You are the President on March 4, 1861...

[Gucumatz]

President Buchanan has been spineless in getting the deep south back in line. Outside of declaring secession illegal, the only symbolic act Buchanan was willing to take was send some re-enforcement to Fort Sumter. In February the deep South chose Jefferson Davis to become the president of the rebellion. Your election _insert ridiculous CFC name here_ has torn apart the nation, but until now you have remained quiet during Buchanan's lame duck Presidency. What will you do everyone wonders. On your way to Washington for the inauguration you evade several assassination attempts on your life but continue writing your inauguration speech despite all this. It is March 4 - What will you tell the world, what will you do?

[A bit more: South Carolina the heart of secession has managed to get Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi into the rebellion. The rest of the south debates internally whether to join the Confederacy or not. Kentucky, NC, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia are full of pro union-sentiment still]

[Kansas has been made a state. The source of continued guerrilla fighting, Kansas remains a threat to any attempts of peace]

[President Buchanan has received distress messages from Fort Sumter. The men have almost run out of supplies and without food or ammunition, they will either have to surrender, fight, or starve. Buchanan has arranged a ship to resupply Sumter - but you must decide what to do about Sumter. Plans in the South to attack the fort, which led to the formal start of the Civil War are already in preparation]

[The new Confederacy, is appealing to Britain, France, and the native tribes of the west for help. What will you tell these foreign sides?]
==============

I just want to see what you all in CFC would do if you were in Lincoln's shoes. Alternate history is always interesting. For additional challenge - what would you do if you were in Davis's shoes?

 

[Tee Kay]

If I was Lincoln? Take back the South by force of course.

If I was Davis? Organise an offensive as quickly as possible to hopefully deal the North a decisive blow before they can bring the full might of their industry and manpower against you.

 

[Agent327]

Yes, very amusing. I think this belongs in the History subforum with all the other What if?s...

 

[Antilogic]

Beyond resupplying Ft. Sumter and the other threatened installations, I would put a lot of emphasis on securing whatever federal arsenals the prior administration hadn't already ceded to the Confederates.

 

[bugwar]

Depends on which party I am in.
If Republican, give the South the sword.

If Democrat, bid the Confederates good riddance.
Yankees can do much better for themselves without the millstone of the South dragging on the Northern drive to Nanny statehood.

 

[classical_hero]

I would do exactly President Lincoln did.

 

[Perfection]

Use my future science knowledge to build tanks 'n airplanes and stuff to blow up the south.

 

[Phrossack]

Secession was practically unavoidable, given how unreasonable most of Southern leadership was. Slavery was under no threat in the South; Lincoln constantly told them as much, and had no intention of abolishing slavery. Yet Southern leaders were incensed that states and territories in the West were being allowed to vote on the legality of slavery in their lands. They thought slavery should be legal, without condition, across the whole nation, and when they didn't get universal slavery they took their toys and went home.

And given that SC had no claim to Ft. Sumter yet decided to besiege it, and fired on resupply ships, it was pretty clearly wishing for war. Unless SC's leaders really thought that they could get away with attacking a Federal fort. So while it would be tempting to let the South go and be rid of it and its obstructionist slaver politicians, I don't know if the Union would be able to survive if that precedent were set, slavery would continue for decades, and in any case I didn't have much of a choice since the South had already attacked.

So I'd do basically what Lincoln did, only I'd declare all Southern slaves contraband earlier, and I'd encourage river-borne raids on plantations to seize slaves, bring them North, and emancipate them during the war. Those slaves who wished to do so could enlist. This would give me more troops and more workers while weakening the South economically and forcing it to divert more troops and militia from the fronts to guard the plantations.

I'd also strongly encourage the Army to streamline its logistics. As it was, units would routinely select their own weapons, which usually used different types of ammunition. This made logistics a pain, since there were dozens of different types of rifled muskets and carbines with dozens of different ammunition types. I'd try to get the military to settle on one rifle, one repeater carbine, and one revolver. Then there would be only a few ammunition types.

As President, I'd also support the creation of more mounted infantry units like John T. Wilder's "Lightning Brigade," and maybe some units of heavy cavalry with breastplates (worn under the uniform), repeaters, a brace of revolvers, and sabers or long hatchets (Wilder's brigade was issued with long hatchets instead of sabers for some reason). They'd specialize in attacking and destroying enemy cavalry. The repeaters would give them a major advantage and help them weaken the enemy from a distance, the revolvers would be lethal up close, the sabers or hatchets would be backups, and the breastplates could stop the revolvers, shotguns, and possibly carbines favored by Confederate cavalry. But these horsemen would be expensive as hell, so there wouldn't be many of them.

 

[Cutlass]

Pretty much what Lincoln did. Except fire McClellan sooner. And try to work a deal with Britain so that they wouldn't sell to the South.

 

[CavLancer]

If elected President of the United States in 1861 I would instantly demand a recount.

 

[ParkCungHee]

In February the deep South chose Jefferson Davis to become the president of the rebellion. Your election Park Chung Hee, has torn apart the nation, but until now you have remained quiet during Buchanan's lame duck Presidency. What will you do everyone wonders. On your way to Washington for the inauguration you evade several assassination attempts on your life but continue writing your inauguration speech despite all this. It is March 4 - What will you tell the world, what will you do?

I fight assassination with assassination.

 

[downtown]

In retrospect, I'm not totally convinced that losing Alabama and Mississippi would be THAT big of a loss? I'd obviously fight to retake the rest though.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I would send the ship to Fort Sumter, given that it was a federal institution not belonging to the State of South Carolina, and unaware of any argument for why it should be surrendered. I would also ready the army for defense, and call for some volunteers to defend loyal states against any militant excursion by the rebellion. I would stress, in public speeches and private correspondence, the fact that the secession conventions were profoundly anti-democratic, rushed and rigged. I would seek out southern moderates and conservatives, including the usually moderate Davis, for ways to effect reconciliation. Scott's anaconda plan would be put into effect if the southerners did initiate hostilities, but I would not not call for a great many volunteers to "put down" the south. All this I would do on my principle of nonagression and desire for justice, superseding vengeful pride.

Such a course may not have saved the union, but I think it closer to just than the course pursued.

If I were Jefferson Davis, I would work to prevent the south from getting carried away. Fort Sumter would be open to resupply, and attacked only if it became hostile. Considering that Davis didn't command every city and unit in the south Civ-style, matters would quickly grow more complicated. South Carolina might opt to go to war with the Union by itself, and if the Federals sent an army through the upper south to subdue South Carolina, what then? Stand by and allow swathes of the countryside to be militarized by a power hostile, while appearing to betray Carolina by the same allowance? Or block the Federals' path and instigate full war, as happened at Manassas? I think I would simply resign, because southern politicians were lunatics.

In retrospect, I'm not totally convinced that losing Alabama and Mississippi would be THAT big of a loss? I'd obviously fight to retake the rest though.

I would think them valuable if only for the Mississippi and Alabama rivers, with their respective ports of New Orleans and Mobile.

 

[kramerfan86]

About the same as Lincoln, only retroactively knowing what I know now would have picked superior commanders early, likely would have ended the war sooner.

 

[innonimatu]

I'd recognize the right of the southern states to secede and the independence of the Confederacy as a sovereign state.


Then I'd declare war on it and grab at the very least the Mississippi basin area to the union, so as to secure expansion to the west. A convenient excuse could be arranged by having 'union citizens' there complaining of oppression by the new Confederacy and calling for intervention by the union...

Deal with the issue with a modern approach

 

[Commodore]

I would allow the southern states to secede and immediately institute a trade embargo and possibly even a naval blockade of all their major ports. Basically my strategy would be to economically starve the CSA until they had no choice but to rejoin the union.

I might also send some agent provocateurs to get some sort of slave insurgency started to further destabilize the CSA.

 

[gay_Aleks]

I'd add that I'd act like as if it's an actual war from the start, and not unlike what happened in history.

 

[Paul in Saudi]

Move critical equipment from the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Ditto for the US Mint in New Orleans. Destroy all ships at navy yards in threatened areas. Embargo the Southern ports "until political arrangements can be made." Remove any US government gold from the South.

The thing is you have to wait to make the South draw the first blood. Once that is done, and with super time-traveller knowledge, there is a lot you can do.

Enlist regiments based on congressional districts. (Each is of roughly equal size.) Sign them up for the duration plus six weeks. Change the US rail system over to Pullman scale (saw the platforms to accept wider cars. New locomotive could handle more weight, but the cars and platforms were limiting factors. Start on ironclads from M-Day. Get at least on off each Southern port. Open a medical school that teaches hand-washing. Grant (or Sherman) later said they should have disbanded the regular regiments and spread the old-timers through the new regiments. Form an Marine Corps-based raiding division.

 

[civver_764]

I'd let them secede. Then I'd issue a bunch of propaganda about the evils of slavery and try to spark slave revolts. I'd provide support for runaway slaves that reached the border. Maybe give money to some people to start non-slave farms.

 

[bugwar]

Enlist regiments based on congressional districts. (Each is of roughly equal size.)

Why is that significant?