[Reaganwuzthebest]

Was this contest hopeless against the great resources of the North? We shall have more to say on this, and it can be argued that the war could have been won by the South...

Yes the South could have won if they had fought a guerilla style war, other than that they didn't have a chance. The North had all the men and the cannon.

The only thing that kept it going as long as it did was the North had terrible generals.

[SAMWolf]

The South could only have won by breaking the will of the North to continue the war.

No matter how many battles the South won until the North was willing to call it quits there was no chance of a Southern military victory over the North. The South didn't want to conquer the North anyway, they just wanted to be let go.