Actually, it was going quite well until Lincoln issued an executive order to acquire many thousands of inspired and motivated combatants for the blue side to replace the thousands upon thousands of blue deserters.
You're right though, the outcome was never really in question and to this day the South has never recovered from the utter destruction of their economy but especially, - the culture - and I'm not talking about a slave owning culture.
Never in the history of US armed conflict did the United States wipe out completely an enemy culture - the Germans, Japanese, - culture not only survived but flourished - Islam? - we currently celebrate all that is Islam. Why, we even have a muslim chief executive.
Tell me I haven't lived long enough.
we can’t recover still because we still carpet baggers here.
They ruin their states and now come here looking to ruin this state and yes the culture was destroyed after the war.
I see many southern kids today ho care nothing , can’t say sir or thank you and some think acting all ghetto is cool
Thankfully my kids know the war, correct those who do not , fly the flag and help out at the SCV
Never in the history of US armed conflict did the United States wipe out completely an enemy culture
...interesting comment, however, somewhat debatable...I agree that the vision of the antebellum south, which of course has been ridiculously romanticized by books and movies and tripe like GWTW, was dashed, but consider...chattel slavery as an economic lynchpin in a civilized country was doomed, even without fighting a war; the southern culture would have been sent reeling to its knees from its loss no matter the cause...and the corollary to slavery, segregation between the races...you’re not seriously suggesting that the war ended that, are you? Is that why we had governors standing in front of universities in the 1960’s trying to prevent blacks from entering as students, because segregation as a cultural norm was ended in 1865?
...and today, other than the disappearance of those two negative ethos, in what regard has Southern identity been obliterated? What exactly is it that you cannot do or think or say, as a Southerner, that I can simply because I’m a northerner? Are the Confederate states isolated by a massive fence, or do we pass through customs to get from Virginia into Maryland? And is the region entirely devoid of political and capital influence on Washington?
...to put it another way, does your vote count less than mine...?