If the Republicans are dominated by the Radicals, and the Democrats are split and discredited, I can see Lincoln and others try to steer a middle path particularly if Lincoln lives. It will be interesting to see if Lincoln can afford to ditch the radical Hamlin for a more "unifying" vp candidate in 64. I wonder also if Fremont (or someone else) might run if Lincoln isn't radical enough...
A Glorious Union or America: the New Sparta
- Thread starter TheKnightIrish
- Start date
If the Republicans are dominated by the Radicals, and the Democrats are split and discredited, I can see Lincoln and others try to steer a middle path particularly if Lincoln lives. It will be interesting to see if Lincoln can afford to ditch the radical Hamlin for a more "unifying" vp candidate in 64. I wonder also if Fremont (or someone else) might run if Lincoln isn't radical enough...
Although it's not a color poster, it's the better thing I've managed to draw. I hope that TheKnightIrish will like by this version of his poster.
I love it! (I spilled tea on my keyboard at home hence the lack of updates - only the Enter, Space and Delete keys aren't working!).
Good spot from DK and good assessment from Corder. The problem Lincoln might have is that a larger element of public opinion might leave him behind in the post-Hunter/Baton Rouge/Lawrence era with a stronger radical element to the republican party as a result.
It would be very strange is Lincoln only gets one-term.
It's kinda cliche now that a union-victory means a Second Term for Lincoln.
It also makes me wonder (just by looking at the previous political posters) how the National Union Party will come about.
In OTL, It was a mixture of Democrats and Republicans, as well as Andrew Johnson who was a southerner and a Lincoln northerner. It was a perfect mix of social and political demographics.
In this TL, Kearney is kinda a Radical Republican with a significant amount of Democratic supporters, but he is practically emphasizing the complete opposite of Lincoln's own plans for Reconstruction in terms or denying the south any chance at Redemption, so to speak, with his advocation of removing all southern politicians from any political standing in the future.
It doesn't really seem to be the "National" or the "Union" that the party kindof presents itself as. The title is rather misleading.
Certainly in this TL Lincoln would have to make a major error or a disaster would have to occur to lose the election in 11 months. With Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Virginia, and most of Arkansas and Alabama in Union hands his re-election looks good. Lincoln will still run as a National Union candidate this time but after that I'm not sure. Even with threats from Democrats and Radicals he should still win handily...I hope.
Kearny might end up being a "middle of the road" candidate with his "death to the planters class" view. Lincoln with be on one woolly extreme and the likes of Ben Butler and the "death to the whole South" radicals. Anyway if a hardline on Reconstruction means better rights for freedmen and southern unionists then I'd be happy calling that a form of National Union?
Didn't theknightirish mention John Wilkes Booth would still make an appearance in 1864?
Although now I think on it isn't this what they did to Churchill. Thanks for winning the war old man but as you and yours are massively out of step with public opinion on the post-war settlement we'll be voting for someone else. Its not as though we're not grateful but...etc
I will buy a new keyboard for home this weekend so I can update next week!
Chapter Ninety Eight A Broken System
Chapter Ninety Eight
A Broken System
From “The War Between the States” by Otis R. Mayhew
Sword & Musket 1992
"The winter of 1863/64 was one of increasing difficulties for the Confederacy in terms of logistics. The Confederate Government and its forces were effectively drawing supplies from the four states remaining under its direct control – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (small areas of eastern Alabama also remained in Confederate hands).
While the situation in Northern Georgia was less than ideal, it was less critical because of the proximity of Atlanta and its infrastructure. However the situation in North Carolina was deteriorating rapidly. General Longstreet’s army was not alone in stripping the state bare of foodstuffs and other military supplies. Refugees from Virginia had flooded into Raleigh, Greenboro, Wilmington and Charlotte. There were also accusations that Unionist “traitors” within North Carolina were hoarding food and even sabotaging railroads (though little concrete evidence supports this)…
The branch of the Confederate Government that struggled most with the reduced circumstances in which the Confederacy found itself, was the Bureau of Prison Camps which Secretary Breckinridge had set up. The creation of the Bureau was little more than an exercise in semantics. General John H. Winder remained in command of the camp system as he had for much of 1863…"
The Prisoner of War Camp at Salisbury N.C.
From "Death on an Industrial Scale - The Confederate Prison Camps" by Professor Lucas Hartswell:
Buffalo 1989
"North Carolina - Salisbury
Salisbury Prison in Rowan County, North Carolina was one such military prison. It had initially consisted of a twenty-year-old abandoned cotton mill near the railroad line. It was brick and three stories tall with an attic. Cottages and a stockade were later added. The number of prisoners increased from 120 in December 1861 to 1400 in May 1862.
In the early part of the war, prisoners were well cared for and even indulged in baseball as recorded by Otto Boetticher. His drawing at Salisbury Confederate Prison is the first drawing ever of a baseball game in America. By January 1863 the prison held 12,000 including many Union prisoners transported from other camps in Virginia…
In the early part of the war, prisoners were well cared for and even indulged in baseball as recorded by Otto Boetticher. His drawing at Salisbury Confederate Prison is the first drawing ever of a baseball game in America. By January 1863 the prison held 12,000 including many Union prisoners transported from other camps in Virginia…
The town of Salisbury had only 2000 residents, making it the fourth largest town in the state, and there was concern about the safety of those on the outside...
As the prison became overcrowded the death rate rose from 2% in March 1863 to 28% in December 1863. The commandant resorted to mass graves to accommodate the dead…
The prison was now dangerously close to the front lines but Longstreet had effectively taken over the railroad at nearby Greenboro for the supply of his army. In the many “turf wars” ongoing between Longstreet and the state government of North Carolina the prison camp at Salisbury barely registered. Furthermore the Governor of South Carolina, former general, Milledge Luke Bonham, was stoutly resisting the further transfer of prisoners to his state. South Carolina, although relatively untouched by the war, was feeling the pinch of the blockade and its infrastructure was struggling under the strain of supplying the war as well as its own domestic needs. South Carolina wanted no more mouths to feed…
Although General Winder demanded more supplies: more food, more clothing, better shelter and medical services, all these were in short supply. Such as were available were prioritised for the remaining armies in the field…
Major Henry Burroughs Holliday (pre-war)
The state of camp at Salisbury can be best guessed at by the response of Major Henry Burroughs Holliday of Alabama. After injury in Bragg’s fall campaign he was assigned to the Salisbury Camp. After 3 days at Salisbury he wrote to Generals Winder and Johnston and also to the Governor of Alabama to demand an immediate transfer or he would resign his commission. “I have been allotted the task of watching men die and providing such organisation as to make their neglect and deaths as of little inconvenient to the government as possible…No gentleman, no officer, could accept such a command. I cannot be indifferent to the deaths of men, even though they are Yankees and invaders” (Holliday). That letter would save Holliday’s life when the fate of Union prisoners in 1864 would sent scores of Confederate officers and no few bureaucrats to a gallows…
Andersonville Prison
Georgia - Andersonville
At this time in the war, Andersonville Prison in southern Goergia, was frequently undersupplied with food, though this applied both to prisoners and the Confederate personnel within the fort. Even when sufficient quantities were available, the supplies were of poor quality and poorly prepared. During the winter and spring of 1864 Union prisoners suffered greatly from hunger, exposure and disease. Within seven months, about a third of them died from what was diagnosed as dysentery and scurvy and were buried in mass graves, the standard practice by Confederate prison authorities. Although the Confederate Surgeon General made cursory inquiries into the high mortality rate at the camp, the conclusion that it was due to "scorbutic dysentery" (bloody diarrhea caused by vitamin C deficiency), was wrong. It is likely that the cause of fatal emaciation and diarrhea was rampant hookworm disease, a condition not recognized or known during the Civil War, exacerbated by malnutrition and exposure…
The water supply from Stockade Creek became polluted when too many Union prisoners were housed by the Confederate authorities within the prison walls following the evacuation of the camps in Alabama in the fall of 1863...
The guards, disease, starvation and exposure were not all that prisoners had to deal with. A group of prisoners, calling themselves the Andersonville Raiders, attacked their fellow inmates to steal food, jewelry, money and clothing. They were armed mostly with clubs and killed to get what they wanted…"
Two of the Photographs which appeared in Harper's Weekly
From “The War Between the States” by Otis R. Mayhew
Sword & Musket 1992
"It has mooted, both then and since, that a more “harmonious peace” (Seward) might have been reached with the rebels, in line with President Lincoln’s intentions, even after all the other atrocities, were it not for the Confederate Prison Camps...
Custer’s raid on Salisbury would be the first real exposure of the true horrors of rebel prisons, but it would be McClernand’s liberation of Andersonville in the full light of the press (including early photography) that would truly shock the Northern public and close the door on a quiet peace forever…”
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Apologies if you find those photos distressing. I considered whether to post them. However they are real photographs taken of real prisoners from Andersonville which were copied in Harper's Weekly and, as such, I wanted to remind people just how truly horrible their experience would have been...
Have no worries on that score in TTL, at lease the southern ones...
Hmm. seems you have hinted at big trials in 1864. interesting. maybe the war will be over sooner indeed.
The post on prisons reminded me of the Sultana, which i assume is butterflied from happening here. Maybe something similar happens?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana
Worst US maritime (or riparian to be technical) disaster to date
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Sultana
Worst US maritime (or riparian to be technical) disaster to date