The Day the South
Nearly Won the Civil War
War History Online,
by
Jim Stempel
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
3/17/2020 1:16:04 PM
It has become an accepted historical fact that the South could not have won the American Civil War. The North’s advantages in finance, population, railroads, manufacturing, technology, and naval assets, among others, are often cited as prohibitively decisive.
Yes, the South had the advantage of fighting on the defensive, this with interior lines, but those two meager pluses appear dwarfed by the North’s overwhelming strategic advantages, hence defeat virtually a foregone conclusion. But if strategic advantage alone was always decisive in warfare, then names like Marathon, Cowpens, Rorke’s Drift, and Cannae would today be meaningless, and they are not.
Indeed, there are times when the decided underdog wins in war,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DW626 3/17/2020 1:34:56 PM (No. 349041)
Very interesting, thanks for posting.
Battle plans go awry at first contact with the enemy.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
marbles 3/17/2020 1:48:09 PM (No. 349049)
The south never had a chance. They were producing cotton and tobacco while the north was busy turning out guns and ammo. The south never had a chance. This is why the USA should be 100% pharmaceutical independent. We are with energy and food, no reason the health and medical well being of our citizens should be in the control of an enemy.
10 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
ZeldaFitzg 3/17/2020 1:57:54 PM (No. 349057)
It is also generally accepted that we might have won had we seceded in 1850, when there was much unrest and much talk of secession. It was delayed by the Compromise of 1850, but only delayed . . . .
It was a tragic, horrible state of affairs, and I blame the politicians of both sides who stood on pride rather than reason in 1861. Knowing the personal tragedy it caused in most lines of my family, I can barely stand to think about it. Virtually all families in the South were touched in some way, with most families in the North being affected also.
16 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
JackBurton 3/17/2020 2:08:38 PM (No. 349067)
In the Peninsula campaign, McClellan won just about every round... and turned and fled like a scared rabbit. Lee shrugged off the losses and pressed attacks.
You want a real story? If McClellan hadn't been and idiot, he could have taken Richmond in that campaign.
Other than that, I really enjoyed the article. Good writing and good info.
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
StormCnter 3/17/2020 2:22:00 PM (No. 349076)
I'm with you, #4. I have yet to see the final chapter of Ken Burns' "The Civil War". It's just too painful.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
BillW. 3/17/2020 2:57:13 PM (No. 349110)
Save this link. All kinds of remarkable photos and writing throughout. Thanks for this. --Vets for Trump 2020
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 3/17/2020 2:58:22 PM (No. 349111)
Ego, pride and centuries-old battle tactics killed the South, especially at Gettysburg. If they had fought with hit-and-run raider tactics while the Yanks pulled their heavy cannons around they would have fared much better. A smarter policy would have been to pick their own danged cotton and made the cloth and clothing in factories in the South.
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Safari Man 3/17/2020 3:30:17 PM (No. 349138)
I'm still not giving up.
16 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
chumley 3/17/2020 3:49:05 PM (No. 349165)
As we have repeatedly seen since then, losing the war does not mean defeat. Nobody has been defeated until they admit they have been. See the presidential election of 2016 for a recent example.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
rushie 3/17/2020 4:41:50 PM (No. 349226)
If the North had General Lee, I think the war would not have gone on very long. Lincoln offered it to him; he couldn’t raise his sword against Virginia.
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 3/17/2020 5:43:13 PM (No. 349288)
#4-6 Even as a girl growing up in the L.A. area, I was always drawn to the Civil War and most sympathetic to the South. Perhaps it was seeing Gone With The Wind when I was 14, and being so enamored of the story I read it every summer. I took my BA in American history, particularly the Civil War.
When I was seventeen I was selected by the national Girl Scouts (1971 - when it was still the Girl Scouts) to be part of a national camp for 3 weeks outside Charleston SC. Most of the 200 girls were from the southern states, then from the north and Midwest, with just a smattering of us from out west. Every day at flag raising, after the National Anthem, we sang Dixie - ending with a rousing "The South Shall Rise Again!" One day we went into Charleston to see the Confederate Museum and visit Fort Sumpter.
That night in the dining hall after dinner, the southern and northern/Midwest girls began to identify their ancestors; citing their state, regiment, rank and the battles they fought. We westerners were fascinated, as we had no such familial roots to history. It was a good-natured rivalry as a Confederate veteran was honored and next a Union soldier. Then a girl from Georgia began to tell of the struggles of her great-grandmother and great aunts as they tried to survive the ruin of their civilization. I'm getting tears in my eyes even now remembering that night. Then other girls from Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama and from all over the south told the stories of their families. The northern and Midwest girls were silent and eventually melted away until only the southern girls and we westerners were left. I will never forget that night. It was then I decided that I would study the Civil War and try to understand and appreciate, as little as I may, the depth of that tragedy upon our country.
God bless you both and the blessed souls of your family who braved hell.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Pete Stone 3/17/2020 5:58:58 PM (No. 349308)
#4 may be right. The Compromise of 1850 included the Fugitive Slave Act, which basically exported slavery to the Free states. That enraged the Abolitionists. And Bleeding Kansas caused enormous animosity and hardened the positions of both sides.
Besides that, during the 1850's there were three Presidents in a row -- whether Whig or Democrat -- who kowtowed to the slaver interests. Maybe without the Compromise of 1850 an amicable parting would have been possible.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
worried 3/17/2020 7:26:25 PM (No. 349363)
#11, if Lee could see what's going on in Virginia now he would probably be the first to raise his sword against them. How times have changed!
7 people like this.
I don't even like reading it. We lived in a burned out county with a lot of records lost. Not a woulda coulda shoulda person. I do take immense insult by the legislature in VA today who want to take down statues of our ancestors. In that case MLK has to go too.
1 person likes this.
Sorry for second post. East of Richmond, we didn't raise cotton or tobacco. It was soy beans and corn (and kale). Tobacco would have been at Jamestown, but only at the beginning.
1 person likes this.
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