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As one Virginian expressed it: They never whipped us, Sir, unless they were four to one. If we had had anything like a fair chance, or less disparity of numbers, we should have won our cause and established our independence.

Succinct.

Succinct yes, accurate no. But it hardly matters, and if it serves to stoke Southern pride let it be.

The consensus among the scholars I've read is that the South may well have won - even a sustained stalemate would have constituted a victory - had it managed to break the blockade and establish commercial relationships with the European industrial powers of the time, specifically Britain. Cotton was still, in the 60s, sufficiently in demand to provide the cash necessary to offset much of the North's advantage in material; all that was lacking was the logistical chain necessary to provide it to the front.

Politically Europe was in an interim period at the time between the revolutions of 1848 and the Bismark/Napoleon III period. Whether a sustained European military intervention would have been possible is less certain, probably not on land where it was less necessary, probably so at sea courtesy of the Royal Navy, where it might have made a real difference. It was that last piece that constituted a real Northern diplomatic victory and probably shortened the war considerably. All IMHO and subject to (intense) debate, of course...

And incorrect.

Well the "Grand Army of the Potomac" in Virginia didn't win the war for the Union anyway it was General Sherman's "Grand Army of the West" which did. Sherman instead of fighting the Confederate army manuevered behind it and captured and burned all their supplies and they simply starved before they could catch him. After the march to the sea( and Sheridan's, who was in the Army of the Potomac's, Shenadoah campaign) supplying the army of Northern Virginia became impossible Lee's army deserted and starved.

As one Virginian expressed it: They never whipped us, Sir, unless they were four to one. If we had had anything like a fair chance, or less disparity of numbers, we should have won our cause and established our independence. Succinct.

Succinct, but not true. Gettysburg is a prime example. In each and every battle, victory on either side was determined by the better general combined with the state of his troops moral and confidence. Early in the war this fell mostly to the Confederates. Later, as the Union fielded better Generals and the troops gained confidence in them the tide swung.