Download North vs. South Comparison Documents

North vs. South Poster board Activity Documents
1) North-South Comparisons
Personal Income per capita by region as a percentage of US average
North
South
71
29
white population
79
21
black population
13
87
Proportion of nation’s railroads
71
29
Proportion of nation’s farm acreage
65
35
Proportion of nation’s manufacturing workers
92
8
Proportion of nation’s manufacturing output
92
8
Number of factories
110,000
18,000
Railroad mileage
22,000
9,000
Proportion of nation’s population
Proportion of nation’s
2) North and South: Different Cultures, Same Country
3) How many soldiers fought in the Civil War?
At the beginning of the war the Northern states had a combined population of 22 million people. The
Southern states had a combined population of about 9 million. This disparity was reflected in the size
of the armies in the field. The Union forces outnumbered the Confederates roughly two to one.
4) How many soldiers died in the Civil War as compared to other
American wars?
Roughly 1,264,000 American soldiers have died in the nation's wars--620,000 in the Civil War and
644,000 in all other conflicts. It was only as recently as the Vietnam War that the amount of
American deaths in foreign wars eclipsed the number who died in the Civil War.
5) What were the bloodiest battles of the Civil War?
6)
What is a casualty?
Too often, people take 'casualty' and 'fatality' to be interchangeable terms. In fact, a casualty is "a
military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through
being missing in action." Essentially, a casualty is any soldier who goes into a fight and does not
return fit to take part in the next battle. Many soldiers, especially in the Confederate ranks, became
casualties several times: some soldiers were captured multiple times; some were wounded in nonconsecutive engagements.
7) What caused casualties during a battle?
8) Strengths and Weaknesses of the North vs. South
On paper, the Union outweighed the Confederacy in almost every way. Nearly 21 million
people lived in 23 Northern states. The South claimed just 9 million people — including 3.5 million
slaves — in 11 CONFEDERATE STATES. Despite the North's greater population, however, the South had an
army almost equal in size during the first year of the war.
The North had an enormous industrial advantage as well. At the beginning of the war, the
Confederacy had only one-ninth the industrial capacity of the Union. But that statistic was misleading.
In 1860, the North manufactured 97 percent of the country's firearms, 96 percent of its railroad
locomotives, 94 percent of its cloth, 93 percent of its pig iron, and over 90 percent of its boots and
shoes. The North had twice the density of railroads per square mile. There was not even one
rifleworks in the entire South.
The South could produce all the food it needed, though transporting it to soldiers and civilians
was a major problem. The South also had a great nucleus of TRAINED OFFICERS. Seven of the eight
military colleges in the country were in the South.
9)
Table:� Black and White Population, 1860
Region
White
Free black
Slave
Total
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
Number
New
England
3,110,480
99.2%
24,711
0.8%
0
0.0%
3,135,191
Mid-Atlantic
7,327,548
98.2%
131,272
1.8%
18
0.0%
7,458,838
100.0%
Midwest
7,833,904
99.2%
65,719
0.8%
17
0.0%
7,899,640
100.0%
Upper South
4,463,501
76.4%
183,369
3.1%
1,195,985
20.5%
5,842,855
100.0%
Lower South
3,573,199
55.9%
67,418
1.1%
2,754,526
43.1%
6,395,143
100.0%
382,149
98.9%
4,259
1.1%
0
0.0%
386,408
100.0%
476,748
1.5%
3,950,546
12.7%
31,118,075
100.0%
Far West
United
States
26,690,781 85.8%
Percent
100.0%