Timeline 191 what if Wade Hampton III coup had been successful?

[rob2001]

Having gone back over How few remain, I've always wondered what would have happened to the Confederacy if Wade Hampton's coup had succeeded during the Second Mexican War? Considering the reasons behind it would that have changed England and France's status in the war? Would it affect the U.S. in any way? What does anyone think?

 

[Tiro]

On a domestic level it is difficult to imagine a Hampton Coup being received with joyous rapture - if nothing else it is a blatant act of Treachery at a time when the Confederacy is supposed to be pulling together against the common foe - so it seems likely that those who back Longstreet & Victory would find themselves pitted against the most Stalwart Upholders of the CS Constitution (aka the biggest slaveholders) who threaten to throw away all that the Confederacy has achieved by the Second Mexican War.

I do not believe that course of the War would have been substantially altered - my understanding is that Hampton only began to put plans into motion as the Peace Talks were taking place - but if nothing else such an attack on the Longstreet Administration would almost certainly have seen the Confederacy pulled back down into Defeat from the very threshold of Victory: a refusal to honour Mr Longstreet's pledge might well have seen the British make a separate Peace with the United States (the French might well have joined Britannia in cutting loose the Confederates to sink or swim on their own).

Under these circumstances it is not hard to imagine the North scenting an opportunity in all these well-armed disagreements ...