A more "Terrible" Civil War?

I generally hate Civil War PODs, but the discussion of gallantry has inspired me.

The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all of its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy's prisoners in our possession. It is, therefore ordered, for every soldier of the United States, killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy, or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to prisoners of war.
-General Order 233, 1863

So, in 1863, the Confederate Congress threatened to enslave any black soldiers they caught, and to punish any white officers of such units. Because obviously the troops were fugitive slaves. In reply, Lincoln issued the aforementioned order.

I don't think it's a stretch to see the Confederates deciding Lincoln would never dare follow through on this threat, given the way they treated black prisoners as they did in OTL. And hey, they call him Honest Abe for a reason; after a few white officers get shot by the Confederates...

Hrm. What else can we do to make this worse? In OTL Confederate agents tried to set fire to New York City in November of 1864. Let's suppose they decide to do some bombings instead. Although most of the bombs fizzle, dozens of people are killed when Niblo's Theater is blown up on November 25, 1864.

As it happens, shooting white officers, enslaving black soldiers, and blowing up New York theaters does not break the Yankee spirit, and the war still ends at Appomattox. And then, on April 14, 1865, Mary Todd Lincoln among those killed at Ford's Theater.

What now?
 
Lee is killed before his army surrenders and rebels continue a guerilla war for years.

Or even a second Southern Ironclad is built and makes it into a Northern port where it savages a number of ships before running out of ammo and then being sunk.
 
I don't know if Lee is enough to do it, but it occurs to me that something like a cavalry unit running roughshod in Pennsylvania during Gettysburg might do it. "Make the north scream."

I mean, let me offer this example. Suppose Ireland rose up in 1861, and it took the Brits three years and tens of thousands of dead to subdue it. How would they treat the Irish patriots seeking a homeland free of the English yoke/rebels?

The American response to the Civil War seems unique.
 
The American response to the Civil War seems unique.

Eh, I would say the American response post war was more because the person taking power after Lincolns death was a southerner himself who did all he could to prevent the south being punished severely.
 
Eh, I would say the American response post war was more because the person taking power after Lincolns death was a southerner himself who did all he could to prevent the south being punished severely.
Really I thought it was the opposite and that Andrew Johnson hated the many white upper class southerners, as well as the southern blacks, and did what he could to punish them. But my understanding of Reconstruction is still in the making.:D
 
If the government is even harsher with the South we'd surely see am ever harsher KKK reaction, perhaps even extending to additional acts of terrorism against the North. This would provoke even further crackdown, which in turn spurs even further reaction by White Southerners. If things reach that point then we probably see the North/Republicans turning to blacks as their means of enforcing order, with less reluctance to support/establish purely black militias.

This of course would alienate Southern whites like nothing else could, causing an even greater surge of violence against blacks. The difference is that with blacks being armed and organized by whites, and with violence against them that much greater, blacks probably start to retaliate with their own violence. The South could very easily turn into a total bloodbath.

If genocidal violence starts occurring on both sides, I'm not sure how the North would react. Even with far greater resentment of white Southerners then in our history, the North would still be a racist place and the media can be counted on to exaggerate black atrocities more then they exaggerate white atrocities. But if Northern hate of white Southerners can outweigh their racism, then might we end up with de facto black-dominant apartheid in much of the South? I won't lie- I quite enjoy envisioning that:p.
 
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