Why did the south lose the Civil War?

Beg to differ, General Longstreet begged General Lee to fake a frontal assault, while performing a right-wing swing around manuvering movement aroung Devil's Den, then onward unto Washington D.C. by a southern route of General Stuarts' prior northern reconnoitering route. The North would have immediately capitulated with the capture of the Capitol and the reigning President. Why Lee chose to say, "The enemy is there before us and we shall oblige him." Enjoy.

If it hadn't been Gettysburg, it would have been a different battle. The fact is that by that point in the war the Confederacy was so weak and so depleted of supplies that their loss was inevitable. The Union blockades were doing a good job of keeping them from being able to rearm. The Union was torching everything they came in contact with, ruining food supplies. The Confederate dead were piling up and they were down to arming the very young and the very old, which is always a sign of desperation. On the other hand, the Union was well-supplied because their supplies were coming from the north, where there were no blockades, and where the fighting was quite distant. Farmers and ranchers were able to supply the Union Army's needs with little trouble. And they were arming immigrants right off the boats, mainly from Ireland, and so they never ran out of troops. (The Irish were promised citizenship and regular pay if they would enlist, and many took that offer.) It was just completely off balance. I think, for the record, that General Lee was not only a brilliant general, but a hell of a man. When the war started, he was offered complete command of the Union Forces, and he turned it down because while he did not own slaves himself, he was from the South, and felt he should stand up for his birthplace and its traditions. That in and of itself shows how much class he had. The South would have lost no matter what. Gettysburg was bad, and ugly, but as I said, had it not been Gettysburg, we would now be remembering the Battle of Tanner's Hole or some other unknown place name. The loss was inevitable.

Well there's quite a few reasons. For one the South didn't have the money the North did. North had more indrustry than the south did and thus more money. They also had more people so they would have more soldiers. The North also was able to take major rivers to block transport of rebel goods. the generals were good on both sides but Grant, even drunk, was a better general than Lee. He was great at stragedy and never gave up.

Sooner or later the north was going to win because the south had 1/10th the population and 1/20th the industrial capacity. Once grind em down Grant was in charge, the north won the battle of attrition.

Longstreet prodosed a right cartwheel maneuver around the Noth's eastern flank to march on Washington, D.C. Lee chose to remain and fight a foreward attack.

yeah, if you want to pin it down to a single battle, itd probably be gettysburg. the north fought poorly in 1861 and 1862, and had its first meaningful non-defeat at Antietam. So, they really needed a victory going into 1863 or a democratic president would win and make peace with the southerners. enter gettysburg, in july of 1863. Lee wanted to make his invasion of the north a crucial blow, a way of making the northerners feel scared. so, after some maneuvering, he chose gettysburg because of its rail capacity. however, due to some hard northern fighting and southern blunders, he was forced to retreat. if lee had taken little round top, he might have won the battle and demoralized the north enough to make peace. while the reduced industrial power and population put the south at a disadvantage, its people were more dedicated to the cause, and would suffer more than northerners would. however, after gettysburg, Grant took over the northern army, and sherman burned the south to the ground, and the war would end in 1865.

Getting fully involved at Gettysburg was a single-event mistake, but it was likely a necessary risk to take. Otherwise, the war was simply a war of attrition due to predominant production being in the North.

Lee chose a frontal attack, whereas Longstreet offered a swing around the right and march upon Washington, D.C.

Because Slavery is bad.