Dixie Triumphant

Point of Divergence: May 2, 1863
The spring of 1863 was arguably the high-water mark for the Confederate States of America. In the West, the Union armies were stalemated in their attempts to take Chattanooga, Tennessee and Vicksburg, Mississippi, while in the East, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had inflicted defeat after humiliating defeat on its foe, the Army of the Potomac. The most brilliant of these victories came at the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1-4, 1863), when 60,000 Confederates under Lee defeated over 130,000 Union soldiers under Major General Joseph Hooker. While tactically masterful, Lee's victory was a costly one; nearly 13,000 of his men were killed, wounded, or captured (as compared to "only" 17,000 on the Union side), the most grievous loss being Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, accidentally shot by his own men at the height of the battle and dying a week later. Many historians have directly attributed the Army of Northern Virginia's subsequent defeat at Gettysburg and the eventual collapse of the Confederacy to this one incident.

This alternate timeline operates on that assumption. It attempts to follow the unfolding of events from a single change in the actual historical timeline: which follows. Jackson was wounded following the launching of his flank attack on Hooker on the evening of May 2, 1863. It routed the XI Corps, penetrated over a mile into the Union right rear, and for a time threatened to cut off a large portion of the blue army. However, it was less balanced than he had intended. The brigade on the right flank of his attack column, under Brig. Gen. Alfred Colquitt, was slow in advancing, due to its commander's vacillation after receiving an erroneous report of Federals on his own flank. This led to the gradual disorganization of the attack column and its being halted earlier than might otherwise have been the case. Had that not happened, the front line would have been in a different place that night, and Jackson (who had ridden out ahead to reconnoiter the Union position) likely would not have been shot by sentries who mistook him for an enemy cavalry patrol.

This timeline assumes that instead of Colquitt, the brigade posted on the right flank was that of Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur, a young, ambitious, and highly aggressive officer who likely would have ignored the report and left the units in his rear to handle any threat to his flank (as ordered by Jackson). As a result, the attack on Hooker's position would have been far more devastating than it actually was, not to mention probably saving Stonewall's life. This and other results will be detailed in the subsequent pages.