>>12029191 (PB)

BTW, thanks for the reasoned reply.

The South both hired mercenary blockade runners, but also (as in the China campaign of 1942) destroyed rail lines. From time to time the Confederacy showed real genius in their tactics, but lacked the raw materials and wealth available to the North. Then, too, being primarily agricultural (the north had legislatively interfered against southern industrialization), it did not have the number of men that the north did.

I am not convinced that the current encirclement is any more complete than the previous one.