Civil War Alternative - Vicksburg and Beyond

Army of the Tennessee under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant fails the capture of Vicksburg due to lack of ammunition and morale. Also, a small yet capable fleet of Confederate privateers shell the Union position. Confederate troops are dropped off at the river, and hit General Grant's Left flank. Furthermore, the filling of the mine with gunpowder to blow a massive hole in Confederate lines is abandoned due to lack of ammo, and also an early accident, killing nearly 35 people. Grant can't see a point in this. He retreats, and thus, leaves a great part of the Mississippi in control to the CSA.

Texas and Louisiana both stay connected to the rest of the CSA.
Texas provides a great amount of horses and food for the war.
Louisiana's New Orleans does not fall due to more Confederate soldiers
in the vicinity. Furthermore, almost a fourth of the US Navy is taken out of commission due to a fatal flaw in the hull design.

The Union Barricade is greatly weakened, and more Confederate trade ships can slip by.



Opinions on:

Battle of Gettysburg
Siege of Petersburg
Capture of Richmond
British and French relations
Any battles after.
 
I find the idea of preventing Vicksburg interesting, but will not comment about your second paragraph as the two seem entirely disconnected. Having said that....

It won't affect stuff immediately. The first major change is that Grant won't rise above Army Command immediately. By Vicksburg, the only stretch of the Mississippi in Confederate hands is between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Should Vicksburg somehow hold on, the Union will still cut the line by way of the Red River, as they were planning to do in OTL. It will inconvenience northern merchant ships, but militarily the Confederacy will still be split in two.

The interesting thing is what happens in the west starting at Chickamauga. A Vicksburg victory will not change Gettysburg or Tullahoma, and probably not first Chattanooga - Bragg will still have to retreat. Unless Grant is destroyed outright, he will he able to hold along the Mississippi and at Corinth, but Pemberton will add some 30,000 troops to the Confederates. Probably most of these will be sent east instead of Longstreet being sent west. With the same numbers and OTL, Chickamauga itself will happen the same as well.

But this opens up two more fronts. With all three corps at his disposal, when Hooker and the XIth and XIIth corps from AotP are sent west in the autumn, it will give Lee almost numberical equality in the east. He would be almost sure to attack, to try to co-ordinate with Bragg (as in 1862) - maybe leading to a third invasion of the north? It will be turned back, but that leads to fun possibilities.....

At Chattanooga, Rosecrans will be gone. Now Lincoln has to decide whether to appoint Grant commander of the Western Department (after his Vicksburg failure), to appoint Sherman (next in line), to appoint Thomas (who consistently won but was only a corps commander and a Virginian to boot), or to leave it open. Again, this will not affect the Battle of Chattanooga much, but it will affect 1864.

Maybe Sherman will be sent east instead of Grant. Probably Thomas will stay west, but maybe he will be in a higher position. Maybe Grant will control Atlanta campaign, maybe he will be assigned a backwater (doubtful, because everything save Vicksburg was good) - the butterflies by now are too numerous.
 
It won't affect stuff immediately. The first major change is that Grant won't rise above Army Command immediately.

True. However, it might affect more than that, with regard to Grant. After all, Grant now has a very major failure on his record. He might well find himself removed from command.

By Vicksburg, the only stretch of the Mississippi in Confederate hands is between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Should Vicksburg somehow hold on, the Union will still cut the line by way of the Red River, as they were planning to do in OTL. It will inconvenience northern merchant ships, but militarily the Confederacy will still be split in two.

Except that securing the Red River would have been quite difficult...probably more difficult than securing the Mississippi...because the wildly changing water level in the river rendered naval support of land operations much more difficult.

The interesting thing is what happens in the west starting at Chickamauga. A Vicksburg victory will not change Gettysburg or Tullahoma, and probably not first Chattanooga - Bragg will still have to retreat.

Agreed.

Unless Grant is destroyed outright...

Which he might very well be. Any scenario where Grant is unsuccessful at taking Vicksburg, due to the fact that Grants army basically isolated itself in enemy country in order to besiege the place, is likely a scenario where Grant's army is destroyed.

...[Grant] will he able to hold along the Mississippi and at Corinth, but Pemberton will add some 30,000 troops to the Confederates. Probably most of these will be sent east instead of Longstreet being sent west. With the same numbers and OTL, Chickamauga itself will happen the same as well.

Except that if Pemberton sends his troops east to help Bragg, and Grant isn't destroyed, who is defending Vicksburg? Longstreet has still got to come West to produce a victory at Chickamauga.

But this opens up two more fronts. With all three corps at his disposal, when Hooker and the XIth and XIIth corps from AotP are sent west in the autumn, it will give Lee almost numberical equality in the east. He would be almost sure to attack, to try to co-ordinate with Bragg (as in 1862) - maybe leading to a third invasion of the north? It will be turned back, but that leads to fun possibilities.....

See above. Might happen if Grant is destroyed. Otherwise, no.

Maybe Sherman will be sent east instead of Grant.

Won't happen. Sherman will be tainted because Grant's failure will be his, too. Sherman is Grant's subordinate, remember.

Probably Thomas will stay west, but maybe he will be in a higher position.

I think Thomas is probably the most likely choice for command in the west, unless the Lincoln Administration decides to send someone from the AOTP (Hancock, maybe?) to take over instead.
 
Army of the Tennessee under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant fails the capture of Vicksburg due to lack of ammunition and morale. Also, a small yet capable fleet of Confederate privateers shell the Union position. Confederate troops are dropped off at the river, and hit General Grant's Left flank. Furthermore, the filling of the mine with gunpowder to blow a massive hole in Confederate lines is abandoned due to lack of ammo, and also an early accident, killing nearly 35 people. Grant can't see a point in this. He retreats, and thus, leaves a great part of the Mississippi in control to the CSA.

This is pretty close to ASB. The CSA isn't going to be cutting Grant off from supplies, shelling positions, or land troops unless they control the Mississippi River.

And they don't. The Union did in OTL, and even with the Union gunboats lobbing 22,000 shells into Vicksburg, the siege lasted 6 weeks.

Further, 35 casualties is trivial in that war and Grant was not the type to retreat.
 
It's going to require ASBs for the Confederacy to field a fleet of anything capable of defeating or driving off the Union naval forces supporting Grant, not to mention the ships based in New Orleans.

No ship building faciltiies of note on Ol' Man River, extreme difficulty moving the artillery all over the CSA for the ships(and which CSA army units or naval forts are now missing their heavy guns?), question of manpower, question of skilled naval manpower...

Poor Pemberton was simply doing as Jefferson Davis wanted, placing key cities above the preservation of Confederate armies. Remember what happened to Joe Johnston at the slightest hint he might not be able to hold Atlanta against a superior army indefinitely, even though he had already given far more than he had gotten from Sherman?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Army of the Tennessee under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant fails the capture of Vicksburg due to lack of ammunition and morale.

An easier POD would be for Pemberton to gamble and not leave 10,000 men sitting uselessly in Vicksburg while seeking out Grant for battle. With much closer odds, the Confederates could have secured a solid victory at the Battle of Champion Hill. In such a case, isolated in enemy country, Grant's army would be in an extremely difficult situation and could conceivably have had to surrender.

Also, a small yet capable fleet of Confederate privateers shell the Union position. Confederate troops are dropped off at the river, and hit General Grant's Left flank. Furthermore, the filling of the mine with gunpowder to blow a massive hole in Confederate lines is abandoned due to lack of ammo, and also an early accident, killing nearly 35 people. Grant can't see a point in this. He retreats, and thus, leaves a great part of the Mississippi in control to the CSA.

No offense, but this paragraph makes little sense. A small fleet of gunboats firing at the Union camp is not going to make any difference, nor will losing 35 men in a tunnel collapse.

Louisiana's New Orleans does not fall due to more Confederate soldiers in the vicinity.

New Orleans had already fallen. More than a year before, in fact.

Furthermore, almost a fourth of the US Navy is taken out of commission due to a fatal flaw in the hull design.

Huh?
 
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