at the onset of the Civil War the North had two and a half times the population of the south but this didn't mean that victory would come easily they were great imbalances in the potential manpower available to the Union side and to the Confederate side the Confederate side the eligible military population meaning free males between the ages of 18 and 45 was much smaller and then one of the dilemmas of course at the Confederacy was that one-third of the population was made up of slaves but the South was hesitant to arm slaves so they were not allowed to fight still the South did have its strengths it had well disciplined well-trained militias and many of the best generals chose to side with the Confederacy including robert e lee plus southerners had cotton a crop crucial to the British and French economies cotton was the oil of the 19th century by far the most important commodity in world trade southerners saw cotton as key to their victory Confederates felt that if they cut off the export of cotton that Britain particularly would have to intervene on the side of the Confederacy in order to get access to the cotton crop so they really felt that they had an advantage over the north in that respect it didn't work out that way [Music] to southerners disappointment England refused to get involved but the South also had the advantage of fighting most of the war on its home turf and its soldiers knew the region's woods fields and streams and although the north began the conflict with just 16,000 troops over the course of the war it had enlisted and equipped more than 2 million to the South's 800,000 in the end the North's superior ability to supply the men and materiel of war simply proved too much for the south