re: Civil War nicknames for SEC states..

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The war for the Confederacy, IMO, was certainly lost in the west. Fort Donelson was a critical blow to the cause.

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I don't really know how anyone could argue that.

If Tennesee had stayed under Confederate control (either from the beginning or with a pushback after Shiloh) Kentucky would have been much more in play, and if Kentucky falls, you have the chance to play havoc with boat traffic along the Ohio.

If Vicksburg/Memphis/NOLA never fall, the Confederacy still has use of the Mississipi as a supply route.

If Chattanooga never falls, Atlanta is never touched, and that was the biggest lynchpin in the endgame was losing Atlanta and then Savannah.

Finally, if the western theater had turned out differently, Grant would never have become a hot item, would never have been given The Army of the Potomac, and Lee might well have forced a stalemate.