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The Southern elites probably felt strongly they would "win" early. The sheer incompetence of the Union army in the early battles suggest to me that there were
by mywittyname 4y ago
The Southern elites probably felt strongly they would "win" early. The sheer incompetence of the Union army in the early battles suggest to me that there were some sympathies in the Union leadership and this was probably common knowledge.
They probably intended this to be a little tussle to show everyone they were serious.
- wishfish 4y agoOh definitely they thought they would win early and easily. They were a bit delusional. They thought solely of heroic battles winning everything through sheer courage, cleverness, and grit. And didn't think about what it meant for a largely agrarian society to go up against a highly industrialized one. But it's interesting how they lost control of the situation over time. Not just in the battlefield defeats and the industrial machine crushing them. But also in other ways. The Confederate government was short of everything and turned towards a centralized economy to produce what it needed. The elites found themselves constrained by the wartime needs. By 1865, they were planning on arming black men to fight in the Confederate forces. Had this plan succeeded, it would have meant the end of slavery in the Confederacy. The very reason why the war was started by the elites in the first place.