I'm reading about the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, and the mind took a detour along other lines.
That happens when one looks out the windows, seeing nothing but snow.
Of all the northern states, which northern state contributed the most to victory in the Civil War? And of the southern states, which southern state contributed the most to trying to win the Civil War?
In terms of proportions of resources--human, industrial, financial, and morale.
It strikes me that Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, contributed a greater proportion of their tinier resources to the northern cause, than did the great big huge behemothic New York, for example.
In fact, given all the trouble New York caused the northern states, New York's contribution was probably negative for the northern cause, if one compares what they gave to it (men and money) with what they took away from it (obstructionism, resistence).
What surprises me on the southern side is the paltry contribution "big" states such as Arkansas and Texas gave to that cause; unlike New Yorkers on the other side, they weren't against the war or anything, but it seems they contributed hardly anything.
Because of geography, probably Missouri was the northern state that suffered the most damage, military and civilian, and Virginia the southern state.
I just thought I would throw this out, to see where it goes, compared with where similar threads elsewhere went. For the record, I have no dog in this fight; in 1861, there were only a few hundred white men here in Nebraska, nearly all of them half-breeds of Indians and Frenchmen.