WI Cleburne Proposal Became Public Knowledge?

Anaxagoras

Banned
IOTL, the proposal by Confederate General Patrick Cleburne in January of 1864 to free slaves and enroll them in the Southern army was rejected by his fellow officers at the Army of Tennessee (although there were some generals who expressed support). More importantly, when the militant pro-slavery general William Walker angrily dispatched a copy of the proposal to the War Department in Richmond, President Davis and Secretary Seddon immediately ordered all discussion of the proposal to be terminated. Consequently, historians never knew the proposal had been put forward at all until decades after the war. Some historians believe that his proposal resulted in Cleburne being passed over for corps command for the remainder of the war.

By the time the proposal was made, Cleburne had already established a reputation for himself as the finest division commander in the West, and perhaps the finest in the entire Confederacy. He had fought gallantly at Shiloh, in the Kentucky Campaign, at Murfreesboro, at Chickamauga, and at Missionary Ridge (where his division held its portion of the line against heavy odds even as the rest of the army collapsed). He had saved the Army of Tennessee from possible destruction through his rear guard action at Ringgold Gap after the disaster at Chattanooga, an action for which he had received the official thanks of the Confederate Congress.

What if there had been some sort of leak and word of the Cleburne proposal had gotten into the newspapers and became known across the Confederacy?
 
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Anaxagoras

Banned
Civil civil war?

I doubt anything so dramatic as that.

I wonder what effect it would have had on the Army of Tennessee? Cleburne's divisional staff and brigade commanders were a band of brothers, so they would have supported him through thick and thin. But it seems to me that the proposal going public would have torn open the internal feuding within the Army of Tennessee that had so damaged it during Bragg's tenure and which had been only barely pasted over during Johnston's command.

What would be the reaction from the Confederate Congress? The state governors? The state legislatures?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Around what time would you want the papers to be exposed to the public?

I suppose sometime during the spring or summer of 1864. William Walker had sent the papers to Richmond, only to find that Jefferson Davis wanted all discussion of the subject terminated. By then, at least several dozen people in both Richmond and in the officer corps of the Army of Tennessee knew all about it. It's entirely possible for it to have ended up in the papers.
 
Nothing good for the CSA

I suppose sometime during the spring or summer of 1864. William Walker had sent the papers to Richmond, only to find that Jefferson Davis wanted all discussion of the subject terminated. By then, at least several dozen people in both Richmond and in the officer corps of the Army of Tennessee knew all about it. It's entirely possible for it to have ended up in the papers.

If it was known that a prominent CSA general was proposing the abolition of slavery to save the CSA - it would be taken as evidence of severe demoralization verging on despair on the CSA side.

Indeed, if the actual Memorial was published, that would be an easy conclusion - as the Memorial argued that without such a move, the CSA was doomed, due to the very bad military position.

It would be savagely mocked by Northern abolitionists.

In the South, there would be the thought that if the CSA couldn't preserve slavery, what was the point of bleeding for it? The abstract sense of regional patriotism that remained didn't go very far; and the admission by a renowned general that the cause was close to hopeless would further discourage resistance to the Union.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
If it was known that a prominent CSA general was proposing the abolition of slavery to save the CSA - it would be taken as evidence of severe demoralization verging on despair on the CSA side.

Indeed, if the actual Memorial was published, that would be an easy conclusion - as the Memorial argued that without such a move, the CSA was doomed, due to the very bad military position.

It would be savagely mocked by Northern abolitionists.

In the South, there would be the thought that if the CSA couldn't preserve slavery, what was the point of bleeding for it? The abstract sense of regional patriotism that remained didn't go very far; and the admission by a renowned general that the cause was close to hopeless would further discourage resistance to the Union.

I agree with this. After all, this was pretty much the reaction when the Confederacy finally did take steps to enroll blacks in the army more than a year after Cleburne's proposal, when the military situation was infinitely worse.

I'm interested in what the board thinks would have happened to Cleburne's career. IOTL, he was likely denied promotion to corps command because of his proposal. If it had become public, would he had been cast off to some obscure command in the Trans-Mississippi or perhaps reassigned to some irrelevant administration post? Also, would this have broken open the internal feuding that so plagued the Army of Tennessee?
 
If it was known that a prominent CSA general was proposing the abolition of slavery to save the CSA - it would be taken as evidence of severe demoralization verging on despair on the CSA side.
As I recall he wasn't asking for the abolition of all the slaves but the ones who where enlisted in the army. If this point could be pushed further his career might not be damaged as much as he would be if the public thought he wanted to emancipate all of the CSA's slaves. If people are convinced of that some might have Cleburne triad as having insubordinate tendencies while other private citizens could ask for his hanging or deportation to the USA. I doubt that Cleburne's superiors would let him be relieved of service if this was requested b/c of his obvious skill but anything is possible.

Also this might cause a large ruckus when it comes to foreign relations b/c many Britons might see this as a good way to back supporting the CSA and could push Davis and other members of the CSA government to go ahead and use Cleburne's idea. I doubt they would do it unless they where convinced that there was no other way to beat off the North because as I understand it Davis feared using Cleburne’s idea mainly b/c of the backlash his administration would get for doing so and he already had enough of that by the time he learned of it.
 
If it was known that a prominent CSA general was proposing the abolition of slavery to save the CSA - it would be taken as evidence of severe demoralization verging on despair on the CSA side.

Indeed, if the actual Memorial was published, that would be an easy conclusion - as the Memorial argued that without such a move, the CSA was doomed, due to the very bad military position.

It would be savagely mocked by Northern abolitionists.

In the South, there would be the thought that if the CSA couldn't preserve slavery, what was the point of bleeding for it? The abstract sense of regional patriotism that remained didn't go very far; and the admission by a renowned general that the cause was close to hopeless would further discourage resistance to the Union.

This, it would destroy the morale of CSA forces and encourage those of the USA. It would be seen as practically an admission of defeat.
 
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