Peshawar Lancers Redux: North America

[Claudius]

As Mark Twain once said, "Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated"

[Claudius]

The meeting between Joseph Edwin Washington. John Howard and Laforge took place on July 22, 1887. This date was to prove of some significance in American history, although none of the three participants realized it at the time. Washington a youngish lawyer with ambitions for political advancement had believed Laforge’s testimony and out of legal habit, had it taken down as a deposition. Several versions of this written confession have survived, although most, in the view of modern historians are deemed to be corrupted and too well supplied with lurid details to credibly have come from the lips of an illiterate young murderer. All, however, paint the same portrait: a cabal of Mexican officials working with certain American politicians and businessmen to enrich themselves while furthering the interests of Mexico. That President Burke was deeply aware of this arrangement and complicit with it during his time as Louisiana’s Governor was obvious to all.

Washington apparently shared the information in the document with a number of political operatives. When the information reached National Party leaders on or about the 27th of that month, the effect was that of throwing a lighted match into a room full of kindling. Memphis was already in the grip of insurrection and disorder.

Although there is no direct knowledge of precise details that followed, the knowledge of the role played by Ambassador Flores in the attempt on President Burke’s life was soon widely dispersed. Many of the National Party membership were very aware from the impeachment trial just recently ended that Mexico had had considerable influence in American affairs, first in Louisiana, and then later in the capital itself. A sharp debate as to what was to be done with this further evidence (in their eyes) of Mexican perfidy took place over the following two days. House Speaker Tilman counseled political action, including forcing the President to sever relations with Mexico. Others within the National Party leadership, having already suffered losses in the street fighting of the previous week were in favor of more violent action, viewing the President as a man unlikely to believe that his “good friend Flores” ( a phrase he used frequently in public utterances) could possibly be guilty of an assassination plot.

It is the hobby, or guilty pleasure, of some in the historical community (the so-called “parahistorians”) to speculate as to how history might have gone differently had real events taken a different course. Such persons argue endlessly about how the 20th century might have been one of endless peace and prosperity had the Event never occurred and so forth. Although the authors are not devotees of that kind of speculation, in that spirit, one might well add the developments that occurred on July 28 as a critical juncture in American history that might well have turned out far differently had certain persons not taken things into their own hands.

Apparently, one of the National Party attendees, one Congressman Frank James on the evening of the 27th shared the information he had learned with several fellow Missourians. This is merely a hypothesis, since Representative James never admitted such, and was dead within the year. It remains a fact however that on the 28th, shortly after eight o’clock as the Ambassador took his customary morning ride along tree-shaded River Street, that a gang of five or six men sprang up from behind the hedges that bordered it and cut down Flores In a hail of gunfire. The officers that accompanied the Ambassador, returned fire and killed all but two of the assailants. All, it turned out, were members of a group known as the Missouri Klavern and were associated in one way or another with the National Party.

The protestations of the National Party that they were in no way involved fell upon deaf ears. The Administration, and particularly the National Police, took sanguinary revenge on the building housing the party’s headquarters which was followed within hours by a Nationals mob shelling the Mexican Embassy with a purloined smooth-bore cannon and then storming and looting the building..

Within days, Congress was emptied out, fighting had swept across the capital and out into the surrounding towns. Martial law and a State of Insurrection were declared by the President. The time subsequently referred to as “The Second Civil War” had begun.

Exerpted from Phoenix: The End of the Old Regime and the Rise of the Second American Republic R. Pettigrew and J. Ruiz, University Press, Athens, Georgia 1993 pp. 123-124

[Shadow Knight]

Ouch...well at least Flores got what he deserved.

[chris N]

Bravo! Excellent Job.

[DarkAvenger]

Just realized something. The book title and the operation Mexico planned have the same word: Phoenix. Interesting way to hint at possible future developments.

[Claudius]

Yes, both nations use the eagle as their symbol and both saw the period after the Event as a time of rising from the ashes and new life

[DarkAvenger]

Originally Posted by Claudius

Yes, both nations use the eagle as their symbol and both saw the period after the Event as a time of rising from the ashes and new life

I was thinking them being one and the same.

[Archangel]

I think the Democratic Party will implode after the Civil War, unless there are enough people in it that opposed Burke.
I presume the National Party will continue to be in a lesser degree the party of rights for the states, but something else will take the place of the federalist current, and/or populism/agrarianism.

[Claudius]

Originally Posted by DarkAvenger

I was thinking them being one and the same.

In the Diaz view, Phoenix also has the meaning of the restoration of Mexican rule to the west

[Claudius]

Bad news travels fast

The death of the highest-ranking Mexican official in the United States reached New Orleans only four days after it occurred. There was consternation at the Mexican Consulate. The Consul, Ignacio Marquez, a very unsentimental man, recovered quickly however and telegraphed Memphis pledging President Burke his full support and promising that he would urge President Diaz to resist pressures within Mexico City on taking retaliatory measures.

The truth be told, Marquez had not been terribly fond of Flores, regarding him as a rival and potential political adversary. Now the Yankees had removed that issue from the table. Doubtless, Flores would be replaced, but most likely not with so eminent a personality. At least in the short run Marquez would have a clear playing field, without a nosy superior looking over his shoulder.

The intelligence network he had begun continued to develop, carefully minded by Marquez personally. By now, it was almost self-sufficient with regard to funding. Various means were used. Merchants paid under-the-table fees for contracts, street gangs paid protection money and smugglers diverted some of their profits his way to avoid unwanted attention from the Armada and from port officials in Cuba, Santo Domingo and the other places where Mexico held sway or had influence. Of course such arrangements were not totally done for patriotic reasons. Marquez himself had become rich as well.

Still, the situation had become unpredictable and would bear careful watching on his part. Like any good chess player, Marquez grew wary when an unexpected move occurred. Not that he thought that there was any real organized opposition as yet, but the further news that the Embassy itself had been looted worried him. Who knew what some idiot staff person had left lying around? He made a mental note to contact the commander of the National Police with regard to the issue of stolen Embassy property and other related issues.

The news reached Columbia, South Carolina a few days later. National Party Congressmen and Senators had fled the capital. Many had been threatened with arrest or bodily harm.. The official line was that the National Party was at the bottom of a vast conspiracy that was behind both the attempted assassination of the President and the murder of Ambassador Flores. The President had let it be known that he considered the Nationals responsible and would not rest until all of the guilty were brought to justice. Governor Hampton denounced that statement and invited all surviving members to assemble under his protection in South Carolina.

[altwere]

good update.

[Claudius]

Question: The Canon does not mention German-speaking survivor states at all, so far as I remember. Doesn't it seem reasonable that post-Fall that a new Volkwanderung took place. Austria and the German Empire were populous, technically advanced, and scientifically progressive. Bismark was at least as intelligent as Disraeli and would have looked for a way to save his people as well.

I'm thinking that an obvious place to go would have been Anatolia, with a mixed population of Austrians, Germans andcentral and southern Magyars and Slavs. Obviously, they would have to shove the Turks out of the way, but given the military and tech edge A-H and the German Empire had, not to mention 100+ million population it seems very doable.

Just askin'

Comments?

[altwere]

Ich habe es sehr gern! Das NeuSuddeutchland. I think its a great idea. Any idea of what they would call it. New South Germany, Die Anatolish Riech, or maybe Das Deutscherbyzantium Imperium. Have fun with it as there is not Much in the cannon about that area.

[altwere]

Ich habe es sehr gern! Das NeuSuddeutchland. I think its a great idea. Any idea of what they would call it. New South Germany, Das Anatolish Riech, or maybe Das Deutscherbyzantium Imperium. Have fun with it as there is not Much in the cannon about that area.

[Claudius]

Ostmark? Or maybe just the Neue Heilige Romanische Reich?

Politics would be tricky, with the varying languages and religious traditions, not to mention two Emporors and several Kings. Perhaps something like Switzerland, with individual cantons/Lander with ancestral customs and languages observed?

[Shadow Knight]

Well there are several outcomes and it depends on how the various governments react.

If you see some kind of unified Germany & Austro-Hungarian response/plan you might see a push into the Po plains displacing Italians as well as push into Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and into Greece. How far into the Ottoman Empire would depend on how much time they have to unleash a conquest before food radically becomes an issue.

If Germany and AH are not unified then expect a short war where AH gets stomped on by Germany (but it will weaken Germany to do so) which leads Germany to push south but having to deal with AH will limit how far they can go.

Also there is still the Protestant-Catholic dynamic that will interfere with an unified response. Is it in there best interest to cooperate, yes, but does that mean that they will? Maybe not.

[altwere]

I think that the language would be a slavicized German with some Greek and Turkish loan words.

[chris N]

It would seem that the need for survival might do something that was unachievable before Unity of the German state.It is much more likely that the Germans would force the peoples of the Balkans that survived to learn German. Remember before the fall there were German speaking communities in Romania and Hungary.

[altwere]

You might also get the Volga Germans after they hear about it. Much better than life under the Peacock Prince.

[Claudius]

About the time of Flores’ murder, totally unaware of events in the East, the 1st California Volunteer Cavalry made its first raid on Mexican assets. A platoon of raw replacement troops marching along with a supply train en route to Riverside was taken by surprise and overwhelmed. The attack was neatly done, utilizing the cover provided by a wooded hillside and betrayed the experienced hand of a veteran partisan fighter. Of the 50 Mexican soldiers, 10 were killed and 25 captured, including the unit commander. The garrison commander at Riverside responded with a patrol, but by the time it arrived the scene of the fight, It found only dead soldiers and burnt wagons. Mosby’s Rangers had widely dispersed and had effectively disappeared.

This initial foray even though successful, incompletely satisfied Mosby. T he Colonel felt that the raid went acceptably, but was unhappy that almost one third of the enemy had escaped. More speed and precision was needed. On the other hand the wagons seized in the raid provided some useful amounts of food and ammunition as well as additional horses.

Still, for a first effort with green troops it was satisfactory, he admitted in a communication with Major General Howard in San Francisco. Howard was in the process of assembling a new division of infantry, although much hampered by logistical problems. He reckoned that with the torrential rains of fall and winter soon to begin, a real campaign was not likely to be profitable until April fo 1888. Mosby was therefore encouraged to grow his forces and continue to harass the enemy in the field. Accordingly, the Rangers occupied their time attacking isolated Mexican units and by destroying railroad track and burning bridges over a gradually expanding area.