I'm not surprised by a culture that thought its economy should be based on slave labor. They were not unlike the politicians today who think our economy should be based on illegal labor.
It's truly amazing how close the South came to winning the Civil War. Unless you read about people like General McClellan designing a blitzkrieg strategy and then implementing it as a sitzkrieg . . .
In 1864, Lincoln was abandoned by the Republican party and was certain he would lose the election. That gave him the motivation to win the war. Once Sherman took Atlanta the Republicans gave up and Lincoln won as the candidate of the National Union Party, a coalition of Some Republicans and War Democrats. W doesn't have it so bad with Reid and Pelosi.
. . . like he didn't have "motivation" to win the war before that?! Until he finally elevated Grant to General-in-chief, Lincoln constantly had to tell his generals to get moving. And it did little good. McClellan proposed the Peninsula Campaign as a quick end run which would outmaneuver Confederate forces and quickly take Richmond. But it entailed taking forces away from Washington, and didn't make sense unless you followed through quickly. But what McClellan then did was to chicken out and whimper that he needed more troops because the Confederates put up a good facade. McClellan even had an intelligence windfall which told him when Lee hadOnce Sherman took Atlanta the Republicans gave up and Lincoln won as the candidate of the National Union Party, a coalition of Some Republicans and War Democrats. W doesn't have it so bad with Reid and Pelosi.dividedfractured his forces, and what Lee's intentions were - and McClellan didn't move fast enough to prevent those forces from rejoining.
If GWB had been taking the kind of casualties that the Union Army took in the Civil War, and accomplishing no more by it than McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, and Meade had done, you would be looking for better leadership, too.