Did the South Have a Chance- Response

I think that the South had somewhat of a chance of winning.They were in a very similar position to that of the colonists when fighting the British. The Confederates were just trying to prolong the war to the point that the Union would no longer think the fight was worth the reward and let them be a free country. With this mentality, they would not necessarily have to gamble and win big battle, but take small victories and keep themselves from having to surrender. The main thing that the Confederates had going for them was the fact that they had the better generals and more experienced soldiers. The general of their army, Robert E. Lee was, at the time, the most famous and respected general in the Union and Confederacy. Though they may not have had more soldiers, they had civilians that knew how to handle a gun which made training a lot easier for them when it came time to raise a militia. They were also drastically undermanned. They had less than half the population of the Union, and 3.5 of their 9 million people were slaves. Many plantation owners would not give up their slaves to go fight in the battle leaving General Lee to work with a small army in comparison to that of the Union.  Another thing that the South had going for them was that they were not fighting to win, but just the defend their territory. This meant that they would not have to move as many troops and knew the terrain better than the Northern soldiers that know little about the grounds that they are going to be fighting on. The final, and probably most important thing that the South had going for them was their motivation. Slavery is what they thrived on and would do anything to keep that for themselves. The North was just fighting because that was they had been told to do. Even though the South had all of this going for them, the North still had more advantages such as public systems, factories, and better leadership in Abraham Lincoln. With all this information coming into play, one can see that the South had a chance, but never would have been selected as the favorite to win that war.