Term Papers on Why The North Won The Civil War

Term Paper Title	Why The North Won The Civil War
# of Words	2534
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	10.14

Why The North Won The Civil War

     In several categories the North was far superior to the South and therefore won
the war. Some examples are the economies, financial and industrial capacity, the
leadership, and the manpower potential of the North and South. This includes the character and ability of the soldiers.
     In 1861, when the Civil War first began, the North had almost every advantage
number-wise. There were twenty-three states in the Union while there were only eleven in the Confederacy. This is also true in real and personal property. value and manufacturing. The North had more than a three to one ratio of property. “In capital of  and incorporated banks, more than four to one.”(Current, page 3)  “In value of  products
annually manufactured, more than ten to one. The seceded states probably had a much less than proportional share of the national income. Besides, they contained only about  a third of the total railroad mileage and practically none of the registered shipping.”(Current, page 3)
     When the Confederacy needed financing for their war effort, “almost 60 per cent
was derived from the issue of paper money, about 30 per cent from the sale of bonds, and
less than 5 per cent from taxation(the remaining 5 percent from miscellaneous sources.)
Of the Union’s income, by contrast, 13 per cent was raised by paper money, 62 per cent
by bonds, and 21 per cent  by taxes (and 4 per cent by other means). Thus the Confederacy relied much more upon government notes and much less upon taxation and borrowing as the Union did.”(Current, page 10)

     We understand from David M. Potters that even with all of these numbers, no  statistics  can measure the amount of suffering by the Confederacy, due to their type of economy which suffers greatly during wartime compared to the North’s economy which  flourishes under wartime conditions. “War invigorated the Northern economy by stimulating a leading form of Northern economic activity, namely industrial production...But in the Confederacy, war paralyzed the chief form of economic  activity, which was the cultivation of cotton.”(Potter, page 92)  So while the North was
increasing its industry and turning out rifles, cannons and other essentials, the South had
cotton to deal with. All they had was the raw product of cotton.
     The South also made another big mistake which affected their economy. Richard
N. Current points out how the South’s mistake was how they dealt with their cotton production. “In cotton, the South had a cash crop of great value, and yet, in the midst of war, Southerners reduced their planting, burned some of the bales they had on hand, and discouraged shipments abroad.”(Current, page 7) “Instead of making the best use of this
resource, B.J. Hendrick observes, the Davis government deliberately did all in its power
to make it useless.”(Current, page 7) Due to some misconception, not only Davis and
Memminger, but basically the whole South along with the leaders, believed that cotton,
or the lack of it would win the war for the South. “On the Southern staple, Great Britain
presumably depended for its prosperity, and so did France, and so too did the United
States.”(Current, page 8) The South’s strategy was twisted, because they were hoping
that without cotton, the British and the French would come to the Confederacy’s aid. This
proved to be a big mistake because “Without cotton, the United States would suffer the
closing of its textile mills and, more important, would have no export crop sufficient for
obtaining indispensable foreign exchange.”(Current, page 9) So the South wasn’t able to
trade their cotton for war material, and because of this they were always behind the North
in production. As General Johnston put it, the cotton money “would have procured arms
for half a million men, who could have been ready and in the field by the time the very
first battle was fought.”(Current, page 7-8)
      “John B. Jones, an employee of the Confederate government, records in A Rebel
War Clerk’s Diary the privations that Richmond underwent during ...

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