Anaxagoras
Banned
IMHO it was when the Confederacy picked Jefferson Davis as its President. I'm hard pressed to think of any US President as bad a national leader as he was.
Possibly. He certainly made a number of disastrous command choices, what with Bragg, Pemberton, Polk, and Hood. He made a number of very poor military decisions, such as declining to order troops from the Trans-Mississippi to make a greater effort to help defend Vicksburg. And while it might be said that his fierce determination and resolve was an advantage to the Confederacy (they certainly would have stood no chance with a weak-willed leader), in the end it was disastrous, for he kept the war going long many months after victory had clearly become impossible.
On the other hand, I doubt that Robert Toombs would have done any better and might have done worse.