B. Summary of Evidence:
1. Important factors to south loss:
At the onset the Confederates largest advantage was fighting a defensive war. Defensive wars are like home field advantage, except for the high probability of said home being wrecked. Also, the south had a serious inability to produce manufactured goods. During the years leading up to the Civil War, the north had industrialized rapidly, but the south remained relatively rural. Therefore, once the war started and the north started blockading the south, there was a widespread shortage of many goods such as shoes. The Confederacy experienced a massive economic collapse in 1862 and never recovered. Individual states and private banks printed more cheap paper money to counter the depression, but these measures only worsened the situation by causing inflation. The election of President Lincoln 1864 was crucial because its outcome would determine the entire direction of the war: if Lincoln won, the war would be fought until the South had surrendered unconditionally, but if McClellan won, there would almost surely be a settlement.
2. Reasons for Civil War:
One of the main quarrels was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. Southerners felt these tariffs were unfair and aimed specifically at them because they imported a wider variety of goods than most Northern people. An awkward economic structure affected Southern banks that found themselves paying higher interest rates on loans made with banks in the North (John Heiser). Also as northern and Midwestern states became more and more powerful due to the population growth in the cities southern states lost political power due to lack of population (John Heiser). One of the most emotional causes of the war was the issue over slavery created by different economies. In the North, the economy was based on factories and wages. The South had large plantations, which grew cotton. The plantation owners needed the slaves to pick the cotton. In the Midwest, wheat was the number one cash crop. It was harvested by a machine, so they didn’t need as many workers or slaves (student Essays).
2. Conditions of Soldiers in the War:
The Union and Confederate armies were haphazardly raised, badly organized, poorly trained, inadequately fed, clothed and housed, and almost wholly without comforts, sports, entertainments or proper medical care. The Civil War armies were youthful, high-spirited, sentimental, and for the most part moral (Henry Commager)
The Union soldier was typically a man in his early 20s, in most cases, he was a farmer who had either enlisted to fight a war which he thought wouldn't last more than a few months. Since the union army had not only better clothing but better weapons. They were also well fed, but many were poisoned because of bad canned meats. Morale was generally high but they had a huge problem with desertion due to the fact they had been drafted and not want to fight in the first place (Union Soldiers).
The average Confederate soldier was a young man in his early 20s, unshaven, unkempt, gaunt, but tough from months of difficult living. It was not uncommon for the uniforms to be ill-fitting, with sleeves either too short or too long, and to have buttons missing. Those lucky enough to have a fitting pair of shoes would often nail horseshoes to them to prevent the soles from wearing down. As the war progressed, the Rebels who had been cut off from their suppliers by rail and sea, Not only did they run out of ammunition, but having not eaten meat in weeks, many fell ill from fatigue and starvation. Also due to the lack of confederate funding soldiers had to wait to be paid which led to families without any support or money for themselves. Really the only advantage the men had over the union was that they were fighting for certain ideals and not because they were drafted. This created fewer desertions among the confederate army (Confederate Soldiers).
3. Religion in the war:
Protestants still enjoyed a significant numerical and cultural dominance in the 1860s. Catholics and Jews provided notable support for the war; but Protestants, given their numbers and position in American life, contributed religious or theological justifications of the war that had wider social and political impact. The churches emphasized that the Union had to be preserved because of the special place that America occupied in world history. With its republican institutions, democratic ideals, and Christian values, the United States supposedly stood in the vanguard of civilization's forward march. At the war's outset, Northern churches were far from unanimous in their attitude toward human bondage. A few denounced the practice as a sin and called for immediate emancipation or abolition. At the other extreme, some argued that the Bible treated slavery as a morally legitimate institution (James Moorhead)
4. The effect ethnicities and companionship between soldiers:
People are more loyal to a group when placed with others who share their socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic background. In the Union army, it was common for Irish or German troops to serve in regiments separate from the native-born. Units organized by ethnic group, despite heavy casualties, ended the war with lower desertion rates than those of diverse units that never heard a shot fired in anger (Robert Mackey). Union soldiers, whether in prison camps or in the field, were the most loyal to men who looked like themselves — of the same ethnicity and occupation, from the same state or hometown, or of the same age or related by blood (Jeremy Hsu).
