Cailin Frusti

Dr. Hill
Civil War
07 December 2015
Why the North Won/South Lost
1. My top reason for why the South lost was the lack of unity amongst the
southern states. Although these states were prominent in their belief of the
states being independent of each other, they were fighting the same war and
needed to be more united in order to win. An example of this would be
Georgia not sharing their abundance of Confederate uniforms. States keeping
their resources only for their men hindered the Confederacy and their odds of
gaining success in this war.
2. The second reason why I believe the South lost and the North one was
because of the geographical layout of the Southern states. Its territory was
too long and too thin, which made it easy for the North to break it into pieces.
The Union naval power took advantage of this by taking over the Mississippi
and New Orleans to break apart the Confederacy and ultimately lead to Union
victory.
3. The third reason, in my opinion, why the North claimed victory in this war was
because of the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln. His determination
and motivation to win the war encouraged the Union civilians and soldiers to
fight towards victory. Lincolns wartime leadership was very powerful and
influential of the Union states during the war, and by having him gain
reelection, he was able to continue motivating the Union towards victory until
the end of the war.
4. The fourth reason why the South lost was due to the unequal populations of
the Confederacy and the Union. While the Union states were home to over
twenty-two million people, the Southern states only had around nine million.
Therefore, when times called, the Union had a higher success rate at enlisting
new soldier recruits when the going got tough and the numbers of the
military got low.
5. The final reason why the North claimed victory while the South admitted
defeat was due to the lack of good army commanders. They really only had
General Lee who was successful at what he did. The other leaders of the
South lacked the success of Lee while the North kept having great leaders
such as Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan.