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To: stainlessbanner
Vicksburg, not Gettysburg, was the turning point in the Civil War.

Chattanooga sealed it.

Once U.S. Grant took Vicksburg, and then was placed in overall command, the question was only "when" the north won, not "if".

It was U.S. Grant's victories in the western theater that decided the war, the eastern theater simply garners more attention. One was a true "theater" of war, the other was simply a series of indecisive battles taking place over a less than 100 mile stretch of ground.

7 posted on 06/05/2003 7:32:18 AM PDT by Im Your Huckleberry
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To: Im Your Huckleberry
Maybe so, but if Jubal Early had been able to take Washington...
26 posted on 06/05/2003 11:59:39 AM PDT by Frumious Bandersnatch
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To: Im Your Huckleberry
Your point is valid and well stated. However, it's still possible to wonder what would have happened if Lee had routed the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg and then taken a clear road into Washington. It seems from what I've read that his invasion of Pennsylvania was intended to accomplish just such a knockout blow. The North may have decided that suing for peace and recognition of the Confederacy were the only options left to them.
28 posted on 06/05/2003 12:11:07 PM PDT by katana
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To: Im Your Huckleberry
"Vicksburg, not Gettysburg, was the turning point in the Civil War."

While I agree with you from a tactical standpoint, I disagree from a strategic and political standpoint. Had Lee won at Gettysburg the political climate would most likely have forced the north to sue for peace on terms recognizing the south as a soverign entity. I don't beieve the morale of the north could have tolerated another major defeat in the eastern theater, especially if Lee had followed up a victory at Gettysburg with a march against Washington. Sometimes political considerations mean more in a war than pure military might. For example, the US never lost a major battle in Vietnam but still lost the war.

32 posted on 06/05/2003 12:41:40 PM PDT by joebuck
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To: Im Your Huckleberry
"Vicksburg, not Gettysburg, was the turning point in the Civil War."

I agree with your overall assessment, but a Federal defeat at Gettysburg, with the possibility of a Confederate advance on Baltimore, Philadelphia, and/or Washington DC would have resulted recognition of the Confederate States by Britain and France and, ultimately, I believe, in a Federal surrender and the end of the war before Grant and Sherman could have come East to save it.

The other possible turning point might have been a more successful delay in Sherman's advance against Atlanta by Joe Johnston. It's possible (and the subject of several "what-if" novels) that such a delay of the Fall of Atlanta and the March through Georgia might have resulted in a McClellan administration and a cease-fire that would, in the end, have led to separate countries.

84 posted on 06/06/2003 3:29:10 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsenspåånkængruppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
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To: Im Your Huckleberry
So say the military strategists. The strategic axis was Tenn. to Atlanta. The political axis Washington/Richmond.
94 posted on 06/06/2003 6:09:02 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (Further, the statement assumed)
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