Why the North Won the Civil War "In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever made successful war against a nation of mechanics. . . .You are bound to fail" -Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman to a Southern friend. The American antebellum South, though steeped in pride and raised in military tradition, was to be no match for the burgeoning superiority of the rapidly developing North in the coming Civil War. The lack of emphasis on manufacturing and commercial interest, stemming from the Southern desire to preserve their traditional agrarian society, surrendered to the North th