In my opinion, no I do not think that the south had a chance at winning the Civil War. First of all the Union had many more advantages than the Confederacy had. If you take a look in the textbook on pg. 484 of the history textbook, there are multiple pie charts showing the relative strength of the Union and the Confederacy in terms of population and industry. With just a glance, you can see that the Union obviously had better resources/advantages.
The Union had many advantages unlike the confederacy. The North had a whopping amount of about 22 million people at this time, while the South had only 9 million people even with the 3.5 million slaves added to their population. Also, the North had about 85% of the nation's factories and more than double the amount of railroad mileage when compared to the South. To further prove my point, the North had all of the naval power and shipyards too. Although these advantages I have stated were great and extremely helped the North, the North's greatest advantage was Lincoln. Lincoln was definitely a key factor that led the Union to be superior to the Confederacy.
Although the Union clearly had more advantages than the Confederacy, the confederacy wasn't totally hopeless. They had some advantages over the Union just not as much as the Union had over them. The South had better generals/leaders (e.g.:Robert E. Lee), and the advantage of a defensive war. The South also had the advantage of fighting on their own land, better-trained military in terms of weapon use, and a reason for actually fighting. (motivation) Even though both had useful advantages, when it comes down to who I think had a better a better chance in winning the Civil War, the Union would certainly be my answer.
Without a doubt, I think the Civil War was not necessary. Both sides could have have easily talked it out further and made compromises where everyone got some of what the wanted. If the North let the confederacy to exist any longer, other nations throughout the world would look at the U.S. as weak. And if the U.S. fought with each other in this early of a stage in America's development, they would also be viewed as weak and full of conflict in the eye's of other nations. So, as you can see, the Union and confederacy should have avoided war and just talked it out with each other. In this way, they could have spared many lives also.
Honestly, I do not see how both sides could have worked out a compromise and avoided war. If you look at events like Bleeding Kansas and Harper's Ferry, a lot of blood was shed even before. Both side's beliefs were totally different, and in this case, compromise is nearly impossible. However, I do agree that the North had more advantages but the South had better generals.
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