how could KY MO and DE be convinced to join the CSA

any attempt by MD to succeed would be prevented as happened in OTL but what would be required to get the other 3 slave holding boarder states to throw their lot in with the CSA. I see DE as almost impossible but is there a way
 
I just posted a thread concerning KY: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/ahc-kentucky-in-the-confederacy.445420/


As for MO, the state was heavily contested in 1861, with dual governments, the State Guard fighting for the Confederacy and a Home Guard fighting for the Union (later the MO State Militia).
Though the pro-Confederate forces scored some early victories (supported by regular CSA troops) in August and September 1861 (Wilson's Creek and Lexington) led by Sterling Price and Benjamin McCulloch, the fortune soon reversed as Union troops under Fremont captured most of MO.

Interestingly, there was conflict between McCulloch and Price, as quoted from wikipedia: "McCulloch did not have a high opinion of Price's Missourians, noting that they were undisciplined, commanded mostly by incompetent and inexperienced politicians, and possessed only a poor mix of weapons and equipment. Cooperation between the Arkansas and Missouri contingents was feeble, with "little cordiality of feeling between the two armies." His lack of confidence in the Missourians led McCulloch to hesitate when a bold attack might well have destroyed Lyon's smaller force and given Missouri to the Confederacy."

So a better coordination between the both commanders might reap more success for the CSA in capturing MO, however how long the CSA can hold onto MO would be then the question.
 
Last edited:
Forget Delaware. First, it would be isolated from the rest of the CSA by Maryland (although Confederate sympathies ran high on Maryland's Eastern Shore at the time); second, slavery in Delaware was vestigial anyhow: there were approximately 1800 slaves in the state in 1860--and Delaware had the highest proportion of free blacks in the nation, who were vital to the local economy. It was essentially extinct north of the C & D Canal, and was disappearing fast even in Sussex County. Also, had it not been for one vote, the state legislature would have voted to end slavery in Delaware in 1847. And even if by some bizarre chain of events Delaware did secede, it would be overrun in very short order by troops from New Jersey and Pennsylvania: wild guess but its tenure as part of the Confederacy might best be measured in weeks.
 
For MO to fully secede you would need to eliminate the huge influx of anti-slavery immigration that flooded the St. Louis region in the 15 years prior to the civil war. To do this one needs to have a Europe without the Revolutions of 1848. Thousands of Germans flooded into MO after the failed revolutions and almost to a man they were anti-slavery and voted Republican.
 
Top