5.The reason that the North won the Civil War was that they had a “righteous” cause and the South was “immoral”. The acquisition, allocation and utilization of human, industrial, agricultural and financial resources had little or no relevance on the outc

p 5 . The Civil War The Civil War Question : 5 .The reason that the North won the Civil War was that they had a righteous ' cause and the South was immoral . The acquisition , allocation and utilization of human , industrial agricultural and financial resources had little or no relevance on the outcome FALSE

Because the American Civil War was fought for as many economic and material purposes as ideological , the idea of moral superiority influencing the ultimate victor is specious . Although it is certainly possible that the South might have

fought and won a conflict against the North , their inability to do so was rooted not in moral deficiency , but in material and strategic pragmatics . Although many observers have stated that "the North was bound to win . Its manpower and economic strength far exceeded that of the South " it is also true that conquest of the South might be "impossible , for the South occupied an area almost as large as western Europe and it was the North 's strategic assignment to invade and conquer the Confederacy (Rawley , 1989 ,

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There was little question of a peaceful comromise for the South once the idea of secession had been embraced and enacted "Peaceful secession would have left unresolved a host of contentious matters . Where would the Confederacy 's boundaries lie ? Would the Upper South or parts of the b states try to join the new country ? What would be done about slaves fleeing from the Confederacy ? Moreover , the seceded states would claim portions - - perhaps large portions - - of the federal territories , and would be enmeshed in complex financial negotiations over government and private debts incurred within the former Union (Collins , 1981 ,

. 156 When the war began and quickly became larger and more bloody than anyone could have anticipated , the South stood at a stretegic disadvantage due to its governmental composition and its military readiness "the Southern states expected to be allowed to go their own way , and adopted a defensive attitude in which each state was prepared to defend itself , but only secondarily to assist in defending the Confederacy " and this vision persisted for "the four years of fighting (Basler , 1967 ,

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By contrast , it was Sherman , perhaps , who first understood the underlying economic nature of the war , realizing that the Union with its superior material and financial power would ultimately prevail . However his conception of how to convince the South of this truth was founded on a concept of "envisioned a "dazzling campaign-- to march his army across Georgia to the sea , tearing the Confederacy asunder , and destroying everything in his path (Ades , 226 ) The ensuing destruction wrought havoc and despair on the civilian population of the South and undermined the South 's economic and psychological ability to survive . The idea of war as a psychological tool of destruction was both new and devastatingly powerful . Sherman 's troops "looted houses , stole food and burnt rebel supplies "like Demons " It turned out that the Georgia countryside had an abundance of...