Battle of Second Manassass

Critical point in the war, where Lincoln tried to combine two union armies and overwhelm Lee. It didn't work and Lee decided to take the war north for the first time. This culminated in the Battle of Antietam.

Why is everyone voting yes? If Lee had never taken the offensive, the South wouldn't have even had a chance of winning. They still would have lost over time through the process of attrition, because time, really, was their worst enemy.

I'm going to bring this back up since no one replied. I really think that Lee played his cards right in taking the war north. How could the South have hoped to have won if they never took the offensive?

you are right... BUT you didnt specify how the war might have ended differently.... So I had to vote yes.... lol

It wouldent have, the north had the upper hand from the very begining, if Lee had hesitated it just would have given the north more time to prepare.

When it said, "ended differently", I took it to mean the South winning.

About this, Lee was winning victories again and again, invading the North would have meant problems for Lee on the supply lines, and giving the Union a home advantage.

Why going on the offensive when you keep winning just about everytime? Too much casualties for the Union could have caused some European countries to step in on the Confederacy's side.

Either this or forcing Lincoln to sue for peace against the South or end it at least as a stalemate and getting major European countries to recognise the Confederacy.

Even a stalemate could have been seen as a political victory

Like I said, time was the South's worst enemy. Of course, invading takes away the home-field advantage, but it gives you the initiative at the same time. Lee was winning offensive victories in Virginia, if he had been able to pull off one such victory on northern soil it would have meant the end of the war. And Grant's '64 campaign only proves that high casualties weren't anything of a detterent to the Northern adminadstration or a boost for the Confederacy abroad; Grant lost over 60,000 men in under two months, without producing a single victory, and yet kept his job. At this point, Lincoln wasn't thinking of suing for peace in his wildest dreams; the South's only hope on that note would have been McClellan's election in the Nov. '64 presidential contest. Of course, McClellan lost in a Republican sweep of the polls after the fall of Atlanta, Lincoln would stay in office, and the war would continue indefinitely.

1 month. May 6-June 3, 1864.

Thanks IBG, but I knew that; notice I said "under two months". It is commonly reffered to as "the Forty Days", which is of course a little more than one month and under two months. I chose the latter term. Sorry if I didn't state it clear enough. And by the way, the major fighting started in the Wilderness on May 5.

Oh, I thought you said 2 months, not under 2 months. My bad.

No problem. Who does everybody think performed better at Second Manassass, 'Stonewall' Jackson or James Longstreet?