# Who Would You Support in the American Civil War **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 30, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840 "2010-10-30T00:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/121 "2010-11-05T17:58:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I could easily see that. If Lee had commanded U.S. forces from the outset, the Civil War might only have lasted a year or two. Of course, it would probably mean slavery would persist. How does that follow? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/122 "2010-11-06T02:17:11Z")
Lee was an extremely talented general and, as President Lincoln’s top officer in the field, could have delivered some crushing blows against Confederate forces early on. (Today probably very few people would have heard of McDowell, Pope, Burnside, McClellan, etc.). If the war ended by, say, the spring of 1862, a year after the firing on Ft. Sumter, Lincoln would probably not yet have issued the Emancipation Proclamation, as he did not IRL until Sept. 1862. Lincoln got a lot of political flak for issuing the EP and probably wouldn’t have done it if Union victory seemed inevitable, and if the recruitment of black troops seemed unnecessary. The EP was, at least in part, intended to forestall British and French intervention in the war, as they were both anti-slavery and, for domestic political reasons, didn’t want to be seen as coming to the aid of the slaveholding Confederacy once the Union made the destruction of slavery a central war aim. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery for good, wasn’t ratified until Dec. 1865, eight months after Lincoln’s death (although he had strongly supported it when proposed). The political will for it just wasn’t there before then. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/123 "2010-11-06T02:35:13Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I think there was a union “presence” in Northern Arkansas for most of the war. They were from Franklin County. What was going on there at that time? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/124 "2010-11-06T03:49:29Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > They were from Franklin County. What was going on there at that time? My understanding is that Union forces weren’t able to accomplish anything. Steele’s retreat from Camden comes to mind. I presume David O. Dodd has hanged after the second battle of Little Rock. A cannon recovered from a gunboat the Confederates sank to keep it from Union forces and used in the [Brooks Baxter War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%93Baxter_War) is displayed at the Old State House. I am unable to find my copy of _The Civil War in Arkansas._ There is a marker of the site where Dodd was hung on the campus of the engineering graduate school I attended. It is now the campus of the UALR school of law. Some asshole backed into the marker with a back hoe while they were improving the campus for the law school. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/125 "2010-11-06T03:53:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > They were from Franklin County. What was going on there at that time? My understanding is that Union forces weren’t able to accomplish anything. Steele’s retreat from Camden comes to mind. I presume [David O. Dodd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Owen_Dodd) was hanged after the second battle of Little Rock. A cannon recovered from a gunboat the Confederates sank to keep it from Union forces and used in the [Brooks Baxter War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%93Baxter_War) is displayed at the Old State House. I am unable to find my copy of _The Civil War in Arkansas._ ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/126 "2010-11-06T04:02:59Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#): > > Winners get to do what they want to losers. Do they really? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840/127 "2010-11-06T19:19:41Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Do they really? I took palindromeemordnilap to be speaking in the practical rather than ethical mode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-would-you-support-in-the-american-civil-war/558840.md?page=6)