[carton253]

Had VA been abandoned, and the western Confed. been pulled into the Mississippi line, it would have been enormously difficult for the North to have won.

Do you think that happened because Jefferson Davis never had control over all the armies of the CSA?

[LS]

I won't blame ol' Jeff entirely: it was a fait d'accompli. NO REBEL LEADER could sacrifice Virginia or Texas, even for the cause of victory, because it would have been so devastating psychologically. I don't think the rest of the Confederacy psychologically would have recovered, though militarily it would have been the smart thing to do---virtually what Czar Alexander did to Napoleon in 1812.