Hi Everyone:

Once Rosecrans and the Union Army was defeated at Chicamauga, could the South had won the war. While most of the Union Army did escape the battlefield, virtually all their equipment was lost. So if the Southern Commander, Braxton Brag had then moved his army quickly could he had:

1. Pushed the Union Army of the Cumberland aside at Chattanooga since they were virtually defenseless.

2. Go straight north to the Ohio border unopposed.

3. Then turn East and move towards Washington which would have

4. Forced Lincoln to call Grant and his Army of the Tennessee from Vicksburg thus returning Vicksbug and that part of the Mississippi River to Southern control.

6. Force Lincolm is recall The Army of The Potomac under Mead from Northern Virginia to help defend Washington which would have allowed Lee and The (Southern) Army of Northern Virginia to go back on the offensive.

5. And at the very least prolonging the war in such a negative way for the North that Lincoln is defeated in the 1864 election.

Best wishes,
Mason

I think this is the most important part of the post, as political developments were as or important than the course of battles.

I think Lincoln's support was more fragile than retrospect suggests and one battle or another going a different way might have sunk Lincoln's reelection. Democrats were playing on opposition to the war to get votes, but they would not necessarily capitulate to the CSA once in the presidency. A Democratic executive would have to accept blame for losing the war and wasting all that sacrifice.

So all sorts of scenarios are plausible, and maybe if the war got replayed ten times, succession might succeed three times.

Shelby Foote made a good point in this interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Iw-j217yk

While Shelby Foote was clearly one of our great Civil War historians, what he's addressing here is not, I think, the same as my question. While it may be the case that the North should never of lost the Civil War, that's a general statement and it has little to do with The Battle of Chickamauga.

What I'm asking here is given that Chickamauga did happen, and The Army of the Cumberland under Rosecranz was essentially destroyed (or close to it), did an opportunity develop, upon which a better general than Southern Commander Braxton Bragg or perhaps if Bragg had more cooperation from the generals under him, could have been seized which would have been devastating for the North.

Best wishes,
Mason