The Lincoln Years, 1862-1865
Howdy! As you may notice, this is my first ever attempted story and it maybe amateurish, but I'm trying my best, please note that you can critique and correct me on some posts!
Am I going to follow the canon of the story? Mostly, not really, I'm sprinkling in some of my headcanons for this, and I, like Turtledove would use butterfly effects to a minimum.
So, here is my take and attempt to write a story in the Southern Victory series in a textbook-ish style.
The War that Changed the World: A Southern Victory Series, Chapter One
The Lincoln Years, 1862-1865
Written by Trash Mammal
At the beginning of the war, many people in the North or in the South, expected the war to end quickly, and unfortunately for the Union, the war ended with a Southern Victory, Union General George McClellan made a very foolish decision to offer to battle against General Lee in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, after strings of loss after loss, after loss, General Lee, who was fresh off of the ambitious invasion of the Union states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, agreed with the offer, the following battle on October 1, 1862, was more or less a nail to the coffin to the Union cause for the war as General McClellan was expectably failed to defeat General Lee and the Army of the Potomac was utterly destroyed.
After the disastrous Battle of Camp Hill, Confederate General Lee began his invasion of Pennsylvania towards Philadelphia unopposed and on October 3rd, captured the city with ease, while the invasion of Philadelphia was occurring, Confederate General Braxton Bragg successfully invaded Kentucky, and pro-Confederate government in Bowling Green was installed with Richard Hawes as the Governor of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, on the brighter side of the war was the Union victory over Missouri by Union General John Fremont allowed the Union to keep Missouri, though in later years leading up to the First Great War, Pro-Confederate militias terrorized the southern half of the state, while in the east, Unionists in Western Virginia broke off and formed their own state of West Virginia with Wheeling as the state capitol.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the British Government announced that they would mediate to end the war in the Confederate’s favor, to the delight of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The Treaty of Philadelphia was signed by the Confederate, the Union, and the British, the section of the Treaty reads:
“With the clear winner of the war, the United States, therefore, will grant the Confederate States of America full independence, and with that, the United States will have to cease the embargo onto the Confederate States in recognition, the pre-war borders will be restored, but the U.S. State of Kentucky, who captured by the Confederates shall be given to the Confederacy.”
On November 4, 1862, the War of Secession ended.
Throughout the War of Secession, the British Public was divided into three categories, in particular, the British Elites were pro-Confederacy due to the import of Southern Cotton that made their clothing, whilst the middle class, workers, intellects, and reformers were pro-Union, but the portion of the British Populace, including British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, remained neutral, but when the war was clearly going in favor of the Confederacy, the Palmerston Government immediately notified British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Lyons to tell President Lincoln that the British Empire is recognizing the Confederacy.
Across the channel, the Second French Empire was more concerned about their Prussian neighbor, to them, the Prussians were more important matters than the War of Secession, but like the British, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, leaned more toward Pro-Confederate whilst being neutral, when the Battle of Camp Hill ended with a decisive Confederate victory, the French immediately moved to recognize the Confederate States of America.
After the war ended, the Union was in ruins, after losing a war to the slave-holding states, and being backed by the British and the French, the Union Government was trying to look towards the future, President Lincoln’s bit to preserve the Union failed, and there goes the chance for the Republicans to retain the House for the upcoming Midterm Election, and on top of that, a really bad economy, the greenbacks had collapsed, and the Union Government began to rely on the loans and confidence to the New York Stock Market, while Eastern Union was in economic recession, the Western Union felt the brunt of the recession, with the east and west being cut off, greenbacks fell to around 3 cents in a dollar in the west coast, the post-war recession, later known as “the 1862 Recession”, the American People had blamed Lincoln and the Republicans both for the loss of the war and the bad state of the economy.
The 1862 United States House of Representatives Election was a bloodbath for both Republicans and the Unionists, with the Democrats taking around 57 seats from both Republicans and Unionist Party, the GOP lost 44 seats, while the Unionist Party lost 9 (due to Kentucky joining the Confederacy) and 13 seats, the Unionists lost the entire state of Missouri, but gained at least 3 seats in the newly formed West Virginia, leaving around 6 seats in total for the Unionist Party, the Democratic Party led by Samuel Cox, gained the majority in Congress with seats 102-76-6, the election showed the Lincoln Administration that the people of the Union are tired and angry for the lack of progress on the 1862 Recession and more importantly, losing the war.
On the other side of the building, the Senate elections were held as well, the Republicans held the majority, albeit a slim majority by 28-14-4-2, the Democrats gained around 14 seats from the Republicans, Unconditional Unionists, and the Unionists, with the two Unionist Parties falling support.
As 1862 ended, and 1863 rolled around, things in the Union weren’t too great, with the economy still at the forefront of the issues that faced the Lincoln Administration and the public, President Lincoln managed to get the construction started with the First Transcontinental Railroad starting in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when completed, the railroad will connect both east and west together, a promise that he kept back in his election campaign in 1860.
In Congress, debates were held regarding the economy, with the Democrats more into the lazzes-faire stance, letting the businesses fix themselves without government interference while the Republicans are mixed, at best, the Conservative faction was more in line with the Democrats, but with small interference, while the Left-wing Republicans wanted more government involvement to recover the country, the Unionist Party agrees with the Left-wing Republicans.
There’s another topic that the Union Congress was talking about, foreign policy, after the War of Secession, the Democrats were more or less soft-line against the Confederacy, their against the Confederates, but wouldn’t be involved in anyway, while their counterpart, the Republicans were divided, the Conservative Republicans are hardline against the Confederacy whilst the Left-wing Republicans doesn’t really focus on the Confederacy, their more focused on the reconstruction efforts and the state of the economy, the Unionist Party are very hardline against the Confederacy, they wanted reunification no matter the cost, that position would end the Unionist Party in the next elections, but also, the remnants of the Unionist Party later joined the Socialist Party in 1882, Britain was also a topic for congressmen's, both Republicans and Unionists are for a hardline Anti-British Policies, while the Democrats, like their stance on the Confederates are more hush-hush with the British, another issue was the Second French Intervention of Mexico, all parties and the Lincoln Administration threw their support for the Mexican Republicans while their Southern Counterpart, the British, and the French threw their support for the Mexican Monarchists.
On April 10, 1863, President Lincoln signed the National Banking Act of 1863, the purpose of the act was to establish the national banks and thus, established the Union National Banking System, in a desperate attempt to improve the economic recession the country was facing, kicking the greenbacks back on track to lift the Union out of the recession, some Democrats criticized the act as “irresponsible spending”, but the Republicans, Unionists, and some Democrats voted for the act, though, the National Banking Act of 1863 didn’t really solve the recession before the 1864 elections, it did establish the way its support for uniform the U.S. banking policy.
On July 13, 1863, the New York Race Riots started when a white store owner accused a black man over a stolen apple, though there were many accounts of either similar or different stories, what it did do was that rumors triggered one of the worst race riots in the history of New York City, the riots were finally contained by the police and state troopers, the riots left around 200 deaths and 1,000 injuries.
A Highlight of 1863 was on October 5, 1863, the West End Line, railroad that connects Brooklyn, Baths, and Coney Island was opened, a clear sign of the Union’s advancements of public transit and railroads.
Starting out the new year was a war between the Union Government and the Navajos, the Battle of Canyon de Chelly in the New Mexico Territory, the war in hindsight of historians in the 21st century, was more of a “lashing out” against the American Indians after the War of Secessions, one of many American Indians Wars.
On April 22, 1864, in another attempt to ease the ongoing recession, President Lincoln passed the Coinage Act of 1864, not only adding the one-cent coin, but also adding the phrase “In God We Trust”, but also trying to “ease” the recession by adding the one cent coin, the act was debated by the Democratic majority and the Republicans minority, and in a narrow vote, the Coinage Act was passed in both houses, a small win for the Lincoln Administration, though, the act didn’t help the country’s broken economy, it did made the Union’s recovery slow, but it wouldn’t save Lincoln in the upcoming elections in November.
On May 26, 1864, President Lincoln signed a proposal to organize a new territory, the Montana Territory, a territory carved out from the Washington and Dakota Territories.
On June 8, 1864, The Republican Party renominated President Lincoln for re-election, though with a narrow win after he defeated his own Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, the Unionist Party nominated President Lincoln that same day.
On June 30, 1864, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant Act, which the act would lead to the creation of Yosemite National Park.
Two months after the Republican and Unionist National Conventions in June, the Democratic Party was in a bit of a disarray on who would the Democrats nominated for President, 3 candidates had announced their candidacy for the nomination, Former Union General George McClellan, Former Representative from Ohio Clement Vallandigham, and New York Governor Horatio Seymour, when voting had commenced, General McClellan didn’t win the first balloting, due to his failures in the War and his utter defeat in the Battle of Camp Hill, he only won one delegate, McClellan took his name out of the nomination process, with McClellan out, Governor Seymour and Representative Vallandigham battled out for the nomination, but luckily for Governor Seymour, Vallandigham was widely unpopular, even among the Copperhead Democrats, and in the fourth balloting, Governor Seymour was able to gather enough delegates to win the nomination as Vallandigham’s support collapsed.
And on August 29, 1864, the Democratic Party nominated Governor Horatio Seymour, as for Vice President, the Democrats are divided between Daniel W. Voorhees, Railroad President George W. Cass, Ohio Representative George Pendleton, after 3 more balloting, Voorhees took his name out and endorsed Cass for the Vice Presidency, which propelled Cass’s 105.4 against Pendleton’s 105.3, though it’s unknown why Voorhees threw his support behind Cass, possibly due to Cass being the President of the newly established Northern Pacific Railroad and the idea that with Cass in the ticket, along with Cass being an industrialists, and in Voorhees’ mind, that would help the West and the Midwest, especially Ohio would go for Seymour, therefore, propelling Governor Seymour to the Presidency, whichever the case was, it did prolonged the convention for the Vice Presidential Nomination, after two more balloting's, George Pendleton was nominated as Vice President after George W. Cass conceded and took his name out of ballot.
On August 31, 1864, the Democratic Party officially nominated Horatio Seymour for President and George Pendleton for Vice President.
While the election season was dominated by Foreign Policy, the Economy, and the Union Reconstruction Efforts, the Democrats were the favorites to win the election against President Abraham Lincoln, with the unfavorable views of the Republicans, the Democrats might take over the House with a supermajority, with the senate possibly have some Democratic gains, but might fall short to a majority.
While the Campaigns of Lincoln and Seymour were intense, four prospectors, D.J. Miller from Alabama, John Crab of Iowa, John Cowen from Georgia, and Reginald Stanley from England, were mining in present-day Helena, Montana, after hearing about rumors of gold being over there, Miller and Cowen left the Confederacy due to the War of Secession and Stanley was just visiting from England through then Rupert’s Land before the establishment of Canada in 1867, they were mining through a Georgian Mining Method, and that was when they had found some gold nuggets and gold dust in a pit they’ve dug, the last gold rush to the region in the continental Union before the 1958 Alaska Gold Rush had commenced.
When November rolled around, the Republicans and, President Lincoln, when the results came in, it was a landslide for the Democrats, and massacre for the Republicans, and more importantly, President Lincoln’s massive loss to Governor Horatio Seymour, though it was expected that Lincoln would lose his re-election bid, but not by that much, Horatio Seymour won the election by 184-38, along with that, the Republicans were decimated in the 1864 elections held since June 5th, with the Unionist Party officially wiped out, though still hold those 3 seats in West Virginia, and the Republicans losing astoundingly 48 seats to the Democrats, making the Democratic Party a supermajority in this case of 144-28-3, and with Speaker Cox’s departure, the new Speaker, James Brooks took to the podium.
In the Senate, the Republicans surprisingly gained one seat in California, though by narrow margins by the state legislature, but the Unconditional Unionist Party lost all 4 seats, and they quietly merged with the Unionist Party, which they lost one seat in the Senate, leaving the senate composition of 29-19-1.
For Lincoln, his political career was over, more than dead, as his career failed before him in the aftermath of the War of Secession, Lincoln quietly told his wife that he was a bit both “pleased” that he lost, but also, “disappointed” in part of his actions he took during the war and the subsequent recession.
Am I going to follow the canon of the story? Mostly, not really, I'm sprinkling in some of my headcanons for this, and I, like Turtledove would use butterfly effects to a minimum.
So, here is my take and attempt to write a story in the Southern Victory series in a textbook-ish style.
The War that Changed the World: A Southern Victory Series, Chapter One
The Lincoln Years, 1862-1865
Written by Trash Mammal
At the beginning of the war, many people in the North or in the South, expected the war to end quickly, and unfortunately for the Union, the war ended with a Southern Victory, Union General George McClellan made a very foolish decision to offer to battle against General Lee in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, after strings of loss after loss, after loss, General Lee, who was fresh off of the ambitious invasion of the Union states of Maryland and Pennsylvania, agreed with the offer, the following battle on October 1, 1862, was more or less a nail to the coffin to the Union cause for the war as General McClellan was expectably failed to defeat General Lee and the Army of the Potomac was utterly destroyed.
Meanwhile, on the brighter side of the war was the Union victory over Missouri by Union General John Fremont allowed the Union to keep Missouri, though in later years leading up to the First Great War, Pro-Confederate militias terrorized the southern half of the state, while in the east, Unionists in Western Virginia broke off and formed their own state of West Virginia with Wheeling as the state capitol.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the British Government announced that they would mediate to end the war in the Confederate’s favor, to the delight of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The Treaty of Philadelphia was signed by the Confederate, the Union, and the British, the section of the Treaty reads:
“With the clear winner of the war, the United States, therefore, will grant the Confederate States of America full independence, and with that, the United States will have to cease the embargo onto the Confederate States in recognition, the pre-war borders will be restored, but the U.S. State of Kentucky, who captured by the Confederates shall be given to the Confederacy.”
On November 4, 1862, the War of Secession ended.
Throughout the War of Secession, the British Public was divided into three categories, in particular, the British Elites were pro-Confederacy due to the import of Southern Cotton that made their clothing, whilst the middle class, workers, intellects, and reformers were pro-Union, but the portion of the British Populace, including British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, remained neutral, but when the war was clearly going in favor of the Confederacy, the Palmerston Government immediately notified British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Lyons to tell President Lincoln that the British Empire is recognizing the Confederacy.
Across the channel, the Second French Empire was more concerned about their Prussian neighbor, to them, the Prussians were more important matters than the War of Secession, but like the British, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, leaned more toward Pro-Confederate whilst being neutral, when the Battle of Camp Hill ended with a decisive Confederate victory, the French immediately moved to recognize the Confederate States of America.
After the war ended, the Union was in ruins, after losing a war to the slave-holding states, and being backed by the British and the French, the Union Government was trying to look towards the future, President Lincoln’s bit to preserve the Union failed, and there goes the chance for the Republicans to retain the House for the upcoming Midterm Election, and on top of that, a really bad economy, the greenbacks had collapsed, and the Union Government began to rely on the loans and confidence to the New York Stock Market, while Eastern Union was in economic recession, the Western Union felt the brunt of the recession, with the east and west being cut off, greenbacks fell to around 3 cents in a dollar in the west coast, the post-war recession, later known as “the 1862 Recession”, the American People had blamed Lincoln and the Republicans both for the loss of the war and the bad state of the economy.
The 1862 United States House of Representatives Election was a bloodbath for both Republicans and the Unionists, with the Democrats taking around 57 seats from both Republicans and Unionist Party, the GOP lost 44 seats, while the Unionist Party lost 9 (due to Kentucky joining the Confederacy) and 13 seats, the Unionists lost the entire state of Missouri, but gained at least 3 seats in the newly formed West Virginia, leaving around 6 seats in total for the Unionist Party, the Democratic Party led by Samuel Cox, gained the majority in Congress with seats 102-76-6, the election showed the Lincoln Administration that the people of the Union are tired and angry for the lack of progress on the 1862 Recession and more importantly, losing the war.
On the other side of the building, the Senate elections were held as well, the Republicans held the majority, albeit a slim majority by 28-14-4-2, the Democrats gained around 14 seats from the Republicans, Unconditional Unionists, and the Unionists, with the two Unionist Parties falling support.
As 1862 ended, and 1863 rolled around, things in the Union weren’t too great, with the economy still at the forefront of the issues that faced the Lincoln Administration and the public, President Lincoln managed to get the construction started with the First Transcontinental Railroad starting in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when completed, the railroad will connect both east and west together, a promise that he kept back in his election campaign in 1860.
In Congress, debates were held regarding the economy, with the Democrats more into the lazzes-faire stance, letting the businesses fix themselves without government interference while the Republicans are mixed, at best, the Conservative faction was more in line with the Democrats, but with small interference, while the Left-wing Republicans wanted more government involvement to recover the country, the Unionist Party agrees with the Left-wing Republicans.
There’s another topic that the Union Congress was talking about, foreign policy, after the War of Secession, the Democrats were more or less soft-line against the Confederacy, their against the Confederates, but wouldn’t be involved in anyway, while their counterpart, the Republicans were divided, the Conservative Republicans are hardline against the Confederacy whilst the Left-wing Republicans doesn’t really focus on the Confederacy, their more focused on the reconstruction efforts and the state of the economy, the Unionist Party are very hardline against the Confederacy, they wanted reunification no matter the cost, that position would end the Unionist Party in the next elections, but also, the remnants of the Unionist Party later joined the Socialist Party in 1882, Britain was also a topic for congressmen's, both Republicans and Unionists are for a hardline Anti-British Policies, while the Democrats, like their stance on the Confederates are more hush-hush with the British, another issue was the Second French Intervention of Mexico, all parties and the Lincoln Administration threw their support for the Mexican Republicans while their Southern Counterpart, the British, and the French threw their support for the Mexican Monarchists.
On April 10, 1863, President Lincoln signed the National Banking Act of 1863, the purpose of the act was to establish the national banks and thus, established the Union National Banking System, in a desperate attempt to improve the economic recession the country was facing, kicking the greenbacks back on track to lift the Union out of the recession, some Democrats criticized the act as “irresponsible spending”, but the Republicans, Unionists, and some Democrats voted for the act, though, the National Banking Act of 1863 didn’t really solve the recession before the 1864 elections, it did establish the way its support for uniform the U.S. banking policy.
On July 13, 1863, the New York Race Riots started when a white store owner accused a black man over a stolen apple, though there were many accounts of either similar or different stories, what it did do was that rumors triggered one of the worst race riots in the history of New York City, the riots were finally contained by the police and state troopers, the riots left around 200 deaths and 1,000 injuries.
A Highlight of 1863 was on October 5, 1863, the West End Line, railroad that connects Brooklyn, Baths, and Coney Island was opened, a clear sign of the Union’s advancements of public transit and railroads.
Starting out the new year was a war between the Union Government and the Navajos, the Battle of Canyon de Chelly in the New Mexico Territory, the war in hindsight of historians in the 21st century, was more of a “lashing out” against the American Indians after the War of Secessions, one of many American Indians Wars.
On April 22, 1864, in another attempt to ease the ongoing recession, President Lincoln passed the Coinage Act of 1864, not only adding the one-cent coin, but also adding the phrase “In God We Trust”, but also trying to “ease” the recession by adding the one cent coin, the act was debated by the Democratic majority and the Republicans minority, and in a narrow vote, the Coinage Act was passed in both houses, a small win for the Lincoln Administration, though, the act didn’t help the country’s broken economy, it did made the Union’s recovery slow, but it wouldn’t save Lincoln in the upcoming elections in November.
On May 26, 1864, President Lincoln signed a proposal to organize a new territory, the Montana Territory, a territory carved out from the Washington and Dakota Territories.
On June 8, 1864, The Republican Party renominated President Lincoln for re-election, though with a narrow win after he defeated his own Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, the Unionist Party nominated President Lincoln that same day.
On June 30, 1864, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant Act, which the act would lead to the creation of Yosemite National Park.
Two months after the Republican and Unionist National Conventions in June, the Democratic Party was in a bit of a disarray on who would the Democrats nominated for President, 3 candidates had announced their candidacy for the nomination, Former Union General George McClellan, Former Representative from Ohio Clement Vallandigham, and New York Governor Horatio Seymour, when voting had commenced, General McClellan didn’t win the first balloting, due to his failures in the War and his utter defeat in the Battle of Camp Hill, he only won one delegate, McClellan took his name out of the nomination process, with McClellan out, Governor Seymour and Representative Vallandigham battled out for the nomination, but luckily for Governor Seymour, Vallandigham was widely unpopular, even among the Copperhead Democrats, and in the fourth balloting, Governor Seymour was able to gather enough delegates to win the nomination as Vallandigham’s support collapsed.
And on August 29, 1864, the Democratic Party nominated Governor Horatio Seymour, as for Vice President, the Democrats are divided between Daniel W. Voorhees, Railroad President George W. Cass, Ohio Representative George Pendleton, after 3 more balloting, Voorhees took his name out and endorsed Cass for the Vice Presidency, which propelled Cass’s 105.4 against Pendleton’s 105.3, though it’s unknown why Voorhees threw his support behind Cass, possibly due to Cass being the President of the newly established Northern Pacific Railroad and the idea that with Cass in the ticket, along with Cass being an industrialists, and in Voorhees’ mind, that would help the West and the Midwest, especially Ohio would go for Seymour, therefore, propelling Governor Seymour to the Presidency, whichever the case was, it did prolonged the convention for the Vice Presidential Nomination, after two more balloting's, George Pendleton was nominated as Vice President after George W. Cass conceded and took his name out of ballot.
On August 31, 1864, the Democratic Party officially nominated Horatio Seymour for President and George Pendleton for Vice President.
While the election season was dominated by Foreign Policy, the Economy, and the Union Reconstruction Efforts, the Democrats were the favorites to win the election against President Abraham Lincoln, with the unfavorable views of the Republicans, the Democrats might take over the House with a supermajority, with the senate possibly have some Democratic gains, but might fall short to a majority.
While the Campaigns of Lincoln and Seymour were intense, four prospectors, D.J. Miller from Alabama, John Crab of Iowa, John Cowen from Georgia, and Reginald Stanley from England, were mining in present-day Helena, Montana, after hearing about rumors of gold being over there, Miller and Cowen left the Confederacy due to the War of Secession and Stanley was just visiting from England through then Rupert’s Land before the establishment of Canada in 1867, they were mining through a Georgian Mining Method, and that was when they had found some gold nuggets and gold dust in a pit they’ve dug, the last gold rush to the region in the continental Union before the 1958 Alaska Gold Rush had commenced.
When November rolled around, the Republicans and, President Lincoln, when the results came in, it was a landslide for the Democrats, and massacre for the Republicans, and more importantly, President Lincoln’s massive loss to Governor Horatio Seymour, though it was expected that Lincoln would lose his re-election bid, but not by that much, Horatio Seymour won the election by 184-38, along with that, the Republicans were decimated in the 1864 elections held since June 5th, with the Unionist Party officially wiped out, though still hold those 3 seats in West Virginia, and the Republicans losing astoundingly 48 seats to the Democrats, making the Democratic Party a supermajority in this case of 144-28-3, and with Speaker Cox’s departure, the new Speaker, James Brooks took to the podium.
In the Senate, the Republicans surprisingly gained one seat in California, though by narrow margins by the state legislature, but the Unconditional Unionist Party lost all 4 seats, and they quietly merged with the Unionist Party, which they lost one seat in the Senate, leaving the senate composition of 29-19-1.
For Lincoln, his political career was over, more than dead, as his career failed before him in the aftermath of the War of Secession, Lincoln quietly told his wife that he was a bit both “pleased” that he lost, but also, “disappointed” in part of his actions he took during the war and the subsequent recession.
