leftyhunter
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- May 27, 2011
- Location
- los angeles ca
[QUOTE="leftyhunter, post: 1547003, member: 4725"]Most of the battles the Confederacy was on the defensive. Of the major Confederate offensives in the border states and Northern states the Confederates failed. Has pointed out in the previous thread the Union Army had in most battles had a manpower superiority ratio of 1.86 to one. Has it has been pointed out numerous times the Confederacy lost territory each and every year of the war. Also in very few cases was the Confederacy able to retake lost territory.
The only examples that I can think of is Galveston, Texas which was negated by the loss of Vicksburg. Parts of Eastern Tennesse were taken back from General Burnside by General Breckenridge. Plymouth, North Carolina which was only a minor port .
Neither of the above Union loss's was serious for the Union.
Also has pointed out numerous times Holding out isn't winning.
Leftyhunter
Most of the battles were marked by savage Confederate attacks, even a counter attack is an offensive attack. With a combination of offense and defense and with all its manpower it still took the Federals 4 years to advance approximately 100 miles in Virginia.
We seem to agree on one point that the Confederate greatest challenge was to defend a vast territory with inferior numbers, all the Federals had to do was continually open new fronts and force the Confederates to spread out their limited manpower to defend them or often abandon them to the enemy altogether.[/QUOTE]
The Civil War was more then just the fight to capture Richmond. Again the Union had at best only a two to one manpower advantage. It had to capture a large land mass. The U.S. Army had less then sixteen thousand men spread out over the West when the war began. The Union Armt had a very significant counterinsurgency operations it had to undertake.
A four year victory is quite reasonable.
Leftyhunter