HY 2000 Unit V Essay

UNIT V ARTICLE ESSAY

COLUMBIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

This paper discusses the major factors that aided the north in winning the Civil War. The American Civil War was a war between the north and the south states in the Union during 1861 to 1865. The Civil War was the deadliest war recorded in American History, mainly due to the fact that both armies were assembled with American people. There were 620,000 soldiers who died during the Civil War. There are numerous reasons why the Union was able to win the Civil War. The Civil War is also known as the War Between the States and the war involved both the Union and the Confederacy (Millett & Maslowski, 2012). The north had a manpower and resource advantage, a superior navy and developed infrastructure, advanced industry, and superior leadership.

Northern Manpower and Resources Advantage

The northern armies were much larger than the Confederate armies, but the Confederates did not believe that numbers of people alone would win the war. The Confederate armies were almost always outnumbered in battle and they were outnumbered in people that they could get to fight in the Confederate armies. The North ended up with around 2 million men serving during the war and the South had around 750,000 serving during the war (Millett & Maslowski, 2012). The number of people that were available to fight in the Civil War was ultimately the reason for the North gaining a victory in the Civil War.

Northern Navy and Infrastructure

The north had more control of the railroads, which allowed shipping and travel to be better for the Union armies. The railroads allowed soldiers and supplies to be shipped cheaper and faster to the war zones. The superior naval fleets of the Union allowed the Union to control the seas and prevented the Confederate Army from transporting supplies to their soldiers through the Atlantic coast.

Northern Industry

In my opinion the industrial resources that the north had was the biggest reason for the win. The north had more industrial and manufacturing means that aided in supplying their army with ammunition, arms, and any other necessary resources. The northern states had 110,000 manufacturing establishments and the southern states had only 18,000 (Millett & Maslowski, 2012). The north produced much larger amounts of steel than the south, which allowed the north to produce resources for their armies.

Northern Leadership

The re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 almost signaled the win for the Union in the war as well. Prior to 1863 Lincoln had used a more passive approach and believed that his military leaders should run the army. In the summer of 1863 Lincoln decided to give up his submissive style in favor of a more assertive tone and he issued a series of direct instructions to his generals (Govindarajan, 2016). Lincoln’s bold choices in the summer of 1863 helped him become on the greatest leaders the United States has ever known (Govindarajan, 2016).

REFERENCES

Millett, A. R., & Maslowski, P. (2012). For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America from the Revolutionary War Through Today. Free Press.

Govindarajan, V. & Faber, H. (2016). To Win the Civil War, Lincoln Had to Change His Leadership Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2016/05/to-win-the-civil-war-lincoln-had-to-change-his-leadership