- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I have been considering, for a year or more at this point eventually putting my feet back in the water of trying to put together some stuff about the ACW being as its always one of the most popular settings for Alternate History. Not to cause too much of a fuss but I've been a bit worried about doing it because at other sites on the internet the subject gets very clique dominated and on the non-AH discussion internet the whole war still gets people hot and bothered. That said I'm finishing up my half of the current project that I caused terminal delays on and I should really look at what comes next. But being myself I've come up with a whole damned list of ACW stuff that I could do and most of it is pretty mutually exclusive while one of them is the sort of bulk-sized project that I would rather not start it up as I'm going into Grad School because I don't need that sort of thing on my plate.
It occurs to me though that this is a pretty interesting sounding board to talk about this stuff, folks here are pretty knowledgeable in a wide array of things so I'm definitely interested in hearing people's thoughts on the subject matter. And at the same time a lot of people here aren't Americans and thus there's room to discuss which ideas seem most interesting without getting bogged down in the passions of what your great-great-grandfather was doing which so many Americans start screaming over. Plus its just a good place to post my thoughts on broad trends and the like on in regards to the subject matter, which I hope would help get things in order to help with the writing of a rough draft.
First things first, here are some short little explanations of some of the ideas I have, which I would be very interested in hearing about what people find the most interesting since they're the best options I believe for short novels:
-Maryland/Virginia: The Point of Divergence being that the Opposition Party picks a different candidate in the 1859 Virginia Gubernatorial elections and win. In 1861 the IOTL planned putsch to bring Virginia out of the Union actually has to go off against this governor, like happened in Texas, rather then having the Governor go along with them. The result of this being that the Harper's Ferry Arsenal is taken with its stores intact and a planned transport of a good number of the muskets and power to Baltimore goes off unlike IOTL. The arms would have arrived the day before the first Federal reinforcements that we heading to Washington. The story at that point is sort of a two folded thing, on one hand Washington DC is cut off from the rest of the Union accept by sea and without a sizable force to defend it while the Pro-Slavery gangs of Baltimore, elements of the Baltimore and Maryland governments and the leadership of the Maryland state militia are in a position to not just delay Union reinforcements but actively oppose them, this with a governor who very much was wobbling about taking his state out of the Union. The political and military situations would be very complicated over the next few weeks and create a lot of drama. Historical figures who could appear range from Lincoln to the Confederate Cavalrymen Turner Ashby to a young Andrew Carnegie.
-Missouri: The Point of Divergence for this one is in 1861 the Pro-Confederate governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson doesn't call the state convention to meet in St Louis. The whole plan of bring the state out of the union went off the rails at that point as the Pro-Confederates collided headlong with the drastically changed demographics of the industrial, immigrant filled, heavily Unionist and often outright Republican city. Without this the state actually joins the Confederacy in the second wave of secession and Union forces in St Louis are on the backfoot. The more or less simple campaign of 1861 as a Union Army marches across the state to tactical defeat and strategic victory at Wilson's Creek is out the window and things get VERY weirld. Historical figures include Grant and Sherman who were both out of the army but in St Louis at the start of the war, the Blairs, any sort of hodgepodge of Western Confederates and a who's who of German and Hungarian revolutionaries who were all living in Missouri at the time
-New York: In the 1862 New York Gubernatorial election there was a pretty interesting movement to nominate Millard Fillmore as the Democratic/Whig nominee and Horatio Seymour who did win IOTL didn't even want to run. Fillmore had started the war as a Unionist but Emancipation outraged him all the way to being a copperhead. And then he's a copperhead in charge of the Industrial and Manpower heart of the Union, untouchable as an ex president and determined to oppose Lincoln. A who's who of New York Politicians can show up, from Boss Tweed to Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
-Kentucky: POD is the 1862 Confederate invasion of Kentucky: That June two Confederate Armies pushed from Eastern Tennessee north into Eastern Kentucky, and more then once came pretty close to capturing the utterly essential city of Louisville. Luckily for the Union the two Confederate commanders hated each other and one of them was grossly incompetent, shoot Braxton Bragg though and suddenly the other army commander Edmund Kirby Smith gets a unified command at the right time and the Confederate State government of Kentucky can be more then just a pathetic fiction of exiles. A strong victory at some point will probably even see the Confederates able to actually recruit a decent number of Kentuckyians that they couldn't IOTL. Edumnd Kirby Smith is an interesting figure, so is the Union number 2 in the campaign, George Thomas.
-Mississippi/Virginia: Stonewall Jackson lives though Chancellorsville with his arm intact and when Jefferson Davis asks Lee to send part of his Army to Mississippi to help break the siege of Vicksburg Stonewall pushes for it and goes. His force would be the cadre around which the relief Army is built and Davis orders him in command of it rather then Joseph E. Johnson. Stonewall wont drag his feet on the matter and his commanders who didn't go west IOTL later in the year when it was Longstreet who went will have an interesting time going up against US Grant and Bill Sherman. Besides those three you get all sorts of interesting figures like Pemberton, John Bell Hood, Richard Ewell and all sorts of fun Confederate regimental officers. Plus you know, the most successful Union force of the war.
-Utah: POD is by some means I haven't quite figured out yet that Brigham Young is able to get reappointed by James Buchanan (The easiest way might be to somehow or another delay the confirmation of Polygamy in the LDS church for a few more years?). In 1861 with Lincoln in, and plural marriage out Lincoln will have to make the effort at least to replace Young as Governor, at which point Young probably acts like he did when Buchanan tried to do it, if not worse. The Pony Express and the Trans-Continental Telegraph line are at risk, Young can resort of an "Independent" Indian Policy as he did IOTL and with Civil War in the south going on he can cause real chaos with the contact of the questionably loyal Pacific Coast states. The odds of it ending up with more shooting then IOTL is pretty high. The cast can include anyone from Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock to John and Jesse Fremont, Albert Sydney Johnson, and any number of options of people who get diverted out that way to deal with things.
- Virginia: In 1864 the same day that Grant moved into the Wilderness, Sherman started off towards Atlanta and Siegel started down the Shenandoah two Union Army Corps landed on a small peninsula located between the cities of Richmond and Petersburg. This force, the Army of the James though was commanded by Ben Butler perhaps the worst Union Army General of the war. But with the right man in charge the Army had open orders to take either city as they saw fit. Both involve cutting Lee's Army off from supplies from the rest of the Confederacy and thus, if the taken city can be held means Virginia will have to almost be entirely abandoned to the Confederacy. This is the shortest chronological TL here with most of the story taking place over the course of about a week. Ben Butler is a colorful figure, Phil Sheridan would make a cameo, confederate opponents would include Braxton Bragg after he was put behind a desk, DH Hill after he was fired, PGT Beauregard in disgrace, George Pickett after the Charge, Robert E. Lee's brother, the CS Naval Academy and the entire CS Marine Corps, one of Lee's Sons and Lee's Cousin the Union Navy Admiral too. Also Robert E. Lee when he comes charging back down.
-Tennessee: Later in 1864 John Bell Hood had been forced out of the City of Atlanta and least his army start to disintegrate attempted to swing north and 'Liberate' Tennessee. The invasion famously ended with mass bloodshed at Franklin and Nashville some of the worst battles of the war and certainly the most useless. Hood's Army at that point was shattered, with nearly all of his best commanders dead. They were up against George Thomas who had a scraped together army of occupation troops, Hood got away IOTL but there were more then a few chances where the Tennessee campaign could have managed one final battle which could be a pretty interesting story with a Western Appomattox in the cards nearly half a year earlier then it wound up happening in North Carolina, or Hood can pull an escape out of his hat none the less. Hood and his remaining officers are one group of historical figures, Thomas and his USCT plurality of an Army is the other.
-Inter-American Border *1914: Somehow or another the South wins, only to become the farce of a democracy and Cotton picking Banana Republic that it was destined to be but eventually in the early years of the 20th Century whatever patrons it has left will probably be disgusted by it and eventually, be unable to protect it because they're involved in whatever continent-wide war develops. This would not be a TL-191 knock off because I don't think things would be as simple as a quadruple alliance sort of deal. the story would get to look at some drastic changes to America which I think would have happened to both countries. Rather then copies of the Western Front I think what you would see is a break down of relations and increasing conflict as pressure mounts, more or less akin to the Border War that the US and Mexico had during the era of the Mexican Revolution. A lot of fictional characters and ATL "cousins" to chose from obviously.
-DC: Basically in December of 1863 there was an attempt at the first session of the new Congress to decertify a number of Eastern/Radical Republicans as a sort of legislative coup. The Cabal of Southern Unionists, Copperhead Democrats and Western Republicans would then take control and attempt to force and end of the war. If the plot is kept quiet it can actually probably go off as the Clerk of the House was one of the ringleaders. Not really a military action story but one that would be filled with high drama in the Capitol.
At this point I should probably explain the "Big" project too, though its not in contention as something to go with right this minute:
-World War Beta Test: Napoleon III had been toying with intervention in the American Civil War far more then the British did in 1862 but the capture of New Orleans put paid to that. If New Orleans hadn't been stripped of its garrison in the lead up to Shiloh things might be different, some tweaks to the war in the West allow that to happen and suddenly there is a limited French Intervention in the Civil War. The ACW and the Reform War/Franco-Mexican War become completely entangled, and the Spanish attempt to recolonize Santo Domingo/The Dominican Republic comes in too, with increasing numbers of Austrian troops getting dragged into the thing as well while the UK sits on the side content with a proxy war. The key thing other like other intervention TLs, besides the British not jumping in is that the "Catholic Alliance" isn't likely to send massive numbers of ground troops to join with the Confederates, certainly some to make things interesting but the main effort would be to roll up the Union blockade and to take back the small outposts the US Army had carved out on the Southern Coast.
It occurs to me though that this is a pretty interesting sounding board to talk about this stuff, folks here are pretty knowledgeable in a wide array of things so I'm definitely interested in hearing people's thoughts on the subject matter. And at the same time a lot of people here aren't Americans and thus there's room to discuss which ideas seem most interesting without getting bogged down in the passions of what your great-great-grandfather was doing which so many Americans start screaming over. Plus its just a good place to post my thoughts on broad trends and the like on in regards to the subject matter, which I hope would help get things in order to help with the writing of a rough draft.
First things first, here are some short little explanations of some of the ideas I have, which I would be very interested in hearing about what people find the most interesting since they're the best options I believe for short novels:
-Maryland/Virginia: The Point of Divergence being that the Opposition Party picks a different candidate in the 1859 Virginia Gubernatorial elections and win. In 1861 the IOTL planned putsch to bring Virginia out of the Union actually has to go off against this governor, like happened in Texas, rather then having the Governor go along with them. The result of this being that the Harper's Ferry Arsenal is taken with its stores intact and a planned transport of a good number of the muskets and power to Baltimore goes off unlike IOTL. The arms would have arrived the day before the first Federal reinforcements that we heading to Washington. The story at that point is sort of a two folded thing, on one hand Washington DC is cut off from the rest of the Union accept by sea and without a sizable force to defend it while the Pro-Slavery gangs of Baltimore, elements of the Baltimore and Maryland governments and the leadership of the Maryland state militia are in a position to not just delay Union reinforcements but actively oppose them, this with a governor who very much was wobbling about taking his state out of the Union. The political and military situations would be very complicated over the next few weeks and create a lot of drama. Historical figures who could appear range from Lincoln to the Confederate Cavalrymen Turner Ashby to a young Andrew Carnegie.
-Missouri: The Point of Divergence for this one is in 1861 the Pro-Confederate governor of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson doesn't call the state convention to meet in St Louis. The whole plan of bring the state out of the union went off the rails at that point as the Pro-Confederates collided headlong with the drastically changed demographics of the industrial, immigrant filled, heavily Unionist and often outright Republican city. Without this the state actually joins the Confederacy in the second wave of secession and Union forces in St Louis are on the backfoot. The more or less simple campaign of 1861 as a Union Army marches across the state to tactical defeat and strategic victory at Wilson's Creek is out the window and things get VERY weirld. Historical figures include Grant and Sherman who were both out of the army but in St Louis at the start of the war, the Blairs, any sort of hodgepodge of Western Confederates and a who's who of German and Hungarian revolutionaries who were all living in Missouri at the time
-New York: In the 1862 New York Gubernatorial election there was a pretty interesting movement to nominate Millard Fillmore as the Democratic/Whig nominee and Horatio Seymour who did win IOTL didn't even want to run. Fillmore had started the war as a Unionist but Emancipation outraged him all the way to being a copperhead. And then he's a copperhead in charge of the Industrial and Manpower heart of the Union, untouchable as an ex president and determined to oppose Lincoln. A who's who of New York Politicians can show up, from Boss Tweed to Theodore Roosevelt Sr.
-Kentucky: POD is the 1862 Confederate invasion of Kentucky: That June two Confederate Armies pushed from Eastern Tennessee north into Eastern Kentucky, and more then once came pretty close to capturing the utterly essential city of Louisville. Luckily for the Union the two Confederate commanders hated each other and one of them was grossly incompetent, shoot Braxton Bragg though and suddenly the other army commander Edmund Kirby Smith gets a unified command at the right time and the Confederate State government of Kentucky can be more then just a pathetic fiction of exiles. A strong victory at some point will probably even see the Confederates able to actually recruit a decent number of Kentuckyians that they couldn't IOTL. Edumnd Kirby Smith is an interesting figure, so is the Union number 2 in the campaign, George Thomas.
-Mississippi/Virginia: Stonewall Jackson lives though Chancellorsville with his arm intact and when Jefferson Davis asks Lee to send part of his Army to Mississippi to help break the siege of Vicksburg Stonewall pushes for it and goes. His force would be the cadre around which the relief Army is built and Davis orders him in command of it rather then Joseph E. Johnson. Stonewall wont drag his feet on the matter and his commanders who didn't go west IOTL later in the year when it was Longstreet who went will have an interesting time going up against US Grant and Bill Sherman. Besides those three you get all sorts of interesting figures like Pemberton, John Bell Hood, Richard Ewell and all sorts of fun Confederate regimental officers. Plus you know, the most successful Union force of the war.
-Utah: POD is by some means I haven't quite figured out yet that Brigham Young is able to get reappointed by James Buchanan (The easiest way might be to somehow or another delay the confirmation of Polygamy in the LDS church for a few more years?). In 1861 with Lincoln in, and plural marriage out Lincoln will have to make the effort at least to replace Young as Governor, at which point Young probably acts like he did when Buchanan tried to do it, if not worse. The Pony Express and the Trans-Continental Telegraph line are at risk, Young can resort of an "Independent" Indian Policy as he did IOTL and with Civil War in the south going on he can cause real chaos with the contact of the questionably loyal Pacific Coast states. The odds of it ending up with more shooting then IOTL is pretty high. The cast can include anyone from Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock to John and Jesse Fremont, Albert Sydney Johnson, and any number of options of people who get diverted out that way to deal with things.
- Virginia: In 1864 the same day that Grant moved into the Wilderness, Sherman started off towards Atlanta and Siegel started down the Shenandoah two Union Army Corps landed on a small peninsula located between the cities of Richmond and Petersburg. This force, the Army of the James though was commanded by Ben Butler perhaps the worst Union Army General of the war. But with the right man in charge the Army had open orders to take either city as they saw fit. Both involve cutting Lee's Army off from supplies from the rest of the Confederacy and thus, if the taken city can be held means Virginia will have to almost be entirely abandoned to the Confederacy. This is the shortest chronological TL here with most of the story taking place over the course of about a week. Ben Butler is a colorful figure, Phil Sheridan would make a cameo, confederate opponents would include Braxton Bragg after he was put behind a desk, DH Hill after he was fired, PGT Beauregard in disgrace, George Pickett after the Charge, Robert E. Lee's brother, the CS Naval Academy and the entire CS Marine Corps, one of Lee's Sons and Lee's Cousin the Union Navy Admiral too. Also Robert E. Lee when he comes charging back down.
-Tennessee: Later in 1864 John Bell Hood had been forced out of the City of Atlanta and least his army start to disintegrate attempted to swing north and 'Liberate' Tennessee. The invasion famously ended with mass bloodshed at Franklin and Nashville some of the worst battles of the war and certainly the most useless. Hood's Army at that point was shattered, with nearly all of his best commanders dead. They were up against George Thomas who had a scraped together army of occupation troops, Hood got away IOTL but there were more then a few chances where the Tennessee campaign could have managed one final battle which could be a pretty interesting story with a Western Appomattox in the cards nearly half a year earlier then it wound up happening in North Carolina, or Hood can pull an escape out of his hat none the less. Hood and his remaining officers are one group of historical figures, Thomas and his USCT plurality of an Army is the other.
-Inter-American Border *1914: Somehow or another the South wins, only to become the farce of a democracy and Cotton picking Banana Republic that it was destined to be but eventually in the early years of the 20th Century whatever patrons it has left will probably be disgusted by it and eventually, be unable to protect it because they're involved in whatever continent-wide war develops. This would not be a TL-191 knock off because I don't think things would be as simple as a quadruple alliance sort of deal. the story would get to look at some drastic changes to America which I think would have happened to both countries. Rather then copies of the Western Front I think what you would see is a break down of relations and increasing conflict as pressure mounts, more or less akin to the Border War that the US and Mexico had during the era of the Mexican Revolution. A lot of fictional characters and ATL "cousins" to chose from obviously.
-DC: Basically in December of 1863 there was an attempt at the first session of the new Congress to decertify a number of Eastern/Radical Republicans as a sort of legislative coup. The Cabal of Southern Unionists, Copperhead Democrats and Western Republicans would then take control and attempt to force and end of the war. If the plot is kept quiet it can actually probably go off as the Clerk of the House was one of the ringleaders. Not really a military action story but one that would be filled with high drama in the Capitol.
At this point I should probably explain the "Big" project too, though its not in contention as something to go with right this minute:
-World War Beta Test: Napoleon III had been toying with intervention in the American Civil War far more then the British did in 1862 but the capture of New Orleans put paid to that. If New Orleans hadn't been stripped of its garrison in the lead up to Shiloh things might be different, some tweaks to the war in the West allow that to happen and suddenly there is a limited French Intervention in the Civil War. The ACW and the Reform War/Franco-Mexican War become completely entangled, and the Spanish attempt to recolonize Santo Domingo/The Dominican Republic comes in too, with increasing numbers of Austrian troops getting dragged into the thing as well while the UK sits on the side content with a proxy war. The key thing other like other intervention TLs, besides the British not jumping in is that the "Catholic Alliance" isn't likely to send massive numbers of ground troops to join with the Confederates, certainly some to make things interesting but the main effort would be to roll up the Union blockade and to take back the small outposts the US Army had carved out on the Southern Coast.
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