In fact, from Day One, secession and Confederate government were all about overthrowing Federal Government in states where Slave-Power operated.
In the seven Deep South states (South Carolina to Texas), where nearly half of all households owned slaves, there was never much doubt about popular will regarding slavery -- though Union leaders like Lincoln did believe those states retained enough love of Union to overcome secessionist impulses.
And regardless of popularity, unilateral-secession remained unconstitutional, illegal and illegitimate in Unionist eyes.
But, in four Upper South states (Virginia to Arkansas) with only about 25% slave-holding households, the issue was much more closely decided.
All of those states had large areas of few-to-no slave-holders who first opposed secession and later supplied troops for Union forces.
Those states could well be classified as "contested", and the war there, by your definition "civil war".
Indeed, one of those "contested" states split apart, forming West Virginia, while another, Eastern Tennessee attempted the same, unsuccessfully.
And the four Border States (Delaware to Missouri) had even fewer slave-holding families, typically around 10%.
There Slave-Power's political clout was not enough to overcome love of Union, and so Confederates engaged in little more than guerrilla war.
Civil War, yes, but also a war to overthrow Federal government in those states.
Beyond civil war within southern slave-holding states, the Confederacy also invaded & waged war in northern Union states and territories, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and on a smaller scale several others further removed: Arizona, Colorado, California, Vermont and (we now see) even New York.
That's why any claims that "Confederates never had any intention of overthrowing the Federal Government" are really just disingenuous.
The truth is that the Confederacy was 100% as aggressive toward the Union as it could be.
If it failed to invade a certain state -- i.e., Illinois in 1862 -- the reason was not lack of ambition or plans, but rather their physical inability, in this case resulting from Grant's victories at Forts Henry and Donaldson.
In another example, Lee's 1863 march into Pennsylvania was not originally intended to be just a quick in-and-out.
What Lee intended was to set up a permanent base of operations at the great railroad center in Harrisburg, PA.
This was to be his major bargaining chip in negotiating Union surrender.
The same rule applies to the oft-repeated claim that "slavery was dying out anyway."
Yes, but the whole point of the Confederacy was to protect and expand its "peculiar institution".
A militarily successful Confederacy would become the home-base for expansions into the Caribbean and beyond: a new world-power "Empire of slavery".
It was slavery's "last best hope on earth", and when it failed, slavery failed with it.
But had it emerged successful, the world today would be a much different place.
tanknetter: "a lot of the fighting - exceptionally bitter and viscous - took place outside the scope of control of the CSA leadership and senior generals."
Sure, but also some within their control, of which all three assaults on Chambersburg, PA, and the Lawrence (Kansas) Massacre are examples.
| County | For Secession | Against Secession | Now in West Virginia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accomac | Not Found | ||
| Albemarle | 2308 | 1 | |
| Alexandria | 958 | 48 | |
| Alleghany | 554 | 12 | |
| Amelia | 472 | 0 | |
| Amherst | 1492 | 0 | |
| Appomattox | 805 | 0 | |
| Augusta | 3130 | 10 | |
| Barbour | 857 | 626 | Yes |
| Bath | 403 | 2 | |
| Bedford | 2329 | 1 | |
| Berkeley | 508 | 1303 | Yes |
| Boone | 317 | 226 | Yes |
| Botetourt | 1207 | 2 | |
| Braxton | 553 | 114 | Yes |
| Brooke | 109 | 721 | Yes |
| Brunswick | 840 | 0 | |
| Buchanan | Not Found | ||
| Buckingham | 1062 | 0 | |
| Cabell | 232 | 882 | Yes |
| Calhoun | 279 | 81 | Yes |
| Campbell | 2504 | 0 | |
| Caroline | 1245 | 0 | |
| Carroll | 867 | 130 | |
| Charles City | 311 | 1 | |
| Charlotte | 883 | 0 | |
| Chesterfield | 1421 | 0 | |
| Clarke | Not Found | ||
| Clay | 102 | 102 | Yes |
| Craig | Not found | ||
| Culpeper | 1051 | 0 | |
| Cumberland | 523 | 0 | |
| Dinwiddie | 805 | 1 | |
| Doddridge | Not Found | Yes | |
| Elizabeth City | 343 | 6 | |
| Essex | 581 | 0 | |
| Fairfax | 942 | 288 | |
| Fauquier | 1809 | 4 | |
| Fayette | 508 | 223 | |
| Floyd | 896 | 20 | |
| Fluvanna | 880 | 0 | |
| Franklin | 1787 | 3 | |
| Frederick | 1503 | 359 | |
| Giles | 1067 | 0 | |
| Gilmer | 338 | 186 | Yes |
| Gloucester | 860 | 1 | |
| Goochland | 673 | 0 | |
| Grayson | 1077 | 0 | |
| Greenbrier | 1016 | 110 | Yes |
| Greene | 604 | 0 | |
| Greensville | 322 | 0 | |
| Halifax | 1747 | 0 | |
| Hampshire | 1110 | 700 | Yes |
| Hancock | 23 | 743 | Yes |
| Hanover | 1240 | 0 | |
| Hardy | 768 | 538 | Yes |
| Harrison | 614 | 1691 | Yes |
| Henrico | 1712 | 0 | |
| Henry | 925 | 1 | |
| Highland | 568 | 5 | |
| Isle of Wight | 832 | 0 | |
| Jackson | Not Found | Yes | |
| James City | 239 | 0 | |
| Williamsburg | 135 | 0 | |
| Jefferson | 813 | 365 | Yes |
| Kanawha | 520 | 1697 | Yes |
| King and Queen | 873 | 0 | |
| King George | 478 | 1 | |
| King William | 496 | 0 | |
| Lancaster | 432 | 0 | |
| Lee | 1005 | 170 | |
| Lewis | 422 | 736 | Yes |
| Logan | 518 | 63 | Yes |
| Loudoun | 1621 | 726 | |
| Louisa | 1167 | 0 | |
| Lunenburg | 905 | 0 | |
| McDowell | 196 | 17 | Yes |
| Madison | 833 | 0 | |
| Marion | Not Found | Yes | |
| Marshall | 142 | 1993 | Yes |
| Mason | 119 | 1841 | Yes |
| Mathews | 645 | 0 | |
| Mecklenburg | 1286 | 0 | |
| Mercer | 871 | 67 | Yes |
| Middlesex | 491 | 2 | |
| Monroe | 1189 | 79 | Yes |
| Monogoalia | 110 | 2148 | Yes |
| Montgomery | 1395 | 0 | |
| Morgan | 126 | 533 | Yes |
| Nansemond | 1012 | 0 | |
| Nelson | 1164 | 0 | |
| Norfolk | 2001 | 158 | |
| Norfolk City | 1172 | 6 | |
| Northampton | 505 | 0 | |
| Northumberland | 548 | 47 | |
| Nottoway | 374 | 0 | |
| Ohio | 157 | 3368 | Yes |
| Orange | 853 | 0 | |
| Page | 1099 | 4 | |
| Patrick | Not Found | ||
| Pendleton | 696 | 131 | Yes |
| Pittsylvania | 2469 | 0 | |
| Pleasants | 158 | 303 | Yes |
| Pocahontas | 360 | 13 | |
| Powhatan | 451 | 0 | |
| Preston | 63 | 2256 | Yes |
| Prince Edward | 688 | 0 | |
| Prince George | 364 | 2 | |
| Prince William | 841 | 38 | |
| Princess Anne | 798 | 0 | |
| Pulaski | 603 | 0 | |
| Putnam | 216 | 695 | Yes |
| Raleigh | 229 | 183 | Yes |
| Randolph | Not Found | Yes | |
| Rappahannock | 943 | 0 | |
| Richmond | 556 | 14 | |
| Ritchie | Not Found | Yes | |
| Roane | Not Found | Yes | |
| Roanoke | 853 | 0 | |
| Rockbridge | 1728 | 1 | |
| Rockingham | 3012 | 22 | |
| Russell | 832 | 89 | |
| Scott | 842 | 139 | |
| Shenandoah | 2513 | 5 | |
| Smyth | 1281 | 0 | |
| Spotsylvania | 1323 | 0 | |
| Stafford | 701 | 4 | |
| Surry | 353 | 0 | |
| Sussex | 497 | 1 | |
| Taylor | Not Found | Yes | |
| Tazewell | 1406 | 0 | |
| Tucker | 106 | 54 | Yes |
| Tyler | 125 | 880 | Yes |
| Upshur | 306 | 701 | Yes |
| Warren | 675 | 3 | |
| Warwick | Not Found | ||
| Washington | 1907 | 20 | |
| Wayne | 204 | 427 | Yes |
| Webster | 129 | 26 | Yes |
| Westmoreland | 667 | 1 | |
| Wetzel | 180 | 790 | Yes |
| Wirt | 150 | 507 | Yes |
| Wise | 419 | 38 | |
| Wood | 257 | 1995 | Yes |
| Wyoming | 109 | 105 | Yes |
| Wythe | 1168 | 1 | |
| York | Not Found | ||
| Total | 114,260 | 20,352 | |
| Army | 10363 | 38 | |
| Total | 124,896 | 20,390 |
I’m not a Civil War scholar by any means, more of an enthusiastic amateur who knows more about it than the average bear, but I’ve never heard the bit about Lee really going after Harrisburg and specifically the rail lines for use as a bargaining chip. Any further information you have on that - detailed articles you can point me to etc, would really be appreciated.
Popular wisdom on the Pennsylvania Campaign has Lee going there to feed and supply his forces, getting them out of Virginia and giving the Shennadoah Valley a respite. Secondary goal was to try to draw the Army of the Potomac into a decisive battle on Lee’s terms.
Something that I’ve seen overlooked in discussions about Gettysburg is that while Meade couldn’t allow Lee to get behind him and between him and Washington, Lee was in a similar position. Lee needed to prevent Meade (or, rather, the Army of the Potomac) from getting between him and Cashtown Gap - his escape route to VA if things went bad.
It seems to me that if Lee was really going for Harrisburg he would have gone straight for Harrisburg instead of fanning his army out across a wide arc to the a Southeast like he did.