Hell on Earth: An Alternate American Civil War 1861-1867

Who says its a stand up knock down fighting continuation of the war. You could have Jubal Early and/or Nathan Forrest head off into the backcountry and fight a guerilla war after Appomattox or a similar event. A southern wide Missouri for a couple of years.
 
Montgomery is a terrible site for a capital, though.

Is it? It's a far more central location than Richmond. It's also much farther from Union lines. In the end, the war was won and lost in the Western Theater, so it refocuses CS attentions to the right sector.

On that note, a TL where the CS keeps Tennessee and New Orleans (and maybe even does better in Kentucky) but slowly cedes ground in Virginia could be interesting. Is this plausible?
 
Is it? It's a far more central location than Richmond. It's also much farther from Union lines. In the end, the war was won and lost in the Western Theater, so it refocuses CS attentions to the right sector.

On that note, a TL where the CS keeps Tennessee and New Orleans (and maybe even does better in Kentucky) but slowly cedes ground in Virginia could be interesting. Is this plausible?

It's not so much the location relative to the rest of the Confederacy as the city proper.

Also, when "the Western theater" is three quarters of the Confederacy...yeah.

Besides, losing Virginia would be a far heavier blow than losing Tennessee was.
 
Lose the manufacturing centers in Richmond, and the South quickly loses the war. The other factories in the Confederacy were largely built up during the war.
 
Lose the manufacturing centers in Richmond, and the South quickly loses the war. The other factories in the Confederacy were largely built up during the war.

There is some stuff in Nashville, but even if the Confederacy sends more regiments to Tennessee, they're probably - as OTL - concentrated in the wrong places to do any good.
 
:( After all, Harry Turtledove's writing to the contrary, the Union does not in fact have an infinite number of idiots to lead the troops.
Sooner or later they'll get themselves killed or cashiered, leaving capable commanders (of which the North did indeed have a supply) in their place. Which is basically what happened anyways.
 
There is some stuff in Nashville, but even if the Confederacy sends more regiments to Tennessee, they're probably - as OTL - concentrated in the wrong places to do any good.
Atlanta was heavily industrialised at this time right? or was that only during the war?
 
Is this the same TL same as what you explained in the least bad Confederate Victory thread? If so, Turtledove's led you astray, I'm afraid. His Confederate Victory timeline (sometimes called TL141 here) was one of a couple of less-plausible TL's he's written to pay big bills.

ACW was in an era of the defensive, making military progress, both in turf and destroying armies, slow.

McClellan's weaknesses as as commander were the opposite kind you need to take his army.

DC was hell to take, because it was pretty well fortified and well-rail-connected, making reinforcements fast to slide in.

And, how are you going to keep Kentucky when Grant and Sherman come calling? No, all you can do is slow them, by destroying their rail (as already happened, I think, IOTL. But they DID happily march their troops over mountains and every other obstacle, rebuilding the rails as they went, time after time. They even surmounted no supply train by seizing their own supplies.

Sorry...
 
April 1861:

With the firing on Ft. Sumter and its surrender, Lincoln issues a call of 75,000 volunteers to surpress the rebellion. Likewise, President Breckinridge increases his original call of 50,000 men to 100,000 men.

Late April-Early May 1861:

Angered by Lincoln's call for 75,000 men to raise against their sister states, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and last but not least, Virginia leave the union and join the Confederacy. The border states of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland remain in the north. Kentucky will latter proclaim neutrality.

May 1861:

Men on the north and south flock to the recruiting stations. In fact, so many men try to enlist in the north that recruiting stations have to close shop because they can't take any more. This will not be a problem latter on in the war. By mid May somewhere between 50-100,000 men have voluntered for the norht and some 45-75,000 men have volunteered for the south. The main problem facing both Lincoln and Breckinridge is that many of these men are scatted across their respective countries. Meanwhile, after careful consideration, Breckinridge decides to move the capital to Atlanta, GA.
 
Why not? Richmond doesn't allways have to be the capital in an civil war atl. Besides, its part of my atl to have atlanta as my capital for the south as you shall soon see.
 
Why not? Richmond doesn't allways have to be the capital in an civil war atl. Besides, its part of my atl to have atlanta as my capital for the south as you shall soon see.

It doesn't have to be, but it was picked for some reason other than a partiality towards the local prostitutes.

Why would they pick Atlanta as capital?

If you have a good reason - good in this sense meaning "they'd regard it as a good reason at the time", great. Whether the reasoning of the Confederate leaders is worth beans or not is another story.

But Atlanta, if I'm not mistaken, is still pretty minor (not the middle of nowhere, but 9,000 people and not much to boast of) even for Georgia at this point.
 
I understand your concern. one of the reasons I picked atlanta is the fact that in my atl, the location of the capital is one of the reasons that the war lasts as long as it does. also, I wanted to give the csa more breathing space because it would give them give them time to fortify Atlanta and make it like Washington was in otl.
 
I understand your concern. one of the reasons I picked atlanta is the fact that in my atl, the location of the capital is one of the reasons that the war lasts as long as it does. also, I wanted to give the csa more breathing space because it would give them give them time to fortify Atlanta and make it like Washington was in otl.

Well, Richmond is in a pretty good location (the city's location within Virginia, that is), and was well fortified OTL. I'm not sure they could do much better at Atlanta.

Yes, it is closer to the frontier, but that's not the be all, end all.
 
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