Beginning of Essay
On paper the North was far stronger than the South. It had two and a half times as many people, and it possessed far more ships, miles of railroad, and manufacturing enterprises. Southerners, however, had the advantage of fighting on home ground with better milit ....

Middle of Essay
.... to exchange that staple for the foreign manufactured goods they needed. The South's most important advantage was that it had only to defend relatively short interior lines against invaders who had to deal with long lines of communication and to attack a broad front. The Confederacy also had no need to divert fighting men to tasks such as garrisoning captured cities and holding conquered territory. In a short war, numerical superiority would not have made much of a difference. As the war continued, however, numerical strength became a psychological as well as a physical weapon. During the closing years of the conflict, Union a ....