Trench Warfare in the ACW

I doubt it could totally devolve because the problem is that the south coudn't sustain trench warfare.
 
Generals such as Lee were too dependent upon maneuver for trench warfare to work. The south could never sustain trench warfare, and needed to find ways to fight the North on their own terms.
 
The armies weren't big enough for it on a large scale. Individual battles and sieges had some usage of trenches but that was hardly uncommon.
 
Petersburg had significant similarities to later trench warfare. But WWI-style, where trench warfare dominated the entire Western Front? The South is too large for that. Even during WWI, the Eastern Front never really developed into the same sort of static trench warfare you saw on other fronts, and for similar reasons.
 
Is their anyway to have the American Civil War descend into trench warfare?

No. The trench warfare of WW I occurred because the combatants had enough troops to cover the entire front from Switzerland to the English Channel.

The "front" between the USA and CSA was much longer and the two sides had far fewer troops.
 
I suppose the closest place an actual 'trench warfare' campaign could have occurred (as opposed to just being used in sieges like Petersburg-Richmond) might have been in the Atlanta campaign. After all, Johnston's plan of retreating from defensive position to defensive position was kind of like how trench warfare would have occurred in WWI.

However, as many people have pointed out, Johnston didn't have enough men under his command so Sherman was able to continuously outflank him.
 
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