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It is often said that, as the Confederacy was fighting a defensive war, they simply had to not lose in order to win.

My question is this: If, for whatever reason, the Union was simply content to impose a complete blockade of the Confederacy on land, sea, and the major rivers (mainly Mississippi), could the South have outlasted the Union?

My instincts say that this strategy would have still resulted in a Union victory, though how long it would take, I'm not sure. Economically, the sheer number of men in arms in the Confederacy was simply unsustainable. As a ratio of the free male population, it just was far too high a number to be able to be supported for long. The economy was also nowhere near self-sufficient enough, with its agriculture focused on cash crops and its industry and infrastructure virtualky non-existent.
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