without guns in the hands of northerners the south could've marched straight into washington within DAYS, then philadelphia within a week or so of that. They'd force a surrender by military means long before lack of cotton sales forced them to surrender due to economic means. Even WITH guns the north took four years to win, and lost hundreds of thousands of men in the process. and that's with the south spending money at an obscene rate because of catastrophic casualties and equipment shortages. Yes, the north absolutely outmatched the south in virtually every way except maybe early war leadership, but to say they could win the bloodiest war in US history without guns is retarded