Anaxagoras
Banned
Throughout the American Civil War, the Confederacy never achieved a victory on the scale of what the American revolutionaries achieved at the Battle of Saratoga - they never succeeded in snuffing an entire Federal army out of existence.
It seems to me that the Confederacy's best chance of achieving the actual surrender of a Northern army was in September of 1863, when the Army of the Cumberland was defeated by the Army of Tennessee in north Georgia. Had the Battle of Chickamauga gone better for the South (if Polk had attacked on the right on time, for instance), had the trap at McLemore's Cove been sprung, had a more energetic pursuit after Chickamauga been undertaken with energy. . . there are many possibilities.
Whatever the specific POD, what would have been the strategic, political, and/or diplomatic consequences if the Army of the Cumberland had been forced to surrender?
It seems to me that the Confederacy's best chance of achieving the actual surrender of a Northern army was in September of 1863, when the Army of the Cumberland was defeated by the Army of Tennessee in north Georgia. Had the Battle of Chickamauga gone better for the South (if Polk had attacked on the right on time, for instance), had the trap at McLemore's Cove been sprung, had a more energetic pursuit after Chickamauga been undertaken with energy. . . there are many possibilities.
Whatever the specific POD, what would have been the strategic, political, and/or diplomatic consequences if the Army of the Cumberland had been forced to surrender?