>>17861456
>The CSA not only had no chance to win but they began losing territory within two months of Ft. Sumter being bombarded

*laughs in Revolutionary War*
*laughs in Vietnam War*
*laughs in Soviet-Afghan and American-Afghan Wars*

I'm not saying it would have been easy or that it could have been won with a single battle alà Gettysburg/Antietam (if anything, the obsession with seeking a decisive battle arguably doomed the Southern cause) but the Confederacy absolutely could have won. It just would have come at an incredibly grievous cost.

Also something like the Trent Affair being mishandled and blowing up in the Union's face could have completely changed the dynamic of the war and made it a global conflict as opposed to a regional one (granted, that would be dependent on events out of the Confederacy's control).

>There were no major Confederate battlefield successes outside Virginia except for Chickamauga which was a Pyrrhic victory

Red River campaign was an absolute ROFLstomp

>35,000 Union troops
>6,000-10,000 Confederate troops (number of troops available varied widely)
>result - Confederate victory, lengthened the war by delaying the capture of Mobile, Alabama until 1865