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The combination of force generation capacity with employed doctrine mutually enabled the North and crippled the South. Through their preference for the offensive and a strategic need to demonstrate to the Europeans that the Union could not win, combined with strained sustainment that also contributed to desertion rates, Confederate generals faced attrition that far exceeded that of their generation capacity. Institutional capability, strategic narrative imperatives, and operational warfare conduct worked against one another for the South. Conversely, the Union generals tended to adopt more defensive postures and had more efficient and abundant sustainment, all of which worked with their greater generation capacity.