Could Jubal Early Have Captured Washington?

Could Jubal Early Have Captured Washington?

  • Yes

    Votes: 6 14.3%
  • Yes, but his force would be destroyed in the process

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • No

    Votes: 33 78.6%

  • Total voters
    42
Lets say he captures Washington. That is the easy part.

what you should really be asking is if he can keep control of it?
 
Just looking at the Wikipedia battle record, Early never had more than about 20,000 troops at his disposal. Lincoln would be courting impeachment if he failed to maintain sufficient troops around Washington to stop an army that small at all times.

So yeah, unless John Bell Hood somehow got put in charge of Washington's defenses, I don't see any way to get around that.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
what you should really be asking is if he can keep control of it?

I don't think even the most optimistic Southerner expected Early to keep control of it. Early's operation was obviously a raid rather than an invasion. But if Early had gotten into the city, raided the government warehouses, fired the docks, maybe set the White House on fire, and otherwise caused mischief, the Union would suffer a political and diplomatic humiliation exactly at the moment when it could least afford it.

As it was, Lincoln was staring electoral defeat in the face in the summer of 1864 and Early's close approach to the capital badly damaged the credibility of the government, not to mention greatly eased the pressure on Lee by forcing the withdrawal from the Petersburg front of the Sixth Corps, part of the Nineteenth Corps, and a couple cavalry divisions.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Just looking at the Wikipedia battle record, Early never had more than about 20,000 troops at his disposal. Lincoln would be courting impeachment if he failed to maintain sufficient troops around Washington to stop an army that small at all times.

But until the Sixth Corps arrived, there really weren't sufficient troops in the defenses.

So yeah, unless John Bell Hood somehow got put in charge of Washington's defenses, I don't see any way to get around that.

:D
 
In the books I have read about the battle of Bull Run, the historians say that the Confederate Army was is such a state of disrepair after the battle that all the generals could do for a week after the battle was try to reorganize the forces.

My old college instructor once said of 19th century military forces that "an army in victory was just as disorganized as an army in defeat."

However if lets say that in a ATL the Confederate army that fought at Bull Run was only a distraction for the real army that went to Washington, well I guess you can imagine. he he
 
In the books I have read about the battle of Bull Run, the historians say that the Confederate Army was is such a state of disrepair after the battle that all the generals could do for a week after the battle was try to reorganize the forces.

My old college instructor once said of 19th century military forces that "an army in victory was just as disorganized as an army in defeat."

However if lets say that in a ATL the Confederate army that fought at Bull Run was only a distraction for the real army that went to Washington, well I guess you can imagine. he he

I think you'll find that the event in queston was part of Jubal Early's Valley Campaign which famously had the battle of Monocacy which is the only battle in history where two competeting candidates for the Presidency of the United States faced each other across a battlefield, no the Battle of Bull Run/Manassas where the Confederates Armies of the Shenandoah and Potomac united to defeat and drive of the Federal Army of Northeasten Virginia.
 
In the books I have read about the battle of Bull Run, the historians say that the Confederate Army was is such a state of disrepair after the battle that all the generals could do for a week after the battle was try to reorganize the forces.

My old college instructor once said of 19th century military forces that "an army in victory was just as disorganized as an army in defeat."

However if lets say that in a ATL the Confederate army that fought at Bull Run was only a distraction for the real army that went to Washington, well I guess you can imagine. he he

:confused::rolleyes:
um....Jubal Early capturing washington in 1864, not 1861...
 
No way. Totally ASB.

You want a POD for the raid? That "damned fool" Lincoln (to quote the soldier who screened at him) wearing his lovely stovepipe hat while standing on the parapet of Fort Stevens, takes a minie ball to the face and dies.

Hamlin becomes President. A free-for-all for the Republican nomination breaks out in Lincoln's cabinet with Chase or Seward likely getting it. The combination of Lincoln's death and the resulting turmoil bolsters McClellan's bid and he wins in November.

EDIT: Actually I think Chase resigned by that point, but he's still a strong contender for the nomination with Lincoln dead.
 
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Dirk_Pitt

Banned
I believe that there is a thread that describes a Canfederate capture of Washington to be the Civil War equivalent of a Sealion and you want to do this when the by this time the Confederacy had less than a year to live?


Suuure, gotcha. I'll just get those AK's ready, shall I?
 
:rolleyes: I am so sorry I thought that we were talking about capturing Washington after Bull Run in 1861, sorry for the confusion.:D
 
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