Confederates Win! If Stonewall doesn't die.

[Diane_Windsor]

What say you?

Don't know. Since Stonewall did die then it's all speculation.

 

[GrinningDwarf]

Don't know. Since Stonewall did die then it's all speculation.

You just don't get the 'alternate reality' concept, huh? It's all about 'would-a, could-a, should-a'. History folks play the game all the time.

 

[stephenc]

I suppose this is based on Lee's supposed remark about Gettysburg:

"If Stonewall had been here, we'd have won.", or something like that.

We know nothing of the never was; but personally I don't think the South could ever have "won" the civil war without some kind of fluke circumstance occuring, i.e. some antagonism with Britain over searching cargo vessels breaks out into hostility, or some other incident.

The North simply had more resources; and the south never really "brought the battle" to Northern soil, Gettysburg aside.

For what it's worth, I also believe the North had a superior moral force; and that it was a good thing for the world that they did win.

 

[footballfanatic]

Another Confederate General who defeated Union Generals Grant, Colburn, and others and who was famous for the Holly Raid, is General Earl Van Dorn and there is a decent case to be made that if he had not been assasinated that the war could have ended differently. History can be fascinating.

 

[USincognito]

In Burns' masterpiece, Shelby Foote points out that the Union fought the war with one hand held behind it's back. The annual Harvard/Yale regatta was held every year during the war for example. If the war had started going truly badly, the Union would just have pulled that second arm out.