I’ve been considering a hypothetical scenario where the CSA is oriented more towards the areas west of the Mississippi. Perhaps Virginia votes not to secede and therefore keeps Tennessee and possibly North Carolina and Arkansas in the Union. But on the other hand, Kansas is admitted as a slave state, the pro-slave coup in Missouri succeeds, the Confederates are more successful in seizing control of the Indian and New Mexico Territories, and (if it’s at all possible) CSA sympathizers in Southern California break away, splitting off part of the state to join the Confederacy. Is this a plausible scenario? How does it affect the course of the war?
AHC/WI: A more Western-oriented Confederacy
- Thread starter Kirook
- Start date
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Not very plausible
If it did happen the CSA is screwed far worse than OTL. Virginia had a huge proportion of the CSA's industry. No Virginia and the CSA has almost nill ability to make artillery, and vastly lessened ability to make other arms. Not to mention the US no longer has to waste huge amounts of effort fortifying DC, given Virginia as a buffer. Lose NC and the blockade is much more effective. Lose Tennessee and the US is basically poised to launch campaigns against Atlanta and Alabama on Day 1
War is much less bloody, fewer troops mobilized., probably shorter. Be more guerillas in the west afterwards though. Issue is 13th amendment with extra loyal slave states
If it did happen the CSA is screwed far worse than OTL. Virginia had a huge proportion of the CSA's industry. No Virginia and the CSA has almost nill ability to make artillery, and vastly lessened ability to make other arms. Not to mention the US no longer has to waste huge amounts of effort fortifying DC, given Virginia as a buffer. Lose NC and the blockade is much more effective. Lose Tennessee and the US is basically poised to launch campaigns against Atlanta and Alabama on Day 1
War is much less bloody, fewer troops mobilized., probably shorter. Be more guerillas in the west afterwards though. Issue is 13th amendment with extra loyal slave states
Without the population bases in Virginia and North Carolina they get walloped hard and quickly. The blockade becomes much easier to enforce without having to shut down the North Carolinian ports. War ends much faster because control of the Mississippi is that much easier to establish without having to divert nearly as many resources to the eastern theater.
Vuu
Banned
Instead of making just 2 gorillion CSA-lites and see what happens, hook a earlier PoD that results in the South being much more densely populated and not dependent on plantation agriculture, THEN goad the two sides into civil war. Now you have an relatively equal situation that the South can win without resorting to Vietcong tier tactics
This wasn’t about giving the South a fighting chance to win the war, or wanking the CSA, it was more about what would happen with a more intense war in the western theater and a less intense one in the east. But it seems like taking Virginia out makes that mostly irrelevant since the war would end so much sooner.
Vuu
Banned
Hmm... probably the bigger insistence on fast-settling the west. With less fighting on the eastern front, the white populace might not end up so disgruntled as they were OTL, when they moved west, even though it was planned to use the freedmen to mass-colonize the west
Social consequences would be the biggest - no area in the South with afroamerican domination, but a lot of them scattered throughout the west, eventually just melting into the wider white population
Social consequences would be the biggest - no area in the South with afroamerican domination, but a lot of them scattered throughout the west, eventually just melting into the wider white population
The CSA could lose the war in the West but they could never win it there.
Even Vietcong type tactics wouldn't work. The US is fighting what it considers and existential war , right next door against a country that has no allies. Vietnam was a war of marginal importance to the US in the greater scheme of things, was 5,000 miles away and was resupplied via China.
FillyofDelphi
Banned
There's also the fact that hardscrabble hill country regions (IE the part best suited for irregular warfare) also tended to be the most Unionist. The geopolitical makeup of the South meant you needed a conventional defence
There is also the fact that it was largely a war to preserve slavery. If you are hiding in the hills you won't be able to keep your slaves. Their very presence will attract attention, it would be VERY hard to prevent them from escaping and you would have no ability to feed them. You can't support your slaves if you are hiding in the woods. Repulsive as it was the CSA was not Nazi Germany. The whole point of slavery for the South was having them produce things not having them produce things until you get around to killing them.