[agere_contra]

That’s very much the issue. Some states will want to leave, but the Feds won’t leave them in a state of secession. In that sense, it will be exactly like CW1.

It will also be like CW1 in that it will happen by state, not e.g. by county or shoe-size.

But the article writer is correct in that the cities - all cities - will be havens of federal support, and all rural areas will be havens of secessionist support. That I guess is a big difference from CW1.

[GonzoGOP]

That I guess is a big difference from CW1.

Not as big as you might think. Don't forget that there was no West Virginia prior to the Civil War. And East Tennessee would probably have broken away as well except that the Federal armies had to march through Western Tennessee to get there. There were Counties in the South that the Confederates were never able to feel fully secure in.

In the North it was even worse. Southern Illinois was absolutely hostile to the Feds. Likewise New York city had riots over the draft that rivaled full scale battles.

In CW I it was economic/cultural links. If you were a West Virginia miner and sold Coal to the Northern industries for a living you probably weren't too eager to fight for some tidewater plantation owner. If you were an Irish factory in New York worker barely surviving on your pay you didn't want a bunch of free black men driving down the wage scale.