Grant at Gettysburg

[Shadow Knight]

Sorry to hear you've had such problems usertron. I hope things turn around for you.

Thank you for such a great timeline, truly one of the best CW ones I've read, and I appreciate you taking the time to give some closure. Whatever scenario you were to choose I'm sure you would have written an amazing tale.

I'm curious as to what you would think would be the post war changes from this little butterfly.

 

[naraht]

Agreed, sorry to hear that you've had these problems. It has been a great TL to read. I hope that you are able to recover and do what you want IRL.

With Lee Crushed, I'm guessing the Union troops in the field are double those of the Confederacy and can pick off what ever area they choose while keeping up the stranglehold.
The most obvious butterfly to me is that an assassination of Lincoln the same time after the end of the war as OTL would put Hamlin in the Whitehouse leading to a heavier hand on the former confederacy...

 

[Richardson]

I regret your health and life difficulties.

My vote is that you choose the alternative that you like best. Your have done a fine job with this timeline so far. I am sure that if health and life permit that you will continue this process.

Best wishes.

 

[usertron2020]

Thank you Shadow Knight.
I imagine now that I've had some more time to think about it that Davis being Davis he would probably have scattered Confederate forces to the point where the Confederacy [Save the Western States and Territories (Texas, the Indian Territory, and Western Louisiana)] would have collapsed within weeks (or a few months-the Confederacy hasn't undergone the Winter of 64-65), but they HAVE lost all their ports much more quickly. The permanent losses of the Shenandoah, Goldsborough, and Wilmington NC so much earlier ITTL will be critical.

The status of the average Confederate in terms of standard-of-living won't be as soul crushing ITTL as IOTL. But they'll also be without as much bragging rights either. Holding out for two years isn't quite the same as four. The War has ended with Lee's Surrender, in battle, as most will see it, not with a whimpering occupation of Richmond before an overwhelming Yankee Horde.
IOW, Davis sends just enough troops everywhere for them to be decently beaten (defeated in detail), and that's it. Distance and the decrepit state of Confederate railroads (1) will bar any "Rapid Deployment Confederate Force" getting to Virginia or even the Tideland States in time.

1) Different rail gauges, and whole cities being bypassed by the Southern rail network in order to promote King Cotton over industrial, civilian, or communication needs.

Postwar? Either very bright or very dark. It depends on the intangibles of Lincoln's survival and how long Reconstruction can be maintained. If Lincoln is still alive in 1876 (BIG if!), and with an early end to the war (2) he may not become so aged, it's doubtful the GOP's most popular member would have allowed someone like Rutherford B. Hayes to be the nominee, or that Thaddeus Stevens would have enjoyed filling the power vacuum left by Lincoln's assassination.
So, I'm just exercising Author's Preference to say that on a particular night in Ford's Theater Ulysses S. Grant ACCEPTS Lincoln's offer to attend (Julia Dent Grant is much more smug dealing with Mary Todd Lincoln with General Grant's unblemished record), without Julia's objection. Since Grant has a full military escort wherever he goes...
Either Booth/Assassin X is caught or killed, or the would be assassin is frightened off and eventually drinks himself to death. End result? Lincoln gets himself a "Secret Service" 1860s style whether he wants it or not. Pinkertons, probably. So Lincoln can't order away his military guards.
2) Fewer dead, wounded, and the nation as a whole is not as exhausted. By two full less years of Total War.
It would take a Gilded Age historian to speculate what might happen in a Post-Grant Presidency ATL where the war effectively ended after Gettysburg and Lincoln had not been assassinated. I lack the knowledge to do any such speculation.

 

[usertron2020]

Agreed, sorry to hear that you've had these problems. It has been a great TL to read. I hope that you are able to recover and do what you want IRL.

With Lee Crushed, I'm guessing the Union troops in the field are double those of the Confederacy and can pick off whatever area they choose while keeping up the stranglehold.
The most obvious butterfly to me is that an assassination of Lincoln the same time after the end of the war as OTL would put Hamlin in the White House leading to a heavier hand on the former confederacy...

Thank you naraht
See the previous post about "Author's Preference" and what happens to would-be Lincoln assassins ITTL. But at least Dr. Samuel A. Mudd won't be going to the Dry Tortugas...

 

[usertron2020]

I regret your health and life difficulties.

My vote is that you choose the alternative that you like best. Your have done a fine job with this timeline so far. I am sure that if health and life permit that you will continue this process.

Best wishes.

Richardson
Thank you. It's my own fault. Like the great Southern ACW historian Harsh, I never took care of myself.

At the age of 60, he embarked on a ten year project to write the definitive American Civil War History from the Northern POV. Harsh had for much of his academic life been bitterly criticized as a "Neo-Confederate" historian, but unfairly, I think. It was more a matter of others using his works out of context to espouse Anti-Unionist, Pro-Confederate, or even Pro-Imperial British propaganda. One person in particular was notorious for this, but its against forum rules to speak ill of the dead (banned) by name. Long time readers know who I mean, and his posts read like a rash all over the early parts of this ATL.
Harsh died, at 60, when he was only completing the outline to his multi-volume work.

Too bad. Had Harsh lived another decade, I think he would have left a great work behind him. Maybe Shelby Foote is helping Harsh finish his history in Heaven.

 

[winterset]

There are so many possibilities. Clearly Lee is done; and the AoNV is done. Richmond will fall. Virginia goes and North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia Follows. Sherman takes care of Mississippi and meets the AoTP somewhere in the deep south. Just a question of how long it takes.

Lincoln wins reelection in a landslide.

Now the question of his assassination then takes center stage (pun intended)

Things are much less bitter this way; without the last year or so of suffering and death. The Lost Cause has a lot less clout.

I think even with a Lincoln Assasination things go a lot better. If he lives then much better again.

 

[usertron2020]

There are so many possibilities. Clearly Lee is done; and the AoNV is done. Richmond will fall. Virginia goes and North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia Follows. Sherman takes care of Mississippi and meets the AoTP somewhere in the deep south. Just a question of how long it takes.

Lincoln wins reelection in a landslide.

Now the question of his assassination then takes center stage (pun intended)

Things are much less bitter this way; without the last year or so of suffering and death. The Lost Cause has a lot less clout.

I think even with a Lincoln Assassination things go a lot better. If he lives then much better again.

Agreed with all save the Lincoln Assassination going forward. Andrew Johnson was one of our very worst (but not THE worst, he has a couple of cretins still higher on the Worst Ever POTUS List) presidents ever. Unless a butterfly caused by an earlier end to the ACW causes Benjamin F. Butler (with the war over) to ACCEPT rather than reject Lincoln's offer in 1864 to be his running mate.
No way does Andrew Johnson not manage to F*** up Reconstruction, as he was fundamentally opposed to the very idea. Johnson may have hated the Planter Class and considered himself a champion of the rights of poor Southern Whites, but his constant outreach to Unreconstructed Confederates showed his true feelings toward Freedmen. I credit Thaddeus Stevens and his fellow Radical Republicans as the heroes of Reconstruction. At least while Johnson was in the White House.

Actually, something just occurred to me. IF Johnson had proved more stubborn, and IF the impeachment process had happened before the 1866 Election, would the Radical Republicans have had the votes in the Senate to Convict Johnson? What then?