You really need to study some history before you post nonsense. Lack of motivation for the cause had absolutely nothing to do with the Confederacy’s defeat. If anything the South was much more united in support of its cause than the North. The South’s only real hope of winning, in fact, was reliant upon this division. The idea of going to war to prevent secession was Lincoln’s goal, but neither that idea nor Lincoln himself were particularly popular at the beginning of the war. This became even more pronounced with the seemingly endless string of Southern military victories in the Eastern theater. The South’s best chance to win was to parley those victories into increased Nothern opposition to the war and force a negotiated peace recognizing an independent Confederacy. It was only Union successes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg that began to turn the tide. Sherman’s occupation of Savannah then ensured Lincoln’s re-election and the eventual Northern victory.
The a South lost primarily because of the larger population and industrial base of the North. It is true that lack of state cooperation with Davis’s government hampered the war effort, but that lack was due to the adherence of states to the cause, not opposition. The Confederacy was founded on the basis of preservation of slavery and maintenance of states rights. The insistence of states on maintaining control of their own troops often was harmful to the war effort, but was a consequence of the cause, not an abandonment of it. Some soldiers certainly began deserting late in the war, but that was a consequence of the defeat that they saw was inevitable, not a cause of that defeat.
Really? No lack of arrogance on your part, is there?
Lack of motivation for the cause had absolutely nothing to do with the Confederacy’s defeat. If anything the South was much more united in support of its cause than the North.
And yet it was the North who held together and won.
The idea of going to war to prevent secession was Lincoln’s goal, but neither that idea nor Lincoln himself were particularly popular at the beginning of the war.
I submit that once the South started the war then the Union united to a greater extent than the South did.
This became even more pronounced with the seemingly endless string of Southern military victories in the Eastern theater. The South’s best chance to win was to parley those victories into increased Nothern opposition to the war and force a negotiated peace recognizing an independent Confederacy. It was only Union successes at Gettysburg and Vicksburg that began to turn the tide.
I would submit that it was actually the prior year, when Lee was defeated at Antietam and Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, that guaranteed the rebel defeat because that ended forever any chance that Great Britain, or any other European power, would recognize Confederate independence or interfere in the Confederate side.
But I really need to study some history so what the heck do I know, right?
The a South lost primarily because of the larger population and industrial base of the North.
The colonists faced a larger population and a larger industrial base in Great Britain and yet the wanted their independence enough to overcome those obstacles and win their rebellion. The Southern state made poor decision after poor decision and by the end and lost their desire to win. That is the basic difference between the two 'American Revolutions'.
The insistence of states on maintaining control of their own troops often was harmful to the war effort, but was a consequence of the cause, not an abandonment of it.
Nonsense. Davis took control of the state troops when he passed conscription in 1862 and extended all enlistments for the duration of the war. It was the Union where states retained control. The Union army could have faded away to nothing in 1864 when the three year enlistments ran out. Yet the overwhelming majority re-enlisted and served to the end.