150 Years

Despite my hectic schedule I've seen many articles on the grim anniversary of yesterday. So many things might have gone differently. The war would not have lasted nearly so long if Pinkerton's estimates had been more accurate, or McClellan had contemplated Eccl 9:10--and the fallout would probably not have been so bitter. The Confederacy could even have won, and that quite easily--by holding fire. Lincoln didn't have the backing to invade to retrieve secessionist states, and they could have waited him out.

Of course if the South had held fire and successfully seceded there'd still have been war--probably several, especially around World War I when the European powers would have had proxy battles among the various "American" and Mexican countries.

And of course both main classes of commentators are correct: the war was about slavery, but the soldiers weren't inspired to fight by economic theories but by home and family, as usual.