Prattville Dragoons Commander's Column for February 2018 - What if the Confederacy had Prevailed?

Commander's Column: What if the Confederacy had Prevailed?

My daughter is in fourth grade and has been studying 19th century Alabama history including the Confederacy and the War Between the States.  I was excited to hear she was even learning about Forrest capturing Streight with the aid of Emma Sansom.  She asked me one evening what would be different had the Confederacy won the War for Southern Independence.  I struggled a bit in succinctly answering her question especially expressing myself simply for a fourth grader.  We are seeing today the impact of the fateful results of the War Between the States with the growth of a large central federal government with trillion dollar debt and redistributive entitlement liabilities as well as overbearing taxes and intrusive laws and regulations. 

But in addition to greater state sovereignty,  pushing governance closer to the people which was the impetus for the 1860 secession movement, what other differences might have been observed had the Confederacy prevailed either thru a negotiated peace or victory in defense of their Southern homeland?  It has been speculated that there may have been less racial animus with a planned systematic emancipation of the slaves as it was generally recognized that the institution was drawing to an end with industrialization of the economy including agriculture with the dawn mechanized tooling and the internal combustion engine. There likely would have been less US imperialism at the end of the 19th century especially the westward march across the North American continent with the development and rapid statehood of those territories.  Maybe no Trail of Tears and no slaughter of the vast herds of bison across the plains especially considering the inclusive position Native Americans held in the Confederate forces.

Had the Southern states not been subject to the torched earth campaign of the Union Army under Grant and Sherman, it would be logical to think the Industrialization of the South would have been expedited had a rebuilding under Reconstruction not been a part of Atlanta and Columbia SC history.  The Confederate States of America likely would have quickly developed into a world power with extensive maritime trade considering the expansive coastline and bustling ports like Mobile and Charleston.  Control of the Mississippi River regulating shipping of goods from the US heartland might have been a continuing source of conflict with the country to the north as it proved to be pivotal in the WBTS at New Orleans and Vicksburg.  But the South’s belief in low tariff trade would likely had led to rapid economic growth with the US and with Europe.  “The South would have had important leverage (with)control of the Mississippi River Delta and therefore of the river trade that proved so important in developing the American Midwest.  The CSA would also have been in a better geographical position to exercise influence in the Caribbean Sea.  A negotiated separation may well have preserved the deep economic interdependencies between north and south, avoided and contained the passions expressed during the Civil War, and allowed for a form of peaceful coexistence.” (nationalinterest.org/feature/if-the-civil-war-had-different-ending-10814?page=2)

This article also speculated the relocation of Washington DC would have been likely to relieve the proximity of the capital to the Confederate States. The 1898 Spanish American War might not have happened in the same way as one or the other North or South may have allied with Spain and Cuba for military or economic strategic positioning.  “If the strongest advocates for a weaker federal government had left the union rather than remaining within it, would the United States have tilted further in the direction of federal power and northeast/liberal political and social values, with the populous east more easily dominating independent-minded settlers in the American West?  If so, how would the US political system have reacted to the rise of the labor movement?  Might the USA today look more like European Union countries today?”  A division of North and South might have impacted the United States destiny as a superpower in the 20th century.  Might there have been a different outcome to the World Wars and perhaps a repeat of the War Between the States with deadlier weapons.  No doubt there would have existed for a period of time ingle party political systems with the Republicans dominating Northern and Democrats dominating Southern political landscapes.  (nationalinterest.org)

I believe we have many patriots in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and in the Prattville Dragoons who love their country but who also love their Southern heritage.  Even though the South did not prevail in their quest for independence, Southern values and ideals have helped shape our nation’s history since the War Between the States.  There have been countless heroic Southern soldiers who have defended America in conflicts since the WBTS and there have been countless leaders of industry and politics even Presidents of our unified country since the 19th century.  The influence of the returning soldiers who had experienced a revival in their camps was great on society and these men founded many churches across the Bible Belt and maintained a moral spiritual foundation for the country even thru the hardship of Reconstruction. Not to mention the culinary delight which is Southern cooking – there is a reason you never heard of Yankee or Northern cuisine. It most certainly would have been a different history for the past 157 years since the formation of the Confederacy and a different world in which we live had our ancestors been left alone as Jefferson Davis implored or had they prevailed on the battlefield.  We should be equally proud of our past and present Southern history and culture as well as our modern US history and hopeful in its future as we seek to positively influence its destiny.