Southern States revert to territories after the ACW

What would have happend after the war if the North decided that the Southern states commited suicide after the war? What would be the terms in which new states would be admited? Assuming the Republicans carve out states to make Union majority states what would they have looked like? I assume they would have gerrrymandered them to carve out as much Unionist states as possible while making as few disunionist states as possible by making some very large states.
 
What would have happend after the war if the North decided that the Southern states commited suicide after the war? What would be the terms in which new states would be admited? Assuming the Republicans carve out states to make Union majority states what would they have looked like? I assume they would have gerrrymandered them to carve out as much Unionist states as possible while making as few disunionist states as possible by making some very large states.


I think some of the radical Republicans in Congress wanted to do just this. what the road to it or the end result would be I have no idea.
 
I think some of the radical Republicans in Congress wanted to do just this. what the road to it or the end result would be I have no idea.

To a pretty real extent that's a big part of what defined radical Republicans, at least early on.

The reality of course is that any project like this is going to mean a long guerrilla war that the Union is ultimately not all that likely to win. There just isn't the support (anywhere) for the kind of commitment required to do this, especially since after a war that ends much like OTLs it's not at all about the Union itself anymore, and becomes truly an issue of rights for former slaves.

The only way I can see any real possibility of it happening would be a war that lasts a year or two, and is a real but rather short fight for the north. At that point it might be conceivable that Confederate supporters end up treated as traitors, with a much harder northern line on treatment, prosecution and pardons. Even then though I can see a hard line lasting for some time, but the decades of simmering occupation and guerilla warfare that would be needed to create something like a northern dominated south are just not going to gain support anywhere. For that matter, even if the north tried the whole thing seems like a recipe for another rebellion as soon one can be organized, and quite possibly the most feasible way to eventually end up at a long lasting Confederacy.
 
To a pretty real extent that's a big part of what defined radical Republicans, at least early on.

The reality of course is that any project like this is going to mean a long guerrilla war that the Union is ultimately not all that likely to win. There just isn't the support (anywhere) for the kind of commitment required to do this, especially since after a war that ends much like OTLs it's not at all about the Union itself anymore, and becomes truly an issue of rights for former slaves.

The only way I can see any real possibility of it happening would be a war that lasts a year or two, and is a real but rather short fight for the north. At that point it might be conceivable that Confederate supporters end up treated as traitors, with a much harder northern line on treatment, prosecution and pardons. Even then though I can see a hard line lasting for some time, but the decades of simmering occupation and guerilla warfare that would be needed to create something like a northern dominated south are just not going to gain support anywhere. For that matter, even if the north tried the whole thing seems like a recipe for another rebellion as soon one can be organized, and quite possibly the most feasible way to eventually end up at a long lasting Confederacy.

The Confederates tried guerrilla war the entire war. It didn't work. Southerners were TIRED of war even more than Northerners. The South was badly whipped by the end of the war and Southerners knew it! There might be some guerrilla warfare afterwords but nothing the North couldn't handle.
 
Militarily sure, but there is no way you will get anything like political support for the cost of an occupation like this, let alone a post war draft.

How many do you think would actually join said revolt? My guess is a relative handful. Southerners, even more than Northerners, wanted to fighting to end. Are they really going to fight tooth and nail if there are ways to regain statehood which is what this TL assumes? Do South Carolinians fight if they are split up between Georgia and North Carolina? Will the people of West Tennesee go over the border to fight in East Tennessee if that becomes a new state? A few maybe but most would stay home. The South LOST and they knew it. They were sick of war and would not fight.
 
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