88 - The Battle of Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation

The war has been going pretty well for the south at the mid point of 1862, but the south has less men, less guns, less cannons, less of almost everything.  Less manufacturing capacity, for sure.  But time is sort of on the South’s side.  The longer that the Confederacy exists as its own country, the more people are likely to just accept it that way.  And the longer the war drags on, especially if the North keeps losing, the more likely the Northern public is to stop supporting the war.  Again, kind of like it was in the Revolutionary war, the South doesn’t have to win, necessarily, it just needs to not lose, or at least not lose catastrophically, and it will keep existing.  The North, on the other hand, needs to win decisively.  

And they haven’t done that yet, they haven’t really beaten and destroyed a Southern army, even though they won a few battles. The South is still fielding competent armies, and still continuing to exist.  The North really needs a big win, to change the momentum of the war, and to change public opinion.  

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