The main reason the South lost was that the Union unintentionally followed Winfield Scott's "anaconda strategy" of slowly choking off their resources and using the Northern industrial might to overwhelm them. Scott (forced to retire due to old age)was strategically superior to anyone else. That includes Robert E. Lee whom I have great admiration for.
BTW, didn't another old guy named Ronald Reagan pursue a similar strategy that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
He knew that it would take almost a year to build up his forces enough to challenge the Japanese in a full fleet offensive, so he adopted a hit-and-run strategy with Admiral Halsey that was absolutely brilliant. These slashing attacks with small carrier task forces kept the Japanese off balance and forced them to commit a number of stupid blunders. The only time we attempted to stop them with a show of force was the ABDA (Australian-British-Dutch-American) fleet action in the Java Sea that resulted in a crushing defeat for the Allies.
By the time the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway came around, the United States was in the midst of a massive rearmament and further risks could be taken to halt the Japanese advance. Even though the United States lost the carriers Lexington and Yorktown in these battles, they still had the Enterprise, Hornet, and Saratoga, with the Wasp and Ranger as backup, and they dealt a crippling blow to the Japanese Navy by sinking five carriers and crippling a sixth in these two engagements.