Both Sides Prepare for War

At the onset of the war, the Union certainly held a decided advantage in resources and population. The Union states held more than 60 percent of the U.S. population; and the Confederate population included several million slaves who would not be armed for combat. The Union also far outstripped the Confederacy in manufacturing and even led the South in agricultural production. The North’s many miles of railroad track ensured greater ease in moving troops and supplies. And the Union could launch far more ships to blockade southern ports (Figure 13.1).

image
Figure 13.1: Figure 13.1 Economies of the North and South, 1860 This figure provides graphic testimony to the enormous advantages in resources the North held on the eve of the Civil War. The North led the South in farm acreage as well as factories and commodity output. Over four years of war, the North’s significantly larger population would also prove crucial.
Source: Data from Stanley Engerman, “The Economic Impact of the Civil War,” in The Reinterpretation of American Economic History, ed. Robert W. Fogel and Stanley Engerman (New York: Harper and Row, 1971).

Yet Union forces were less prepared for war than the Confederates, who had been organizing troops and gathering munitions for months. To match their efforts, Winfield Scott, general in chief of the U.S. army, told Lincoln he would need at least 300,000 men committed to serve for two or three years. Scott believed that massing such huge numbers of soldiers would force the Confederacy to negotiate a peace. But fearing to unnerve Northerners, the president asked for only 75,000 volunteers for three months. Moreover, rather than forming a powerful national army led by seasoned officers, Lincoln left recruitment, organization, and training largely to the states. The result was disorganization and the appointment of officers based more on political connections than military expertise.

Confederate leaders also initially relied on state militia units and volunteers, but they prepared for a prolonged war from the start. Before the firing on Fort Sumter, President Davis signed up 100,000 volunteers for a year’s service. The labor provided by slaves allowed a large proportion of white working-age men to volunteer for military service. And Southerners knew they were likely to be fighting mainly on home territory, where they had expert knowledge of the terrain. When the final four states joined the Confederacy, the southern army also gained important military leadership. It ultimately recruited 280 West Point graduates, including Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, James Longstreet, and others who had proved their mettle in the Mexican-American War.

The South’s advantages were apparent in the first major battle of the war. But Confederate troops were also aided by information on Union plans sent by Rose Greenhow. Confederate forces were thus well prepared when 30,000 Union troops marched on northern Virginia on July 21, 1861. At the Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas), later known as the First Battle of Bull Run, 22,000 Confederates repelled the Union attack. Civilians from Washington who traveled to the battle site to view the combat had to flee for their lives to escape Confederate artillery.

image
Battle of Wilson’s Creek This illustration depicts the First Iowa Regiment, led by General Nathaniel Lyon, charging Confederate forces at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, near Springfield, Missouri, on August 10, 1861. Lyon was shot in the head and killed, becoming the first Union general to die in the war. The Confederates won the battle, marking their second victory.
Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-121404

Despite Union defeats at Bull Run and then at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, in August 1861, the Confederate army did not launch major strikes against Union forces. Meanwhile the Union navy began blockading the South’s deepwater ports. By the time the armies settled into winter camps in 1861–1862, both sides had come to realize that the war was likely to be a long and costly struggle.

REVIEW & RELATE

What led four more states to join the Confederacy in 1861 and four other slave states to remain in the Union?

What advantages and disadvantages did each side have at the onset of the war?