Let's assume that, due to increased violence in the Baltimore Riots, and perhaps a more Democratic State Legislature, Maryland decides to Secede. This, naturally, is a death knell for DC as the capital of the Lincoln administration, due to having the seat of Government encircled by the revolting states. Maybe Delaware goes too. This all begs the question of where would Lincoln run the nation during this early crisis, or throughout the war. I see three options:
  1. Philadelphia. The closest thing to a capital the Union had during the Continental Congress or the Articles of Confederation. it's a large city, and is near enough the front to keep the President up to date with the cause. however, it would be very close to the border TTL, at least until the CSA was forced out of Maryland.
  2. New York. The largest city under Union control (I'm not sure how pro-confederate the city was in 61, but I'm aware of the 63 draft riots.) Further away, but also importantly, safer- or could be seen as such in the situation at hand.
  3. Indianapolis. Now, this is largely because it's the capital of the president's home state. But, it's also a railway hub, central in the Union's territory. It would also be far from the Confederates, as Kentucky would remain loyal, meaning the nearest part of the CSA would be Nashville Tennese.
I'm also curious what this might mean for the actual conduct of the war. In the case of Philly or NYC, I would assume that the eastern front would remain the center of the conflict, in order to reclaim DC as quickly as possible, but in the case of the Indianapolis situation, the west would be much more important to protect the provisional capital. I also have to wonder if DC itself would be an important battle when that came- strategically, I mean. It wasn't a large city at the time, but it was a decently fortified railway hub that would guard Richmond well. And while the Return To DC would obviously be important symbolically, would it actually be possible during the war proper?
 
I figure this Railroad Map of that time period would help in this discussion since you seem to like the Indianapolis option for reason that it was a rail hub at the time. I'm also including a map of major US Water Courses because civil war era armies had to stay within close range of major watersheds in order to maintain position for more than a period of about three days which might be relevant later.

I think the best way to answer this question is to ask what the win conditions for the CSA were and how they might be effected. I see three scenarios that might have been possible had events played out differently as suggested.

1) The CSA snipes the federal capital and forces the federal government to concede to southern secession before the the CSA's meager military machine is burned out by attrition.

2) The CSA must somehow outlast the federals until the war loses political support due to public fatigue. The north had the resources to keep going practically indefinitely compared to the south if public support for the war persisted, but that was becoming a big problem by mid 1863 for Lincoln. This was a big reason why he promoted Grant to be the commander of all federal forces. Lincoln needed results and Grant had been the only general up to that point capable of delivering as demonstrated by the Vicksburg campaign.

3) Somehow, the federal government/military bungles things so badly that public support for the war evaporates much faster than it did in our timeline. This was definitely not out of the question considering the poor generalship of the AoP up until 1863. Basically, the north just walks away from the war and decides it's not worth their time anymore way ahead of schedule because of some horrific decision that leads to an overwhelming loss.

Now to answer your possibilities for alternate wartime capital locations if Maryland is now a part of the CSA:

Philadelphia) I think this is the most likely. It is well connected to rail and water ways, and really isn't in any worse of a position than D.C. had been in our timeline as concerns it's proximity to the CSA borders and seat of power. It also has the added benefit of allowing Lincoln to maintain the appearance of defending his greatest population centers (the ones that produce the vast majority of his public support, military manpower, and federal income). Also, losing Philly would be tantamount to losing the metaphorical heart of the nation because of the revolutionary history there. It would just be too great a blow to recover from. I don't think the union would have a choice but to aggressively defend it and the rest of the eastern seaboard behind it by extension, so why not make an intentional show of force out that defense instead?

New York) While it was the largest city in the union, withdrawing to New York to me displays a lack of faith in your ability to defend. As I explained above, I don't think the federals could have afforded themselves the option of withdrawing from the field further back than Philly without conceding the second or third CSA win conditions that I described earlier. There is no point in moving your capital to New York aside from putting distance between your head of state and the enemy, which would only slow crucial communication. By moving to new York, you could end up fully giving away all the advantages of the lower eastern seaboard while not picking up any exceptional benefits in return.

Indianapolis) This one is an interesting proposition, but I think it fails because (like New York) it jeopardizes Philly by obligating your primary defensive force to guard the governing apparatus which has now been far removed from the population it purports to be defending. Indy is well connected to transport infrastructure by that time, but it's still a good distance away from the industrial core of the union, again slowing the transmission of communication and supplies to the main force. I suppose you could still keep your primary force in the east, but then there's just no point at all to moving your capital so far away in the first place and doing so opens up CSA win condition option #1 if the south could manage to pull it off early. I don't think this would have been out of the question since Lee had a smaller and presumable more mobile army to maneuver into position than The federals. Add this to the fact that Scott, McClellan, and Halleck were all very cautious and defensively minded and I think you have a recipe for a quick southern victory by Lee that backdoor option.

So my answer out of the options you provided is Philadelphia. I could maybe see the government being moved to Harrisburg or York/Lancaster, PA but I think that's the furthest west that Lincoln might have dared to go. Defending Pennsylvania and especially Philadelphia would have been a win condition for Lincoln both militarily and politically. Losing both Baltimore and D.C. like you said would already have been a huge difficulty to overcome, but you can't give away the founding seat of the nation.
 
I figure this Railroad Map of that time period would help in this discussion since you seem to like the Indianapolis option for reason that it was a rail hub at the time. I'm also including a map of major US Water Courses because civil war era armies had to stay within close range of major watersheds in order to maintain position for more than a period of about three days which might be relevant later.
Ooh, that's a good map. I'm honestly surprised, i thought Kentucky would have more interstate rail than it did, which does sorta limit the strategic value of Indianapolis in my head, since railway hub or not, it doesn't really help project power into the region.

I think the best way to answer this question is to ask what the win conditions for the CSA were and how they might be effected. I see three scenarios that might have been possible had events played out differently as suggested.

1) The CSA snipes the federal capital and forces the federal government to concede to southern secession before the the CSA's meager military machine is burned out by attrition.

2) The CSA must somehow outlast the federals until the war loses political support due to public fatigue. The north had the resources to keep going practically indefinitely compared to the south if public support for the war persisted, but that was becoming a big problem by mid 1863 for Lincoln. This was a big reason why he promoted Grant to be the commander of all federal forces. Lincoln needed results and Grant had been the only general up to that point capable of delivering as demonstrated by the Vicksburg campaign.

3) Somehow, the federal government/military bungles things so badly that public support for the war evaporates much faster than it did in our timeline. This was definitely not out of the question considering the poor generalship of the AoP up until 1863. Basically, the north just walks away from the war and decides it's not worth their time anymore way ahead of schedule because of some horrific decision that leads to an overwhelming loss.
Yeah i agree with all of these.
Now to answer your possibilities for alternate wartime capital locations if Maryland is now a part of the CSA:

Philadelphia) I think this is the most likely. It is well connected to rail and water ways, and really isn't in any worse of a position than D.C. had been in our timeline as concerns it's proximity to the CSA borders and seat of power. It also has the added benefit of allowing Lincoln to maintain the appearance of defending his greatest population centers (the ones that produce the vast majority of his public support, military manpower, and federal income). Also, losing Philly would be tantamount to losing the metaphorical heart of the nation because of the revolutionary history there. It would just be too great a blow to recover from. I don't think the union would have a choice but to aggressively defend it and the rest of the eastern seaboard behind it by extension, so why not make an intentional show of force out that defense instead?
Same. In general, it seemed the obvious and best choice, given that it has most of the advantages of DC, but I was curious about the potential merits of NYC or a more western state.
New York) While it was the largest city in the union, withdrawing to New York to me displays a lack of faith in your ability to defend. As I explained above, I don't think the federals could have afforded themselves the option of withdrawing from the field further back than Philly without conceding the second or third CSA win conditions that I described earlier. There is no point in moving your capital to New York aside from putting distance between your head of state and the enemy, which would only slow crucial communication. By moving to new York, you could end up fully giving away all the advantages of the lower eastern seaboard while not picking up any exceptional benefits in return.

Indianapolis) This one is an interesting proposition, but I think it fails because (like New York) it jeopardizes Philly by obligating your primary defensive force to guard the governing apparatus which has now been far removed from the population it purports to be defending. Indy is well connected to transport infrastructure by that time, but it's still a good distance away from the industrial core of the union, again slowing the transmission of communication and supplies to the main force. I suppose you could still keep your primary force in the east, but then there's just no point at all to moving your capital so far away in the first place and doing so opens up CSA win condition option #1 if the south could manage to pull it off early. I don't think this would have been out of the question since Lee had a smaller and presumable more mobile army to maneuver into position than The federals. Add this to the fact that Scott, McClellan, and Halleck were all very cautious and defensively minded and I think you have a recipe for a quick southern victory by Lee that backdoor option.
Honestly that checks out, and i hadn't considered that political aspect, and how it could look weak to the electorate. Does a Confederate Delaware make a particular difference in the calculus to drive the Union further north, or is that particular state so weak that it wouldn't even matter?

So my answer out of the options you provided is Philadelphia. I could maybe see the government being moved to Harrisburg or York/Lancaster, PA but I think that's the furthest west that Lincoln might have dared to go. Defending Pennsylvania and especially Philadelphia would have been a win condition for Lincoln both militarily and politically. Losing both Baltimore and D.C. like you said would already have been a huge difficulty to overcome, but you can't give away the founding seat of the nation.
That's a good point.

But I'm curious- how would the Confederate occupation of DC go? And would the inevitable battle of it actually be important and destructive, or would it largely be a weak force while Davis uses it to buffer out Richmond?
 
Honestly that checks out, and i hadn't considered that political aspect, and how it could look weak to the electorate. Does a Confederate Delaware make a particular difference in the calculus to drive the Union further north, or is that particular state so weak that it wouldn't even matter?
I think the only reason Delaware would matter might be that it adds an extra angle of attack or advancement around Philadelphia, but Lee never had enough troops to truly pin the AoP and send a separate force on the attack from Virginia assuming that the union still tries to execute the anaconda plan. Federal forces would probably just shadow his ANV through Delaware until a conflict was forced much like they did at Gettysburg and Antietam.
But I'm curious- how would the Confederate occupation of DC go? And would the inevitable battle of it actually be important and destructive, or would it largely be a weak force while Davis uses it to buffer out Richmond?
I think D.C. would have been abandoned without much defensive effort if Maryland was lost early on. Maintaining it in that scenario would only create an enclave that was cut off on all sides from resupply and support from friendly forces. Better to plan a cohesive defense/offensive starting from friendly territory instead of giving yourself an immediate and serious disadvantage.
 
I'd say Philadelphia is the best bet (given the history of the city as an early capital), while New York City would be unsuitable due to its massive antiwar sentiment and while Indianapolis would make sense from a logistical standpoint the administration could be accused of "fleeing".
 
If Philadelphia is the wartime capital, and the Union is still victorious, might it stick as the US Capital? Or would restoring DC as the nation's capital be a symbolic goal of Lincoln?
 
If Philadelphia is the wartime capital, and the Union is still victorious, might it stick as the US Capital? Or would restoring DC as the nation's capital be a symbolic goal of Lincoln?
I'd say restoring it would be an incredibly useful propaganda goal, though having to go and get it back might induce them to recover Alexandria from Virginia while they're at it.
 
If Philadelphia is the wartime capital, and the Union is still victorious, might it stick as the US Capital? Or would restoring DC as the nation's capital be a symbolic goal of Lincoln?
It would certainly be a goal, but i do actually have to wonder if it would be practical. It would practically be a southern city for a few years, and could honestly have a stronger southern sympathy to it. I could see the restoration of the capital being a project Johnson is forced to take up TTL, which could be very spicy
 
It would certainly be a goal, but i do actually have to wonder if it would be practical. It would practically be a southern city for a few years, and could honestly have a stronger southern sympathy to it. I could see the restoration of the capital being a project Johnson is forced to take up TTL, which could be very spicy
Assuming Johnson becomes president. The smart play would be to repopulate the city with free slaves. There was already a very high percentage living there during the war OTL and it would do a wonderful job creating a loyal bastion to counter any lingering traces of Dixiefication.
 
Assuming Johnson becomes president.
tbh, unless the CSA are especially cruel to the city, i don't see why he wouldn't. it seems very likely linocln is still assassinated, especially if he enters the dixified DC to early.
The smart play would be to repopulate the city with free slaves. There was already a very high percentage living there during the war OTL and it would do a wonderful job creating a loyal bastion to counter any lingering traces of Dixiefication.
but would it be a play that Johnson would be willing to consider or get congress to approve of?
 
tbh, unless the CSA are especially cruel to the city, i don't see why he wouldn't.
If he's still made VP at all.
it seems very likely linocln is still assassinated, especially if he enters the dixified DC to early.
Depends, the fact that his OTL assassination even worked was a massive fluke. If anything coming back to the city after it has to be retaken would see him swathed in so much security it would be ridiculously slim chances for an assassin to even get through to him.
but would it be a play that Johnson would be willing to consider or get congress to approve of?
God no, he was a dinosaur. He'd probably fill the city with Confederate veterans who claimed they were only fighting under duress or something equally obscene.
 
Let's assume that, due to increased violence in the Baltimore Riots, and perhaps a more Democratic State Legislature, Maryland decides to Secede. This, naturally, is a death knell for DC as the capital of the Lincoln administration,

(1) The secssionists' problem was not so much the legislature as Governor Hicks. (2) A decision on paper to secede is not a "death knell" for Washington DC as the Union capital. *Making the decision militarily effective* would be so. Of course Lincoln would make securing Maryland and thus the capital his first priority. Remember that the legislature was unable to meet in Annapolis where it normally did (it had to meet in pro-Union Frederick instead) because Annapolis had already been occupied by Union troops!

What if Maryland had a pro-secessonist governor? Well, MO did and its secession was crushed quickly enough so far as St. Louis was concerned though there was of course guerilla warfare in much of the state.
 
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(1) The secssionists' problem was not so much the legislature as Governor Hicks. (2) A decision on paper to secede is not a "death knell" for Washington DC as the Union capital. *Making the decision militarily effective* would be so. Of course Lincoln would make securing Maryland and thus the capital his first priority. Remember that the legislature was unable to meet in Annapolis where it normally did (it had to meet in pro-Union Fredericksburg instead) because Annapolis had already been occupied by Union troops!

What if Maryland had a pro-secessonist governor? Well, MO did and its secession was crushed quickly enough so far as St. Louis was concerned though there was of course guerilla warfare in much of the state.
well. that's a factor to consider. if it happened during the fall of 61, when Buchanan was electing not to do anything about the south in meaningful capacity, would that change anything? Lincoln might be president-elect, but AFAIK that doesn't imbue him with any authority to command troops
 
Would an attempted secession by Maryland be any longer-lived than Missouri?
I think if Maryland secedes, then the eastern theater of the war really just moves about fifty miles north to Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania rather than coastal Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley until Grant takes over, though the the union would likely still have been angling for the confederate capital, wherever that may be in this scenario. Maryland would probably stay confederate because the CSA would value that territory as a buffer between the USA and their capital if that was still in Richmond.
 
I think if Maryland secedes, then the eastern theater of the war really just moves about fifty miles north to Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania rather than coastal Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley until Grant takes over, though the the union would likely still have been angling for the confederate capital, wherever that may be in this scenario. Maryland would probably stay confederate because the CSA would value that territory as a buffer between the USA and their capital if that was still in Richmond.
This does bring up what I think may be a question more influential to the course of the war:

What if the CSA chooses a capital other than Richmond?

Everything I've said so far in this thread is predicated on the idea that the Union carries out the Anaconda Plan, which by extension dictates that the military and political features of the war are much the same as in our timeline. @AltoRegnant, What do you think some likely alternate CSA capitals might be? My thoughts without looking too deeply into it would be Jackson, MS or New Orleans.
 
This does bring up what I think may be a question more influential to the course of the war:

What if the CSA chooses a capital other than Richmond?
TBH i don't see why- though the idea of the bastards using DC would be funny. But implausible on the surface.
Everything I've said so far in this thread is predicated on the idea that the Union carries out the Anaconda Plan, which by extension dictates that the military and political features of the war are much the same as in our timeline. @AltoRegnant, What do you think some likely alternate CSA capitals might be? My thoughts without looking too deeply into it would be Jackson, MS or New Orleans.
TBH i don't know a lot about confederate politics. if not New Orleans, i would honestly guess Atlanta, since from an 1861 perspective, it would be far from the Yankees, a large city, and place the confederates in one of the most important states to them. But other than size, idk why they left Montgomery OTL
 
well. that's a factor to consider. if it happened during the fall of 61, when Buchanan was electing not to do anything about the south in meaningful capacity, would that change anything? Lincoln might be president-elect, but AFAIK that doesn't imbue him with any authority to command troops
I assume you mean the fall of 1860 but there was no chance that MD would secede then. No place outside the Lower South seceded before Fort Sumter and even in some of the Lower South states the victories of the "immediate secessionists" were quite narrow. https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...a-seceded-from-the-union.315099/#post-9105511 https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...a-seceded-from-the-union.315099/#post-9107075
 
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