CS war secretary George Randolph is the central figure in causing the defeat of the confederacy. His poorly thought out conscript act created lasting damage when all that was needed was to increase the period Militia could be call up for federal service from 90 days to 2 or 3 years. He labored under the misguided assumption that the war secretary was something more than an administrator. His order to Holmes which lead to his[Randolph] resignation would have cost the confederacy the trans Mississippi if carried out.
Randolph must rate as the weakest performer of all the CS war secretaries.
Any opinions on GR?
I don't think it's fair to blame anyone individual for the defeat of the Confedracy. The Confedracy lost because the Confedracy was a stupid idea to begin with. Never go to war with a larger opponent and where forty percent of the population is enslaved or at best not enslaved but treaded like dirt. That gives the other side a chance to utlize the oppressed forty percent.
Secessionists were stupid enough to think cotton was king with out taking into account Western Europe could and did buy cotton from other regions and the Union could and did seize Southern land to grow and export cotton to Western Europe.
No this is not 20/20 hindsight as Sam Houston and William Sherman already knew the outcome of the ACW even before it occurred. More then a few slave owners knew Secession was a stupid idea but the Secessionists were stupid and stupidity has consequences.
Leftyhunter
And I’d like to remark that the Union recruited colored troops,yes, but the majority of the enslaved people weren’t “utilized” against the Confederacy (or let themselves being utilized) - as far as I can judge I’d say that the enslaved people were anything but the decisive factor in overturning the Confederacy. There are seemingly a lot of reasons why it turned out that way but... well.... one of the things I read about was that the Union army didn’t treat African people always that nice (especially in the first years of the war)...(maybe they just chose a known evil over something they received at times mixed reports about...) and of course as long as the Confederacy wasn’t decisively beaten it was obviously far too dangerous to switch sides for enslaved people...
And also this point is comparable to the War of Independence - the British enlisted also the help of the enslaved people wherever that was feasible...and lost.
I would disagree and say African Americans played a decisive role in defeating the Confedracy. Every liberated slave is one less worker for the Confedracy. African Americans played a key role in building fortifications logistics and growing cotton that the US could export. Freed slaves could replace the labor lost by men enlisting in the Union Army. Enslaved people fled their masters when the opportunity arose. Escaping a Plantation was dangerous due to slave patrols with vicious dogs to track them down and it's not easy finding food or shelter.
The British lost the ARW not because their freed slaves didn't fight well but more due to fighting a two fry war on the Indian Subcontinent and in Colonial America the British had to fight the French and Spanish as well as the Colonial Rebels.
My pot about the British Army recruiting slaves is that the Confedrate leadership was to stupid to forsee that President Lincoln could do what Major Dunsmore did eighty odd years earlier.
Are you suggesting the USCT and previous freed slaves were the reason for the Union victory in the ACW and British loss of the American Revolution, respectively?
How did you come to that conclusion? My point was simply that the Confedrate leadership was stupid because they didn't take into account that President Lincoln simply couldn't do what Major Dunsmore did eighty odd years earlier and offer the oppressed African Americans the chance to fight for their freedom. Yes absolutely African Americans played a critical role in the defeat of the Confedracy.
Leftyhunter