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American Civil War

The military background of the war > Comparison of North and South
Map/Still:The Confederate States of America consisted of 11 states, seven original members and four states …
The Confederate States of America consisted of 11 states, seven original members and four states …

At first glance it seemed that the 23 states of the Union were more than a match for the 11 seceding Southern states. There were approximately 21 million people in the North compared with some 9 million in the South (of whom about 3.5 million were slaves). In addition, the Federals possessed over 100,000 manufacturing plants as against 18,000 south of the Potomac River, and more than 70 percent of the railroads were in the North. Furthermore, the Union had at its command a 30-to-1 superiority in arms production, a 2-to-1 edge in available manpower, and a great preponderance of commercial and financial resources. It had a functioning government and a small but efficient regular army and navy.

The Confederacy was not predestined to defeat, however. The Southern armies had the advantage of fighting on interior lines, and their military tradition had bulked large in the history of the United States before 1860. Moreover, the long Confederate coastline of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) seemed to defy blockade; and the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, hoped to receive decisive foreign aid and intervention. Confederate soldiers were fighting to achieve a separate and independent nation based on what they called “Southern institutions,” the chief of which was the institution of slavery. So the Southern cause was not a lost one; indeed, other nations had won independence against equally heavy odds.

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