"Alias Paine"

[Rob Wick]

Quote:Why is it so difficult to believe that Confederate forces would not have attempted to re-group if they sensed chaos in the U.S. government?

Because they did nothing when there WAS chaos after Lincoln was assassinated. What difference would two more assassinations had made? Read what Douglass Southall Freeman wrote in his multi-volume biography of Robert E. Lee of the situation in the south after Richmond fell:

"No trains were running, for the railroads had all been cut or their rolling stock burned. The mail system had been wiped out; the telegraph was in the hands of the Federals." (vol. 4, pg. 189).

or this by William C. "Jack" Davis in Look Away: History of the Confederate States of America.

"Looking at the map on January 1, 1865, it must have been difficult for any Confederate to see cause for optimism. Lee was at bay in the works at Petersburg and Richmond. The tatters of the Army of the Tennessee were recuperating in northern Mississippi while its commander, General Hood, composed his resignation. In South Carolina there were only scattered elements hurriedly trying to gather to offer some resistance to Sherman's march north from Savannah, while out west of the Mississippi, Kirby Smith simply had nothing to do but was too far away, and too isolated, to be able to give aid to the beleagured forces in the East. (pg. 397)

After Lee's surrender, Davis writes:

Elsewhere the story was the same. After Bentonville, Johnston and his army could do little but continue to fall back before Sherman, comforting themselves that at least every step was taking them closer to the anticipated junction with Lee. By April 11 they were near Goldsboro, and learned of the arrival of the fleeing government at Greensboro. The next day Johnston went there to talk of their future plans with the president and secured Davis's permission to open negotiations with Sherman. Two weeks later Johnston would surrender. Meanwhile, Selma, Alabama, the Confederacy's last manufacturing center, had fallen, and the land defenses of Mobile were about to yield in a few days. Other than Johnston's army there was nothing left east of the Mississippi but a small army of about 12,000 some miles north of Mobile commanded by General Richard Taylor. There was nothing he could do with the forces arrayed against him, and in three weeks he would agree to a truce to begin surrender negotiations. Beyond the Mississippi the disintegration had set in to the point that Kirby Smith's army was simply dissolving. While he was on a tour trying to rally support and fresh forces, a subordinate took it on himself to surrender on his behalf on May 26, and Smith suddenly found himself a general without an army. (pgs. 399-400)

Finally, Clifford Dowdy in A History of the Confederacy, writes:

He [Davis] wanted the people to rally to Joe Johnston's army. This "show of resistance" would bring out the fainthearted and return deserters. The gathering force would march southwestward away from Sherman, make juncture with Forrest and [Richard] Taylor, and "fight on forever."
As Davis suffered this last fantasy of a man who could never project outside himself, Selma Mobile, and Montgomery had all been captured and Wilson's mounted might was ravaging the countryside like a Tartar horde. (pg. 408)

Quote:Why is it hard to understand that Jefferson Davis favored continuing the war through guerilla tactics?

It's not hard to understand this. Davis simply had no support from any general, especially Joe Johnston, who loathed him and who said further fighting would not be war, but murder.

Quote:Why not give credit to the Confederate powers for knowing the Constitutional process of having the Secretary of State call for the special election in the event of the death of both president and vice president?

Those who think that this would have precipitated a Constitutional crisis will have to explain why it's so difficult to accept that Lafayette Foster would, as acting president, appoint an interim Secretary of State who would then have called for a presidential election? With all due respect to the memory of James O. Hall, he got this wrong.

Quote:Why not take the last Confederate secret cypher, COME RETRIBUTION, as the purpose behind Booth's actions?

Because there's no evidence to support it.

Best
Rob