Question of the Week: 5/2-5/8/22

What is your favorite “What If” related to the Battle of Chancellorsville?



26 Responses to Question of the Week: 5/2-5/8/22

  1. What if Howard had listened to warnings about Jackson’s flank March and had Ben ready to repulse him?
    What if Henry Flemming had been with the eleventh corps and met Jackson ‘s assault?

  2. What if I Corps had not been transferred west, and had been available as an immediate pursuit force after the capture of Marye’s Heights?

    1. Or – what if Hooker’s message to I Corps on May 2 actually got delivered in time.

  3. What if Thaddeus Lowe and his balloon corps had been at Chancellorsville?

  4. What if Couch had taken over from a stunned Hooker? Would he have counter attacked with the troops in reserve?

  5. What if Fighting Joe would have had a few stiff drinks on the night of April 30 to restore his confidence?

  6. Oh boy, another ‘What if….?” question.

    I like the study of the Battle of Chancellorsville, the way it turned out in the long run. Lee did not do what Hooker intended Lee to do. And that study includes how the events at Chancellorsville, affected the Battle of Gettysburg.

  7. What if Lee moves more forces, sooner, toward Sedgwick? It’s always felt to me like the VI Corps position was much more precarious than the ANV was able to really take advantage of.

  8. What if Hooker had had his leading elements, like Meade, keep on pushing through the Wilderness.

  9. As I have stated before, I am NOT a big fan of “What if…” questions. I think as we study the Civil War, we have enough to learn and digest, so why discuss things that never happened?

    But there is one “What if…” question that brings World History, and the future of the United States into the fold, and I’d like to propose that the Administration here at Emerging Civil War to submit for all of us to discuss.

    What if the North just said, Let the South go its own way, and we go our own way, creating 2 Nations, a United States, and a Confederate States. How would this have affected World History and American History?

    1. Giant, in 2005 there was a movie put out called “The Confederate States of America”. There are some reviewers who referred to it as a ‘mockumentary’. I saw it just once and don’t recall it having anything in the way of a comedic element to it, other than the basic premise. But I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in the Civil War to check it out if they haven’t already. I reckon Hollywood’s presentations of “What if?” can be as valid as the rest of ours. LOL..

      1. I’d be more interested in discussing the impact of a separate Confederate States of American, upon World History, such as World War 1, and if it occurred, World War 2. How would The United States and the Confederate States have confronted Japanese expansion in the 1930s?

      2. Well, it’s still all the same thing, as in it’s all fantasy. Newt Gingrich, of all people, wrote a pretty interesting novel some years ago based on the Nazis winning WW2, It’s titled “1945”. There are some books out there that attempt to predict what would have happened had the Confederates won. i personally believe such discussions should occur with adult beverages being involved!

      3. Doug, I would argue that with a divided America, neither United States nor the Confederate States enter the war, and that unrestrictive submarine warfare defeats Great Britain, as France leaves the war, and Russia has already surrendered.

        What you may refer as World War 2 may actually be a war between Imperial Germany and Communist Russia.

      4. It depends. In your scenario, the Germans won WW1. You say them and the communists in Russia would ultimately fight against each other, but I don’t think that is an absolute. After all, the Russian communists negotiated with the Germans the removal of Russian troops from Germany’s eastern front as a consequence of their revolution. You would not have had the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles imposed on the German nation. Those are what helped spawn Hitler and his ‘movement’. If anything, the post war environment of a victorious Germany might have fostered something akin to an alliance between the USA/CSA and Japan as time went by. The Japanese had their troubles with the Russians that carried over from the war in the very early 20th Century. Germany probably doesn’t lose their Pacific territories to the Japanese and others. So, in this fantasy world, who knows? LOL.

      5. The Romanov’s were over thrown, and the export of Communism was Lenin’s goal. And there is no Poland to stop the Communists.

        The German home front had been hit pretty hard, because of the lack of food. And I figure the Russians will try and undermine Imperial Germany.

        Japan had defeated the Russians 1906, and was in the midst of a Civil war, which woujld have allowed the Japanese a chance in Mongolia/China.

        Perhaps they make a move on Hong Kong.

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