What was the greatest chance for a Confederate victory?

The interesting thing with Lee is at the time he was considered a traitor but in retrospect he is a American hero he saved the United States from a fate far worse then the Civil War itself. Also many people can connect with him he had to choose between those he loved and the nation he helped build I think most people would have come to the same conclusion he did.

This is true. I believe we would still feel the repercussions today if he had followed Davis's wishes.

And this is irrelevant to what I said because I already said Lee was not vicious. Yes Lee did fine, but it seems you guys do not understand that he still lost the war and it is because he did not take attack the Union at the best moments like when McClellan was forced to replenish his forces after the First Bull Run and would not be ready until the Spring of 1862. Jackson pleaded for an attack on the Union troops to seize Baltimore and cut off the main railroad communications to DC forcing Lincoln to leave the capital and then start moving north to destroy factories and railroads that would ruin Union industry and cause the Union to lose the war because they would have less and less industry. I am stating that the south could have won the war had people listened more to Jackson's tactics which I explained are to trap the enemy and not let them live to fight another day. The only reason why you see Lee as good would be because he won battles, but behind the scenes those battles were at a high cost and HE STILL LOST THE WAR. Perhaps if they had taken Jackson's strategy they would had won.

The Confederates were equally as disorganized as the Union was in the aftermath of First Bull Run, and any counter invasion of the North would be met by swift response (i.e.: being cut off from supplies, armies cut off from returning to the South etc.). Any attack in Spring of 1862 during pre-Peninsula and during the Peninsula was absurd, and to top if off, Lee wasn't even in command then, so your claims that Lee cost the South the war (it was Jefferson Davis, that prick) are baseless. He may have lost a lot of troops, but he isn't to blame. The only times he went on the offensive (Gettysburg and 7 Days) can be explained. 7 Days is blamed on Jackson (see my earlier post) and Gettysburg I can concede can be blamed on Lee. But any invasion of the North is doomed to failure in my opinion. Several things could go detrimental to their plans. They will be cut off from supplies and reinforcements once invading, and people would enlist in overwhelming numbers to protect themselves from the Southern hordes. And if the South was cut off from retreat to the South and be destroyed. And even if industry in the East was cut off, what about industry in the West? Also, in post-Peninsula, Lee did invade, and he fell back skillfully and preserved the Army of Northern Virginia.

First off, when you invade the north raid their towns, supply depots, etc. to feed your army. Kind of like Sherman's March to the Sea, this would has been Lee's. Also, Jackson could field a force in the fall of 1861 to take on the Union troops according to the article I am reading (Armchair General, a military history magazine). The only way to defeat the North is to invade them. Jackson had already proposed the best strategy to defend the south is his ideas of a defensive strategy and then to force Union troops against an impassible area forcing them to surrender in the thousands thus more unskilled people from the North must be recruited and yes while the North has far superior numbers, I do not think everyone in the north has military experience and you need someone to run the factories to.

Not the only way to defeat the North at all actually. A sustained invasion of the North would not work forever, as feeding off Pennsylvania farms forever does not work forever, and you still don't explain how that solves the problem of reinforcing.

Again none of this is relevant the war simply couldn't have been won unless Lincoln hadn't been reelected or if Britian joined the war. Lincoln not being reelected is more likely but by 1864 the South was on the brink. Lee would have lost a war in the North for certain he would have been sorrounded and cut off his army would have starved. Invading the North was the worst thing any Southern general in the east could have done as shown at Gettysburg and Antietam.

McCellan was not "forced" to replenish his troops. He thought he needed to spend a year to replenish his troops, because he greatly overestimated the size of the confederate army. His army was much, much larger than The Army of Northern Virginia still. Lincoln would not just let him sit back and hide to replenish when a southern army is invading Union territory.

Well by that logic, I can say Rommel was not one of the best German generals in WW2 because HE STILL LOsT THE WAR!!!!!!

Divine Intervention

Well, if Lee had won at Gettysburg he could have gone to Baltimore and Annapolis and taken both those cities, which would be easy to do because both sympathized with the Confederates and neither had a garrison of more than 1000. With Baltimore and Annapolis in Lee's hands, he could have easily had Maryland declare independence from the Union and join the Confederacy. This would have meant D.C. was surrounded, and if Lee was able to hold on to Maryland for one month, he could have called upwards of 20,000-30,000 Maryland troops to join his army. With these troops he would have enough forces to hold off the Union in northern Maryland and lay siege to D.C. Now remember Gettysburg was in 1864, and election year. Lincoln would most likely not be reelected. Not to mention, if the European states saw the Union lose one of its border states and have their capital under siege, then at least France and maybe England would join the Confederates. This would spell doom for the Union. There is my crackpot scenario

France was too busy getting massacred by the Mexicans.

I am almost positive you ment Gettysburg was in 63 not 64.

Oh yeah, my bad
Scratch the election year thing, I'm a dumbass

No, actually France wanted to support the CSA because they figured if they helped them win then they would be able to get help in Mexico from the CSA, and when they finally installed their dictator there they wanted an assurance a United USA wouldn't be there to kick him out.

While sound logic, and in some parts I find myself in agreement with your reasoning, it just seems that with Union manpower and industrial capacity as it was in 1863, it somewhat hard to believe a siege of DC is viable, and maybe even Maryland seceding at that year a little more unlikely than it was in '61. Besides, Lee invaded Pennsylvania, hardly even minding Maryland as it were. So after his victory, he would retreat down to Maryland? Just doesn't seem like Lee to me. To me, he would more likely have done his best to kill off as much of the Army of the Potomac as possible, and continued his stay in Pennsylvania, but not entered New York in full force. A siege of Philly is also unlikely, as a prolonged siege of a city on a river would not be beneficial. He would be more likely to go after the farms and such, providing psychological damage. However, intervention of the UK even if a victory at Gettysburg occurred is doubtful, as it would be a free country supporting a slave country.

Well, we will never really know as we never got a chance to see Lee in action during a really successful invasion of the North.

It would have been one for the history books, I can tell you that.

The battle that decided the fate of France in Mexico took place on May 5th, 1862...Gettysburgburg was a year later.

Rommel was not in overall command of the German Military in World War 2.

Lee was never in overall command until the February of 1865. Until then he was commander of the Army of Northern Virginia since Summer 1862, and before that he simply was commander with no command.

In hindsight it decided the fate of France in Mexico. By no means did the French or Mexicans or Americans see it that way at the time. Just like in hindsight Stalingrad pretty much decided the fate of the Germans, but at the time it still looked like the Nazis could still steamroll the USSR.