What Material Advantages Did The North Enjoy As The War Began Essay

15.1 What material advantages did the North enjoy as the war began?
In most every solid metric, the North had the advantage as war began. They had more railroad miles, more telegraph lines, greater population, greater food production, more ships, and so on. They also had a firm mandate in terms of Lincoln’s resolution to preserve the Union at all costs. This led him to assertions of some extraordinary powers, such as the suspension of habeas corpus, that were protested in some border areas. They also had better commanders, especially Robert E. Lee.
15.2 What material advantages did the South enjoy as the war began?
The South had a greater advantage in terms of morale. They rightly saw segments of the North refusing to fight a war for slaves, no matter what Lincoln might say. It would affect the bottom lines of too many people, from wheat farmers in Iowa to factory owners in Massachusetts, who sent their products South for sale or brought cotton North for processing. The South had a stronger tradition of military leadership and a certain expectation of assistance from Britain, militarily and economically. Lastly, they thought that the North would attack first, giving them the advantage of fighting mostly on home territory in a defensive war.
15.5 Why did cotton diplomacy fail?

The most direct effect was had by the strangling effect of the Northern Anaconda Plan as it blockaded Southern ports, keeping cotton shipments in and line runners out. Further, the intended major partners in this effort, Britain and France, had recently opened up major cotton producing regions in their respective empires, meaning Southern cotton was less useful. The global market glut also made it less valuable, so hard currency was more difficult to get. And, as the war progressed, there were fewer white men to oversee the slaves efforts in the fields and more and more of them were abandoning the work