Introduction
The Civil War officially started when the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter in 1861. Both the North and South endured the four-year long war, but in the end the North prevailed and the South was forced to surrender due to several disadvantages. During the course of the Civil War, the South have shown both its disadvantages and disadvantages, but apparently not strong enough to win the war because of several factors that determined their loss. In terms of disadvantage, the South had very little means to sustain the necessities of the war. On the other hand, the South’s greatest advantage is having better military leaders on their side and a “home field” advantage.
Disadvantages
One of the reasons that the South had lost its battle against the North is because of the scarcity in resources. Materials necessary for warfare are not adequate including manpower considering that they do not allow free African-Americans and slaves to join. In addition, the South only had 33% of its area dedicated to farming and mainly focuses more on cash crops thus, enabling a shortage of industry. Supplies and flow of funds comes only from European supporters because the South had very limited industries that can sustain supplies for both the men in the battlefield and for the majority of its population. Transportation system is also inadequate, which results into limitations in mobility and communication.
Advantages
Despite the lack of resources rooted from its weak economy, the South also showed significant advantages during the Civil War. One of which is that the Confederate Union had two of the best officers in United States military such as General Stonewall Jackson. Furthermore, every State has at least one military academy allowing half of its cadets and graduate to join the regiments. Several West Point officers are also residing in the South and most of them are Mexican War veterans. The Southern militia was also an addition to the line of competent soldiers of the Confederation army that was trained in case there would be a rebellion from the slave class.
Home field advantage also enabled the South to fight with superior moral cause as compared to the North. It is apparent the North was the one that invaded the South and it created a notion to fight for independence since there was evidence of invasion. This idea was drawn upon the principles of revolution wherein the oppressed party retaliates against the oppressor, which is the North. In terms of moral cause, the South are fighting close to home and that gives them a familiarity advantages when it comes to terrains and geographical position tactics. In addition, moral cause allows the soldiers to fight for the sake of their family as opposed to the Northern army that were paid to fight for something that does not concerns the freedom of their own kin.
Conclusion
Despite losing to the North, the Southern United States has shown resilience in terms of using their advantages to win the Civil War. However, there are still numerous prevailing disadvantages that influenced the outcome of the war because the North did not destroy the South by means of military tactics, but with effective deterioration of economy. It is apparent that the North had more means to sustain its war necessities longer than the South, but South the gave a good, slow and bloody fight that almost toppled down the Northern defenses. However, hunger, the red badge of courage, officer’s tyranny, lack of money, shortage of rations and demoralization due to defeats have worn out the South’s army, which led to their apparent defeat.
Works Cited
Divine, Robert A, T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, Ariela J. Gross, Randy J. Roberts, and H. W. Brands. "Chapter 16: Total War and the Republic 1861-1865." America Past and Present: Volume 1. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
