big surprise, HUH??
free the southland NOW,sw
With no disrespect to southern arms and valor, they pretty much had to be. The attacker back then had to have considerable numerical and logistical advantage.
Good Lord - the North had to subdue and occupy an area almost the size of Western Europe. That would have been a tall order for any industrialized power at that time.
But I would agree that the South fought longer and exacted a higher cost of the North than might otherwise have been the case. Southerners willingly paid an appalling cost for their cause, and they enjoyed better military tactical leadership in the first years of the war.