The Nation Divides

by Joseph Eulo

The Civil War began as an argument over state rights and ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America (Reilly). It was fought in many places from New Mexico and Tennessee to Florida by Americans who had never wandered away more than twenty-miles from their back yards (PBS). They found themselves fighting heroic battles hundreds of miles from their homes (PBS). American homes became their headquarters and American churches and schoolhouses sheltered their wounded and dying (Reilly).

The Union and Confederate armies swept across America, destroying farms, burning towns, destroying cities, and leaving a wide path of destruction in their wake (Reilly). Between 1861 and 1865 over three million Americans fought in the Civil War, and over six hundred thousand men died in it (Reilly). Americans killed each other in their own fields and orchards along familiar roads with American names (PBS). In two days, on the banks of the Tennessee River, at the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing more American men fell than all previous American wars combined. At Cold Harbor, Virginia, one of the bloodiest military battles of the American Civil War, seven-thousand Union soldiers and fifteen-hundred Confederate soldiers, all Americans, died (PBS). The Civil War made some men rich while destroying others, and eternally changed the lives of all who lived through it.

From the beginning the North outnumbered the south in every category. In 1860, twenty-two million people lived in the twenty-two states that remained a part of the Union (American Civil War). Only nine million lived in the eleven Confederate states and of that number close to four million were slaves.

The north was industrialized and had the capability to manufacture war materials and supplies. With an abundance of ships and miles of railroads the north possessed the infrastructure to move these supplies, and other goods to war and to market (United States History). In contrast, the South was a region of farms that even thought produced products Europe desired, only had a handful of ships to carry their products to market (Reilly).

The south had several advantages. The first was their military leadership; one-third of the officers from the US Army resigned their commission and headed south to defend their state (Roark, Johnson and Cohen 375). Second, the south did not need to defeat the north, all they had to do was defend its territory and wait for the Union to become disheartened and eventually grant independence (Roark, Johnson and Cohen 374). Third, the south could operate with fewer men because they had shorter interior lines to defend.

Although the confederacy made extraordinary efforts to build new factories to produce the war supplies needed, many of the rebel soldiers didn’t have proper field equipment (American Civil War). Southern railroads were either damaged or destroyed and prevented delivery of the supplies to the men who needed them (Reilly). The only supply the south had abundance in was gunpowder, rifles, ammunition and cotton.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation gave hope for the 4 million slaves held in bondage, and the ex-slaves fighting for the freedom in the Union forces. In order for the south to win the war, all they had to do was to defend their territory and wait until the north became discourage and conceded (Roark, Johnson and Cohen 374). But they gave up this tactical advantage and pressed into battles in northern territories and lost their most valuable resources: their men.

This blunder was the major reasons for the South’s ultimate defeat. In the end it was North industrialized infrastructure and superiority in supplies, men, and determination that won the war. Slavery was abolished, and African Americans were freed from their masters, but took another century, unitl the civil rights movement, for them to have their freedom.

Works Cited
“American Civil War.” Microsoft Encarta 2007. 16 ed. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation.
Reilly, Dr. Gretchen Ann. “American History before 1870.” Itunes. Temple: Temple College, August 2006.
Roark, James L., et al. The American Promise: A Compact History, Third Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
The Civil War. Dir. Ken Burns. PBS. 1990.
“United States History.” Microsoft Encarta 2007. 16 ed. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft Corporation.

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