Jefferson Davis killed, April 1864

On April 30, 1864, Joe Davis, the young son of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, fell from a balcony at the Confederate White House in Richmond and was killed. What if his father had been standing nearby, and, rushing to save his son, had fallen from the same balcony and broken his neck, dying a few minutes later? How might the death of President Davis at this time of the Civil War have affected the course of the remainder of the struggle?
 
Robert,

What were the provisions for presidential succession in the Confederate constitution? I know that document generally copied the US version with a few additions and deletions.

I'm asking this because presidential succession at the time was still partially governed by tradition. There were serious questions about whether the vice-president became the actual president or whether he simply filled the office as an acting president until a new or special presidential election could be called.

When Harrison died, Tyler started the tradition of the vice-president becoming the actual president by simply ignoring those questions. Among other things, he took the Oath of Office and wouldn't accept mail or other documents addressed to the "Acting President".

So, when Davis dies what would Alexander Stephens do? Continue the USA tradition or start a CSA tradition? Would the men around him the cabinet allow him to pull off the same bluff as Tyler? Would they seriously consider holding an presidential election in 1864? (Although the Union did.)

Whatever the results, I don't see Davis' death helping either the Union or Confederacy. Confusion at such a high level, however brief, cannot be a god thing.


Bill
 
Robert,

What were the provisions for presidential succession in the Confederate constitution? I know that document generally copied the US version with a few additions and deletions.

I'm asking this because presidential succession at the time was still partially governed by tradition. There were serious questions about whether the vice-president became the actual president or whether he simply filled the office as an acting president until a new or special presidential election could be called.

When Harrison died, Tyler started the tradition of the vice-president becoming the actual president by simply ignoring those questions. Among other things, he took the Oath of Office and wouldn't accept mail or other documents addressed to the "Acting President".

So, when Davis dies what would Alexander Stephens do? Continue the USA tradition or start a CSA tradition? Would the men around him the cabinet allow him to pull off the same bluff as Tyler? Would they seriously consider holding an presidential election in 1864? (Although the Union did.)

My own thought is that Alexander H. Stephens becomes President, and serves out the remainder of Davis's term. By this time in history, the succession of the Vice President to the Presidency on the death of the President has been accomplished twice, without serious dispute, in the U.S. The provisions in the C.S. Constitution regarding the succession were identical to those in the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, precedent will strongly argue in favor of this being the correct procedure in the C.S.A. as well.

I also don't see the people in the Confederate Cabinet, or the Confederate Congress, seriously opposing Stephens. Stephens was arguably more popular among the Congress than Davis, and none of the Cabinet members that I am aware of had any major disputes with him, either.

Whatever the results, I don't see Davis' death helping either the Union or Confederacy. Confusion at such a high level, however brief, cannot be a god thing.


Bill

I agree that confusion at such a high level is not a good thing. But not necessarily fatal, if the Vice President is ready to step in.

I wonder what sort of decisions Stephens might have made during the crucial 1864 canpaigns? For one thing, he did not, as did Davis, have an ongoing feud with Joe Johnston. Would Johnston have been left in command outside Atlanta in the summer of 1864?

How would Stephens have handled the efforts to get legislation for the recruiment of black troops through Congress? Would he have been as open-minded as Davis was about this, or more, or less so?

Would Stephens have made an earlier attempt to end the war via negotiation? How successful might he have been? He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln...might he have been able to use this to gain a peace at least somewhat acceptable to the South? Would he have considered reunion (he had opposed secession in 1861) as the price of peace, if it could end the fighting?
 
Does Stephans (who does seem the likely sucessor) have a military background? Certainly he isn't as experienced in such things as Davis was but does he have any experience in that field at all?

If he doesn't he's going to be reliant on the three people in place in Richmond who could council him. Samuel Cooper, Braxton Bragg and James Seddon. Samuel Cooper has the longest service in the military, both S and CS, but Bragg is the most experienced while Seddon has been Davis' errand boy for about a year so has experience in running the war himself.

In OTL Cooper had little say in how the war was run or what strategies where used, his contribution was mostly in organization and training, so I have no idea what course of action he might have suggest.

Bragg is, after long campaigns and failure, defeatist and in vendenta mode. Davis' presence managed to make him overly optimistic in OTL (to the extent that he believed the 40,000 man AoT had swelled to over 100,000 men and was capable of retaking Tennessee) but without Davis' presence he will remain defeatist. His vendetas are against all the officers in the AoT except Hood, who has only recently join the army (Chickamauga notwithstanding) - he even has vendeta against his long standing supporter Joe Johnston - so his council will be destructive.

Seddon has been groomed over the a year of his service as in the Secretary of War to follow Davis' ideas and Davis' strategies. He has spent most of his tenure really being the Presidents errands boy but done nothing of any real use during that time.

Ideally the Confederacy should bring John C. Breckinridge to the Capitol and put him in the position of Secretary of War earlier with Robert E. Lee taking command as General-in-Chief but this is not going to happen at all

On the plus side, without Davis around, Joe Johnston might get his way in Georgiag and be able to not only split the AoT into three Corps (giving him four corps when Polk arrives) but also be able to convince the higher ups of getting Nathan Bedford Forrest into the state to attack the federal lines of supply and communications.
 
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