re: 158 years ago this evening, Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own men...

Like others have said, the US could out produce the south. Still. It makes for a lot of interesting premises.

Harry Turtledove has like five different universes were the south won and how. All intersecting. His best selling was the one where time travelers supplied the south with crates of AK-47s.

The longest series the south won, then lost badly in a second war. Then WW1 was centered in America as was WW2.
In that series the Civil War takes 80 years to finish.

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Lee's main objective was to draw the Union army into battle. Once that battle commenced, there would be no turning back. He would have followed Meade into Maryland and would have either a) attempted to maneuver Meade out of his Pipe Creek position or b) attacked.

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Agree again. Lee would have been better served to keep tANoVa in the Cumberland Valley and proceed towards Baltimore further stirring anti-war sentiment. But he was a man of action. Once he regained the use of his cavalry (something we have not even discussed) he would have pursued Meade where ever he went. It was just the way Lee was.

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Vicksburg could have been the turning point, not Gettysburg. Hold it, bleed Grant and send everything they could there to Johnston to strike him from the rear. Force him to abandon the siege or bleed him dry.

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This is what Longstreet wanted to do. He was opposed to the Pennsylvania plan at the outset because he felt like the war would be won or lost along the Mississippi River and in Tennessee. He had CSA Secretary of War James Seddon agreeing with this proposal but then Lee sojourned to Richmond to argue his case for another invasion of the North and that was that.

Longstreet is without a doubt the most underrated military commander of the Civil War. He has long been remembered as a defensive general who preferred digging in to attacking. People forget, however, that he launched some of the most violent assaults of the entire war.

1. Gaines' Mill - Robert E. Lee's only victory during the Seven Days' Campaign.
2. Second Manassas - Longstreet launched the largest mass assault of the war with 24,000 men going in at once.
3. Gettysburg - Longstreet launched a ferocious assault on the left end of the Union line that he called the best fighting any army had ever done in three or four hours. He also launched Pickett's Charge - the most famous assault of the entire war.
4. Chickamuaga - Longstreet launched the assault that broke the Union line on the afternoon of the battle's second day, causing the Union army to collapse and retreat toward Chattanooga.
5. The Wilderness - Longstreet launched a massive assault reminiscent of Jackson's at Chancellorsville. The attack caused the collapse of the Union left flank under Hancock, who commented to Longstreet after the war: "You rolled me up like a wet blanket." The assault might have won the battle outright for the Confederacy if not for Longstreet being severely wounded by his own men, killing the attack's momentum in the process.

Longstreet's reputation with southerners suffered heavily after the war due to his politics. He became a Republican and worked hand-in-hand with the Johnson and Grant administrations during the military occupation of the South.

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Longstreet is without a doubt the most underrated military commander of the Civil War.

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Agree. He spent considerable time working on ratios of attackers to defenders; impact of fortifications on the mathematics of attack and defense. It goes a long way to explain his successes in attack and defense and why Lee should have heeded Longstreet’s reluctance to continue at Gettysburg after the Federal troops gained and held the high ground of the fishhook.

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Had the Rebs figured a way to supply that garrison

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There was no way.

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Vicksburg could have been the turning point

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Mississippi was already in flames by the time Grant arrived at Vicksburg.

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I'm not a Civil War buff at all, but even I know this is a dumb take.

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Shelby Foote makes a case for it

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It would have been interesting to see how he responded during the first day of Gettysburg. Would he have given Lee a tactical advantage that was lost by his other commanders, particularly Ewell and AP Hill.

That was the whole point to the Pennsylvania campaign, to force the North to sue for peace.

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I think the South wins the Battle of Gettysburg with Jackson. He would have taken Little Roundtop and the held the high ground.

Having Jackson in command likely would have extended the war, but it was a war the South couldn't win.

All the comments about the South not having any chance remind me that it’s difficult to view history from a modern day perspective and be certain of outcomes.

There were multiple times during that war where the South was within striking distance of DC, Bull Run being a great example.

Granted, taking DC would be no guarantee of the Union losing, but it would have had huge ramifications throughout the anti war North.

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south won and how. All intersecting. His best selling was the one where time travelers supplied the south with crates of AK-47s.

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He would have taken Little Roundtop and the held the high ground.

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He would have been the lead Corps (Ewell and AP Hill took the remnants of his command) into Gettysburg. That would have placed him on the Confederate left/Union right throughout the fight (you cannot easily disengage and cross Corps). Longstreet arrived second (less some of his divisions) and flowed to the Confederate right/Union left. That is why his Corps fought in the Devil’s Den and at Little Round Top on the second day (even though there was a long delay as they made the march to position themselves).