What plan did the south have for victory?

Answer 1

For the north to win, it had to invade and conquer the south, a vast area full of hostile people. For the south to win, it first of all merely had to not lose in the meantime. Southern politicians believed that "King Cotton", the great commercial crop of the south, was their trump card. Cotton mills in England and France would soon be idled, they reckoned, by the Yankee blockade stopping exports of southern cotton to Europe, and this would force England and France to intervene in the war on the side of the south. This would have meant immediate Confederate victory. But there had been bumper crops of cotton for several years just before the war began, and warehouses in France and England were full of cotton, so there was no immediate need for Europeans to intervene to obtain cotton. But Europeans were on the verge of intervening by the late summer of 1862, and this was the time of Lee's first invasion of the north. Part of what Lee hoped to accomplish by moving into the north was to encourage foreign nations to enter the war on the side of the south, and even perhaps to "conquer a peace" with his own forces while on northern soil. Lee was turned back to the south, though, after the Battle of Antietam, which decided England and France against intervening, at least for the time being. Then Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a very shrewd move. The Proclamation made it almost impossible for foreign nations to intervene now on the side of the south, because if they did, it would perhaps be seen as fighting FOR slavery. Neither England nor France was willing to be seen in that light. Some southerners continued to hope for foreign intervention, but Lee understood things clearly, and knew that if the southerners were to win and establish their independence, it would have to happen through their own, unaided efforts. Lee made another invasion of the north in 1863, in another effort to perhaps win the war with a decisive battle on northern soil, but was again turned back after Gettysburg. However, the south could STILL win, merely by not losing. There was growing war weariness in the north, and sickness of heart over the huge loss of life and the financial cost. If the south could hold out until the north just got sick of trying to impose its will on the south, they might yet win. With the reelection of Lincoln in November 1864, though, this hope was gone. Lincoln had given ample evidence of and clear statements of his determination to continue the war until the north was victorious.