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I still believe that the only way that the Confederacy could have won the war (after Gettysburg and Vicksburg) would have been had Davis left Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee around Atlanta instead of transferring the command to that wild man, Hood. Ol' Joe was a good defensive general, one particularly needed around Atlanta; Hood, on the other hand, was offensive-minded ... bloodily so, losing a multitude of troops in the battles around Atlanta before he retreated.

If Ol' Joe could have held onto Atlanta until after the federal elections of '64, the Confederacy could have won by Lincoln losing to McClellan. Other than that, by that time in the war, I don't see any way that the Confederacy could have pulled out a victory.

I have to disagree with you on that. In the first place Sherman was at the doors of Atlanta when Hood was placed in charge. Keeping Johnston wouldn't have automatically translated into keeping Atlanta. With Atlanta, Sherman still heads for the sea. The only possible difference is Johnston may try and stop him but he hasn't the army for it.

Had McClellan won the election it still wouldn't have made a difference. In the first place, McClellan had backed away from his peace pledge during the campaign. And second, he would not have taken office until March 1865 anyway, so Lincoln would have pursed the war for a while yet. By March what was left of Lee's army was rotting away in Petersburg. Johnston is flailing away at Sherman who is near Savannah or else marching through South Carolina. The confederacy would still be on the ropes and not even McClellan would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by giving the south what they wanted.

the OTHER way would have been a vast offensive by partisans & guerrillas. we rebels could have held the wilderness & mountain areas of the country essentially forever;sooner or later the damnyankees would have given up trying to occupy our lands.

for dixie,sw