When the Confederate situation is put on paper it seemed hopeless when the war started, it is amazing that the Confederacy was able to prolong the war for 4 long years. Of course, wars are not fought on paper. That is why even against these seemingly impossible odds, the Confederacy was able to survive as long as it did in the most costly of American Wars. Below you will find a comparison to the Confederate and the Union sides and the resources that the two sides started the war with.
(* denotes a border state- the four slave states that remained in the Union)
California, Connecticut, *Deleware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Vermont,
*Kentucky, Maine, *Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, *Missouri,
Wisconsin, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
and Rhode Island.
Population: more than 22 million; 4 million men of combat age. Two million men joined the Union army and Navy.
Economy:
# 100,000 factories
# 20,000 miles of railroad (70% of U.S. total) and 96 percent of all the country's railroad equipment.
# $189 million in bank deposits (81% of U.S. total)
# $56 million in gold
Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Texas,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana and Virginia
The combined area of the Confederacy was approximately 750,000 square miles, larger than all of Western Europe, with 3,500 miles of coastline.
Population: 9 million (5.5 million whites; 3.5 million slaves); approximately 1,140,000 men of combat age, of whom 850,000 fought for the Confederacy.
Economy:
# 20,000 factories
# 9,000 miles of railroad
# 47 million in bank deposits
# 37 million in gold
The odds were against us from the start, but still our ancestors went on and fought for what they believed in and the surprising thing is that about 80% of those 850,000 that fought did not fight for the right to own slaves as many people think, why? Because they did not even own any, they fought for the right to be free, the right to have our own say so in our part of the world. They fought for Southron rights and that is all.
Confederate Losses by states, in dead and wounded only, and with many records missing (especially those of Alabama) :
North Carolina ..... 20,602
Virginia ..... 6,947
Mississippi ..... 6,807
South Carolina ..... 4,760
Arkansas ..... 3,782
Georgia ..... 3,702
Tennessee ..... 3,425
Louisiana ..... 3,059
Texas ..... 1,260
Florida ..... 1,047
Alabama ..... 724
