Re: [DL] What happened to the Union? (So Many Spoilers, Don't Even *THINK of Looking!)

["Alex and Heidi Johnson" <heidij31@chartermi.net>]

What Happened to the Union? In the real world, it had a massive
> >manufacturing and population advantage.
>
>          Just like the United States in the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union
> in the Afghan War, and...well, you get the picture.;-)
>

Well, I want to chime in just for fun.  : )

For the record, I am not an expert on the Civil War, but have read a number
of books on the subject.

Although the Soviet Union and the US had manufacturing advantages in these
wars, they lacked a focus and goal.  This is the same disadvantage the
British had in the American revolutionary war.  In the Civil War, the
Confederacy faced this problem much more than the Union.  The Union could
state it's goal easily.  "Preserve the Union and free the slaves."  The
similarly stated goal of the Confederacy was "Preserve States rights and
enforce slavery."  The problem it faced was as the war continued, they had
to continue to violate those principles to maintain the war.  The central
govt had to grab more power from the States throughout the war.  They
started to offer to free slaves to increase man-power in the war.  This
backfired when it showed their statement that slavery was the natural and
happiest state for the slaves in their nation was false.  Thus they lost
popular support very rapidly.

> >  Even freeing the slaves in the CSA wouldn't stop that.
>
>          Maybe not, but a 57% percent increase to your free population
> base, gaining international respectability, while robbing your enemy of a
> source of eager recruits and its main propaganda weapon isn't going to
> hurt, either.
>

True, but as I mentioned above, it directly violated the basic building
blocks of the Confederacy.  Even offering freedom to slaves who fought
created morale problems.


The Confederacy had a smaller man-power reserve to draw from and less
popular support.  It seems strange that the Union would weaken dramatically,
while the Confederacy got stronger when the war was extended.

I'm going to snip the rest, because I am already waxing way too long.  I
also don't mind the changes in the world, since it makes the world more
interesting. (Well, other than the Detroit invasion.)

Alex