Quote from stonedinvestor:
Well I just showed you both they can be.
In sports battles are always won in a day in a round in a moment when you steal that manhood away from the opponent. In tennis the battle can be won on a single point.
Since you dropped the analogy in a military sense I rolled with that but in general the implied point that long term battles are not won in a single day is often incorrect.
Try winning Lotto!
In the Art Of War there are several examples of how to defeat an enemy in just one day but in a more modern sense I've been thinking about this as I do my laundry... I think I can make a convoluted case that the civil war was lost in a day in the battle of Antietam. Some old timers cal it the charge of the Iron Brigade, it happened near Dunker Church September 17, 1862 Near Sharpsburg, Maryland. Because of that some folks call it the battle for Sharpsburg. No matter what you call it that single day was the bloodiest one for the United States ever. Approx 23,000 died in a single day.
Union Army Major General McClellan he didn't take any crap from anyone and he was a chasing that General Lee Boooooo. That Robert E Lee into Maryland. Down by the creek he cornered him and let him have it. It was dawn September 17 and Lee's left flank was exposed... major General Hooker yea he was big with the ladies, Hooker he mounted a direct assault on that left flank- seared em good! Millers Cornfield will go down in history as a haunted place you don't want to visit at night. Some truly deadly hand to hand went down. Things looked bad for the Confederates ole' Burnside showerd up and reaked hell on the right flank there was no where to run and then as if my magic through the mist of rank and shot came galloping AP Hill! and his whole group. Those boys could ride! Up by Harpers Ferry they made a surprise counter attack saving Lee and pretty much ensuring a stalemate.
All those dead in the cornfield what now? How could this " tie " have actually won or lost the war in a day? After all there was a lot of failing going on, McClellan failed to destroy Lee's army when he could have. Lee's invasion of Maryland was ended, that was a failure too. But this battle the first big one on North soil did show that the North could win without committing the whole kit and kaboodle and Lee needed damn near everything to escape. The battle actually gave Abe Lincoln the balls to go ahead and announce his Emancipation Proclamation! Which so rocked the world and changed history. After that promise the French weren't about to get involved and if they did it would be to help us Northerners-- those French were in a very free spirited mood back then - what happened?-- and indeed the British who might of meddled by officially recognizing the Confederacy-- they were stymied as well. This was bigger than north vs south now it was about basic human rights and that's how a war or battle actually can be won in a day.~ stoney