A Wrong Turn Makes A Right" - A Better Union Win at Shiloh,no Sioux Wars, etc.

From Ken Burns' documentary, "The Civil War"

"...The period known as The Assassination period began when Andrew Johnson, inspecting the area as new military governor after the Union Army continued to march toward Chattanooga, was lynched... While very few Federal officials were murdered becasue of tigher security and more forces back East, the Confederacy found it easy to send men elsewhere... It is said that the lynching of Andrew Johnson was the catalyst for these events, with Governor John Evans of Colorado Territory being one of the highest ranking people killed by Confederte agents, in October of 1862..."

From User pedea, "David Hunter"

"When things had calmed down in Minnesota, Hunter hoped to be sent back to the fighting. However, while a regiment of free blacks, the 54th Massachusetts, was to be formed the following month, after the elections, to coincide with the date the emancipation Proclamation went into effect, before the elections the president remained wary of letting him go South, lest he try to form more regiments of freed slaves. Hence, he offered him a new challenge - as territorial governor of Colorado. He was already out West, after all, and the people needed reassured after Evans' death that the Indians wouldn't start to rise up....

"...It was also hoped, privately, that perhaps Hunter could convince some of the tribes to send troops to fight for the Union."
 
I think the only way to get rid of the Lost Cause idea in this case would be either to have Confederate generals screw up in a big way, so they're not considered military geniuses,

That's more or less what I meant by saying you'd need to end the war in 1862. Later than that, the exploits of Lee and Jackson have made them "Legends in Grey", and turned the Confederates into romantic heroes. From then on in, it's going to be remembered as a "glorious cause" pretty much regardless of what happens later in the war.


have the war go on longer, so as to make the people actually fighting it resent it,

By 1865, lots of them were tired of it anyway. I doubt if Jefferson Davis would have a place on Stone Mountain had the North not shackled him in Fortress Monroe. But Lee and Jackson would still be there. Indeed, the longer the Confederate generals can keep up the fight, the more heroic they will look. Prolonging the war just increases the mystique of the Lost Cause, rather than diminishing it.


or have the Confederacy commit a massacre so horrible that even the most ardent racists of the north and south give pause as to whether they're really on/not on the right side.

Not much likelihood of that in the early part of the war. And if it happens later, Southerners (and probably most Copperheads) will shrug it off, pointing to the fate of Atlanta and other places, and defending the burning of New York (or whatever) as a legitimate reprisal.
 
Why would they kill a guy in Colorado?

Govenor or not, it's not really vital.

Easy target. There can be others, but this being an opn thread, I figure others would be wanting to fill in a few. Or, maybe there aren't any more.

I'll be going on vacation soon enough that I am tempted to just let this rest now, though. If others want to join and put things out there, they can. I've put enough things out there for people to follow up on, and done the basics of eliminating the Sious Wars and Cheyenne War, plus advancing the Colored Regiments by a few month. Others can do the effects from these, or an earlier Chattanooga battle, or whatever.

I'm busy with other stuff anyway so next it'll likely be a baseball one or something whenever I have time to come back. I know, I've retired 723 times now :) It is lots of fun to use one's imagiantion and try to come up with how thigns ould go.
 
Just a thought. WI either the 14th or 15th Amendment contains a clause abolishing the Electoral College and choosing the POTUS by direct popular vote?

This means firstly that the Republicans will benefit from every vote cast for them in the South, even if it is insufficient to "carry" any Southern State. Secondly, it means that they need every vote they can get, as for most of the 19C they were running barely level with the Democrats. So they need to fight much harder to maintain a bigger Black vote than OTL, and will certainly fight tooth and nail to prevent the near total disfranchisement which took place at the turn of the century.

This of course doesn't guarantee success, but it certainly gives the GOP a terrific incentive to keep up the struggle. Crucial question though - is there any way to make it happen?
 
A couple close elections going the Demcorats' way with the GOp getting a lot more votes could do it, but I don't see that as being possible till another decade or two.

I think if nobody else joins the Open Thread and posts ideas, I will come back to this in some months as a straight TL akin to my other longer ones. The only thing is I'm not very good at the style of Selma Massacre that I did in the first posts, so it will probably have to be a combination.

The only thing is that it is somewhat clsoe to the POD I already used (Union win at Chancellorsville) for "Brotherhood and Baseball' and "If Baseball Integrated Early," so it might feel like I'm going over old material, but I could take it in a new direction. It will also, in some ways, feel like I'm going over the stuff "The Union Forever" did with its POD of McClellan getting hurt and someone else doing his attack successfully, except that this will also have the Civil War lasting long enough for the Emancipation Proclamation and a sure end to slavery. (One reason I put the IBIE/BaB POD as late as I did)

There will be other changes I don't recall if were in "TUF," and the lack of Cheyenne or Sioux Wars could have dramatic impacts on American opinions of natives, too, perhaps meaning they accept them as citizens earlier or somfething. this would be something itneresting to explore if this does become my own TL.

Still, it's possible others will decide to add to this open thread/collaborative TL. I guess most people must get together with others before even starting an Open Thread, unlike the way I did with just declaring it.

If not, I think I can actually retcon Governor Evans' assassination and still do away with the Cheyenne Wars, that was just as much Chivington as anything, though Evans' attitude was a major problem.

then, it'll be more like TUF with things improving slowly but a few thigns happening differently. Without John Benton (a fictional soldier who was an Everyman who survived the Civil War to make sure baseball was integrated in IBIE/BaB) it will be harder, but having baseball integrated fromt he start still can happen, just in a different way. That, alone will help some to help people be used to the idea of blacks and whites interacting together.
 
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