Few nations have been as unprepared for a full-scale war as was the
United States in 1861. The U. S. Army consisted of barely 17,000 men.
Most of the soldiers were stationed at remote outposts on the western
frontier. To make matters worse for the Union, a large number of army
officers who had been born in the South and educated at West Point
resigned from the army and offered their services to the Confederacy.
The U. S. Navy was in an equally bad state. It had performed little duty
since the War of 1812. The Navy had a total of 90 ships, but only 42 of
them were in active service at the outbreak of civil war. Of this
number, 11 fell into Confederate hands with the capture of the naval
base at Norfolk, Va., in April, 1861. The remaining vessels were
scattered around the world. Moreover, 230 of 1,400 naval officers joined
the forces of the Confederacy.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the North seemed to possess every
advantage:
(1) 23 Northern states aligned against only 11 Southern states.
(Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were slave states, but they remained in
the Union. Also, the western counties of Virginia revolted and formed
their own state when the Old Dominion cast her lot with the
Confederacy.)
(2) The population of the Northern states was approximately 22,000,000
people. The Southern states had only 9,105,000 people, and one-third of
them (3,654,000) were slaves. The great difference in population, plus a
steady flow of European immigrants into the Northern states, gave the
Union tremendous manpower. Over 2,000,000 men served in the Federal
armies, while no more than half that number fought for the South.
[Illustration: The "General Haupt" was one of several locomotives
seized by Federals on the Orange & Alexandria (now Southern)
Railroad.]
(3) The North had 110,000 manufacturing plants, as compared with 18,000
in the Confederate States. The North produced 97% of all firearms in
America, and it manufactured 96% of the nation's railroad equipment.
[Illustration: Although the South possessed few manufacturing plants
in 1861, Richmond's Tredegar Iron Works produced such items as
machinery, cannon, submarines, torpedoes, and plates for ironclad
ships.]
(4) Most of the country's financial resources were in the North.
In view of the North's statistical superiority in so many areas, people
often do not understand how the Civil War lasted four long years. Many
reasons account for this:
(1) Both North and South needed many months of preparation before they
were ready for full-scale war.
(2) For at least the first eighteen months of the war, the Confederacy
was able to obtain many supplies from sympathetic nations in Europe. Not
until late in 1862 did the Federals have enough ships to blockade
effectively the major Southern ports.
(3) Southern armies generally fought on the defensive. It does not
require as many men to hold a position as it does to attack and seize
that position.
(4) Moreover, every time the Federals captured a city, bridge, road
junction, or other important point, men had to be left behind to guard
these places. To the Northern armies also went the task of sheltering,
feeding, and to some extent training thousands of freed or runaway
slaves. Therefore, even though the Federal armies greatly outnumbered
the Confederate forces, the North needed more men to fight the war.
(5) In that age armies rarely fought in wintertime, a season of cold
weather and deep mud. Most of the military campaigns took place between
April and October. Hence, little activity occurred for about half of
each year.
Before surveying the military campaigns, the student should bear in mind
two more important, but somewhat confusing, points: each side named its
armies by different systems, and each side used different methods for
identifying battles.
The North named its armies for large rivers, while the South designated
its forces by large areas of land. For example, the Federal Army of the
Potomac fought against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. This
difference of names could and did sometimes become perplexing. An
illustration of this occurred in the Western theater, where the Federal
Army of the Tennessee (river) campaigned against the Confederate Army of
Tennessee (state).
Likewise, both sides used different methods in naming battles. The North
referred to a battle by the closest stream, river, run, or creek in the
area. The South designated a battle by the name of the nearest town.
Thus, the bloodiest one-day engagement of the Civil War is known in the
North as the battle of Antietam Creek, and in the South as the battle of
Sharpsburg, Maryland. In some cases, such as the battles of Gettysburg
and Wilson's Creek, both sides adopted the same name.