Apropos the discussion about whether or not the war was decided by the
end of 1863, the current issue of Civil War Times Illustrated has a
letter from Sherman in which he says,
Of course, the Civil War should have ended with Vicksburg
and Gettysburg. Every sensible man on earth must have then
seen that there could be but one result.
He then goes on to excortiate the Southern political leaders for not
ending the war, thus saving a number of good men's lives.
Jim Epperson
epperson@math.uah.edu