Until Every Drop of Blood Is Paid: A More Radical American Civil War
- Thread starter Red_Galiray
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IOTL Joe Johnston and Longstreet were good friends and Longstreet was quite supportive of Johnston. ITTL Longstreet and Johnston never meet until early 1864, and it is inherently obvious that Longstreet is sent there by Breckinridge to "fix" the failing Atlanta Campaign and Johnston believes Longstreet is angling for his job. The details are in chapter 46 and 48.
Especially as Breckinridge's powerbase was very much amongst the poorer whites who at most owned a domestic slave or two.
Yes, hated by the union because he led the rebellion, now hated by the ones he led, probably TTL version of "his name is mudd" will be "his name is breck."
Well the beat down the slavers are in for now will make Breckinridge look better in retrospect.
Wonder if the Union will use this to help keep the poor whites from rebelling against during reconstruction. I can even see it now in contemporary history books. "While Breckenridge was a traitor the the US he was honest in his intentions and beliefs that this would help the poor southerns lot in life improve. However this was so viciously opposed by the slave owners that they not only couped him but they purposely opposed any chance of victory for the Confederacy desperate as they were to hold onto their power."
Delusional reprobates all. The southron planter class shall soon meet the judgement of the Lord Most High. It will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for these idle oppressors of their fellow man.
Hamlin is probably just doing Senate stuff, as the Senator from Maine, while Colfax... well I don't know actually, but Red definitely does
Especially as they put their privileges and status above the survival of the state they were ostensibly fighting for.
They're the kind that would have welcomed Nazi Germany with doors wide open as long as it allowed them to continue play tin-pot dictators in their own playgrounds.
Say what you can about Breckenridge, especially as he led a regime which sought to preserve slavery, but he at least saw poor whites as fellow members of the Southron nation and prioritized the survival of the state over ideological purity and preservation of social status, unlike the planter elites and fire-eaters now in charge with their views on non-slaveholding whites and response to Breckenridge's policies.
Come to think of it, would there really be any sympathy for Breckinridge in the North? IIRC the chapter on the aftermath of the Red Night makes it clear that many in the North believe that Breckinridge is responsible for calling in the hit. There is also how the junta handles Breckinridge. I assume that the junta would at least want to maintain the facade of being a democracy and I suspect that Confederate Congress will basically give their approval. I suspect that they will Breckinridge locked in Richmond instead of execution - it might be too shocking for Confederate sentiments. Actually, given that the conversation between Jeff Davis and Breckinridge never come to light, maybe the two die somehow.
To start?
Absolutely not. The only two emotions I can imagine being felt in the North are schadenfreude with perhaps a bit of anxiety due to the unknowns of how this might affect the war.
But in the future? I'd never call it sympathy, but he does seem like an interesting enough figure here that he'd be a good target for eventual reevaluation. Still a (former?) slaveholder, still an anti-revolutionary, still the Confederacy's first President, and yet only an ally of the planter class rather than a member, and ultimately betrayed by them when he realized the war was irreversibly lost. And, as someone else has said, that contrast between him and those who arrested him could be useful in the future.
There's not going to be any 'graceful' handshake at appomattox to end the war here. The planters and hardliners are so unwilling to part with their status and wealth that they'd rather burn the entire South down than concede defeat, and apparently they won't let the opinions of other southerners get in the way.
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I'm pretty sure there was an interlude from a while back which featured Breckenridge walking through Richmond to bolster the spirits of the people and he met a woman who named her new son after him, and it stated that neither Breckenridge nor his namesake would survive the end of the conflict. So Johnny Breck is going to be shuffling off the mortal coil before this little experiment of a slaver's republic comes to an end - whether he's executed, dies during an 'escape' or contracts an illness while in prison, waits to be seen. Honestly, none of these scenerios are good for the Coup and planter elites - the first is pretty up front, but is going to cause civil unrest amongst the lower classes. The other two are lead to the assumption that the junta illed him and is trying to cover it up/explain it away, which results in the same thing AND leads to conspiracy theories.
Either way, I can see many of the lower classes shaking theier heads after the war is over and saying "If only he'd have lived ..." Breckenridge would have brought an early end to the war, and probably come around to the end of slavey, joined the union in dissolving the planter class, etc etc etc.
But, because of course. But that's the kind of legacy the Union can play with to their advantage during reconstruction as well
On that note, any surrenders would most likely be in the form of piecemeal surrenders by whatever voices of sanity are left in the CS military and local governments as they come to realize the time is up.
Presumably thats why the vice president is part of this triumvirate, to give their actions political legitimacy. The two generals are there to provide the needed muscle as well as to undercut secretary Davis if he stays true to Breckinridge, which he probably will considering his sense of honor and bullishness. Thus he too probably ends up arrested for being an accessory to Breckinridge.
Jackson doesn't like Longstreet, but I doubt any of them would expect Longstreet to just outright surrender. Yet once he sees that their strategy, whatever it will be, is totally unconscionable for him and his men i expect that he will hold his own council with his officers to discuss their options. They've definitely all grown tired of war, and without their beloved Lee, without their duely elected commander in chief, and with the hardliners in charge willing to throw them into the meat grinder without a feasible path to victory, the only honorable option left is to lay down their arms.
So assuming the ANV does surrender, Richmond is going to panic, probably riot, and as the union men march into the city they'll find Breckinridge and Davis dead in the Kerfuffle.
Imo He probably won't be under arrest long enough for him to catch something
Or it would be a euphemism for him being poisoned by the government.