Please like the update and comment if you have something to say or criticism to offer.
Another awesome update and can’t wait to see how this TL will end now that it looks like we are nearing the end of the war.
I’m also a little curious about the fate of high ranking Union politicians and generals. This war is so much more brutal than the one OTL and I imagine that some of the diehard fire eaters aren’t gonna pack up with a peace treaty. Probably won’t see a big underground Confederate movement but maybe something similar to Chechnya where there are certain places where guerrillas hold sway. Also will be interested to see if there will be more assassinations or attempts by grieved Southerns.
Can’t wait for the next update and keep up the great work.
I can see a lot of Southerners giving into hate or despair and trying to murder the Union leaders... there definitely will be guerrilla warfare. The region, as I have said several times, will not see real peace for a long time.
Great update, I can't imagine how Johnny Breck must be feeling to write such a letter! In any case, here's a map of the campaign for anyone curious:
Note: the map isn't quite perfect. Osyka is located too close to the south and Liberty, the town straddled between the forks of the Amite River, is a bit too far to the north. Dark blue represents Grant's movements, gray represents Johnston's and light blue represents Rosecrans.
With the Mississippi and Chattanooga in Federal hands, it's almost the end of the Confederacy. I wonder if they will even make it past June 1864. On the subject of freed slaves, I hope that the Union manages to copy the Davis Bend plantation system and apply it across the conquered states instead of the leasing of plantations to the OTL " unsavory lot."
Thanks for the map! I think that, unfortunately, some degree of leasing to Northern investors is impossible to avoid.
Wow, the south realizing how important the war in the west truly is ITTL is quite the trip. I remember reading of the rebel AoT in the OTL and the trouble they had getting much of anything from the gov't in Richmond, let alone anyone on the coast caring about the war in the west until Sherman began revving up in Atlanta. Shreveport, Jackson all got the torch, nothing on the scale of Atlanta yet, but I imagine that is subject to change.
Interesting ploy by Breckenridge, he's managed to stave off total defeat so far, so why take this tack now? Is Johnny Breck attempting to stomach the idea of asking for terms?
Virginia and the East still receive the Lion's share of attention and resources from both the public and the governments, but more people are aware of just how bleak the situation is to the West. Breckinridge, as
@Athelstane has pointed out previously, is not likely to carry the war to the bitter end but try and end it in a negotiated peace so as to spare the South the suffering.
If Breckinridge tries to seek for terms I could easily see the South descending into a civil war of their own. Especially if said terms include eventual restoration of the South to the Union.
Lincoln would accept nothing less than Union and Emancipation. At best Breckinridge and some moderates could aim for a Southern led-Reconstruction, which would stave off the "worst" of the Radical impulses (read, Black civil rights). But of course, the fire-eaters would rather see the South completely destroyed and all its people dead than submit to such "degradation"
Amazing stuff,
@Red_Galiray ! Great detail and I like how the western theater is finally coming to strangle the Confederacy once and for all.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed this update. As IOTL, it's the West that ultimately dooms the Confederacy.
And there's the Grant we all love to see.
Unconditional Surrender Grant, my favorite general. Since we've touched the topic, I've almost finished Chernow's biography, and it's mentioned that Grant became a better politician after his world tour. I wonder if something similar could happen here...
And so it starts. DO IT AGAIN SHERMAN! More seriously, this has taught the Union a useful lesson about how to keep a campaign going despite Dixie guerilla activity.
The Mississippi is a free river again. This means that the western third of the confederacy is now entirely cut off from the rest. Is it under the command of Kirby Smith as in OTL or someone else? In any case, I do hope we later get an update describing what's it like in that de facto independent area.
Thanks for making this, helps visualize things!
The first march, but by no means the last
Well, last time we heard of Kirby Smith he was part of Bragg's failed campaign in Tennessee. I could have him as commander of this "Western Confederacy", but I am open to someone else if there are other candidates. I, too, am very interested in "Kirby Smith's Confederacy". It's fascinating how it basically became an independent state.
That was an amazing update, thank you for sharing! And thanks for the map, that was really neat and helpful.
I it's fun to see Albert Sidney Johnston have more time and what he would do. Having him captured makes things quite interesting.
I wonder who led McPherson's group when he went down. He will probably get a promotion somewhere at some point since he was able to rally the troops so well.
the cabinet promising to surrender with Breckenridge doesn't mean they can't just force him to resign if they deem it his fault that there is another such disaster. If they discuss it, there will be great trouble in the Confederacy.
It's fun to see the use of the spy networks send the other anecdotes. I can see kids really enjoying out of that story about Grierson overcoming what was probably a fear of horses at the beginning. I can see the aforementioned mr. Vrsan, my sixth grade teacher from Czechoslovakia who had such an incredible love for American history, sharing that anecdote with pride as something the kids could relate to in some ways, even though I don't know how many of us had even ridden a horse. But the idea of overcoming obstacles is there. It's fun to read that grierson is a real person, as I see him Wikipedia, though his exploits will probably be much more memorable here because of the proximity to the battle.
Man, who knows, I don't remember everything I was taught in 6th grade.
Maybe he did mention the story even OTL.
Johnston's capture is a key point for several reasons. The main one is, of course, that he's a high ranking Confederate leader under whose watch atrocities were committed (the massacre at Canton). Since exchanges have broken down, Johnston will be trialed, and that opens a lot of questions about how the Union is to deal with traitors, war criminals, and rebel leaders. Johnston's trial will naturally become the blueprint for future trials of men like Davis, Lee or Breckinridge himself.
The problem is that there really isn't any mechanism for forcing Breckinridge out. Neither the US Constitution nor the Confederate Constitution (which was largely a copy of the first) including anything like the modern 25th amendment. For the Cabinet or anyone else to force Breckinridge out a coup would be needed. And that would certainly not be good for Dixie...
Grierson's is such a good tale. It's one of those moments where reality seems stranger (or perhaps more narrative) than even fiction.
I didn't think of that calculation when Breckenridge had his cabinet sign on the dotted line, shades of Lincoln forcing the rest of his cabinet to accept Seward in the OTL. Great catch DTF.
I was purposely making a reference to Lincoln making his Cabinet sign a similar "Blind Mémorandum", where he outlined a plane to save the Union between Election Day and March, 1865, should he be defeated. Sherman's capture of Atlanta rendered this unnecessary, as that assured Lincoln's reelection.
Thanks! It really is beautiful to see the Mississippi flowing free of the odious traitor presence.
Thanks! Thank you, especially, for taking the time to say so.
I wondering why this man had a dent on his temple.
Either I just learned a new word or your Spanish is bleeding through, friend. Hell, I might start using it anyway.
Hopefully. The thing that's made the South all the more interesting ITTL is the differences in approach and disposition from Breckenridge as opposed to Davis. The man seems to have a far better sense of the stakes of the war. The better part of valor is discretion and knowing when the clock is ticking is very much to his credit.
There's no sense drawing things out, on his part anyway.
If that surrender letter has the same effect as the surrender from OTL remains to be seen, there's still plenty of people who are seeing red and will no doubt ignore his orders at a minimum.
Damn, every time I think I'm finally fluent I come and make a mistake like that... oh well, it isn't as if I never made a mistake when speaking Spanish.
Breckinridge would rather surrender and spare the people the pain if the situation turns truly hopeless than be the one that leads the South to complete annihilation... but not many think like him. Not for nothing have many authors declared that the Confederacy was something of a suicide pact made by the Planter class.
Well its not hard to imagine that the Fire Eaters and their ilk will be blaming the blacks and unionist whites amidst them, they need only point to grant's black spy for evidence. But, i don't think this narrative will become very popular.
In the case of post-ww1 Germany the public thought that the war was going well (or that they at least had a good chance yet), and this was because of the combination of ate censorship and the fact the fighting never came to their doorstep.
That is not the case here, as despite all the spin and some feeble attempts at censorship, the confederate public seems well aware the tide is turning against them. And soon, generals like Sherman will be bringing the fight into the confederate heartland
Though it's true that many are aware that their chances are bleak, to say the least, others are complete masters of the art of self-delusion. IOTL, even Davis, usually a level-headed man, believed he could carry the South to victory
after Appomattox. Of course, the different nature of the war is bound to make more Southerners believe that they don't have a chance and never did, and I think that's necessary if post-war violence and terrorism is to be crushed.
True, Uncle Billy is not the sort who is known for compassion, understanding, or clemency when it comes to rebellion. Despite Sherman hitting his stride, everything I've read about the time, the southern Fire Eaters had a unique ability to bullshit themselves about the odds despite everything proving contrary. Fire Eaters like Louis Wigfall and Robert Rhett would be absolutely enraged by Johnny Breck's sensible measure and would stir the pot just because, not to mention letting their sympathisers in the military know, like Maj. Gen. William Walker, the OTL general who sent Cleburne's Memorandum to Richmond against Joe Johnston's orders.
One of Breckinridge's main advantages over Davis is that his genial personality means that people who hate him do so due to politics, rather than personal feuds or simply dislike as it often happened to Davis. Nonetheless, many within the planter class (who have oversized power within the Army and Congress) think Breckinridge is an apostate that has betrayed them, due to, for example, his opposition to the Twenty Negro Law and his openness to some measures that are anathema to the South (treating Black soldiers as prisoners or being willing to listen to Cleburne and Walker instead of chastising them). It's a terrible, bitter feud that is only becoming more severe as the Confederate cause turns more hopeless.