AHC: American Civil War lasts beyond 1865

It's simple. Create a scenario and a POD where the American Civil War lasts beyond 1865. How this happens is entirely up to you, including the outcome of this alternate Civil War.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
I don't think this is particularly plausible for a few reasons.

First, from a purely military point of view, it's extremely unlikely that the Confederacy could last beyond early 1865, as they did IOTL. Indeed, it's something of a military miracle that they lasted as long as they did. Even with massive Union blunders, the mathematics of attrition and the steadily improving Union blockade will wear down the Confederate war effort to such an extent that both the will to continue the fight and the manpower and material means to do so will be exhausted by that point.

Second, if events had taken such a course as to prevent what is outlined in the first paragraph, the war would likely come to an end due to a collapse of political will in the North by late 1864, resulting in the Lincoln administration being removed in favor of one willing to make peace in that year's presidential election. So if, by mid-1864, the Confederacy is still strong enough to continue resisting (perhaps they won a crushing victory at Gettysburg the year before, perhaps Grant had never succeeded in capturing Vicksburg, whatever), the Northern public will simply refuse to continue fighting. Indeed, this almost happened IOTL, despite it being clear to us in hindsight that the South was on its last legs.

There is also the financial angle to consider. Even after the election had secured another term for Lincoln and his team, Secretary of War Stanton was in something of a panic during the winter of 1864/65 because he did not believe the Union would be able to afford another season of fighting (wars are won and lost on the floor of the bond market just as much as on the battlefield). Had the Confederacy still been presenting strong conventional resistance into 1865, the value of greenbacks would have been impossible to maintain and the fiscal situation of the Union would have been perilous. (The same was true of the South, of course, but their situation would have been better in such a situation, as their prospects would appear brighter to European investors).

So, to sum up, if the South is in a position to continue to offer strong resistance, the North will probably throw in the towel in late 1864/early 1865. On the other hand, if the Lincoln administration or some other administration pledged to continue fighting is still in power after the 1864 elections, there's really no way for the South to maintain its resistance.

Of course, you have the possibility of the Confederates resorting to partisan warfare, which I covered awhile back in this blog post. This would have dragged the war out awhile longer, at the cost of thousands more lives (including large numbers of civilians) and a much more embittered and divided nation. Whatever you think of Robert E. Lee, Joseph Johnston, and John C. Breckinridge, all Americans should thank them for having the sense to realize the futility of such a plan and to take measures to prevent it from happening.
 
Maybe a late intervention by a foreign power, giving the Confederate war effort an unexpected new lease of life. Admittedly, this would probably require some quite monumental incompetence on the part of the Northern diplomats.
 
What about an 1864 election resulting in some sort of truce rather than a permanent peace? War could then resume after the 1868 or 1872 election returns the Republicans to power.

[Alternately, what if Britain enters the war (on the Confederate side) in 1864? This could enrage the Northern electorate enough to keep Lincoln in power while at the same time giving the Confederacy the support it needs to halt and maybe even turn back the Union advance.]

Edit: paragraph in [square brackets] was ninja-ed
 
I consider this highly unlikely but what if Confederate bushwhackers like the James-Younger gang coalesced with other units of unreconstructed rebels and headed out west to form their own pro-CSA fiefdom in the sparsely populated territories of the Southwest?

They might not last long but it could require an army detachment to be sent out to locate and destroy them and restore order, which might cause the war to technically last into 1866 to the satisfaction of the OP.
 
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