(07-15-2014 04:41 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The war was decided by logistics. Like most wars are. The north's industrial might was always going to outperform the south's by a wide margin and sooner or later that was always going to win the war.

You want to talk about things that would have changed the outcome? Maybe if Birmingham had gotten started 60 years sooner

I see a lot of this and it displays a lack of knowledge of the actual history. Lincoln expected to lose the 1864 elections and McClellan would have given the South independence. But Sherman won Atlanta in time.

Had Davis not replaced Joe Johnston, Sherman may have still been bottled up outside Atlanta in November 1864 and McClellan would have won the election. For that matter, if General McPherson had not given his life rallying his troops, the Confederates may have won the Battle of Atlanta and held the city, costing Lincoln the election.

Had General Custer not lead his outnumbered charge stopping Jeb Stuart's cavalry attack in the rear of Cemetery Ridge, Pickett's charge may have succeeded in crushing the Union army at Gettysburg. Had the 1st Minnesota not done their doomed charge the day before giving time for Union reinforcements, the Union army would have been routed on the 2nd day at Gettysburg.

Had bad weather not meant AS Johnston took 3 days to march from Corinth instead one, he may have destroyed Grant's army at Shiloh before reinforcements arrived. Not only would the situation in the west been much different, but Grant and Sherman would have been out of the war.

Of course, McClellan blew several opportunities to end the war earlier.