I always like to quote Rhett Butler (main character of Gone With the Wind). The valiant men were talking how glorious it would be to fight in the civil war. They asked him what he thought.
He answer, "The South will Loose." The other men there were horrified. Ashley, who had more sense than the rest, said "Why, sir, is that?"
Rhett said. "The south doesn't produce 1 cannon. It doesn't make one gun." He was saying the south was not prepared (industrialized enough) to fight a war. He could have also said that the transportation system did not serve the south well: all the north had to do was blockade the ports which they proceeded to do. That meant the south couldn't get it's cotton out to be sold to the Europeans.
The south was primarily an agricultural economy, which served them well in the beginning of the war. They had a vastly superior cavalry with exceptional generals. But Rhett's observation came to haunt them. They north could replace the number of men lost in battle. They could manufacture ships and cannons and guns. They could overcome the minus's by depending on a president who was patient and had a goal that he never deviated from.
Though the generals like McClelland sometimes frustrated him,he was patient and waited for people like Grant and Sherman came along who were ruthless leaders, but they were winners.
