ The first sewing machine was invented in 1790, but wasn’t discovered until 1822. In 1804, however, another man created a sewing machine. Several advancements occurred throughout the next half century, but none were so important as the advent of the elliptical sewing machine, invented in 1862 by a man in the United States. This soon became widespread throughout the Union, allowing the faster creation of tents, uniforms, blankets, and other necessities for the soldiers fighting against the confederacy.

•Iron Gunships

ㄴ When the Confederacy seceded, the whole of the Navy stayed with the Union. This was a problem for the Southern states. They couldn’t match them ship for ship, so they needed a super-weapon to help fight back. They captured a ship yard in Norfolk, VA., and salvaged the Union Frigate, Merrimac. They stripped the boat down, put iron sides on it, and sunk two wooden Union frigates in Hampton Roads. The next day the Union’s Monitor appeared. This was the first Iron Gunboat invented by the Union. The battle between the two ended in a draw.

•Submarines

ㄴThe first submarine ever was the H.L.

Hunley, and owned by the Confederates. In 1864, the first submarine attack was launched. The H.L. Hunley was ordered to stick a “Spar torpedo”, or, a 22 ft. stick with Gunpowder on the end, to the USS Housatonic. The 8 man crew quietly turned the hand powered propellor through the night, creeping closer and closer. They weren’t spotted until it was much too late. Union soldiers began firing their rifles and pistols at the submarine. The H.L. Hunley was only 100 ft. away at the time of detonation.

Battle of Vicksburg

•It was a part of Grant’s campaign against Vicksburg

ㄴ Other battles involved in this campaign include the Battle of Raymond, Port Gibson, and Champion Hill.

•There were 110,000 soldiers involved

ㄴ77,000 belonged to the Union, and 33,000 to the Confederacy

•37,000 estimated casualties

ㄴ4,910 for the Union (including 806 deaths)

ㄴ32,492 for the Confederacy (including 805 deaths, and 30,000 missing/captured)

•The 30,000 soldiers captured include the forces captured due to the Confederate Commander, John C. Pemberton surrendering.

•Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln saw Vicksburg as the key to the civil

war

ㄴ Both saw the need to control it, as it was a vital link to major trade routes.

•Despite its name, it was actually fought at Champion Hill, Mississippi.

ㄴThis is due to the fact that Grant moved away from Vicksburg to distract Pemberton. While all the combat occurred in Champion Hill, part of Grant’s forces went and took control of Vicksburg.

•Grant wanted an unconditional surrender. Pemberton refused.

ㄴOn July 3, 1863, Confederate troops raised the white flag. Pemberton rode out into no-man’s land, and Grant came out to meet him. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant, in keeping to his nickname, requested that the Confederate forces surrender without any conditions. Pemberton denied this request. They did agree on a cease-fire. The next night, Grant relented and the negotiations were made.

Women within the Civil War

One of the most famous of Confederate spies, Belle Boyd served the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley. She operated her spying operations from her father’s hotel in Front Royal, providing valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and "Stonewall" Jackson during the spring 1862 campaign in the Valley. General Jackson then made her a captain and honorary aide-de-camp on his staff. As such she was able to witness troops reviews. Betrayed by her lover, she was arrested on July 29, 1862, and held for a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. Exchanged a month later, she was in exile with relatives for a time but was again arrested in June 1863, and sentenced to Hanging. On December 1st, 1863, she was released, due to the Union capture of the town she was held in. She did however, contract typhoid while she was in prison.

In 1863 the Union Army asked Harriet Tubman to organize a network of scouts -- and spies -- among the black men of the area. She not only organized a sophisticated information-gathering operation, she led several forays herself in pursuit of information. Not so incidentally, another purpose of these forays was to persuade slaves to leave their masters, many to join the regiments of black soldiers. Her years as "Moses" and her ability to move about secretly were excellent background for this new assignment. In July of 1863, Harriet Tubman led troops under the command of Colonel James Montgomery in the Combahee River expedition, disrupting Southern supply lines by

destroying bridges and railroads.

The First Battle at Bull Run