Little Mac wins electionin 1864, wins war in 1865

In this scenario Sherman doesn't take Atlanta until after the election and Mac wins. However the South is in too poor a shape to actually win it and Mac is a War Democrat. The South holds out a little longer but still loses in Sept of 1865 as it is in too poor a shape for even Little Mac to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

1) Will Mac still claim credit for winning the war even though it is all but lost when he takes over? :rolleyes: This should be an easy one so what would it take for Mac not to take credit?

2) What happens to the slaves outside those in the Army as even Mac said even before Antietam that any slave that served the US Army in any way would be under permanent US military protection?

3) How is reconstruction different?

4) Would he buy Alaska?
 
Do Republicans still control the House and Senate?

If so, reconstruction will be tricky.

Alaska probably is not purchased. What would his cabinet look like? Secretary of state.

Did Russia actively place Alaska on the real estate market or was is it Seward actively engaging them? Did Russia come to us or did we go to them?

What if instead of going after Alaska first, McClellan purchases British Columbia first. Everything but Vancouver island.

The Democrats of old were the manifest destiny club. Would they pick this back up after ACW?

War could still end in April /May. By the start of the campaigning season, Grant had Richmond. Everyone knew it. He might actually start his 1865 campaign sooner to net Richmond before March. He begins his close out campaign in Feb, captures Richmond in March right before inauguration.
 
Do Republicans still control the House and Senate?

If so, reconstruction will be tricky.

Alaska probably is not purchased. What would his cabinet look like? Secretary of state.

Did Russia actively place Alaska on the real estate market or was is it Seward actively engaging them? Did Russia come to us or did we go to them?

What if instead of going after Alaska first, McClellan purchases British Columbia first. Everything but Vancouver island.

The Democrats of old were the manifest destiny club. Would they pick this back up after ACW?

War could still end in April /May. By the start of the campaigning season, Grant had Richmond. Everyone knew it. He might actually start his 1865 campaign sooner to net Richmond before March. He begins his close out campaign in Feb, captures Richmond in March right before inauguration.


They lost the house but not the senate.

I actually think there is a good shot at Alaska being purchased as not much changed . The US wouldn't be that much poorer than OTL.
Russia basically put it on the market and we were in negotiations with them during the Buchanan Administration. For obvious reasons those discussions were put on hold during the ACW.

The war could easily still end by the time he gets into office. That would be a thread of its own. I could see Mac claiming it was the fear of his coming into office that made the Rebs surrender in that case! :rolleyes:
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
By the start of the campaigning season, Grant had Richmond. Everyone knew it.

No, they didn't. The Confederate collapse in the spring of 1865 actually came as quite a surprise. Reads the letters and telegrams of Secretary of War Stanton in late 1864 and early 1865 to see what I'm talking; he's as frantic and concerned about the strength of Union recruitment and value of Union war bonds as at any time during the war, clearly expecting 1865 to be as difficult a year as 1864 had been. We only see the end as inevitable in hindsight, which was a luxury the observers of the time did not have.
 
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