building railroad lines
vicksburg
General Lee responded by having another shot at invading the North, which came to grief at Gettysburg.
An exceptionally talented President who could control a troublesome cabinet of heavyweights who had been better-known than him, and eventually learned to choose and use the best Generals.
The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee at Appomattox Court House.
They were missing official recognition by the British and French, which might have happened, until Lincoln skillfully deflected it by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Confederacy was missing a number of important things and even so, it still had a chance.
On the two main Confederate armies - the Army of Tennessee under Joe Johnston, and the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee.
This was the initiative of the new General-in-Chief of the Union armies, Ulysses Grant, who was not interested in occupying territory. He just wanted to destroy the enemy.