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452 Southern preparations. Union forces, the reason is obvious. The eleven States eventually leagued in rebellion embraced a territorial area of 733,144 square miles, equal to the combined areas of Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. These States had a sea-coast line of 3525 miles, and an interior border line of 7031 miles. The war on their part was mainly defensive, while on the part of the United States it was necessary, not only to enter and overrun the rebellious territory, but permanently to hold and subdue it. At every step this necessitated leaving behind garrisons and detachments to secure communications, as well as to control the disaffected districts after they had been gained by marches, sieges, or battles. Equal popular enthusiasm and equal official energy were shown in the Confederate States in raising armies to support the rebellion, but not with equal results. In the personal qualities of warlike spirit, courage, and devotion to what each side considered a righteous cause, Americans of both the South and the North were equal. In mere terri- torial area the opposing sections were not greatly unequal, but in war strength there was a striking difference. By the census of 1860 the North had a population of nineteen millions, the South of only eight million whites and four million slaves. Here was at once an immense disparity, nineteen millions against eight millions more than two to one in that first military requisite, men available for recruits , for at the beginning none but white men were enlisted on either side. A similar, if not greater, disparity in favour of the North existed in almost all other military needs and resources. Since the organisation of the Confederate government in February, four calls had been made for Southern volunteers, amounting to an aggregate of 82,000. In his message of April 29 to the Secessionist Congress, President Davis proposed to organise and hold in readiness an army of 100,000 men. Volunteer enlistments for a term of twelve months were provided for ; but before the expiration of a year Southern volunteering had so far ceased that the Confederate Congress passed a Conscription Act, placing all white men within prescribed ages in the military service, to be enrolled and called out at the discretion of the Confederate president. Recruits were incorporated into the Confederate service whenever and in whatever numbers they could be obtained; and under such a system it is not surprising that no statistics could be preserved. Practically the war lasted four years, from the fall of Sumter to the surrender of Lee at Appomattox and Johnston at Raleigh, though minor engagements and surrenders occurred later. There were fought in all over 2000 battles and skirmishes, extending east and west from Virginia to Texas, and north and south from Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico, though the principal area of conflict lay between Chesapeake Bay and the Mississippi river. It has been estimated that there were 112 land battles, in which one side or the other lost over 500 in