quote:
The Union controlled the Ohio River from the beginning of the war and they also controlled Kentucky. The Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers both empty into the Ohio in Western Kentucky. Both rivers were navigable for more than half way upstream. For the Cumberland that was Nashville. For the Tennessee it was Florence/Muscle Shoals. When you can drop 40,000 men into Nashville close to the geographical center of the Confederacy with relative ease that should have alarmed Davis and Lee. When you could then float down the Tennessee o the Alabama/Tennessee/ Mississippi border and en move another 60,000 men into that area. It's a huge problem....add to it that Farragut is taking New Orleans at he same time, the South has a major problem and the battles in Virginia just become a needless but bloody exercise in futility.

Those are really good points. The insurgents held Nashville less than a year. Tennessee was exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation entirely because Union forces were all over it.

There is this myth about the Rebellion not at all grounded in facts. Far from "You fought all the way Johnny Reb," it was: "We could hardly keep you in ranks, Johnny Reb." As much as one quarter of Lee's army on the Incursion into Maryland was absent, straggling, or gone home. The Richmond government went to a Draft a full year before the Federals did. As much as 1/3 of the Rebel army were drafted and many reenlisted to avoid the ignominy of -being- drafted. It was hard for the rich planters to sell the poor whites on the idea -- " The government is trampling your rights!" And then draft them, or force them back into service after being paroled by the federals.

The rebs enlisted a bunch of guys for 12 months. They were not inclined to stay past that. They were forced to stay, arbitrarily reenlisted. The federals signed up many of the original lot for -3- years. So they had a big mass of guys, especially in the Army of the Potomac, many thousands, whose terms expired in the Summer of 1864. The bulk of them voluntarily reenlisted that summer and probably saved the country by doing so.

In late March 1865, Lee lost half his "ration strength" in ten days, from 60K to 30K. At the same time, rebel forces in North Carolina refused to leave the state.

The facts are not very comforting. I guess the myth is better.

Bruce Catton's monumental trilogy is still a great source.