 The Confederate Slave Oligarchy
The Confederate Slave Oligarchy knew what it wanted concerning its slaves, but gave little thought to the consequences of war and the logistics the South lacked to fight the war.
"Of course we'll fight--" "Yankee thieves--" "We could lick them in a month--" "Why, one Southerner can lick twenty Yankees--" "Teach them a lesson they won't soon forget__"
..."Stuart Tarleton, his red hair tousled and his eyes gleaming, repeated: "Why we could lick them in a month! Gentlemen always fight better than rabble. A month --why, one battle--"
"Gentlemen," said Rhett Butler,..."may I say a word?"
..."Has any one of you gentlemen ever thought that there's not a cannon factory south of the Mason-Dixon Line? Or how few iron foundries there are in the South? Or woolen mills or cotton factories or tanneries? Have you thought that we would not have a single warship and that the Yankee fleet could bottle up our harbors in a week, so that we could not sell our cotton abroad? But--of course--you gentlemen have thought of these things."
..."I have seen many things that you all have not seen. The thousands of immigrants who'd be glad to fight for the Yankees for food and a few dollars, the factories, the foundries, the shipyards, the iron and coal mines -all things we haven't got. Why, all we have is cotton and slaves and arrogance. They'd lick us in a month."
All this did not come to pass. But Margaret Mitchell in her book, 'Gone With The Wind' came closer to summing up the illusion of Southern victory. Southerners had properly assessed their valor; they were unable to assess their ability to logistically fight the war.  | 
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