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!
What if White South Africans had traveled back in time and supported Robert E. Lee with massive shipments of AK-47s?
What if Lee had never lost his "Lost Orders" and taken Harrisburg, PA?
What if the Confederacy had discovered atomic fission in 1863?
It's called Science Fiction for a reason, DJ, and wistful thinking at best.
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
What if White South Africans had traveled back in time and supported Robert E. Lee with massive shipments of AK-47s?
What if Lee had never lost his "Lost Orders" and taken Harrisburg, PA?
What if the Confederacy had discovered atomic fission in 1863?
It's called Science Fiction for a reason, DJ, and wistful thinking at best.
Unionblue
Agree that it is pretty much science fiction.
Perhaps most realistically, since Andrew Johnson was only elected in November (really December for the Electoral College) of 1864 and didn't take the oath of office until March of 1865, why not wonder about what Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1861 - 1865) would have done when he was in control? Lincoln was essentially a moderate. Hamlin was identified with the Radical Republicans, and was young enough he could easily have been elected in his own right after Lincoln. Not much to talk about there, though.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
What if White South Africans had traveled back in time and supported Robert E. Lee with massive shipments of AK-47s?
Unionblue
Unionblue already knows, but for those who haven't found it yet, there's a novel called "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove which explores the AK-47 angle.
As for Abe being abe-ducted by a UFO ... on another board we had a great running joke about Rosecrans being the victim of UFO abduction, accounting for his fatal eccentricities.
There was a plan to kidnap Lincoln that fell through, I think a what if theme should postulate on , well, what ifs!
As for the UFO's- well Union Blue believe it or not there is a UFO sighting from the period:
So you can never guess what will come up in the WHAT IF section!
I like Harry Turtledove's whacky writings and enjoyed GUNS OF THE SOUTH. Great to read at the beach or in transit.
Although Canada had thrown its doors open to the Confederacy, I think taking Lincoln to Canada would have not been allowed. Canada wouldn't need the headache. He would have to be held fairly close to where he was taken. A storm cellar? The demands would probably include withdrawal of troops from Southern territories, imediate release of prisoners, continued and expanded trade with the North. ( In the waning days Lincoln had been asked to stop his backers from feeding the South - which his backers thought had delayed the end of the war by a year! ).
Johnson was against the war, I think he would have accepted the demands. Lincoln couldn't stop him, nor blame him.
Where do you get the idea that Johnson was against the war?
Unionblue
PS As for your picture with the UFO, isn't computer graphics great?
__________________ "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
Just to throw another monkey into the wrench works:
Abeduction (thanks for the grin, Blue) would have put Hamlin into the White house but ...... Would Hamlin have been able to prevail against the radicals? Methinks they'd have rolled over him like a road apple. (And let's remember that some of these guys wouldn't much care if Lincoln was out of their way.)
A kidnapped Lincoln would have had the same effect as an assissinated Lincoln. Let slip the radicals.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Just to throw another monkey into the wrench works:
Abeduction (thanks for the grin, Blue) would have put Hamlin into the White house but ...... Would Hamlin have been able to prevail against the radicals? Methinks they'd have rolled over him like a road apple. (And let's remember that some of these guys wouldn't much care if Lincoln was out of their way.)
A kidnapped Lincoln would have had the same effect as an assissinated Lincoln. Let slip the radicals.
ole
Ole,
Vice President Hamlin was a Republican Radical. He along with Thaddus and Sumner would have prosecuted the war to it fullest..
He supported Lincoln's move to emancipate the slaves but he was a big backer of Gen Hooker.
The question is if he would have been elected President in 1864 and the war ended under his watch would he have follow Thaddus desire to punish the southern states or would have been more lenient on the southern states..
__________________
"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
Hi Union Blue- the actions of Johnson after the war in setting up the Democratic Party to rule were a shock to abolishinists and pretty much demolished the reasons most Northerners thought they were fighting for.
I think the Democrats weren't so much against the war as they were for setting up the South as their turf.
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What if Lincoln Had Been Kidnapped? 
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