ZEBULON BAIRD VANCE

He may well have been right if the South had capitulated. But that is exactly what happened when they did not and were beaten. So the worst that the South could have ended up with by not following Vance’s view would be what they ended up without the many deaths and wounded and the massive destruction of property that took place in the latter part of the war.

The historical import of this quotation is that North Carolina was unable to support its troops fighting in Virginia so they resorted to asking for private donations. In addition greedy speculators were offering inflated prices to citizens for needed military supplies and after buying them jacking the price up much higher and selling it to the state who because of the lack of productivity, the men in the field and the Union embargo had very few options to obtain needed supplies.

He may well have been right if the South had capitulated. But that is exactly what happened when they did not and were beaten. So the worst that the South could have ended up with by not following Vance’s view would be what they ended up without the many deaths and wounded and the massive destruction of property that took place in the latter part of the war.

The historical import of this quotation is that North Carolina was unable to support its troops fighting in Virginia so they resorted to asking for private donations. In addition greedy speculators were offering inflated prices to citizens for needed military supplies and after buying them jacking the price up much higher and selling it to the state who because of the lack of productivity, the men in the field and the Union embargo had very few options to obtain needed supplies.