Editor says, what if Joe Johnston had survived the Battle of Seven Pines and it made absolutely no difference to the "Lost Cause"? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

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Editor says, in our timeline [Wikipedia reports] "the battle was frequently remembered by the Union soldiers as the Battle of Fair Oaks Station because that is where they did their best fighting, whereas the Confederates, for the same reason, called it Seven Pines. Historian Stephen W. Sears remarked that its current common name, Seven Pines, is the most appropriate because it was at the crossroads of Seven Pines that the heaviest fighting and highest casualties occurred".

Eric Oppen commented on 2011-02-27 01:49:18 ~ So did Lee not consider himself a Virginian first in this TL? Virginia had to have seceded for Richmond to be the capital (not even the Confederates would be silly enough to designate an enemy city as their capital). Or did he decide that his oath to the US Constitution superceded his loyalties to the Old Dominion?

Robbie Taylor commented on 2011-02-27 04:05:52 ~ Perhaps it was as simple as deciding that his love of Virginia shouldn't include inducement to treason. An abusive love is no love at all...

Comment from Robert Caudle on Facebook: It would have made a difference, depending on who replaced him. Johnston was a political general based on his influence. Maybe Gen. Forrest could have replaced him and could have changed the course of the war in the West. If Gen. A.S. Johnson would have survived at Shiloh, he would have made a major difference. There were many officers in the the South campable of changes in the war had they been promoted to the proper rank..

Eric Lipps commented on 2011-02-27 16:32:19 ~ Re Eric Oppen's remark, as I understand it, Virginia's secession was inevitable, because pro-secession forces at the state's secession convention refused to allow the proceedings to end or the delegates to leave--physically preventing the latter--until a vote for secession had been secured. Ill feeling over their rough handling on that occasion may have been a factor in western Virginians' decision, later, to secred from the CSA and rejoin the Union as the present state of West Virginia.

Jeff Provine commented on 2011-02-27 20:24:40 ~ What if Virginia refused to secede?

David Atwell commented on 2011-02-27 20:55:29 ~ Somehow, even with Lee in charge of the Union army, which I find hard to believe, the overall problem is one of military personnel in charge of the various corps. A couple were good, but the others were average at best. So Lee would be stuck with these people. Furthermore Lee probably would not have conducted a landing at Fort Monroe & thus conduct the Peninsular Campaign in the first place. This was very much McClellan's & I extremely doubt anyone else would have come up with it. Instead Lee would have conducted a conventional campaign, albeit along the Manassas to Gordonsville corridor to ensure the ability to conduct a campaign of manoeuvre. In other words the Battle of Fair Oaks never takes place. Having saif that, either way, Johnston is in his element of conducting a fighting withdrawal. He will trade ground until an opportunity arises to conduct a major attack. Now altohugh Fair Oaks wasn't Johnston's best example of conducting a battle, afterall he was seriously wounded, it nevertheless demonstrated that his stratergy was sound. Consequentially I wouldn't be surprised if even Lee, if facing Jonhston, would suffer major setbacks & that, even with a different march on Richmond, history pretty much repeats itself albeit the details have changed.

Scott Eiler commented on 2011-02-27 22:08:49 ~ In all fairness, that isn't the divergence point. But it still makes almost no difference to the Lost Cause. If the successful Union general (no, I won't spoil it, except it isn't McClellan) storms into Richmond, then there's still an awful lot of Confederacy to conquer, and a highly intact army to contest it. Joe Johnston was absolutely untested OTL at actually defending a major city under reasonable odds, but he was a master at keeping his army intact.

Stan Brin commented on 2011-02-28 01:07:16 ~ I am not of the "Great Confederates" school -- they only lasted our years because they had tremendous luck during the first two, and the Union had a lot of bad luck (and inferior generals). With Lee's tactical abilities added to McClellan's organizing skills, the war could have ended much sooner -- but it is possible without the liberation of the slaves.