North vs. South Poster board ActivityDocuments
1) North-South Comparisons
Personal Income per capita by region as a percentage of US average/ North / South
Proportion of nation’s population / 71 / 29
Proportion of nation’s
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
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 non-consecutive 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, 1860Region / White / Free black / Slave / Total
Number / Percent / Number / Percent / Number / Percent / Number / Percent
New England / 3,110,480 / 99.2% / 24,711 / 0.8% / 0 / 0.0% / 3,135,191 / 100.0%
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%
Far West / 382,149 / 98.9% / 4,259 / 1.1% / 0 / 0.0% / 386,408 / 100.0%
United States / 26,690,781 / 85.8% / 476,748 / 1.5% / 3,950,546 / 12.7% / 31,118,075 / 100.0%