Alternate ACW Beginnings

Starting with a POD after the election of Lincoln, what sort of alternate ACW beginnings can we have? I have a hard time getting beyond the Ft. Sumter incident.

Where else could the first shots be fired? In Kentucky? Missouri? Where would the Union attack first?

I'm looking for quality and quantity. I'm not picky :D

If there have been previous threads on this, please link if possible; everybody hates the search tool.
 
Why would the Union attack first? There is zero reason for it to do that. It just ignoring the Confederacy altogether and acting like nothing has changed will ensure the CSA *has* to fire the first shot if nothing else to convince the world that there really is something called a Confederacy. Lincoln is the one who can just act like the CSA's a social club for slaveowners, the CSA's the one that has no choice but to inaugurate the war.

The Star of the West incident is the easiest flashpoint to ignite a war under James Buchanan, ironically enough.......
 
Why would the Union attack first? There is zero reason for it to do that. It just ignoring the Confederacy altogether and acting like nothing has changed will ensure the CSA *has* to fire the first shot if nothing else to convince the world that there really is something called a Confederacy. Lincoln is the one who can just act like the CSA's a social club for slaveowners, the CSA's the one that has no choice but to inaugurate the war.

The Star of the West incident is the easiest flashpoint to ignite a war under James Buchanan, ironically enough.......

Just checking ;). I can imagine something like Fremont deciding it would better off if Kentucky was on the Union side from the beginning or something... :rolleyes:

Never heard of the Star of the West, that is some of the stuff I was looking for, thanks!
 
Just checking ;). I can imagine something like Fremont deciding it would better off if Kentucky was on the Union side from the beginning or something... :rolleyes:

Never heard of the Star of the West, that is some of the stuff I was looking for, thanks!

The Star of the West incident was Buchanan's attempt to reinforce Sumter with actual weapons and reinforcements instead of provisions. The CSA could have easily initiated the war then and there.
 
On January 14, 1861, Commander John Brannam, of Battery B, 1st US artillery, moves his 44 men into Fort Taylor, Key West, Florida, preventing the local Florida militia troops from taking it, which was rumored. Had the Florida troops been more ready, there could have been a clash over the occupation of the fort. A lot of the state troops were moving against Federal arsenals and such, and any one might have been a larger spark to set fire to things.
 
Starting with a POD after the election of Lincoln, what sort of alternate ACW beginnings can we have? I have a hard time getting beyond the Ft. Sumter incident.

Where else could the first shots be fired? In Kentucky? Missouri? Where would the Union attack first?
As noted, Lincoln wanted to avoid firing the first shot; Davis felt the CSA had to Do Something to assert its sovereignty. Sumter was a flashpoint because it was a Federal post in "CSA territory". However, there were two others, both in Florida: Fort Pickens, at Pensacola Bay, and Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas near Key West.

Fort Jefferson was practically untouchable by the CSA, and so far offshore as to be irrelevant.

Fort Pickens lay right on the shoreline (on the spit of land between the bay and the ocean), not under mainland guns and thus not besiegeable. Between the inauguration and the bombardment of Sumter, Pickens was almost as big a question.

Seward wanted to give up Sumter: in part because it was indefensible, and in part because holding Pickens would make the same point. Seward in fact made a secret promise to Southern representatives that Sumter would be evacuated. He thought that it would help defuse the crisis and avert secession by the Upper South. Lincoln had to remind him who was President.

If Seward had his way... Or another possibility.

The US force at Charleston was stationed in Fort Moultrie, on the mainland and defenseless. There were only some construction workers in Sumter, until Major Anderson moved his men from Moultrie to Sumter. The South Carolina militia might have anticipated this action - they could easily have stopped it, or moved into Sumter first. In which case, yes, Pickens could be the site of first combat.

Another possibility is Virginia. The state convention refused to vote secession, and the hardline secessionists became frustrated. Some of them had plans to form unofficial militia units, seize the Norfolk Navy Yard and Harpers Ferry Arsenal, and impose de facto secession on Virginia.

IIRC, the attacks were scheduled for late April, and were pre-empted by the Sumter crisis and Virginia's official secession. There were enough Marines and armed sailors at Norfolk to make a fight. Quite possibly the action would backfire. Virginia was legally a state of the Union: free-lance paramilitaries killing U.S. Marines and sailors in the name of Virginia would be a colossal embarrassment. Most Virginians still opposed secession, and an outlaw attempt to stampede the state would be repudiated.
 
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