The Civil War

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

the US Army. Another source of southern confidence was cotton. Secession leaders expected to exchange that staple for the foreign manufactured goods they needed.
The South’s most important advantage was that it had only to defend relatively short interior lines against invaders who had to deal with long lines of communication and to attack a broad front. The Confederacy also had no need to divert fighting men to tasks such as garrisoning captured cities and holding conquered territory.
In a short war, numerical superiority would not have made much of a difference. As the war continued, however, numerical strength became a psychological as well as a physical weapon. During the closing years of the conflict, Union armies, massed at last against critical strongholds, suffered terrible casualties but seemed to grow stronger with every defeat. Any staggering Con federate losses sapped the southern will to fight. Every material advantage of the North was magnified by the fact that ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: