The North had several advantages over the Confederacy. The Union had almost twice as many people. Much of this was due to the Irish, German and Scandinavian immigration to the North and West before the war. Very few immigrants came to the South because there were very few job opportunities in the South. If one has a slave labor force, why does one need immigrants? Slavery deprived immigrants of job opportunities, or opportunities to acquire small farms (land). Because of immigration, the population of the North grew much more rapidly than the population of the South. Indeed, during the Civil War, 800,000 immigrants came to the US. And 400,000 foreign-born men served in the Union Army. With a larger population, the North could replenish its ranks with new recruits and draftees when it sustained heavy losses.
As economic historians point out, slavery retarded the economic development (diversification of the economy) of the South. The South put all of its eggs in one basket: cotton. But if anything happened to cotton, the South would face economic ruin.
The North was in industrial power house. It produced its own weapons, manufactures, hardware,. Textiles, shoes. The South exported cotton and then used the profits to buy goods from the North and Europe. Richmond was one of the few industrial cities in the antebellum South. The North also had more railroads than the South, and could transport men and war materials by rail.
George Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac (Union Army) at Gettysburg, in PA. He had more than 90,000 troops. Some sources suggest that he had as many as 97,000 troops. The Union had an advantage of more than 15,000 troops at Gettysburg (perhaps an advantage of 20,000 or even 22,000). Robert E. Lee had about 75,000 troops in the Army of Northern Virginia. The battle lasted three days (July 1st-3rd, 1863). Confederate General George Pickett made his famous charge, uphill, at Cemetery Ridge, and his men were cut down by the thousands. The Union lost 3100 men, with 20,000 wounded or missing. The Confederacy lost 3,900 men, with 24,000 wounded or missing. Lee retreated. But after Gettysburg his offensive capability was crippled. He could fight back. But it would be very difficult for Lee to attack. Gettysburg was the turning point of the war. Britain and France now backed away from the Confederacy. It was clear that in time the Confederacy would lose.
At the same time Ulysses S. Grant was winning Vicksburg, in Mississippi, one of the last remaining Confederate strongholds on the Miss. River. When it fell to Grant on July 4, 1863, the Confederacy was cut in half. Texas and Arkansas were now cut off from the Southeast. Union gunboats patrolled the entire Miss. River.
In March 1864 Lincoln called Grant east to take command of the Army of the Potomac. 1864 was an election year. In June 1864 Grant began a siege of Petersburg, a city near Richmond, Virginia. Grant had 100,000 troops. At this point Lee had only 60,000 at best. In Georgia another Union general, William Tecumsah Sherman, had 100,000 troops. In September 1864, just two months before the election, Sherman gave Lincoln a pre-election present. He captured and burned Atlanta. Now it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the North won.
Sherman advanced to the sea (Atlantic coast) with 60,000 troops, and came up though North Carolina toward Virginia. Early in April 1865 Petersburg, VA fell to Grant, and Richmond fell on April 3rd. Lee retreated, trying to reach either Danville or Lynchburg by rail. He hoped to retreat into North Carolina to join forces with Joseph Johnston. At this point, Grant was advancing from the east, and General Philip Sheridan arrived from the Shenandoah Valley, in the western part of Virginia, to cut off Lee's escape. Lee would be caught between the two of them. He had no way out. Grant and Sheridan, together, had 115,000 troops. Lee, by April 1865, only had fewer than 30,000 men left (some sources say 25,000 or 26,000). The Northern armies in Virginia now had almost a 4 to 1 numerical advantage to Lee.
The North won by fighting a war of attrition. Attrition means literally to wear the other side down, a war of numbers. Let us take a hypothetical example to illustrate.
Army A Army B
100,000
75,000
-25,000
-25,000 (battle 1)
75,000
50,000
-25,000
-25,000 (battle 2)
50,000
25,000
-10,000
-10,000 (battle 3)
40,000
15,000
Game over
After a series of battles, Army A still has soldiers left, and can fight on. Army B had practically run out of men, and the disparity is so great that it would be suicide to continue.
The North had more soldiers. It could "afford" to suffer losses, and still have men left to fight. But the Confederacy reached a point where it had so few soldiers left that it was insane to continue.
On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox, in Virginia, Lee accepted Grant's request that he surrender. The Confederate soldiers were allowed to go home. A few other Confederate diehards continued on in other parts of the South, but for the most part the war was over. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14th. Joseph Johnston surrendered (with 37,000 men) near Durham, NC, on April 26th. The Confederates in Alabama surrendered on May 4th. Confederate President Jeff Davis was captured in Georgia on May 10th. General Kirby Smith surrendered the last Confederate forces at New Orleans on May 26th.
Overall, the Union lost 360,000 men in the war (110,000 from battlefield injuries and 249,000 due to disease). The Confederacy lost 258,000 men (94,000 from battlefield injuries and 164,000 due to disease). [see Garraty, The American Nation, p. 412]. In total, more than 618,000 men lost their lives. This was more than all of the American the soldiers lost in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War of 1846, the Spanish-American War of 1898, World War I, World War II and the Korean War combined. The Civil War is regarded as the worst trauma in US history.
But Lincoln and the North prevailed. The Union was preserved.
The effort by the Confederacy to form a separate independent Southern
nation (Southern nationalism) was defeated. However generations of
white Southerners (some, not all) regarded the War of Southern Independence
as the Lost Cause. They lost the war. But they felt that they had been
right on or about the issue--the right of white Southerners to control
their own destiny and to create a country of their own if they wanted to.
In their view,
just because the South lost does not mean that the South
was wrong. And just because the North won the war does not mean that the
North was right. Some Southerners feel that the South was RIGHT even though
it lost the war.