Csa reaches Lake Erie

If Kentucky joins the CSA in 1861 could the csa assemble an army at Some point during the American civil war and cross the Ohio river and reach lake Eire in Ohio
 
Kentucky was generally pro-Union. The best the Confederacy can hope for in 1861 is Kentucky staying neutral. If the Alien Space Bats turn everyone in Kentucky into a diehard Confederate, then they will have to seize Cincinnati to access railroad networks that could take them to Lake Erie. Those same rail networks almost ensure the Confederate invaders supply lines will be cut and they will be forced to retreat.
 
If the CSA Navy controlled the Mississippi River all the way to its head-waters, they could portage the 20-odd miles to Lake Michigan just south of modern-day Chicago.
A modern canal carries cargo barges between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.
Another portage connects the Red River to the Mississippi and Missouri drainage basins.
 
Kentucky was pro-union, especially so in the crucial city of Louisville and other areas in the Ohio valley. So it seems unlikely the Confederates could ever get a significant force into the state of Ohio, let alone to Lake Erie.
 
You don't even need Kentucky. Morgan's Raiders could have followed a different route and aimed for Lake Erie. With minor ASB intervention, maybe they could have even made it.
 
Kentucky was pro-union, especially so in the crucial city of Louisville and other areas in the Ohio valley. So it seems unlikely the Confederates could ever get a significant force into the state of Ohio, let alone to Lake Erie.

Would Kentucky be pro-south, or at least parts of it, if the Union had invaded it first?
 
Say the Confederates are holding up well and aren't being pushed back, so some Union commander gets the idea to invade from Kentucky to throw them off and finally push them back.

Oh. You mean if they had seceded. I see. However, it would need to be pro-south to leave in the first place. Your argument is still circular, but less than I thought.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
If?

If Kentucky joins the CSA in 1861 could the csa assemble an army at Some point during the American civil war and cross the Ohio river and reach lake Eire in Ohio

Why?

At least 75,000 Kentuckians, including almost 52,000 "whites" enlisted in Kentucky volunteer units in 1861-65, according to the OR and Dyer; more recent estimates put the total at 100,000.

At best, 40,000 Kentuckians served the rebellion; may have been as few as 25,000.

A 4-1 ratio, and the realities of Kentucky's elections in 1861-65, would suggest the political realities of the evidence for a rebel Kentucky are somewhere between less than slim and none.;)

See:

http://www.civilwar.org/hallowed-ground-magazine/spring-2010/civil-war-kentucky.html

Best,
 
The Confederate Navy Could Have Reached Lake Erie, But Not the Army

Short of several major military disasters in rapid succession for the North in 1861 and extraordinarily good luck for the CSA, I don't see it happening.

However, there was a Confederate plan to hijack the sole USN vessel on the Great Lakes--the USS Michigan. But that would have been a purely naval effort.

Here's a blog post that I wrote on that subject a couple of years ago:

http://www.neatorama.com/2013/12/11/The-Confederate-Navys-Crazy-Plan-to-Raid-the-Great-Lakes/
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Yeah, but it's right up there in cloud cuckoo land with

Short of several major military disasters in rapid succession for the North in 1861 and extraordinarily good luck for the CSA, I don't see it happening.

However, there was a Confederate plan to hijack the sole USN vessel on the Great Lakes--the USS Michigan. But that would have been a purely naval effort.

Here's a blog post that I wrote on that subject a couple of years ago:

http://www.neatorama.com/2013/12/11/The-Confederate-Navys-Crazy-Plan-to-Raid-the-Great-Lakes/


Yeah, but it's right up there in cloud cuckoo land with most of the rebels' late war "special operations" ideas...

The same efforts could have put a few more battalions into the line in Virginia or Georgia; given the huge numbers of state troops and militia available in the north (as witness, for example, the reaction to Mosby's raid, or the New York and Pennsylvania militia mobilized in 1862 and 1863 in response to Lee's operations) it's not like any of these brainstorms drew away a division from the armies of the Potomac or the Tennessee.

Best,
 
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