Careers Without the ACW

Bragg had just entered politics, being elected to the Louisiana Board of Public Works in 1860. He might well have gone on to greater things...Governor Bragg, perhaps?

Maybe. Perhaps I should amend that to "remembered outside Louisianan".

Bragg seems unlikely to be either so bad as to be notorious or so good as to go on beyond state politics.

Its possible, but I don't think he's the sort to have a particularly noteworthy career in politics as politicians in that day go.
 
Maybe. Perhaps I should amend that to "remembered outside Louisianan".

Bragg seems unlikely to be either so bad as to be notorious or so good as to go on beyond state politics.

Its possible, but I don't think he's the sort to have a particularly noteworthy career in politics as politicians in that day go.

I agree that he's unlikely to rise very high in national politics. However, in the smaller "pond" of Louisiana, he could get to be a relatively "big fish." By all accounts he was well-liked in Louisiana in antebellum times and did well there in his business and political life.
 
Ulysses S. Grant: After a string of failures in farming caused by the temporary rising tide of sectionalism, U.S. Grant would become a prosperous farmer upon the death of his father-in-law, "Colonel" Dent when the later fell from his horse and Ulyss inherited his farm and proved to live a happy life as a medium-weight farmer.

William T. Sherman: After the failure of his banking adventures in the mid-1850s William Sherman became known as the first and greatest President of what would become Louisiana State University and is honored with a prominent equestrian statue.

Robert E. Lee: After a distinguished wartime career General Lee retired after being the longest-serving Commandant of West Point in US history with a career marked by service in the engineering corps and in the cavalry. His career is privately seen as one of immense frustration and he is never truly contented.

James Longstreet: One of the most distinguished cavalry officers in the US Army together with George H. Thomas, Longstreet is renowned for his successes in the wars against the Apache and Navajo people where together with Thomas the two led a mostly-cavalry consolidation of US control in the region.

George H. Thomas: One of the highest-ranking and longest-serving officers in US Military History, Brevet Major General George Thomas (official rank Brigadier General) would be renowned together with James Longstreet and the other officers of the US Cavalry for leading the successful campaigns that defeated the Navajo and Apache nations. Thomas's influential studies of the Apache and Navajo languages are forgotten steps forward in the history of Amerindian Linguistics.

George G. Meade: One of the most influential engineers in US History, Meade developed a pattern of finishing the engineering works begun by Colonel Lee, resulting in a deep animosity between the two officers through no fault of Meade.

Thomas J. Jackson: Retired in disgrace after a feud with his superior officer that saw conduct unbecoming an officer, Jackson would be remembered as the most eccentric professor of the VMI faculty and one of its most influential. He is responsible in later years for Virginia providing the only core in the South of artillery men and officers.
 
Who was elected President in 1860? If some one from the South, maybe war with Spain to acquire Cuba? if so Lee in charge of the army.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Who was elected President in 1860? If some one from the South, maybe war with Spain to acquire Cuba? if so Lee in charge of the army.
I was thinking the Dems don't split and Douglas wins. He had promised to try and snatch some of Texas, and it's going to find some friends in Britain, France and Spain since all of them are looking to get their money back from Mexico.

Perhaps a permanent US presence in Veracruz along with grabbing some of the cotton-friendly regions of Northeastern Mexico.

Cuba is also a possibility, though god knows how that'll go.
 
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