<P> Southern morale was seriously affected by the twin setbacks of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, as they perceived that "the coil was tightening around us". Some economic historians have pointed to the fact that after the defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the market for Confederate war bonds dropped precipitously . "...European investors gave the Confederacy approximately a 42 percent chance of victory prior to the battle of Gettysburg / Vicksburg . News of the severity of the two rebel defeats led to a sell - off in Confederate bonds . By the end of 1863, the probability of a Southern victory fell to about 15 percent ." </P> <P> Military historian J.F.C. Fuller contended that Grant's defeat of Braxton Bragg's army at Chattanooga, Tennessee was the turning point of the war because it reduced the Confederacy to the Atlantic coast and opened the way for William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea . </P> <P> Following the victory at Chattanooga, Grant was appointed general - in - chief of all Union armies on March 12, 1864 . Leaving Sherman in command of forces in the Western Theater, he moved his headquarters east to Virginia . Previous Union commanders in the critical Eastern Theater had not mounted effective campaigns, or effective pursuits of Confederate forces after gaining rare victories . Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the Confederacy from multiple directions: against Lee and the Confederate capital, Richmond; in the Shenandoah Valley; against Johnston and Atlanta; against railroad supply lines in western Virginia; and against the port of Mobile . In May, Grant launched the Overland Campaign towards Richmond, an attritional campaign that took full advantage of the North's edge in population and resources . Although he suffered a tactical reverse in his first encounter with Lee in the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant pressed forward, putting the Confederates under an unremitting pressure that was maintained until the fall of their capital and the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia . </P> <P> Some contend that Sherman's successful siege of Atlanta was the turning point, since the heavily fortified city was the most critical remaining stronghold in the South . The capture of Atlanta, following a tedious and frustrating campaign, lifted the spirits of Unionists and came just in time to build the popular support necessary to re-elect Lincoln, in addition to its military result of crippling transportation in the heart of the Confederacy and nearly destroying the city . </P>

What was a turning point in the civil war