Why did southerners believe they could win the Civil War?

Southerners believed they could win the Civil War because a good majority of the nation’s military leaders were from the south and seven of the eight military colleges in the nation were located in southern territory. The Union had to search for effective leaders while the south had Robert F. Lee and many of his brigadiers before the war even started.

The south also controlled the Mississippi River Delta, and the Union used a considerable amount of force and resources into capturing it so they could prevent the south from pushing west through Mexico all the way to the Pacific Ocean.