What if Lee had won Gettysburg and taken Washington DC?
Would that have made the Union surrender?
How feasible was it?
>>573202
The Union would have had a crippling loss of morale. There would have been rallies for a peace deal with the South, they probably would give up Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky as well as some Western states in return for a peace deal.
>>573202
>What if Lee had won Gettysburg and taken Washington DC?
Are you retarded? A victory in Pennsylvania wouldn't destroy the garrison in D.C. or give the Confederates the logistical ability to settle in for a siege.
>How feasible was it?
A victory in Gettysburg? Certainly feasible. Leading to a total Union collapse and the fall of D.C.? Not feasible at all.
>>573304
It would've done a great deal of damage to Union morale though, which was already low enough. In all honesty though, I think it would've been better if the South stuck to a defensive strategy rather than risk the invasion.
Nothing.
Union will just levy more Irish to fight for them.
>>573867
Vicksburg would have propped morale back up.
> I think it would've been better if the South stuck to a defensive strategy rather than risk the invasion.
In all honest,y I think the south is boned no matter what they do. Their entire strategy was based around repeating the experience of the American Revolution, ignoring that the Union has a lot less of a logistical constraint than the British did, not having to project force across an ocean, as well as a much, much higher level of commitment, since the South is viewed as an integral part of the United States.
>>574476
This. The confederates were boned from the outset by simple logistics. The fact that the war lasted as long as it did is a testament to the awesome leadership they had, but if you look at where almost all of the battles of the war happened (in the CSA) it becomes clear that the Confederates could not have won that conflict.
What's the best Book on the Civil War out there? Preferably without a bias on either side