If such a coup got off the ground and say a divisions worth of men was marched on Washington and a military coup declared then things get fairly clear cut. The Courts would obviously not recognize such a government, and you would have loyalist generals moving regiments into position to besiege/crush the coup instigators almost immediately.
I would definitely be interested in reading a TL about a southern led military dictatorship.
It just wouldn't work since the South craved legitimacy, and a coup is the very opposite of that.
instead of Seceding ,Southern officers in dc or southern states send an army to overthrow the US government or Lincoln .what would happen
There was no rebel army in existence before inauguration day (March 4, 1861) and there's the minor problem that the states in the Upper South didn't secede until after the lower south began the war with the bombardment of Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861). Virginia, of course, did not secede until April 17.
Secession dates are below - you will note a pattern:
South Carolina: December 20, 1860
Mississippi: January 9, 1861
Florida: January 10, 1861
Alabama: January 11, 1861
Georgia: January 19, 1861
Louisiana: January 26, 1861
Texas: February 1, 1861
Virginia: April 17, 1861
Arkansas: May 6, 1861
North Carolina: May 20, 1861
Tennessee: June 8, 1861
Other than those minor issues, it's a brilliant plan.
Best,
There's the armies around DC and officers in it![]()
There's the armies around DC and officers in it![]()
No there's not. The regular Army is exceptionally tiny, a few thousand men at the time. And they're nearly all scattered in the Far West or piecemeal between dozens of Forts from Maine to Key West to Texas.
-snip -
And even then there's the issue that the officers could do what they please, but why would the troops listen? You could count the number of serving, enlisted US army soldiers who joined the Confederacy without having to worry about running out of fingers and toes. The odds that they'd be willing to support a military coup, from which they would gain nothing? Slim to none. And even Robert E. Lee can't seize control of a government without troops.
There were 16,000 regulars, actually; but you are correct, they were stationed (for the most part) on the coasts or west of the Mississippi in 1860-16, but Scott relocated to Washington in the winter of 1860-61 and he and other loyalists cleaned house in the DC Militia even when Buchanan was still president.
Best,
And even then you take Washington, you declare your man president, so what? What power do you hold? You've taken one city? What happens when the Governor of New York, or Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Illinois calls bullshit and raises his militia?
I wont split hair but 16 seems to me to certainly be a "few" thousand.
And of course you are correct about the DC militia having been purged by Captain Stone, in fact I agree with everything you said. And yes, I was mistaken, having forgotten that Scott had moved South from New York in the secession winter, rather than in the spring. My apologies.
That said, may I ask where you have the 3,000 number from?
Stone's militia was IIRC somewhat less than 2,000 and of course peaked on inauguration day. Lincoln at most had an honor and regular guard of no more than one or two companies (Which by the standard of the time would have been massively under strength) of Cavalry and Infantry on hand at the Inauguration, and whom departed the city rather rapidly afterwards.
instead of Seceding ,Southern officers in dc or southern states send an army to overthrow the US government or Lincoln .what would happen