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Life NRA,SUVCW # 48,Legion 352
| Joined: | Sat Dec 2nd, 2006 |
| Location: | South Of The North 40, Minnesota USA |
| Posts: | 1050 |
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To me Vicksburg is clearly the more devestating loss to the CS, while the men who were captured were quicly returned to the field (most w/out being properly exchanged) the startegic importance of Vicksburg is clear. It split the CS and allowed the use of the entire Mississippi to the US. The loss of small arms, light & heavy guns and morale was a loss the CS could not afford. Add to that one more defeat in the west. While Lee was winning or at the very least consistantly stymieing the AoP, the Western Fed Armies weren't even really slowed until Chickamauga and that was only a slight repreive.
A year ago I would have agreed that the idea that Ft Donaldson & Henry being the turning point was a crazy idea, now I look at them as the beginning of the end, the start of a string of defeats the CS never recovered from.