[Wombat101]

Speculation on your part, although there is no doubting the abilities of Stonewall Jackson. Whether he was the right man to lead the Confederate Army, though, is questionable.

Realistically, there was no way the South could win, given the North's advantages in industry, manpower, transportation and sea power. I'm reminded of Rossikovski's first dictum; "Amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics".

The scenario you depict would not have resulted in a peace treaty, in my opinion, but rather a longer, bloodier conflict with the same results.

[Wallace T.]

The North won despite being burdened with some of the most incompetent or timorous generals ever to wear American uniforms from George Washington's day to our own: Pope, Burnside, McClellan, for example. The Battle of Fredricksburg was one of the darkest days the United States armed forces have ever seen. The superior numbers and industrial base belonged to the North, but then again the 13 Colonies faced the full military force of Britain, the lone superpower of the late 18th Century, virtually alone. Yet they won American independence. What prevented the independence of the South was, above all things, the indomitable will of Abraham Lincoln. A lesser man would have sued for peace after the repeated setbacks of 1862. The second factor was the the Union's overall strategy, devised by Lincoln and General Winfield Scott: taking the border states, blockading the Southern ports, and seizing control of the lower Mississippi from New Orleans to Cairo. The third factor was the higher degree of competence of the Union command in the western theater. In the end, it was the western generals, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan who finally led the Union forces to victory.