I've often thought about how the South was such an under dog when entering this war. They didn't come close to the factoryies, shipyards and the like.........and to be able to hold the North off for 4 years is a testament to those men and their commanders.
yep...
the Union had capable commanders, but they weren't facing Lee and they were hamstrung by politics and DC.
The same thing happened to US in Vietnam about 100 years later.....except the numbers and the battles were much more lopsided to the US that time around.....