Alternative History
War for Southern Independence
Battle of gettysburg
Date 12 April 1861 – 15 February 1863 (1 year, 10 months and 3 days)
Place United States and Confederate States
Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
· Flag of the Confederate States of America (March 1861 – May 1861) Confederate States (Dixie)
  • Confederate Rebel Flag Confederate Army
· US flag 33 stars United States (Union)
  • Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) Union Army
Commanders and leaders
Flag of the Confederate States of America (March 1861 – May 1861) Jefferson Davis

Confederate Rebel Flag Robert E. Lee
Confederate Rebel Flag J. E. Johnston
Confederate Rebel Flag G. T. Beauregard
Confederate Rebel Flag Braxton Bragg
Confederate Rebel Flag Thomas Jackson
Confederate Rebel Flag A. S. Johnston†
Others

US flag 33 stars Abraham Lincoln

Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) George B. McClellan
Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) Ulysses S. Grant
Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) William T. Sherman
Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) David Farragut
Flag of the United States of America (1863-1865) William S. Rosecrans
Others

The War for/of Southern Independence, sometimes also called the American Civil War, War of Southern Liberation, War of American Succession, Confederate Revolution, among other names, was fought between the United States and the Confederate States from 1861 until 1863. Its end result was the division of the country and the creation of the Confederate States of America.

Events[]

Beginning largely as a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery, war broke out in April 1861, when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after United States President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution, while secessionists of the Confederate States in the South advocated for states' rights.

Among the 34 US states in February 1861, seven Southern states individually declared their secession from the country to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy grew to include 11 states during the war.

The first major action of the war came in July 1861 when under trained Union and Confederate forces met at Manassas, Virginia, by Bull Run. Both sides expected an easy victory, but the undisciplined Union troops were routed and fell all the way back to Washington, DC and the Confederate forces, in little better shape, were unable to press their advantage.

Despite small campaigns in Missouri, the newly formed West Virginia and elsewhere, there was no more major action that year as the two sides' armies organized within their own territory. The following spring, the massive Union Army of the Potomac, the largest army in the history of the US up to that point, was dispatched to the Virginia Peninsula to move against Richmond. Unfortunately, it was commanded by General George McClellan. McClellan, hesitant to press his many advantages in the offensive campaign, falsely believed he was outnumbered by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary in his intelligence reports. After halting the advance when the original ANV commander John Magruder built false artillery out of painted logs, and being similarly held up by subsequent ANV commander Joseph Johnston, McClellan was repulsed from the Peninsula altogether when he first met Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The following summer, Lee defeated the Union Army of Virginia under John Pope at a second battle of Bull Run.

Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant had won several important victories farther west, including the Battle of Shiloh, at which Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was killed in action. The Union was also winning the naval war, with the US Navy establishing a blockade of Southern ports which the CS Navy was helpless to break. However, the East was the war's primary front, and in the fall of 1862 Confederate fortunes were riding extremely high, with Britain and France considering granting the CS diplomatic recognition.

That fall, Lee launched an ambitious invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania. McClellan was slow to respond to Lee's invasion, and Union intelligence failed to realize that the Army of Northern Virginia had adopted a high-risk marching order in which each division of James Longstreet's and Thomas Jackson's two corps were all marching alone. McClellan made the foolish decision to offer Lee battle at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where the Army of the Potomac was destroyed on October 1, 1862.

Lee advanced on the city of Philadelphia and took possession of it. Britain and France extended diplomatic recognition to the Confederate States on October 13. Following this recognition of the CSA, Lincoln, fearing a possible war with the United Kingdom, agreed to a ceasefire with President Davis and his Confederacy on November 27, 1862. Davis recalled Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia the day after.

Peace negotiations began on January 8, 1863 and were held in Alexandria, Virginia. British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell served as mediator between the Confederacy and the United States. Lord Russell was joined by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacres, British Ambassador to the United States 1st Viscount Richard Lyons, and French Ambassador to the United States Henri Mercier. The United States was represented by President Lincoln and newly appointed US Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne (William H. Seward had resigned from the office of Secretary of State shortly after the ceasefire), and Admiral David Farragut. The Confederacy was represented by President Jefferson Davis, CS Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin, General Robert E. Lee, and newly appointed Confederate ambassador to the United Kingdom James Murray Mason.