What if the Confederacy....

[whitworth]

at the start of the war had realized it could not make rails for its railroads and support the necessary transportation of supplies for the war effort.

Would they have reconsidered secession and its costs?

Margaret Mitchell got the Confederacy in her sights, when in her "fictonal work" she wrote that the South had its cotton, its slaves and its arrogance.

Anyone who ignored rails and their manufacture was clueless about the ability of the Confederacy to win the war. It's one of the more painful episodes in my study of Confederacy logistics.

[samgrant]

I'd say there were multiple issues that the Sucessionists had not realistically considered before they jumped ahead with it. Infrastructure as related to making a war just one of those.

[mobile_96]

Originally Posted by whitworth

at the start of the war had realized it could not make rails for its railroads and support the necessary transportation of supplies for the war effort.
Anyone who ignored rails and their manufacture was clueless about the ability of the Confederacy to win the war. It's one of the more painful episodes in my study of Confederacy logistics.

I don't believe they even considered there would be a fight. If you look at the history of Southern demands going back to late 1700's, the North backed down in many cases (not all of course, but many), so what would make the Southern radicals think things would be any different on the issue of Sucession.

Besides, since each reb could defeat 8 or more yanks-in their own minds that is, who was going to be brave enought to oppose them. :-)
Chuck in IL.

[larry_cockerham]

At the beginning of the war, none of these folks had a grasp of which railroads might come into play, aside from northern Virginia and that was such a small area that marching could prevail and even then the war was thought to be of short duration. In the southern states of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee the rails were just being built. The main line from Nashville to Decatur was used very sparinging by the armies. It simply wasn't on their path of movement, except for the Army of Tennessee in 1864 who had no trains. The line that was used by the Army of Tennessee moving east from *******n to Charlotte and Raleigh was only partially complete in 1864. The Confederate army was there last with the least in terms of infrastructure.

[ole]

Arrogance about sums it up. Kinda like throwing a pair of dice and knowing you'll come up with at least a 10.

Ole

[matthew mckeon]

I second what larry says about railroads. Both North and South were thinking, at first, in terms of a big battle, a Waterloo, that would settle everything. Only a few perceptive men realized the war would last for years.