In the US Civil War, what factors contributed to the Union having such a numerical advantage over the Confederacy?
score:0
Did the North's population outnumber the South, or merely have more men available to be conscripted into the army to fight?
The answer to this question is less about industrialisation and more about the availability of qualified men able to be conscripted into the army to fight.
The southern states had a totally different economy to the north and was based primarily on slave labour. This slave labour, consisting mostly of African-American (is that the correct term?) descent were not available to join the army and fight. It's true the confederate Army did enlist some slaves towards the end of the war, but at the beginning the Confederate Army consisted mostly of non-slaves.
This is the reason for the larger Union Armies compared to the Confederate ones.
Upvote:2
There were more people living in the North mostly due to better climate, migrations, and urbanisation -- see the 1860 census or wikipedia. It was much more industrialised than the South. Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote are good sources if you wanted to learn more about the American civil war.
Upvote:2
The preponderance of 22 (later 24) Union states over the 11 Confederate states made things very difficult for the latter. Even so, it was a fairly close issue, and the Union needed every advantage. If a few more states had actually sided with the Confederacy, the outcome might have gone the other way.
President Lincoln famously said, "I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky...To lose Kentucky is almost to lose the whole game." http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/bluegrass-blues-and-grays/
Regarding the German-Amerioans who "held the fort" for the Union in Missouri, Grant said, "Recapturing St. Louis would have been a terrible job a most difficult task to give to any military man. Instead of a campaign before Vicksburg, it would have been a campaign before St. Louis." (Joseph Wandels, "The German Dimension in American History.")
As to why the Union enjoyed such a preponderance, one explanation can be found in my answer to this question. What did sectionalism have to do with the American civil war?
Also, I've noticed that "cold" parts of the country (compared to Richmond, Virginia), tended to be pro Union (including mountainous regions in Southern latitudes), while "hot" regions (again compared to Richmond), tended to be pro Confederacy, with the notable exception of California. To test this theory, I asked this question. What are exceptions to the hypothesis that "climate determined "regional" loyalties in the U.S. Civil War"?
Basically, there were a bunch of "mini civil wars in Border States like Kentucky and Missouri, which went in favor of the Union. (And I'd include latecomers Kansas and West Virginia in the mix; the exception was Tennessee, where West and Middle Tennessee "outvoted" East Tennessee and kept that state in the Confederacy.) Then the border states joined the nothern states in crushing the South.
More post
- 📝 How does history as a scholarly discipline or disciplinary practice justify its existence as a social practice?
- 📝 Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
- 📝 Who made those 1:50,000 maps in 1930's China
- 📝 Law enforcement vs KKK
- 📝 Why didn't the zeal of social change brought by ending slavery continue after the US civil-war ended?
- 📝 Why was the Ottoman flag changed from an eight-pointed star to five-pointed in the 19th century?
- 📝 Which English king voided noble land claims after a certain date?
- 📝 Are historians required to memorize or be knowledgeable of every significant event in history?
- 📝 Where can I find more information about destruction of a castle in Merlas, France?
- 📝 Can someone give me the history on this Japanese Crest symbol
- 📝 What buildings could be found in the inner ward of a castle?
- 📝 History of ideas, and importance of, "race" as a concept in the United States?
- 📝 Why did the USA sell so many airplanes prior to WW2?
- 📝 How did the Mesopotamian clay tokens known as bulla actually work to maintain authenticity?
- 📝 Did the Muslims of Granada expect their Christian conquerors to keep their promised terms?
- 📝 When were the first deaths from the Spanish Flu Pandemic?
- 📝 What are the contributions of Professor Hans List?
- 📝 During the Great Depression, did the US Army do a study involving paying people to dig a hole and fill it back up?
- 📝 Need help identifying 2 old coins? Struck coins, one with two standing human figures facing each other
- 📝 Authenticity of the Russian birch bark manuscripts
- 📝 Did WWII Delay Indian Independence?
- 📝 Who was the model for Trutat's famous painting Nude Girl on a Panther Skin?
- 📝 How, if at all, is published pseudohistory publicly addressed by scholars and academia?
- 📝 Were there duststorms in Louisiana in the 1930's?
- 📝 What should I call bands of armed men in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Has this newspaper printed the wrong picture (as well as a baffling caption)?
- 📝 How can a megalith be dated via the C14 method?
- 📝 What is the purpose of this Roman siege tactic as shown in this Illustration?
- 📝 Was the financial crash of 2008 caused by top graduates of the American Ivy Leagues working at wall street banks?
- 📝 How much tax did Romans pay?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 In the US Civil War, what factors contributed to the Union having such a numerical advantage over the Confederacy?
- 📝 What factors related to the Eastern Crisis contributed to the outbreak of World War 1?
- 📝 What factors contributed to the United States having a larger proportion of Jews than other British colonies?
- 📝 What factors contributed to the U.S economy flourishing during the early cold war period?
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 What factors contributed to Jews moving out of the Middle East?
- 📝 What factors contributed to the popularity of Eastern cultures in the USA in late 20th century?
- 📝 What Factors Contributed to the Success of Certain "Long March" Strategies?
- 📝 What uniforms did each of the American Civil War regiment wear during First Bull Run / First Manassas
- 📝 What factors prevented the legality of secession being pursued via the courts prior to the outbreak of the Civil War?
- 📝 What were factors that led to a decline in bond yields during World War II given that the opposite should have happened?
- 📝 What was the English Civil War called during the Protectorate?
- 📝 What was the effect of the Civil War on the cost of cotton?
- 📝 What factors contributed to the rise of national monarchies in the high middle ages?
- 📝 What were conditions like for Chinese men subject to recruitment by the army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War?
- 📝 In American Civil War era paper cartridges, what was taking up the space between powder and bullet?
- 📝 What was the significance of the Mississipi River on the Civil War and Westward Expansion?
- 📝 What factors made success a possibility for the South in the American Civil War?
- 📝 What capabilities did Southern soldiers in the American Civil War have to get news about the North?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 What led to the first fight in the American Civil War?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 Why were Civil War battle techniques so bloody, if the US had learned guerrilla fighting in the Revolutionary War?
