No one ever accuse Great Britain with being overly intelligent. There is a Country that celebrates it's defeats more than it's victories. Britain considered the US one of it's greatest enemies almost until the beginning of WWI.

Britain started considering the US a potential ally almost from the time the War of 1812 was over. We spoke the same language, and our political institutions were similar. We forget that the Monroe Doctrine was supported nor so much by US power, but by the Royal Navy.  Almost from the time we stop shooting at each other, the US and Britain have settle almost every dispute via diplomacy, even the famous Trent incident. As for British intelligence, during that time Great Britain was engaged in building the greatest empire in the history of mankind. They hadn't quite reached "sun never sets" status yet, but they were getting there. One of the main reasons the US and Britain wouldn't have come to blows, was that empire. For example the British had just frustrated Russian ambitions in the Balkans. Now they were coming through Central Asia headed for India. The last thing the British wanted was to get into a war with the US and have the Russians and French come in on the American side - putting all their newly gained colonies - especially India, the "Jewel in the Crown" - at risk.

I haven't read all of the posts, and I'm just butting in. But in a sense, the south hasn't lost yet. They have morphed into the democrat party.

Why stop at enslaving black people, when we can enslave everyone?

This is what we face.

They merely changed tactics. The goal is the same.

But they used to be honest about it: "We want those slaves to work for us and keep us rich"!
Now it's: "We're doing all this for your own good, or for the children".

Well!! They didn't lets just sve the south today

Why would McClellan have sued for peace? More likely he would have gotten credit for "winning" the war when he really didn't deserve it. By the time of the 1864 election, Grant had Lee under siege in Richmond/Petersburg, Sherman was burning Atlanta, and the Union controlled the entire Mississippi. Besides Lincoln - with the Emancipation Proclamation - had pretty much ended the South's chances of receiving recognition from any foreign power. I think Lee's defeating a series of inept commanders in the East, not to mention a series of revisionist Southern writers exalting Lee - as opposed to the "butcher" Grant - often blinds people to how bad the situation of the South was after Gettysburg.

What I would like to say though is

As a conservative I'm against slavery but also for Jurice Prudence uber alles to put it that way. So while I'm against slavery, I'm also for state rights.

As a right winger I'm pro strong UNITED States of America, because stronger the US the more secure liberty is worlwide. I.e USA could never have interviened in WW2 and liberated Norway from the Socialist Worker Party of Germany if it was divided.

As a Christian Fundementalist I'm a natural abolitionist

As a libertarian I'm against the Union expansion of government, paper as legal tender and the big bank corporatiions behind the Union.

In conclusion the US civil war is just sad piece of history, and even though we should learn as much as possible from it, study it and remember those who died. It is one of those events in history where lines between good and evil is blurred. There is no straight answer as both sides had good and evil in them. As conservatives its easy to fall in a political pitfall like Ron Paul did when he said he did not think the Civil War was necessary.

That being said the question "Could the South have won?" is a perfectly legitimate question and I believe they could if it wasn't for a both tactical and stratigical mistakes that forced them on the defensive instead of a swift campaign straight to Washington DC. As others with more knowledge about the war than me have already posted in this thread.

The debate on the reasons for civil war, and which side was the true racist is one I will not get into, as I don't see any fruithfull advantage, even if it proves the North was the more racists. But the reasons for war is in itself good debate as history is usually not what have been taught in school if you take the time and read the actual facts, but making this a rethorical politican discussion as Elmerfudd wants to do instead of a historical discussion belongs in another thread imo.

We didn't lose we ran out of bullets.

We didn't lose we ran out of bullets.  The war was about states rights and not slavery and still we have states right issues and they are getting worse.  I hope we don't have to do it all over again.

Then you will have to explain why the secession documents of each and every state were specific about slavery being the cause. Not to mention how the Constitution of the Confederacy made slavery the one thing that couldn't be touched by the amendment process. We should also remember of much of the wealth of the South the slaves represented. That's one of the reasons the South became one of the poorest regions of the country for so long; much of the Souths wealth had disappeared, with no compensation. By choosing to fight, rather than go to some type of compensated abolition scheme, the South shot itself in the foot, big time. And we should remember that slavery was the only difference between the Union and the South; and even that wasn't a complete difference until the 13th Amendment. The South lost all its wealth, and had the country destroyed by the fact that most of the war took place on their territory.

This is off topic, but I think it's a relevant point. I like Ron Paul but I disagree with his assessment on the civil war that slavery would eventually be abolished.

Taking darwinism and the rise of eugenics into account I don't think slavery would have been solved by free abolition by the South. If there was no civil war, religion would not be sufficient to cause abolition of slavery as justification for slavery would have been embraced through darwinism, which is still embraced today even though aspects of darwinism like race realism is tabo/outlawed.

Yep, Western culture is a living lie, we claim to have abolished slavery, and a myriad of injustices, when in reality, we're living a lie.
Dominance is human nature, be it his environment, or his position in life, it is our heredity to influence all that is around us, and controlling others is a natural human trait.

Denying slavery will never return is like denying the human aggression.
We want peace, while our enemy wants to enslave us, and at the rate we're destroying our Nation and our culture, that day is not far off.