GDG- Capital of the Confederacy

[Chet Diestel]

Esteemed GDG Member David G. Smith Contributes:

Greg-- 

I don't know if Atlanta ever crossed their minds.  It just wasn't a huge
place at the time - most of its growth took place after the war.  Its
population in 1860 was under 10,000, compared to Richmond's 37,000
(which swelled to 128,000 during the war).  It wasn't Georgia's state
capital at the time (it didn't become so until 1868), so it likely
lacked the kind of stately government buildings which Richmond had that
could be used to house a government.

I'm sympathetic to the argument that the capital should have been more
in the interior, ever since my older brother told me dramatically in the
1960s that the "South had lost the Civil War" in 1861 when it moved the
capital to Richmond.  But apparently from other posts here on the GDG,
leaving it at Montgomery was less than ideal.  You have to remember that
the Confederates were trying to create a new government, with all the
trimmings.  A stately capital would have helped the new nation's sense
of identity, and they were trying to get recognition from abroad too.

David G. Smith,

  Montgomery in early 1861 had much to hinder it as  national capital, not 
the least was it lack of communication in terms of multiple railroad 
systems, road networks, industrial base and proximity to seaports, all of 
which Richmond processed.
  Indeed in making the move to Richmond, beyond the excellent 
communications, including a railroad system that existed no where else in 
The South.
   Also, in 1861 when the move to Richmond was determined there was great 
anticipation that Maryland, My Maryland would join her sister Southern 
states --- indeed, there was the feeling that Marylanders were being kept in 
the Union only at bayonet point and was only waiting to be rescued. It was a 
belief not to fade until Lee crossed the Potomac in September 1862 and found 
Maryland farmers looked at the Confederates more as invaders than 
liberators. (It was a doomed belief  Confederate leaders also held regarding 
Kentucky and Missouri.)
  In short, in thoser early days of 1861 there were those Confederates who 
believed that Richmond would only be a temporary residence until Maryland 
joined the Confederacy and the new government took over Washington City and 
the capital of the United States would be somewhere in Pennsylvania or New 
York.
    With regards,
       Chet