PS, you put WAY too much emphasis on the industry around Richmond, Josiah Gorgas had MANY gun makers and foundries in the DEEP south.
Richmond vs. Mobile WAS a "political" decision, to INSURE that R.E.Lee fought for the SOUTH. There is NO way Virginai does NOT seceed, and Lee told Davis he would NOT fight for the Confederacy, but for Virginia! Davis SHOULD have "grown a pair" and said 'Thanks but NO thanks, enjoy your retirement, thank you for your service, here's my telegraph number IN MOBILE if you change your mind..."
MOBILE should have stayed the capital, and EVERYTHING should have been put into the defense of it, and the PORT, along Atlanta and Chattanooga.
Guerrilla warfare WAS practiced SUCCESSFULLY in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION. THAT is to what I refer. IT WORKED, against an invading army with a supply train MUCH less necessary than to an army of 1863! In the SAME terrain and area!
And TELL me that the Confederates were "too" proud to conduct it...Oh yea, Morgan WAS just a common criminal and scoundrel, wasn't he....
I'll go one step further, with Old Robert. I PERSONALLY don't think he was REALLY much of a "Battlefied" commander EITHER...
His ONLY successes were REALLY on the DEFENSIVE, and depended as much on the INEPTITUDE of the Union Commanders ATTACKING him, as well as the SUPERIOR subordinate commanders UNDER him who carried his water....
But at the ONE time HE is attacking, and in COMPLETE contriol, in the words of some of his CLOSEST friends that were THERE, he was described variously as as "befuddled," "confused," "lacking in ideas" and "morose...."
His STRATEGY at Gettysburg was uninspired at BEST, almost JUVENILE at worst...LITERALLY it was, "we tried the LEFT Flank on Day one, and failed, we tried the RIGHT flank on day two and failed, so what is there left but the middle?"
My GOODNESS he made the VERY mediocre at BEST 'Fightin' Joe Hooker look like a tactical and strategic GENIUS....which only shows MORE that what Lee did at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, et al, just MAY have been easier than you Southern apologists will ever care to admit...
If even if only HALF of the resources and men "wasted" in the Campaign in the North would have been sent to BRAGG in the west, and Lee it would have done MUCH more to defend the confederacy, he should have been STRIPPED to the bone and told to dig in, while the REST went to Bragg, who REALLY got a "bum rap" in the war....Now Longstreet WAS sent, and turned the tide at Chickamauga, but THAT battle was fought too LAT, it SHOULD have been fought and won BEFORE Chattanooga fell....because, the war was OVER when the 18th Indiana fired the first surprise Parrot shot from the hills into the center of Chattanooga! Chattanooga was the GATEWAY to EVERYWHERE in the South, the communications and Railroad CENTER, and when it fell, ALL of the South could only wither on the vine, Sherman just HASTENED it a couple of moinths later....
ADMIT IT, PS, you ROMANTICIZE Losers....and give them "honor" and/or "capabilities" they do not deserve...whether it was the SOUTH, or the NAZIs.....no, I only wish we would have had more WINNERS on the side of the Union earlier, and maybe the "wayward" traitors would have been dealt with FASTER due to their flawed strategy and poor decisions, the whole business WOULD have been settled in a year or so, and saved ALL of us a LOT of heartburn that we STILL face, all because the South THOUGHT they could destroy the greatest Country on earth! If they WOULD have succeeded, you MUST admit we ALL would be a LOT worse off than now....with just two more "Mediocre" 2nd world countries on this continent, EACH about as powerful as CANADA, beholden to either the Brits, Nazis, OR Soviets....
And deep down you KNOW it...the outcome of the Civil War was NEVER TRULY in doubt, only how much blood would be shed on BOTH sides, and thus, how much ACRIMONY would be carried forward for generations.
The QUICKER it ended, the better off we all would have been....
YOUR serve...