| April 9 |  |
Editor says, what if Robert E. Lee had taken the Army of Northern Virginia into the hills? muses Zach Timmons. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1865, on this day Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued the fateful order for the Army of Northern Virginia to disband and to take to the wilderness to act as guerilla fighters. His aide Walter Taylor apparently suggested the idea to him, and Lee, grief-stricken by the recent death of his wife Mary, and of the death of his son William as a Union prisoner, approved it.
American GuerillasFor the next 5 years, a reign of terror ruled the South as shootings, lynchings, and bombings became the norm. Anyone suspected of Union sympathies or those who collaborated with the occupation forces were frequently killed as an example to others, and the Union Army gradually laid a heavier and heavier hand on the South, taking civilians as hostages and conducting frequent reprisals.
After the assassination of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Democrat Horatio Seymour defeated former general Ulysses S. Grant for the Presidency. Seymour immediately opened talks with the rebel leaders, most notably Nathan B. Forrest and John Mosby. A deal was struck with the rebels that the South would recieve limited autonomy, with the ability to opt out of trade deals and tariffs, but in return, slavery would be phased out over 20 years, with slaveowners receiving compensation. On January 1st, 1870, the agreement (now referred to as the Washington Agreement) officially took effect, and is now regarded in the South as a quasi-Independence Day.
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Zach Timmons
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Zachs Blog Source: Zach's Blog Labels: Robert E. Lee, Confederacy, American Civil War, ACW, Union.
~ The technology available during the civil war made defence far superior to the offense in most engagements. The South used this tactic time and again to thwart superior northern armies. What is ironic is that General Lee was on the offence at Gettysburg and suffered as a result. He had a great deal of confidence in his soldiers and as a result he miscalculated. He made few errors and never repeated any including Gettysburg. The North was able to carry out a very successful campaign further to the west and through Georgia. The terrain and limited number of southern soldiers was a big factor in those areas. It seems to me that the first world war saw these mistakes repeated on a grand scale. Tom Hickie fredericton
~ I doubt that it would have worked. Confederate spirit had been broken at that point. Civilians couldn't supply the army, how could they supply guerillas? As it were, none of the Confederate armies reformed in any way. (Okay, Quantrel, I believe, held out, but he was just a bandit.) The war ws over, and they knew it.
Comment from Chris Schultz on Facebook: Kinda like how the British capitulated to the IRA. This is probably the most realistic alternate Civil War outcome I've ever seen.
~ Interesting,the north had limited resolve.
~ Problem is that the best guerilla territory was also the least sympathetic toward the CSA and thier leadership. Meanwhile the Freedmen will volunteer in droves for the occupation garrisons that dominate the lowlands where the Confederate leadership's base of support is.
~ HTG said what I would have said. Also, the mountain areas weren't exactly oversupplied with food even in peacetime, and wouldn't have had extra for hordes of hungry Confederate guerrillas. In any case, a blind man could see that the Old South that the CSA was trying to preserve was dead as could be---why prolong the agony to no good purpose, particularly with the West just waiting out there? A lot of ex-Confederates went West in the years after the War, and some did very well.
~ More likely scenerio would be like the North launcing massiive and ruthless reprisals, destroying property, shooting hostages and other reprisal executions, destroying crops and other massive work until the south is crushed and occupied.
Perhaps a little hearts and minds might e worked in. They would have a relatively less difficult time since though unionists were a minority in the south, they were a large one.
~ 1. lee is unlikely to actually do this. Not his style. Better to have Lee lead the last attack [Gordon's in OTL] Have Lee KIA, preferably killed by a black regiment [would take small changes in Grant's deployments as in fact the black corps occupied Richmond]. Early and Fitz Lee wanted to do this and with Masa Robert dead there is no one to stop them.
2. You totally miss the likely Union reaction which is scorched earth. See sherman's march and Sheridan's Valley campaign
3. Union public does not elect Seymour. Probably not even Grant who was not a hard war man in that sense. Given a bottomless guerilla in Dixie Grant is probably still in the field as is Sherman. probable President is Sheridan who the radicals loved.
~ I have to agree with Eric Oppen and H. Torrance Griffin on this one.
~ I agree with Eric and HTG as well. By this time, the South didn't have the heart to fight. Sherman's March had done its job. You might have seen small bands of dead-enders harassing Union troops, but no realistic resistance.
I almost wish the South *had* gone to guerrilla tactics. The federal government would've come down much harder on the South, and we might've been spared 100 years of Jim Crow.
Comment from Robert Caudle on Facebook: The war would have lasted years longer than it did but, the outcome would be uncertain.
~ A greater probability would be a stronger version of the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan, perhaps one retAaining the conventional military structure, including ranks, of the CS Army instead of inventing the bizarre array of new offices and ranks the KKK did in our history--and calling itself by some less esoteric name, such as, perhaps, the Free Confederate Army or the Sons of the Confederacy--something like a Southern version of the IRA.
~ I wonder what the Southern slang for the guerrilla soldiers would have been. "Warries"? "Hill Boys"?
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
