Compare the approaches of the Union and the Confederacy in dealing with the following wartime challenges: manning and supplying their armies, public finance, and political dissent. .
During the Civil War more than 600,000 people would die for their way of life. The Union was able to win the war through better supply routes and manufacturing, and greater leadership in strife. However, nothing provided more of a challenge for the Union and the South than manning and supplying their armies, public finance, and political dissent. .
The largest American armies ever forged would be the Union and Confederate forces totaling nearly 3 million people. At first recruiting stations were set up in small towns in both North and the South, officers were then elected by the enlisted and Colonel and higher. In July of 1861 the Union instituted examinations for officers. In 1862 the Confederacy was losing men at an astonishing rate and enacted the first conscription law in American history. All able-bodied white males 18-35 would be required to serve in the military for three years. This conscription law antagonized lots of southerners. Opponents claimed this infringed on state sovereignty. Hostility also mounted over the 20-negroe law, stating that every slave owner with at least 20 slaves could forgo the draft. Once the Army was raised the Confederacy had to supply it. At first, the South relied on arms and ammunition imported from Europe, weapons confiscated from federal arsenals, and guns captured on the battlefield. In 1862 these measures were halted with the institution of Josiah Gorgas as head of ordnance (weaponry). Working through Gorgas and other officials the South assigned ordnance contracts to privately owned factories like the Tredegar Iron works in Richmond, provided loans to establish new factories, and created government owned industries like the giant Augusta Powder Works in Georgia. Supplying troops with clothing and food proved more difficult.
