[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp: "It may not have continued had Gettysburg went the other way.
I think that is the man’s point. "

Doodledawg: "Why would losing Gettysburg been any more destructive than losing Chancellorsville?
Had Lee won at Gettysburg what really would have changed?
He still goes back South."

Important point to remember here is that Union General George Mead didn't want to fight at Gettysburg,didn't think he could win there and at the moment of victory, Pickett's charge, Mead was in the UNion rear organizing its expected retreat.

Mead had in mind where he really wanted to fight Lee, and was readying that position in case of need.
Point is, Mead was ready to fight a second big battle if needed, but Lee absolutely was not.

[central_va]

Unknown to the Union forces after the failed attack on Cemetery ridge was that the Confederate re-supply train, with very much needed artillery ammo, was still 45 minutes from reaching Seminary ridge. During that 45 minutes the Union would have had a very successful counter attack and would probably had crippled/routed the Army of NoVa terribly.

[DiogenesLamp]

I don't pay much attention to the history of the battles. They do not speak to the moral and legal issues surrounding the moral and legal right to leave a Union voluntarily joined.

The civil war was about might making right. Not about objective right.