New Jersey secedes with South 1860/61

Melvin Loh

In the hist notes for Harold Coyle's ACW novel LOOK AWAY, which is about 2 New Jersey brothers who fight on opposite sides during the conflict, he mentions that NJ in Dec 1860 was actually considering secession alongside South Carolina, due to the substantial economic ties which NJ had with the South. OTL, I believe that this proposal was defeated in the state legislature, but WI NJ secession actually occurred ? How significantly would the dynamics of the ACW have been affected by the Confederacy having a Northern state which was a member ? Would the presence of a non-slaveholding state smack-dab in the northeast's industrial heartland have been more beneficial or detrimental to the Confederate cause ? May the presence of a Northern Confederate state have encouraged later in the war similar sentiments among other Northern states which were disillusioned with Lincoln's conduct of the war effort, such as New York during the leadup time to the Draft Riots ?
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
ConfederateFly said:
If they seceded they would be overwhelmed by the northern armies as the first objective
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I don't know... New Jersey should be a pretty tough nut to crack. First of all, there's water on three sides, and mountains in the north-east. Additionally, the state was pretty densely populated, even then. Furthermore, the areas facing New York, particularly the Highlands to the south, are heavily fortified - New Jersey being crucial to the defense of the New York Harbor area. I would think that New Jersey could bombard New York with impunity.

In the decades following the Civil War, New Jersey hosted several of the world's most famous inventors - Edison, who had his research facilities in Menlo Park and West Orange, and Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company of America. Had it been put to the torch like much of the south, I can't imagine these people would have put up shop there.
 

David Howery

note that secession in the south (other than TX) was by the thinnest of margins.. in some cases, less than 5000 votes were the margin of victory. I'd think NJ would be even closer than this, and that nearly half the population would be rather pissed. The north would likely find lots of collaborators to help them take NJ back...
 
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