What Southern State Suffered the Least During the War?

Reconstructed Rebel

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Of all the southern states that joined their fortunes to the Confederacy, which one paid the least price during the war years? I've been trying to find the answer to this question online or in a CWT thread with no luck so far. The best I've come up with is this link, which had a few surprises for me:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/civil-war-casualties-by-state

Casualties, military or civilian, would not be the only criteria however. Damage to towns, cities, infrastructure, agricultural resources, trade, etc. are all valid considerations. Does anyone have some insight on this?
 
No big battles....with Yankees. The frontier, though, was pushed back eastward quite a bit by Comanches and Kiowas.
I'm thinking the "Banditos" had an almost free run as well. I'm really surprised Col. Freemantle didn't write more about that dangerous aspect of freighting.
 
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Hopefully some scholar will make a name for themselves by digging up the data. My fear is that the records were destroyed somehow, in which case we will never know for sure.

Deaths per regiment by individual battles are fairly well recorded. Add those up and factor in the percentage of soldiers who died of disease. That's not an exact or complete number, but would at least be a baseline.
 
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I'm thinking the "Banditos" had an almost free run as well. I'm really surprised Col. Freemantle didn't write more about that dangerous aspect of freighting.

That's a very interesting subject that I'd love to see more about. As the Federal blockade did not extend up the Rio Grande (except for short periods when U.S. Cavalry operated out of Brownsville), I don't really see much to dampen the activities of said Banditos. There was much more money to be made in regular trade with goods that arrived in Matamoros and then sold across the border. But I honestly can't say that I've ever come across an reference to outlaws from Mexico during the war. Hmmmm.
 
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When a person reads this history of the quartermaster support for the US Army during the Civil War https://books.google.com/books?id=U...hur Edwards" Quartermaster Bridgeport&f=false, the inescapable conclusion is that Tennessee profited during the Civil War. Memphis was a key city for supporting operations along the Mississippi. But Nashville became a huge railroad center and forward depot. Railroads in Tennessee were substantially improved, even despite damage by Confederate raiders. The money was flowing. Anyone who wanted to work could find a job. There were so many men in Nashville, and so many displaced women, that Nashville had to resort to some temporary exceptions to Victorian morality.
Of the three states that joined the Confederacy that had the most to lose, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, Tennessee suffered the least. Most of its towns were recovered by the US without major destruction and federal money poured into the state.
The rural countryside did not do as well, but the land is the major value there, and it did not suddenly disappear.
 
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Texas probably gained the most. When slavery was abolished, after some delay, people and railroad money came pouring into Texas. Missouri did even better, but the people there thwarted secession.
I have recently been reading the first 70 pages of the O. R., Vol. 39, part 2. It covers Tennesse, Kentucky, all the troops under Thomas, Prince, and Sherman; (excludes the Atlanta campaign). It covers from April 28, 1864 on into the campaigns that spring. They were having a real problem with the confederates near Memphis taking goods out of the city by bringing in cotton and other things to trade for greenbacks and foodstuffs. These were supplying the confederate army, then located down near Corinth, (Forrest). The Navy got involved with General Washburne and Admiral Porter issuing Order #34 (IT) to stop the flow of the goods on the river. Then all roads leading out of Memphis were picketed, with an Officer of the Day making rounds of inspection, lasting 48 hours per shift. The road system was covered by the first week in May, and the special order of joint support went into effect by the end of May. Even goods from Illinois was a problem, and it had to be stopped at the startup of that Spring Campaign against Joe Johnston, 1864.
Lubliner.
 
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I have recently been reading the first 70 pages of the O. R., Vol. 39, part 2. It covers Tennesse, Kentucky, all the troops under Thomas, Prince, and Sherman; (excludes the Atlanta campaign). It covers from April 28, 1864 on into the campaigns that spring. They were having a real problem with the confederates near Memphis taking goods out of the city by bringing in cotton and other things to trade for greenbacks and foodstuffs. These were supplying the confederate army, then located down near Corinth, (Forrest). The Navy got involved with General Washburne and Admiral Porter issuing Order #34 (IT) to stop the flow of the goods on the river. Then all roads leading out of Memphis were picketed, with an Officer of the Day making rounds of inspection, lasting 48 hours per shift. The road system was covered by the first week in May, and the special order of joint support went into effect by the end of May. Even goods from Illinois was a problem, and it had to be stopped at the startup of that Spring Campaign against Joe Johnston, 1864.
Lubliner.
Cotton was money. A bale of cotton was worth about $80.00 and many soldiers were willing to let something pass if they got a bale of cotton out of it.
 
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I have recently been reading the first 70 pages of the O. R., Vol. 39, part 2. It covers Tennesse, Kentucky, all the troops under Thomas, Prince, and Sherman; (excludes the Atlanta campaign). It covers from April 28, 1864 on into the campaigns that spring. They were having a real problem with the confederates near Memphis taking goods out of the city by bringing in cotton and other things to trade for greenbacks and foodstuffs. These were supplying the confederate army, then located down near Corinth, (Forrest). The Navy got involved with General Washburne and Admiral Porter issuing Order #34 (IT) to stop the flow of the goods on the river. Then all roads leading out of Memphis were picketed, with an Officer of the Day making rounds of inspection, lasting 48 hours per shift. The road system was covered by the first week in May, and the special order of joint support went into effect by the end of May. Even goods from Illinois was a problem, and it had to be stopped at the startup of that Spring Campaign against Joe Johnston, 1864.
Lubliner.
And Porter took over on the Atlantic coast and Washburne transferred to Virginia to impose the same rules. It must have been Grant's policy.
And Washburne and Memphis became special targets of Forrest's anger. So it was probably working.
 
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Cotton was money. A bale of cotton was worth about $80.00 and many soldiers were willing to let something pass if they got a bale of cotton out of it.
That’s why it’s called the Cotton War. Try a trip to Bermuda. You’ll find out what it was all about. COTTON $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
 
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If we don't want to limit this question to states, but include territories too, then I would say Confederate Arizona. Probably the lowest number of casualties out of any Confederate territory or state, and minimal property destruction related to the Civil War.

Then again, Confederate Arizona effectively ceased to exist after 1862, so that might be the ultimate suffering from the Southern viewpoint...
 
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