So, by August 1861 people sensed the war would not be short, and in would be bloody. There was still hope for a quick solution, but a string of victories for the South emboldened the Confederacy, and firmed up Lincoln's resolve. So how did the sides compare?
From all appearances, the North held a tremendous advantage: more than 3 times the number of available fighting men, 70% of railroads, over 90% of iron & coal production, and three quarters of the nations wealth. The South produced by far the greatest export - cotton - but that was cut off by the Union naval blockade.
Yet, the South had important strengths. They needed only to win a defensive war fighting for their homes. Cotton was crucial to British and French industry; thus, the diplomatic pressure could favor the Confederacy. But most important, in a war of unprecedented scale and complexity, the South had superior military leadership. Stonewall Jackson routinely outfought larger Union forces. And, Robert E Lee would go down in history as one of the great field commanders.
This would be a new kind of war with extensive use of railroads, the telegraph, the machine gun and ironclad warships. And, no one was prepared for the casualties. By war's end there were over 600,000 dead and 2 million wounded. Fully one third of adult southern men died or were wounded from 1861 to 1865. But in that August 150 years ago, no one could foresee such a tragic outcome.
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