DBWI: What if the Hampton Roads Conference hadn't ended the Civil War?

bplotkin · Jul 19, 2012

As we all know, the historic Hampton Roads Conference of Feb 3-5, 1865, negotiated an end to the Civil War. What do you think the repercussions would have been if the Conference had failed, and the Confederacy had fought on to the bitter end?

mowque · Jul 19, 2012

Would it have mattered? The CSA was forced to surrender totally anyway.

Anaxagoras · Jul 19, 2012

I can't imagine the war lasting more than a few months at most. Johnston lacked the strength to stop Sherman and Lee would have been forced out of the Petersburg lines sooner or later anyway.

I suppose we wouldn't rank John Breckinridge so highly in America's pantheon of historical heroes, though.

Huehuecoyotl · Jul 19, 2012

Well, I suppose a few more months spent at war would have racked up the death totals a bit further, and that could have political ramifications for Lincoln in his second term.

Snake Featherston · Jul 19, 2012

Lee butchers a few more Confederates in the senseless bloodbath at Petersburg until he's not got Army enough, Grant does, Lee's army ceases to exist, so does the Confederacy. I can't imagine blacks are any less repressed ITTL, however. Probably moreso.

Georgepatton · Jul 19, 2012

When you say bitter end, do you mean an organized surrender some time down the line, or a 'take to the hills and fight the Yankees forever' kind of bitter end?

Huehuecoyotl · Jul 19, 2012

Georgepatton said:
When you say bitter end, do you mean an organized surrender some time down the line, or a 'take to the hills and fight the Yankees forever' kind of bitter end?

Now that would be messy. I could see the Confederates at that point going to unconventional lengths. Someone might even try to take a shot at the president and really cripple Northern morale.

thekingsguard · Jul 19, 2012

I imagine the South gets off a lot harder having had to have been dragged to the negotiating tables, and Reconstruction would likely have been rougher.

bplotkin · Jul 19, 2012

Georgepatton said:
When you say bitter end, do you mean an organized surrender some time down the line, or a 'take to the hills and fight the Yankees forever' kind of bitter end?

Whichever one you think would have happened--I can't decide myself...thank God the nation didn't have to find out.

Georgepatton · Jul 19, 2012

Gruekiller said:
Now that would be messy. I could see the Confederates at that point going to unconventional lengths. Someone might even try to take a shot at the president and really cripple Northern morale.

bplotkin said:
Whichever one you think would have happened--I can't decide myself...thank God the nation didn't have to find out.

It would have to be complex, since many of the areas best suited to running away to (ex. the mountains) had significant pro-Union (or at least anti-Confederate) populations during the war, shooting at conscription officers and all that.

I guess it depends on what the Union tries to do in the South after the war.