Conventional wisdom holds that the South's defeat was inevitable. Yet military historian Alexander's new look at the Civil War documents how a Confederate victory could have come about--and how close it came to happening. Moving beyond theoretical conjectures to explore actual plans that Confederate generals proposed and the tactics ultimately adopted in the war's key battles, he shows why there is nothing inevitable about military victory, even for a state with overwhelming strength, and provides a startling account of how a relatively small number of tactical and strategic mistakes cost the South the war--and changed the course of history.--From publisher description.