Timeline 1865x: The Mosby option

Lee would need to endorse the plan

Davis, with the remnant CSA forces would need to fall back on Texas

Only then are the two basic requirements met

-1- That this is endorsed by the military leadership and thus will actually happen, and can occur in enough force and with enough organisation to have a useful effect

-2- A government-in-being remains for the CSA long enough for this all to bite hard enough

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Lee would need to endorse the plan

Davis, with the remnant CSA forces would need to fall back on Texas

Only then are the two basic requirements met

-1- That this is endorsed by the military leadership and thus will actually happen, and can occur in enough force and with enough organisation to have a useful effect

-2- A government-in-being remains for the CSA long enough for this all to bite hard enough

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

It's not enough. The Confederacy was pretty much dead all over when Lee surrendered. Worst comes to worst the US starts shipping Southerners to various deserts out west.
 
Yep, John Cabell Breckenridge. The John F. Kennedy of his era and one of the most tragic stories from a very tragic war. What might he have done in American history if the secession issue had not come up when it did?

You're talking about John Breckinridge, not William Breckinridge.
 
I've often wondered if a side affect of 'more Confederate raiders' might not be the increased production of Spencer and Henry rifles in the north. The Confederate cavalry raiders did so well partly because they tended to load themselves up with revolvers... this gave them a hell of a lot more firepower than the Union infantry with single shot muskets. Combined with the mobility of the horses, the raiders were able to charge and close, having to endure only a single volley, and then were among the infantry before they could reload. Union infantry armed with repeater rifles would negate this advantage....
 
It's not enough. The Confederacy was pretty much dead all over when Lee surrendered. Worst comes to worst the US starts shipping Southerners to various deserts out west.

Anyone who wants to explore a continuation of the War Between the States under any scenerio has to read "An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government" by William C. Davis.

Confederate victory could have most easily been won in two points in time.

First, after First Bull Run if the Southern command had followed the fleeing Federal forces into Washington City and captured Lincoln and the Capital Building and the War Department, it would have been over. Maryland and Kentucky would most likely have joined the Confederacy within thirty days.

Second, if Lee's Special Order191 had not found it's way into McClellan's hands at Antietam, his Army of Northern Virginia could have crushed the Army of the Potomac and had a clear path to the capital of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. From there, a British/ French political intervention would have been very likely. Not guaranteed, but believeable.

Other than that, and after that, the North just kept getting stronger and stronger and the South had no realistic chance of winning any critical victory. The best it could have done is to accept Lincoln's offer made on Grant's command boat at Hampton Roads, VA in February, 1865 to give up any claim to slavery or secession and receive compensation for the slaves value.

Now, I'm not sure Lincoln could have gotten that approved by Congress, but it would have been a better result even without the compensation than the years of Reconstruction that resulted from the Abolutionist Republican Congress in the Original Timeline.
 
I've often wondered if a side affect of 'more Confederate raiders' might not be the increased production of Spencer and Henry rifles in the north. The Confederate cavalry raiders did so well partly because they tended to load themselves up with revolvers... this gave them a hell of a lot more firepower than the Union infantry with single shot muskets. Combined with the mobility of the horses, the raiders were able to charge and close, having to endure only a single volley, and then were among the infantry before they could reload. Union infantry armed with repeater rifles would negate this advantage....

It's hard to imagine a larger cavalry force than what Wilson brought through Alabama and Georgia in 1865, all equipted with repeating rifles. Or Sherman's army, also equipted with repeaters.

The LeMat 9 shot revolver was JEB Stuart's favorite side arm but it was a bitch to aim.
 
All the best places to hide had large Unionist sympathies.
I have lived in Tn,Ga,NC,the Tidewater and Shenandoah regions of Va. Conducted Military insurgent and counter-insurgent training missions in NC,Ga,Tn,Florida, and La, none of these areas being even remotely Pro-Union. I did this as both sides with and against Green Berets, and against modern (1973-1983) tracking equipment like Ground Radar, Infra-Red Sensors, and other assorted goodies that make Blood Hounds look like Rookies. Some times got caught as the Insurgents some times kicked ass. Sometimes kicked the Insurgents ass, sometimes got my ass kicked by them.
Bottom line having "been there and done that" against modern equipment, I have no doubt that the remainder of the Confederate Armies could have conducted successful Partisan operations in areas of the South that were not at all Pro-Union, and do so for years if not decades.
 
It's hard to imagine a larger cavalry force than what Wilson brought through Alabama and Georgia in 1865, all equipted with repeating rifles. Or Sherman's army, also equipted with repeaters.

The LeMat 9 shot revolver was JEB Stuart's favorite side arm but it was a bitch to aim.

well, not the entire army... most of the troops still carried those muzzle loaders. And the garrison troops hardly ever had repeaters. The CSA raiders did well against them for that reason. If the CSA creates even more raiders who become a serious problem for the north's supply routes, I wonder if these garrison troops might not be equipped with repeaters...
 
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