WI: No Battle of Palmito Ranch?

[Tom Colton]

Among ACW WIs, this might possibly be the most inconsequential, but a butterfly's wings can cause a cyclone in another hemisphere, to utterly butcher chaos theory.

The Battle of Palmito Ranch, a good month after the surrender at Appomattox, was started on the orders of Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, in violation of a "gentlemen's agreement" between Confederate and Union soldiers not to advance on each other. His motivations are unclear even until this day, but it is suspected that he did so because he hadn't seen combat yet.

The alleged final casuality of the American Civil War, John J. Williams, died along with a handful of Union and Confederate troops, and the Union force was compelled to retreat. Some Union troops (including those from the 62nd "Colored" Regiment) were captured but were treated equally and humanely, and returned peacably.

If Barrett had never launched the attack, would there have been any meaningful consequences whatsoever?

 

[Tom Colton]

Bumping...

 

[m0585]

Some other Union soldier gets the tragic distinction of being the last KIA of the Civil War. John J. Williams, along with 10 other soldiers, gets to have a chance at life following the war. It is possible that one of them will go on to do something impactful (run for office, serve in a leadership position in a future war).

Perhaps diehard Confederates get less bragging rights. Other that that the war is over no matter what.

 

[TFSmith121]

22 fewer parents mourn; unknown numbers of wives and children

Some other Union soldier gets the tragic distinction of being the last KIA of the Civil War. John J. Williams, along with 10 other soldiers, gets to have a chance at life following the war. It is possible that one of them will go on to do something impactful (run for office, serve in a leadership position in a future war). Perhaps diehard Confederates get less bragging rights. Other that that the war is over no matter what.

22 fewer parents mourn; unknown numbers of wives and children, real or potential, do not mourn for what might have been and instead, enjoy decades of life... The ripples are unimaginable.

Historically, as made clear by Drew Gilpin Faust in This Republic of Suffering, the grief lasted the rest of the century; to a degree, it remains a palpable thing in the United States, and had a true impact on the national memory and will...

There were reasons, after all, that the Americans were so reluctant to engage with the world in the rest of the Nineteenth Century; they had seen modern war that lasted for years, and - unlike the British and Canadians (and even the Germans and French, who should have known better) who marched off singing in 1914, for example - didn't have to experience the Somme or Verdun or the Kindermord to understand what a bloodbath was coming. They already knew it, thanks to what the US had gone through in 1861-65. The Europeans, for the most part, had not...

The caption of this cartoon from 1900 by John T. McCutcheon was: “You bet I’m goin’ to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up.”


Best,

 

[Saphroneth]

Some other Union soldier gets the tragic distinction of being the last KIA of the Civil War. John J. Williams, along with 10 other soldiers, gets to have a chance at life following the war. It is possible that one of them will go on to do something impactful (run for office, serve in a leadership position in a future war).

Perhaps diehard Confederates get less bragging rights. Other that that the war is over no matter what.

Minor question - why would it be some other Union soldier?

 

[m0585]

Minor question - why would it be some other Union soldier?

Fair point. Depending on what battle is considered the "last one", it could very be a Confederate soldier.

 

[Saphroneth]

Fair point. Depending on what battle is considered the "last one", it could very be a Confederate soldier.

I was wondering if there was some unspoken rule that CSA soldiers didn't count.

It looks like the other contender is a Confederate defeat, though, so presumably a CS soldier died last there.

 

[Mikestone8]

I was wondering if there was some unspoken rule that CSA soldiers didn't count.

It looks like the other contender is a Confederate defeat, though, so presumably a CS soldier died last there.

Not necessarily.

Even the winning side often takes casualties, which is why we remember WW1 the way we do.

 

[TFSmith121]

They don't if the criteria is the last "Union" KIA

I was wondering if there was some unspoken rule that CSA soldiers didn't count.

It looks like the other contender is a Confederate defeat, though, so presumably a CS soldier died last there.

They don't if the criteria is the last "Union" KIA; there are those who don't see the rebels as anything more than that.

Best,

 

[Saphroneth]

Not necessarily.

Even the winning side often takes casualties, which is why we remember WW1 the way we do.

True, but I mean the balance of probabilities is that the losers are the ones who stop being effective in combat first - that's what causes the losers to break.