Such a statement neglects the entire trans-mississippi theater of the war. Confederates won major one sided victories in many battles there. The most notable are Mansfield and Sabine Pass.
Neither of those was a major success. Despite the myth, the rebels didn't do a very good job. Winning their independence should have been relatively easy, but they muffed it.
It's often noted how the seige warfare at Petersburg presaged the trench fighting in World War One. No WWI general gets a very good press, and yet Lee is lionized as this great general when he had all the cards of waxing defensive power against waning offensive power on his side.
Of course he showed his grasp of modern offense when he ordered the attack on 7/3/63.
Walt
Yes they were, Walt. Fibbing about them won't go away. The victory at Mansfield turned back an army comparable in size and importance to any in the east save the largest of the large forces in Virginia.
Mansfield turned back a 45,000 men invasion force along with the largest inland fleet of warships ever assembled on the North American continent (58 in total).
Sabine Pass prevented the landing of a planned 25,000 men invasion force along with 20 warships.
By any reasonable standards, both were glaring defeats for the yankees of significant consequence to their battle plans.
Despite the myth, the rebels didn't do a very good job.
4 years and 350,000 dead yankees from a better equiped, better funded, and better manned invasion army says otherwise. The Lincoln and his cohorts thought it would all be a quick march south to Richmond - a few weeks at most. They took four long years.