- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
- Location
- Denver, CO
The defensive weapons and the long war strategy adopted after September on 1862 were not worth. Though historians and advocates have maintained the Confederacy had some chance of independence, that is not accurate. As the war progressed, there wasn't much slavery left in the US, and the US was going to complete abolition in some manner even if the Confederacy survived. That meant that when recovery was the issue, investors in New England and Old England would be looking at one country in line with British policy, and another holding on to an archaic labor system which even the modern empires had abandoned.
Moreover the war was being fought almost entirely in the Confederacy. The physical damage was occurring in the rural Confederacy. The urban centers in what had been the south and border states, where slavery was already fading, Baltimore, Louisville, St. Louis and New Orleans, passed through the war largely undamaged. The mobilization in the Confederacy had drawn down the white labor force very severely. But especially in the Midwest, the farm economy was growing, while the war progressed. The disparity between the sections was growing during the long war. To the extent that there was raiding, it was in the Confederacy or Confederate raids into the border states. Very few Confederate raids crossed the Ohio or the Potomac.
The longer the Confederates fought the war the more they were delivering the future wealth of the US into the accounts of investment class former Whigs, who had become Republicans. And finally, the US industrial base was not damaged, and instead was growing.
Thus any political settlement reached because the Confederacy outlasted US war enthusiasm would have been temporary and unstable.
On blogs like this people want to write about violence reversing the long term trends of history. But any Confederate existence would have been temporary. The western economy was taking a final turn towards paid labor and colonialism, and away from serfdom and slavery.
Power was inevitably shifting towards industry, science and finance. Land ownership was no longer the primary source of power.
The odds that the Confederacy could have survived after the war were decreasing as the war continued past September 1862. Confederate ironclads were consistent with the belief that somehow violence and cotton would allow the archaic regime to survive.
But by resorting a modern, industrialized weapon, they were quietly accepting that coal mines, rolling mills, steam engine engineers and modern tax systems were the future.
The Confederates were playing catch up in industrialized warfare, and they were bound to fail. Only the where and when had to be decided.
Moreover the war was being fought almost entirely in the Confederacy. The physical damage was occurring in the rural Confederacy. The urban centers in what had been the south and border states, where slavery was already fading, Baltimore, Louisville, St. Louis and New Orleans, passed through the war largely undamaged. The mobilization in the Confederacy had drawn down the white labor force very severely. But especially in the Midwest, the farm economy was growing, while the war progressed. The disparity between the sections was growing during the long war. To the extent that there was raiding, it was in the Confederacy or Confederate raids into the border states. Very few Confederate raids crossed the Ohio or the Potomac.
The longer the Confederates fought the war the more they were delivering the future wealth of the US into the accounts of investment class former Whigs, who had become Republicans. And finally, the US industrial base was not damaged, and instead was growing.
Thus any political settlement reached because the Confederacy outlasted US war enthusiasm would have been temporary and unstable.
On blogs like this people want to write about violence reversing the long term trends of history. But any Confederate existence would have been temporary. The western economy was taking a final turn towards paid labor and colonialism, and away from serfdom and slavery.
Power was inevitably shifting towards industry, science and finance. Land ownership was no longer the primary source of power.
The odds that the Confederacy could have survived after the war were decreasing as the war continued past September 1862. Confederate ironclads were consistent with the belief that somehow violence and cotton would allow the archaic regime to survive.
But by resorting a modern, industrialized weapon, they were quietly accepting that coal mines, rolling mills, steam engine engineers and modern tax systems were the future.
The Confederates were playing catch up in industrialized warfare, and they were bound to fail. Only the where and when had to be decided.