If they had been able to get help from England, they could have won. They had the cotton to export. England had the heavy artillery, but the North was able to blockade their ports, and the English never did anything to help break the blockades.

I'm sure they believed victory would be easy and swift. Their way of life was on the line. In the end the country was never healed and the hate and resentment lives on.

Which part of the confederacy?

Pretty obviously you don't start a war unless you think you are going to win it. However as a casual observer it seems to me that the South's strategy was all wrong. They didn't need to win, they only needed to not loose. Not loosing would have been best achieved by fighting a defensive war. Attacking the North only stiffened the North's resolve.
Had the South done no more than defend it's territory it is likely that public support for the war in the North would have been luke warm at best. Fighting on it's own ground would have given the South substantial logistical advantages. The South would also have been in a much better position to be seen as a legitimate Government by one or more European countries.

I remember watching the Ken Burns long documentary on the Civil War. There were several occasions where a Confederate General would have made huge advances if he had gone over one more hill or didn't back down. Don't remember his name, but he lost multiple opportunities to have the South win.

Jefferson Davis was a hotheaded and arrogant man. His own Secretary of State, Robert Toombs of Georgia, warned him precisely what would happen if he ordered an attack on Fort Sumter. But Davis was supremely confident in victory and gave the order anyway. If the Confederacy had kept its cool and sued for independence, a sympathetic US Supreme Court would have given it to them. Davis's reckless stupidity was unequaled until December 7, 1941.

I'm sure they did when the war began and there ideals would spread through out the country. However, they wrong and we see the after effects even today.

Of course they did. As far as they were concerned, god was on their side... :/

In warfare the ONLY winners are the Arms Manufactures.

yes of course they did. for a while there it looked as if they might, too. the real problem is that some people think they're still fighting it, fighting to reestablish slavery and all. trump and his trumpkins are not helping to disillusion them, either.

g

Judging by the number of Confederate flags flying here in Middle Tennessee, I'd say that some people do not consider the war to be over yet.