BP told everyone that "safety is our number one concern", after they had already been cited for safety issues that had already killed BP employees, and after they'd already been fined a huge penalty for these lethal safety violations. Then BP received several warning from expert technicians that there were problems with the blow out preventers. BP had a chopice at that point, make safety truly their number one concern, or forge ahead taking risks to save money.
"Risk the safety of your workers, or risk your profit". Clear choice, with warnings by experts. They chose to risk the safety of the workers and ignore the warnings, and they placed profits at the higer priority. deep down profit was more important than safety, no matter how many times they said differently. They paid a stiff price for their choice.
The CSA leadership faced a similar choice. "Independence is our most important priority" they declared. "We will pay any price to ensure we become independent". But the military experts warned them time and again, "we are risking Independence if we do not emancipate and draft the slaves".
"Risk your slaves, or risk your independence" the experts told the CSA leaders. The leaders chose poorly, because deep down slavery was more important, no matter how many times they said differently. They paid a stiff price for their choice.
Crying afterwards "we were outnumbered" is pure balderdash. "We threw it all away like fools" is what really happened.
Oates says (read Alan's terrific post above) that NO POWER on earth could have stopped the CSA military from securing it's nationhood, had they drafted the available slaves. Ewell, Cleburne, Lee and several others spelled it out in just those same terms. "We will win, if we do this, and if we do not do this, we will have no one to blame for our defeat but ourselves"
It was not done.