Chapter I: The War of Southern Secession, 1861-1862.
With other projects on hiatus, I was inspired to write my own Southern victory TL detailing a Confederate victory in the American Civil War. I chose the same PoD as Turtledove, the infamous Order 191, but things diverge from there. To make certain I wouldn't inadvertently rip off Turtledove's work, I decided to make the butterflies flap their wings hard with the intent of writing something original. The alliance systems you'll be seeing ITTL will be seriously different from the ones we saw IOTL. You will still see people from OTL, but that doesn't mean I'm ignoring the butterfly effect. These historical individuals are obviously different from their OTL counterparts to a greater or lesser degree. Now, without further ado, I present the first installment:
The War of Southern Secession had begun on April 12th 1861 with the attack by Confederate forces on the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the first state to secede from the United States of America on December 20th 1860. The “cotton states” of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas all followed suit in January and February 1861. There were a number of causes for the War of Southern Secession, but the central divisive issue was slavery: the decades long political controversy culminated in the question of whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Other reasons that were cited for the secession were liberty and state rights, but these were of secondary importance next to the desire to maintain the institution of slavery.
This discussion had been brought to a head by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. He opposed slavery’s expansion into the western territories. The aforementioned seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln’s victory by seceding from the United States and, in February 1861, forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets within their borders. Led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over about a third of the US population in eleven of the 34 US states that then existed. Four more southern states – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina – had seceded by May 1861, joining the Confederate States of America.
Initially the Union seemed likely to win the War of Southern Secession as it held the better cards. For one, it had a larger and much more industrialized economy and urbanized society as opposed to the largely rural and agrarian society of the south. Secondly, the Union also had a significantly larger population and therefore a much larger pool of recruits to raise an army with.
Moreover, none of the major powers at this point showed any kind of intention to extend diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. Slavery had long since been abolished in Great Britain and France while Russian Tsar Alexander II had recently emancipated the serfs. None of the great powers sympathized with the cause that the Confederates were fighting for – i.e. protecting Southern society, of which slavery was an integral part. Besides that, to most European countries the North’s corn exports were more important than the South’s cotton exports.
So it was unsurprising that Union forces made some significant gains in the Western Theatre of the war (though in the Eastern Theatre the war was inconclusive). While the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg was still holding out, General Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862. Grant is considered the best Union commander. Union forces gained control of western Kentucky and central Tennessee in March 1862. After the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Island Number Ten, the Confederacy was bisected and the Mississippi River was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee. New Orleans, the Confederacy’s greatest seaport and industrial centre, was lost in April that year.
The war would, however, be won in the Eastern Theatre of the war by Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, who had an ambitious plan up his sleeve to invade the north. A messenger of the Confederate States Army nearly let the orders fall into enemy hands, but recovered them before Union soldiers could get them (it is still speculated what would have happened had the Union seen these documents). The Army of Northern Virginia, which numbered about 55.000 men, followed the routes delineated in General Lee’s Special Order 191 as they invaded. Lee caught Major General George B. McClellan, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, completely by surprise and routed his army. They fought again in the Battle of the Susquehanna River and ultimately the Army of the Potomac was destroyed in the Battle of Camp Hill near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 1st 1862.
His massive victory over the Army of the Potomac and the capture of McClellan was not only a major boost to the confidence of the Confederacy, but potentially a turning point because Lee was in a position to march on the Union capital of Washington City. Lincoln ordered a rapid withdrawal of Union forces from the Western Theatre to form a New Army of the Potomac, which was to be commanded by Grant to defend the capital.
The South threatened to repeat the burning of Washington of 1814 (referring to the capture of the city by British forces after which they had burned down several government and military buildings). Lee’s army lacked the strength for it, but this was unknown to the Union. People in Washington City panicked as rumours spread that Lee’s army was approaching and would torch the city, forcing Lincoln to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act and use soldiers to restore order. Meanwhile, Confederate troops marched into Kentucky because the US Army left only a screening force as columns of soldiers marched east and also took parts of Missouri.
Though the Union’s military strength wasn’t broken yet and its war industry still intact, the resolve to continue fighting was no longer there as evidenced by Congress voting in favour of seeking an armistice and beginning peace negotiations. Lincoln was opposed to this, but couldn’t go against an overwhelming majority in Congress and a public opinion that was in favour of peace as well by now. He realized all too well that an armistice and peace talks would permanently enshrine the division of America into two states. Lincoln didn’t want to become the President responsible for losing the South and therefore the sixteenth President of the United States took the unprecedented step of resigning from office on October 15th 1862, after which he’d publish his memoirs in 1870 (he died in 1901, aged 92). Vice President Hannibal Hamlin succeeded him as the 17th President of the United States, remaining in office until March 4th 1865 (the office of Vice President remained vacant all this time).
President Hamlin is primarily remembered for the Harrisburg Armistice signed on Monday October 27th 1862, and the peace treaty that subsequently followed. Under the protection of a white flag, Major General Henry Halleck went to Pennsylvania with orders to meet with Lee and confer the Union’s desire for an armistice. They met in the latter’s command tent near Camp Hill and a courier was subsequently dispatched to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Union and Confederate delegations met in the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg for the formal signing after which both sides laid down their arms. The major importance of this armistice was that it implied de facto recognition of the Confederacy’s independence by the US. The United States of America, which had become independent in 1776, had split in two.
Under the Stainless Banner
Chapter I: The War of Southern Secession, 1861-1862.
Chapter I: The War of Southern Secession, 1861-1862.
The War of Southern Secession had begun on April 12th 1861 with the attack by Confederate forces on the Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the first state to secede from the United States of America on December 20th 1860. The “cotton states” of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas all followed suit in January and February 1861. There were a number of causes for the War of Southern Secession, but the central divisive issue was slavery: the decades long political controversy culminated in the question of whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Other reasons that were cited for the secession were liberty and state rights, but these were of secondary importance next to the desire to maintain the institution of slavery.
This discussion had been brought to a head by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. He opposed slavery’s expansion into the western territories. The aforementioned seven southern slave states responded to Lincoln’s victory by seceding from the United States and, in February 1861, forming the Confederacy. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets within their borders. Led by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy asserted control over about a third of the US population in eleven of the 34 US states that then existed. Four more southern states – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina – had seceded by May 1861, joining the Confederate States of America.
Initially the Union seemed likely to win the War of Southern Secession as it held the better cards. For one, it had a larger and much more industrialized economy and urbanized society as opposed to the largely rural and agrarian society of the south. Secondly, the Union also had a significantly larger population and therefore a much larger pool of recruits to raise an army with.
Moreover, none of the major powers at this point showed any kind of intention to extend diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. Slavery had long since been abolished in Great Britain and France while Russian Tsar Alexander II had recently emancipated the serfs. None of the great powers sympathized with the cause that the Confederates were fighting for – i.e. protecting Southern society, of which slavery was an integral part. Besides that, to most European countries the North’s corn exports were more important than the South’s cotton exports.
So it was unsurprising that Union forces made some significant gains in the Western Theatre of the war (though in the Eastern Theatre the war was inconclusive). While the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg was still holding out, General Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in February 1862. Grant is considered the best Union commander. Union forces gained control of western Kentucky and central Tennessee in March 1862. After the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Island Number Ten, the Confederacy was bisected and the Mississippi River was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee. New Orleans, the Confederacy’s greatest seaport and industrial centre, was lost in April that year.
The war would, however, be won in the Eastern Theatre of the war by Confederate commander Robert E. Lee, who had an ambitious plan up his sleeve to invade the north. A messenger of the Confederate States Army nearly let the orders fall into enemy hands, but recovered them before Union soldiers could get them (it is still speculated what would have happened had the Union seen these documents). The Army of Northern Virginia, which numbered about 55.000 men, followed the routes delineated in General Lee’s Special Order 191 as they invaded. Lee caught Major General George B. McClellan, the commander of the Army of the Potomac, completely by surprise and routed his army. They fought again in the Battle of the Susquehanna River and ultimately the Army of the Potomac was destroyed in the Battle of Camp Hill near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 1st 1862.
His massive victory over the Army of the Potomac and the capture of McClellan was not only a major boost to the confidence of the Confederacy, but potentially a turning point because Lee was in a position to march on the Union capital of Washington City. Lincoln ordered a rapid withdrawal of Union forces from the Western Theatre to form a New Army of the Potomac, which was to be commanded by Grant to defend the capital.
The South threatened to repeat the burning of Washington of 1814 (referring to the capture of the city by British forces after which they had burned down several government and military buildings). Lee’s army lacked the strength for it, but this was unknown to the Union. People in Washington City panicked as rumours spread that Lee’s army was approaching and would torch the city, forcing Lincoln to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act and use soldiers to restore order. Meanwhile, Confederate troops marched into Kentucky because the US Army left only a screening force as columns of soldiers marched east and also took parts of Missouri.
Though the Union’s military strength wasn’t broken yet and its war industry still intact, the resolve to continue fighting was no longer there as evidenced by Congress voting in favour of seeking an armistice and beginning peace negotiations. Lincoln was opposed to this, but couldn’t go against an overwhelming majority in Congress and a public opinion that was in favour of peace as well by now. He realized all too well that an armistice and peace talks would permanently enshrine the division of America into two states. Lincoln didn’t want to become the President responsible for losing the South and therefore the sixteenth President of the United States took the unprecedented step of resigning from office on October 15th 1862, after which he’d publish his memoirs in 1870 (he died in 1901, aged 92). Vice President Hannibal Hamlin succeeded him as the 17th President of the United States, remaining in office until March 4th 1865 (the office of Vice President remained vacant all this time).
President Hamlin is primarily remembered for the Harrisburg Armistice signed on Monday October 27th 1862, and the peace treaty that subsequently followed. Under the protection of a white flag, Major General Henry Halleck went to Pennsylvania with orders to meet with Lee and confer the Union’s desire for an armistice. They met in the latter’s command tent near Camp Hill and a courier was subsequently dispatched to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Union and Confederate delegations met in the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg for the formal signing after which both sides laid down their arms. The major importance of this armistice was that it implied de facto recognition of the Confederacy’s independence by the US. The United States of America, which had become independent in 1776, had split in two.
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