I'm writing a TL where a Union defeat at Vicksburg leads to mass casualties, or at least heavy ones, on both sides, and eventually both the Union and the Confederacy collapse under the weight of the war, each one suffering their own secessions and miniature civil wars. How plausible is his?
PC: Defeat at Vicksburg means stalemate?
- Thread starter ChaoticBrilliance
- Start date
It would require that Grant not be able to make it a siege. Either he doesn't come up with his outflanking maneuver that cut Vicksburg's rail line, or else he retreats once his own supply line got cut at Grand Gulf. Not sure how likely either of those is, so replacing Grant with someone less audacious might be necessary.
That's just Vicksburg, though. I don't foresee the Union falling to pieces. The strain of the war wasn't that hard on them, really, and the North pretty well hated the South by this point, so they weren't in real danger of more secession. Things had gotten too bipolar, as it were.
That's just Vicksburg, though. I don't foresee the Union falling to pieces. The strain of the war wasn't that hard on them, really, and the North pretty well hated the South by this point, so they weren't in real danger of more secession. Things had gotten too bipolar, as it were.
How does a Vicksburg failure lead to a disintegration of both the Union and the CSA?
Following Gettysburg, the Confederate morale is pretty trashed, and the Union faces a Copperhead coup in New York
The Copperheads lacked the power for that. Plus, it makes them look even more treasonous.
I see...what about the Confederacy splitting? Is that still possible if the Union lacks the power or will to continue their drive, thus prolonging the war?
Oh, there was plenty of that, not to worry. That's why we have a state of West Virginia, for starters. There were similar Unionist uprisings all over Appalachia, in Eastern Tennessee, Texas (interesting stories there about German immigrants from the failed 1848 uprisings who were about the staunchest abolitionists you could find anywhere, and the lengths the Confederates had to go to to keep them down), parts of Louisiana, too, I think. And those were just the biggest pockets of resistance, I've definitely read more than once around here that between the Unionists and the slaves, secessionists were a minority in the CSA alone.
And apart from people who wanted to return to the Union, the CSA had other internal problems, since they were actually quite terrible on the "states' rights" thing, and South Carolina wound up threatening to secede from the Confederacy, despite secession being explicitly forbidden in the Confederate constitution. Yeah, it was a mess down there, for sure.
I like the idea that more states split from the Union on their own (with a little Union encouragement), thus leading to some different state borders.