[Non-Sequitur]

The better policy would be not to have entered into rebellion at all. In fact, the Northern strategy during the first few years of the war were designed to limit the suffering of southern people and the damage to southern property. With rare exception this policy was followed. Who knows? Had the North followed Sherman's and Sheridan's policies in 1862 then maybe the war would have been over by 1863?

[lentulusgracchus]

The better policy would be not to have entered into rebellion at all. In fact, the Northern strategy during the first few years of the war were designed to limit the suffering of southern people and the damage to southern property. With rare exception this policy was followed. Who knows? Had the North followed Sherman's and Sheridan's policies in 1862 then maybe the war would have been over by 1863?

Your suggestion that the South shouldn't have seceded -- and I see that you are adhering, with totalitarian discipline, to the word "rebellion" -- is a reasonable one, since the Southern leadership, like Lincoln, left options on the table short of war. Voting as a bloc in the Congress, they could have stymied Lincoln for four years, and awaited the accession of another president before exercising their right to secede. Perhaps any Northern president would have fought as hard as Lincoln did (as Sam Houston predicted to his doubting Texas neighbors). Perhaps economic reality, operating on the movers and shakers of Northern society, would have inevitably impelled any president that they could command, to organize an army to compel the South to yield and obey.

Nevertheless, given what happened later, it's easy to second-guess the Southern leaders and say that their impetuousness was unseasonable and their preparations incomplete and careless. Texas could have exercised her treaty right to subdivide into more states -- that would have bought the South time to prepare to leave in an orderly fashion. After all, they had the right to elect a president who wouldn't oppose secession, just as the North had the right to elect a president who proposed to whip the South.

[stand watie]

the best policy for the damnyankees would have been to say, "we celebrate your FREEDOM, southerners. and we look forward to trading with your new republic."

of course, that assumes that the damnyankees HAVE BRAINS & can THINK!

southrons KNOW BETTER than that!

free dixie,sw