Economic Development in the North

The more industrialized economy of the North aided in the production of arms, munitions and supplies, as well as finances and transportation. The advantages widened rapidly during the war, as the Northern economy grew, and the Confederate territory shrank and its economy weakened. In 1861, the Union population was 22 million while the South had a population of just 9 million. The Southern population included more than 3.5 million slaves and about 5.5 million whites, thus leaving the South's white population outnumbered by a ratio of more than four to one when compared to the North's overall population.

The Union controlled over 80 percent of the shipyards, steamships, riverboats, and the Navy. The disparity between the North and South only grew as the Union controlled an increasing amount of southern territory with garrisons, and cut off the trans-Mississippi part of the Confederacy. This enabled the Union to control the river systems and to blockade the entire southern coastline.

Excellent railroad links between Union cities allowed for the quick and cheap movement of troops and supplies. Transportation was much slower and more difficult in the South, which was unable to augment its much smaller rail system, repair damage, or even perform routine maintenance. The failure of Davis to maintain positive and productive relationships with state governors (especially Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia and Governor Zebulon Baird Vance of North Carolina) damaged his ability to draw on regional resources. The Confederacy's "King CottonA slogan used by Southerners (1860-61) to support secession from the United States by arguing cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous and—more importantly—would force Great Britain and France to support the Confederacy in the Civil War because their industrial economy depended on textiles derived from cotton." misperception of the world economy led to bad diplomacy, such as the refusal to ship cotton before the blockade started.

The more industrialized economy of the North continued to prosper in the years following the war, with men like Cornelius Vanderbilt building their fortunes on transportation systems needed to sustain Northern trade.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1794-1877. Vanderbilt, a transportation tycoon, contributed greatly to the industrial development of the North in the years immediately following the Civil War.