Worse Civil War
- Thread starter tom
- Start date
The miracle of '63
Yellow fever wipes out Grant's army at Vicksburg and Lee is foiled crossing the Potomac on the way to Gettysburg, preserving more of his army. He does take the Harper's Ferry garrison, as at the earlier attempt at Antietam the year before. The Tories go for broke and England comes in to bail out the bankers that loaned money to the South, the French joining in because of Maximilian and the French army in Mexico.
In 1861 this would have resulted in a quick victory for the Union as mobs of civilians enlisted and swamped Canada and the south. In 1863 there aren't as many volunteers because they know how bad it is, though there is a boost. The conscription act passes and they do enlist more troops, but the blockade is broken by the English navy and many federal blockade troops are captured at New Orleans, Pensacola, Mobile?, etc. The Peninsula campaign is abandoned and Canada is annexed quickly, except for Nova Scotia and Halifax for logistics reasons, and of course PEI and Newfoundland.
The Union is much more industrialised in 1863 than in 1861. Iron foundries have opened, arms plants have been built, soil beds established, etc. The industrialisation surge picks up steam quickly and more and more factories are established. The Union navy ironclad program continues and the Union ports are protected against attack. Several attacks are made, but the monitors just sail up and shoo away the British and French navy.
The much greater Union armies in 1864 then smash the Confederacy in a series of battles, as the Union marches south freeing the slaves and burning slave holder property to bring the Confederate armies to battle. The Confederacy retreats because the British and French navies kept open the ports behind them and thus made it possible to get supplies, unlike in OTL when the Confederates surrendered after the fall of their last unblockaded and rail connected port.
The Union conscripts not just white people, but also black people. The Confederate army loses soldiers to desertion as the deserters homes are left behind and they can go home without fearing murder by the Confederate draft boards. The Union army swells as they conscript more and more black people. The English try and maintain garrisons in the ports, but Union commerce raiders cut their supply lines, Union armies besiege the ports, and the political structure of the Confederacy decays with free elections in the former Confederate states electing Union governments as the blacks and hillbillies vote for democracy, outnumbering the slaveholders.
The Union army just keeps growing and marching south, the Confederate army keeps shrinking and marching south, and eventually they are run to ground in Texas because the railroad is cut by raiders and can no longer supply them. The Union army keeps marching towards Mexico and the French army under Maximilian, which promptly makes peace and goes home because they can't fight the Mexicans and the Americans at the same time.
The British government blames the French and the Confederates and sues for peace. Canada votes to join America because they blame the British government for the whole debacle. They don't like the Confederacy, either, and they are a powerfull addition to the Republican abolitionist radicals, and put the confiscation of slaveholder land over the top against the conservative opposition.
The blacks are demobilised in place, giving Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas a black majority, as the young black males from the northern Confederate states have all been drafted into the army and are now in the south. Federally enforced voting rights protect white people instead of black people in the south and are enforced everywhere as a consequence.
The civil war lasted until 1867 because of the British and French support. It was settled much more firmly and the wounds healed without the constant iritation of race relations. The economic destruction was much more complete because of the earlier establishment and longer and more thorough application of the destruction policy towards slaveholder property that didn't have the owners and their sons around to prove that they weren't fighting in the Confederate army. The establishment of black majority states eliminated the white southern political predominace because the black states were a political counterweight. The whole country just settled down and rebuilt, and the antagonism ended as the older people gradually died off and the younger ones had better things to do.
Yellow fever wipes out Grant's army at Vicksburg and Lee is foiled crossing the Potomac on the way to Gettysburg, preserving more of his army. He does take the Harper's Ferry garrison, as at the earlier attempt at Antietam the year before. The Tories go for broke and England comes in to bail out the bankers that loaned money to the South, the French joining in because of Maximilian and the French army in Mexico.
In 1861 this would have resulted in a quick victory for the Union as mobs of civilians enlisted and swamped Canada and the south. In 1863 there aren't as many volunteers because they know how bad it is, though there is a boost. The conscription act passes and they do enlist more troops, but the blockade is broken by the English navy and many federal blockade troops are captured at New Orleans, Pensacola, Mobile?, etc. The Peninsula campaign is abandoned and Canada is annexed quickly, except for Nova Scotia and Halifax for logistics reasons, and of course PEI and Newfoundland.
The Union is much more industrialised in 1863 than in 1861. Iron foundries have opened, arms plants have been built, soil beds established, etc. The industrialisation surge picks up steam quickly and more and more factories are established. The Union navy ironclad program continues and the Union ports are protected against attack. Several attacks are made, but the monitors just sail up and shoo away the British and French navy.
The much greater Union armies in 1864 then smash the Confederacy in a series of battles, as the Union marches south freeing the slaves and burning slave holder property to bring the Confederate armies to battle. The Confederacy retreats because the British and French navies kept open the ports behind them and thus made it possible to get supplies, unlike in OTL when the Confederates surrendered after the fall of their last unblockaded and rail connected port.
The Union conscripts not just white people, but also black people. The Confederate army loses soldiers to desertion as the deserters homes are left behind and they can go home without fearing murder by the Confederate draft boards. The Union army swells as they conscript more and more black people. The English try and maintain garrisons in the ports, but Union commerce raiders cut their supply lines, Union armies besiege the ports, and the political structure of the Confederacy decays with free elections in the former Confederate states electing Union governments as the blacks and hillbillies vote for democracy, outnumbering the slaveholders.
The Union army just keeps growing and marching south, the Confederate army keeps shrinking and marching south, and eventually they are run to ground in Texas because the railroad is cut by raiders and can no longer supply them. The Union army keeps marching towards Mexico and the French army under Maximilian, which promptly makes peace and goes home because they can't fight the Mexicans and the Americans at the same time.
The British government blames the French and the Confederates and sues for peace. Canada votes to join America because they blame the British government for the whole debacle. They don't like the Confederacy, either, and they are a powerfull addition to the Republican abolitionist radicals, and put the confiscation of slaveholder land over the top against the conservative opposition.
The blacks are demobilised in place, giving Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas a black majority, as the young black males from the northern Confederate states have all been drafted into the army and are now in the south. Federally enforced voting rights protect white people instead of black people in the south and are enforced everywhere as a consequence.
The civil war lasted until 1867 because of the British and French support. It was settled much more firmly and the wounds healed without the constant iritation of race relations. The economic destruction was much more complete because of the earlier establishment and longer and more thorough application of the destruction policy towards slaveholder property that didn't have the owners and their sons around to prove that they weren't fighting in the Confederate army. The establishment of black majority states eliminated the white southern political predominace because the black states were a political counterweight. The whole country just settled down and rebuilt, and the antagonism ended as the older people gradually died off and the younger ones had better things to do.