What were the advantages that the Union had over the Confedacy?

Question: What were the advantages that the Union had over the Confedacy!?

I want as many as possible!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The North had practically every advantage in this battle!.

1!. The North had population!. And with the Emancipation Proclimation they then added 200,000 "colored" infantry!.

2!. The North had industry!. Massively so!.

3!. Whoever posted that the South had agriculture was wrong!. The corn and wheat production, most of the timber production all came from the North!. When the war came to the Shenandoah Valley, a critical breadbasket for the South was ravaged!.

4!. While the South got a few brilliant commanders (Ashby, Stuart, Lee, Jackson, maybe Longstreet from the US Regular Army), the majority of the best officers stayed to fight with the Union!. There's this tendency to think that the South won most of the battles until Grant came East!. But the reality is that for the entire war, in the West, the Confederacy won at Chicamauga and practically every other battle in that theater was a strategic defeat or an outright defeat on the battlefield!. Sheridan, Thomas, Grant, Sherman, Hancock, Meade, Reynolds were all topclass officers!. Reynolds was never utilized well by the Union and he was regarded as Lee's equal by peers!. His civil war career, well, imagine if Lee had been shunted to a minor role the first year, returned to raise and train militia the second year and then died the third year in battle!. You think the South would have been crippled by that!? But when Reynolds went down at Gettysburg, the North could replace him!. Everytime the South lost a great general they couldn't replace him!. While both sides saw some great leaders emerge from nowhere (ie: not regular army: Chamberlain, Gordon, Forrest), out of the Regular Army guys, most stayed with the North!. And the Union got more of the "good ones!."

5!. The Navy!. The North had one, the South basically didn't!. And that meant the North could blockade the South and without industry, that meant the South would eventually lose the war (couldn't get medicine, good powder, medical instruments, tools for machining, the best weapons except in very limited amounts)!. It also meant that the North could choose to invade say!.!.!. New Orleans!. Or Beaufort!. Or Wilmington!. Or up the James River!. And there wasn't anything the South could do to stop it except mass troops--they had no navy!.

6!. Lack of infrastructure!. After they secceded, the South had no money, no JAG corps, no prison system, no supply corps, no medical corps, no military academy!. The longer the war went on, the more these became issues (confederate money became worthless, confederate prisons were disasters, confederate military justice was wildly inconsistent, the two bloodiest events for the Army of Northern Virginia--Antietam and Gettysburg--were a function of the confederacy's inability to supply that army so going north to forage became attractive)!.

7!. The governmental structure of the confederacy!. Some southerners will insist the war was really about States Rights!. I won't get into that debate here!. But I will say that the Confederacy lacked a strong central presence, the States held the power!. As a result, while Lee's army was losing battles (or failing to win them) because he didn't have enough men, the majority of all Georgian's who served in the confederate army NEVER left the state of Georgia during the war!. That's because the Governor of Georgia wouldn't release them--he felt they were needed to defend his state!.

8!. The North had Lincoln!. Most historians rate him as one of the 5 greatest Presidents in our history!. Leadership matters and the North had a great leader!.

9!. The dilemma of the South's rationale for seceding!. In theory it was States rights!. The problem though was that every time the Confederacy crossed the Mason-Dixon line, many Confederates would either melt away or feel they were committing treason!. It's one thing to defend your home against "invasion" and another alltogether to invade the home of the US constitution (which all of the Regular Army officers had taken a sacred oath to defend)!. For instance, desertion was highest during the antietam and gettysburg campaigns for the ANV!. Dorsey Pender's wife (one of Lee's commanders) told him he would burn in h*ll for taking part in an invasion of the North!. Other Southern commanders talk of being troubled by offensive action against the North--that it was one thing to defend your state, another to act against the Union!. But the alternative: always being on the defensive!.!.!.well, the only way you win that kind of war is if you never make any big mistakes and the other side gets tired!.

10!. Multi-front war!. At one point the Confederacy faced Union Armies (all separate forces) coming at them from!.!.!.the James River, the Shenandoah, New Orleans, Tennessee, Missouri, plus various assaults on port cities!. For a nation with manpower issues, facing a series of offensives simultaneously is challenging!.

11!. Artillery--not even close--North wins this won by a landslide!. The Union had more artillery, more rifled artillery, more longer range artillery, more powder and shells, better artillery officers, better artillery tactics, better organization of their artillery!. By just about every conceivable standard, the Union's artillery was consistently better than the South's is just about every engagement!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

North: Industry

South: Agriculture

Wars are won with machines!. North built more machines!.

Really, the south had most of the advantages, such as having better generals, better soldiers, sympathetic allies, etc!. The north nearly lost the war due to incompetent generals!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

We had Lincoln!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Union was the states that traded with other countries!. The Union was also much wealthier than the Confed!. Factories and industry were also located mainly in the north controlled by the Union!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

These are the advantages:

1!. The north was richer and had more resources than the south

2!. The north was more industralised than the south

3!. Moral high ground!.The north opposed slavery!.

4!. Lincoln's leadership!. Though the South had better generals, Jefferson Davis' leadership wasn't as good as Lincoln's and they were the respective chiefs of the two sides!.

5!. The north had better technology than the South!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Myths and Fallacies About the Civil War

- the South had "sympathetic allies"
- the South had better soldiers
- the South had better generals
- the South almost won the war due to their competent generals

- Britain and France remained officially neutral, so private individuals who had sympathy do not count as "allies," and once the Emancipation Proclamation as issued - they supported the North

- the South had serious problems with desertion, including the Army of North Virginia, as well as serious problems feeding and supplying their armies, as well all know, an army fights on its stomach; the North had more and better artillery, and a navy

- Generals Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg, and Pierre G!.T!. Beauregard were NOT any better than any Union generals, just check their track records and you will see; as bad as some may believe McClellan to be, he stopped Lee at Antietam, and Meade stopped Lee at Gettysburg, Thomas stopped Hood in Nashville then destroyed the Army of Tennessee, Sherman took Atlanta, and there were no "superior" Confederate forces to prevent him from marching to the sea

- the South blew its opportunties to "win" the war early in the war, not only after Bull Run, but also at Chancellorsville; Lee's greatest contribution was defending Virginia, his efforts in Maryland to rally Marylanders to the C!.S!.A!. failed, and his invasion of Pennsylvania also failed

- President Jefferson Davis, Lee, and Thomas J!. Jackson all disagreed on the way to win the war; once Lincoln found a general who could, he let Grant put his strategy into effect and supported him even when it looked like his strategy was not working (around the time Grant besieged Petersburg)Www@QuestionHome@Com

north have more population and most of the industriesWww@QuestionHome@Com

If you look at a map of railrods during the period, the north looks like pasta and the south had nothing!. How are you supposed to move troups in a way that makes sense with no railroads!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

The South had limited railroads to ship supplies from ports to inland destinations!.
There were limited foundries to make cannon,and work metal for rifles and pistols!.
The South only had $700 million in it's treasury!.That may sound like a lot even by todays standards!. But keep in mind the cost(back then) for horses,cloth for uniforms,wood for rifle stocks,steel for ships ,food,ammunition,canteens,saddles,boots,!.!.!. for swords,and bayonets!.
The South also had a limited mail and telegraph system too!.
also,with each state only looking out for their own,the Confederacy sytem of government was weak and couldn't collect taxes,or tariffs to pay an army and navy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com