Daily life
Confederate Army
In contrast to the Union army, the Confederate army was poorly equipped, and they did not have as many factories in the South to produce what they needed. The huge plantations in the South mostly sold cash crops such as cotton and tobacco, which were not very helpful to an army that needed clothes and food. Soldiers enlisted from states such as Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia, etc.
The largest of the Confederate armies was the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee.
As the war progressed, the number of able-bodied men declined, and the Southern troops became much younger. The population of the South was much smaller than the North, and not all states were able to give as many men as others. The officers in the Confederate army mostly came from the South, and like the Union army, had graduated from West Point. Most officers had been in the United States army, but had resigned their commissions and joined the Confederacy when the war began. The South did not have the supply links the North possessed and so the officers constantly struggled to feed, clothe, and arm their men.
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