Civil War History - "What if..." DiscussionsWhat if they had attacked instead of digging in...? What if he was in charge of the army instead...? Did you ever have a "What if..." question, and you weren't sure where to post it? Here's the place to ask these speculative questions!
Fate gives you a opportunity to go back in time, and try to change a piece of history. Conditions are it has to be during the Civil War period. Your work would be cut out for you. If you told General Lee, or Grant, that you came from the future, and knew that they shouldn't do what they were planning, you might find yourself in Libby or Andersonville prison, or worse. But your knowledge of future events and playing your cards correctly could win their trust.
What event in civil war history would you try to change if given a opportunity? If you wish, give a rough idea how you might attempt to accomplish your selection.
The event I would attempt to change would be John Wilkes Booth's killing of President Lincoln. To stop the killing, it might be as simple, as pointing to Booth at the theater, and telling a guard that I overheard that man(Booth) talking about shooting the President.
I selected this event, because it's claimed that Lincoln wanted the nation to reunite peacefully. The south went through some hard times during the reconstruction period. If Lincoln had lived, maybe post war life would have been a little easier for the people of the south.
Like Charlie, I would do everything I could to prevent the assassination of Lincoln. Afterwards I'd go off and interview the soldiers so I can write my history first hand.
No matter how minor your change would be, life as we know it now would be vastly different. Not knowing if that would be good or bad, I would change nothing.
Lincoln, like many great men, lost his life for a reason. Should we tempt faith?
There are so many tragedies that could have been prevented, I wouldn't know where to start. My main objective would have of course been to try to avoid the war in the first place, but that is probably something many people with more influence than I would have been trying already. I would have liked to have been able to prevent Jacksons death, but in the long run that may well have cost many more lives because it may have only delayed the inevitable. I would have tried to somehow convince General Lee to abandon his plans for the charge on the third day at Gettysburg. I would also have tried talk Grant out of Cold Harbor, but in my mind, the single most tragic event that could have easily been avoided happened after the war was over. I would have done everything in my power to see that the Sultana did not sail. After everything those men had gone through they did not deserve to die in such a totally avoidable tragedy.
My first thought was to go to Burnside and tell him, "The pontoon boats aren't coming, but the Rebs are. Ford the river and take Fredericksburg while you still have the chance." But that'd probably get me arrested.
Maybe my chances of avoiding arrest would be better if I went to the guy in charge of the pontoon boats and told him, "Either send the boats to Burnside - now - or report to Burnside, in person, and tell him why you can't send them."
What a tough question! In my opinion the Civil War stems from actions taken long before the conflict. During the debate on the Declaration of Independence, if only Jefferson's section on slavery had been approved, or, maybe the best thing for this nation was to have the Mayflower sink at sea and white Europeans never get a foothold in the New World leaving the Indians to go on a path without our interference. You have definately picked a tough one, for me anyway.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Neil, in all modesty, I have to admit that the idea for this thread was Charlie Gunsmoke's rather than mine.
Zou, I studied demography at one time, but never knew that the 1890 Census had been destroyed by fire. When and where did that happen? Were all copies of the final report, as well as the original records of the raw data destroyed to the point that the report could not be recreated? What do you you think might have turned out differently if someone had been able to put out the fire?
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