More Successful Southern Terrorist Campaign During the American Civil War?

During the ACW, the Rebels tried a few ideas to shake morale up north. One of the more notable attempts was to burn down New York City. Can we think of any ways to make the CSA try engage in such conduct even more than OTL?
 
Worse results, in the end.

IIRC, there was a Confederate raid in Vermont (?) which ended badly. Not a good thing to be trying absent WMDs, because any successful effort will call for a really large number of people (and you know how those stinkers can keep secrets.) Being far away from a defensible base, such would end badly. Yankee raids into the South had the same problem (thinking of a certain locomotive).

In the West, John Brown and "Colonel" Quantrill could engage in guerilla atrocities because of the sparse population and nearby sympathizers. And they didn't do much except earn an undying infamy.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Actually, the St. Albans raid was fairly sucessful for the rebels,

IIRC, there was a Confederate raid in Vermont (?) which ended badly. Not a good thing to be trying absent WMDs, because any successful effort will call for a really large number of people (and you know how those stinkers can keep secrets.) Being far away from a defensible base, such would end badly. Yankee raids into the South had the same problem (thinking of a certain locomotive).

In the West, John Brown and "Colonel" Quantrill could engage in guerilla atrocities because of the sparse population and nearby sympathizers. And they didn't do much except earn an undying infamy.

Actually, the St. Albans raid was fairly sucessful for the rebels, because - yet again - the British authorities in BNA showed exactly the level of respect they had for the rule of law. Bandits rob a bank, murder a man, and escape into BNA, and are released with the approval of what passes for law enforcement and the courts.

The SS Chesapeake incident in 1863 was another shining example of British jurisprudence. Pirates take over a US ship, murder a sailor, and take the ship into a British-controlled port in BNA; they escape justice by - literally - rowing away from the dock where they are (supposedly) going to be arrested.

Very interesting contrast to the aftermath of the Trent Affair (horrors! An hours' delay in the mails! Whatever shall we do!) and even the Fenian raids, actually; along with blockade running, Alabama, Shenandoah, and the Laird rams case, makes one understand why "perfidous Albion" was a thing.;)

Best,
 
IIRC, there was a Confederate raid in Vermont (?) which ended badly. Not a good thing to be trying absent WMDs, because any successful effort will call for a really large number of people (and you know how those stinkers can keep secrets.) Being far away from a defensible base, such would end badly. Yankee raids into the South had the same problem (thinking of a certain locomotive).

In the West, John Brown and "Colonel" Quantrill could engage in guerilla atrocities because of the sparse population and nearby sympathizers. And they didn't do much except earn an undying infamy.



Large cavalry raids and Sherman's march through the south seem to have been regarded as terrorism (war on civilians) by southerners.
 
If you win...

Large cavalry raids and Sherman's march through the south seem to have been regarded as terrorism (war on civilians) by southerners.

If you win the war, it ain't 'terrorism', but 'strategy'. (Otherwise, "Bomber Harris" might have stood in the dock as a war criminal, yes?) :eek:
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Sherman's march was actually extremely well-led, in terms of compliance

Large cavalry raids and Sherman's march through the south seem to have been regarded as terrorism (war on civilians) by southerners.

Sherman's march was actually extremely well-led, in terms of compliance with the rules of land warfare as they were held to at the time (Lieber Code) and even today.

The southern reaction to it is largely a postwar thread of the "Lost Cause" tapestry; given the realities of the massacres of US troops taken prisoner at Fort Pillow (1864), the Army of Northern Virginia's enslavement of men, women, and children during the invasions of Maryland in 1862 and Pennsylvania in 1863, and such incidents as the occupations of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (1862, 1863, and the wholesale destruction of the town in 1864) the rebels had little ground in terms of complaining about their treatment.

Best,
 

frlmerrin

Banned
If the Confederates manage to burn down New York City then the war is probably over. Why do you think that would be terrorism? Is a city not a LMT?
 
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