I wish I was in the Land of Cotton: Dixieland II TL

herricks

Here is what I hope to be the first post in a new TL of mine. I would greatly appreciate any input by yall to let me know whether or not I should continue. Thanks in advance.



Old times there were not forgotten

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant had recently delivered the United States its first important victory in the Western Theater in the war against the southern states. On February 6,1862 he had succeeded in capturing Fort Henry & its defenders along the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Now just a week later his forces were heavily engaged in a battle to capture Fort Donelson from the Confederates & open up the Cumberland River to the Union as taking Fort Henry had done for the Tennessee River. Now on February 13,1862 three days into the Battle of Fort Donelson Grant was poised to gain such a victory again. General Grant had set up his headquarters behind Brigadier General Charles F. Smith's lines at Widow Crisp. Around 1600 in the afternoon shots rang out from Grants headquarters. The Confederate cavalry commander Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest & his forces had crossed Hickman Creek to the west of the battle attempting a daring raid behind Union lines. The battle lasted for an intense 150 seconds before the Confederate cavalry withdrew. The Union had suffered 21 casualties in the short skirmish of whom all but three would survive. One of the three however was General Grant who had taken a saber slash across the stomach & dying that night.

The attack on Union headquarters & death of General Grant shook up the Union Army. Early the next morning Confederate forces launched a counterattack south of the town of Dover. The attack broke through the Union lines sweeping Colonel Richard Oglesby's brigade north up against the Cumberland River & forcing their surrender. Brigadier General John A. McClernand's division broke & began retreating. With Grants death General Smith assumed temporary command of the army & at 1410 issued the order of retreat. The Battle of Fort Donelson was a Union failure & Smith had the army retreat to Fort Henry before withdrawing back to Paducha, Kentucky.

The stunning defeat at Fort Donelson severely hampered Union plans of action in the Western Theater of the war with both the Tennessee & Cumberland River's still in Confederate control the retaking of Tennessee would be much more difficult. President Jefferson Davis wanted General Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate forces in the Western Theater, to launch an immediate counteroffensive into Kentucky to destroy the Union Army & bring Kentucky into the Confederacy. Johnston however would wait more than a month.
 

DG Valdron

Well, the timing is interesting, given the recent racially motivated atrocity, and the wave of revulsion against the Confederate flag, and indirectly, against the Confederacy and what it stood for.

I'm curious as to why or how this Timeline will be significantly different from your previous Dixieland timeline, which was a pretty blatant Confederacy Wank/Mexico Screw. Is it going to simply be more of same? It's not clear from your opening as to what you want to do different, or how? And if its not different, what's the point?

For what it's worth, good luck to you. I hope that your new version is substantively different from your old version in the manner of your choosing so as to justify the work you put into it. Best wishes.
 
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herricks

DValdron said:
Well, the timing is interesting.

I'm curious as to why or how this Timeline will be significantly different from your previous Dixieland timeline, which was a pretty blatant Confederacy Wank/Mexico Screw.
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what do you mean by timing?


well one I'm not going to go as far as i did in the first one. and also I've got different ideas to try out from the first TL. Not saying that no one will find everything non-ASB but no TL on here would fit into that category
 

herricks

DValdron said:
Well, the timing is interesting, given the recent racially motivated atrocity, and the wave of revulsion against the Confederate flag, and indirectly, against the Confederacy and what it stood for.



For what it's worth, good luck to you. I hope that your new version is substantively different from your old version in the manner of your choosing so as to justify the work you put into it. Best wishes.
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already had hit reply before i saw your edit.

first iv'e been thinking about this TL for a few months but wanted to finish my America one before diving into a new one. most of that first post was written a few weeks ago but before i could finish it i had to return to my house where I still don't have internet yet. second i quit listening to all that on the tv a while ago cause no matter how much everybody hollars and tries to justify their own opinion they're not going to change other people that already have their mind set in their beliefs.



thanks i appreciate it. i always like seeing questions & opinons on whatever TL im doing. getting a different point of view on something has helped me in the past on my TL's
 

alexcoppo

DValdron said:
Well, the timing is interesting, given the recent racially motivated atrocity, and the wave of revulsion against the Confederate flag, and indirectly, against the Confederacy and what it stood for.
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I am not a native english speaker so I might be wrong, but up today I thought that "alternate" meant something different from "advisable" or "pleasant".

As further thought material, consider the whole Terminator franchise: it is about the biggest genocide of human history and a hellish future for the few survivors and yet nobody complains.

Personally I find dystopias more interesting than sugary, Disney-like fairytales ending with stale happy ends.

P.S.: I am italian, member of the nation which gave births to a decent amount of people who ended up hanging from trees in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". Not as many as the black "fruits" but still a good amount; therefore definitely not a confederate fanboy.
 

Makemakean

DValdron said:
Well, the timing is interesting, given the recent racially motivated atrocity, and the wave of revulsion against the Confederate flag, and indirectly, against the Confederacy and what it stood for.
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Well, yeah, but truth be told, Confederacy-wins-the-Civil War-timelines are really the second most common alternate timeline out there. The most common alternate timeline that does exist is of course Nazi Germany-wins-WWII. For some reason they do seem to be scenarios that people find interesting to explore.

Just as we do not assume that a person who writes a timeline about a successful Sealion harbours Neo-Nazi sympathies, I think we should give this poster the benefit of the doubt when it comes to harbouring Neo-Confederate sympathies.
 

DG Valdron

First, I've written a fairly terrifying dystopia myself, so there are no issues on that score. I don't require everything to be bunnies and ponies.

Nor do I assert that just writing a confederacy Timeline makes a person a 'lost causer'.

On the other hand, as has been pointed out, Confederacy timelines are the second most common timelines around. The ground had been well travelled, even done to death. Hell, this is Herricks second confederacy timeline. So it's legitimate to ask if there's a point. Is this going to be just a retread?

Finally, if Herricks says that he doesn't pay attention to the news or what's going on currently, well enough. But a lot of people are. His Dixieland II is going to share space on this board with threads which seriously discuss whether the Confederate flag is worse than the Nazi Swastika. It's not the same environment, even here, as it was even two months ago, and it makes no sense to pretend otherwise.

Herricks can do whatever timeline he wants, and he can put as much or as little effort into it as he wishes.

On the other hand, people are entitled to make comments on Timelines, to challenge or criticize them on whatever grounds. I've seen people deliver savage attacks on some of the best Timelines I've every read - just consider the whole 'jumping the shark' set of criticisms on Drew's Rumsfeldia. I've done timelines where I practically had to fight every inch of the way, and repeatedly respond to the same sets of criticisms every ten pages, or simply had things dismissed out of hand, or had people complain that the work is profoundly offensive to them. It goes with the territory.

That's just a simple fact of life: When you put yourself out there, no one is obliged to kiss your butt. You go out, you do your best, you take your chances, and you live or die in the Colosseum.

As for "Dixieland II" I haven't been living under a rock for the last month. A lot of things have gone on Some of them have gone on right on this Board. So wondering "Hmmm, this might be considered tasteless, given the timing." That's legitimate.

Its Herricks timeline, and its his second kick at this cat. Try as I might, I have trouble overlooking that, and I have to ask if its going to be sufficiently different from his first as to be worthwhile. Is a photocopy worth doing? Or is there new ground to cover, something different to say, or a different way to say it?

I bear Herricks no ill will, and I am certainly not going to tell him what he can or cannot write. But that doesn't render his work immune.

At the end, all I can say is good luck. The Colosseum awaits.
 

herricks

Red on the Bluegrass

The Confederacy's Cumberland Campaign began on April 6, 1862 as General Johnston crossed the border into Kentucky with 20,000 men south of Murray while his cavalry regiment of 1100, commanded by the newly appointed Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, crossed near Fulton. The recently renamed Army of Tennessee moved quickly to take control of Paducah & western Kentucky. General Johnston's hesitation in invading Kentucky had caused President Davis to order Major General Braxton Bragg to move into Kentucky a week earlier with 13,000 en & occupy Bowling Green. Of Johnston's Paducah Campaign General Forrest saw the first major action when his regiment came into contact with Federal forces just west of Mayfield. In a quick violent battle Confederate forces had taken the field & drove off the Federal troops. The battle however was a Union strategic victory as instead of retreating towards Paducah Union forces held onto Mayfield causing Forrest to change route & take longer to reach the main arm of the Confederate Army. This allowed the Union Army to slip out of Paducah & move to meet Johnston head on on April 12 near the community of Benton.

Union forces, now under the command of Major General Henry Halleck, were composed of nearly 23,000 troops when their skirmishers reached the Confederates. The first shots of the Battle of Benton were fired at 0940 as the two sides forward units began the exchange. With over 40,000 troops participating in the battle the Battle of Benton was the largest to be fought in Kentucky at that time. By the battles end it had produced nearly 10,000 casualties. While both sides fought valiantly in their struggle to achieve victory by 1700 it was becoming more & more clear which side would seize the day. At around 1750 Union forces began their withdrawal. The victory at Benton caused Halleck to move his forces from the Jackson Purchase & effectively ceding all control to the Confederacy.

The next month Johnston & Bragg had defeated Halleck again near Leitchfield & in doing so gained effective control over all of western Kentucky. Kentucky would not be the only state in the Western Theater to see war. On June 6,1862 General Forrest crossed the Ohio & assaulted the town of Cairo, Illinois. The Battle of Cairo, while relatively small, was the first significant battle in the war to occur in entirely Federal territory. 1500 Confederates & 1250 Federal troops battled for nearly two hours before the Confederates seized the town holding it until the following day when, after learning of a Union reinforcement column, Forrest withdrew torching the town.
 

herricks

Peninsular

The misfortunes faced by the Union in the Western Theater of the war, while grim, were of little consequence in the east where a major offensive was soon to be underway. Major General George B. McClellan had amassed over 120,000 men at Fort Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula in preparation to march on Richmond. Preparation for the Peninsula Campaign had already had setbacks however the Confederate ironclad the CSS Virginia had sunk several Union warships before the arrival of the Union ironclad USS Monitor forced it into the first ever duel among ironclads which ended inconclusively though the Virginia withdrew. On March 17,1862 the Army of the Potomac marched out of Fort Monroe & assaulted its first target, the historic community of Yorktown. Although McClellan's forces outnumbered the Confederates, who were commanded by General Joesph Johnston, the Battle of Yorktown was not such an overwhelming victory as McClellan had hoped & Johnston's force slipped away to Williamsburg on April 30. Much of the next month saw several more inconclusive battles fought as the Union Army tried to reach Richmond. Though he ad not won a definitive victory in the campaign McClellan's forces were slowly making their advance.

On May 9 Johnston finally withdrew much of his 60,000 troops to the defenses around Richmond. Finally on May 21 the Confederate capital was within sight of the Army of the Potomac & McClellan & Johnston engaged once again in the Battle of Fair Oaks. The three day long battle saw some of the largest casualty numbers of the campaign to date including General Johnston who on the second day took a piece of shrapnel & was hospitalized for several months. With General Johnston wounded General Robert E. Lee assumed temporary command of the Army of Northern Virginia. The amount of casualties that the Battle of Fair Oaks had brought about had shaken McClellan who would redeploy his army. During this lull Lee strengthened Richmond's defenses along the James River & on June 12 attacked.

The Battle of Glendale marked the beginning of the Confederate counter offensive. Within hours the Union Army was withdrawing from the intense attack. The next day Lee struck again with General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson leading the charge at New Market. By that afternoon McClellan had withdrew the Army of the Potomac to Malvern Hill. The following day the Battle of Malvern Hill would become the largest to date as as 75,000 Federal & 63,000 Confederate troops began to do battle. For nearly two days Union forces tried to drive the rebels back but to no avail. To save itself from destruction on June 16 the Army of the Potomac finally made a break out & began retreating towards Fort Monroe. Not all escaped however with along with 15,000 dead & wounded almost 10,000 Union troops were captured.

Over the next 4 days the Army of the Potomac withdrew south. Though Lee would attack three more times none of the battles following Malvern Hill held as significant a win for the Confederacy. On June 23 the Army of the Potomac began evacuating the Virginia Peninsula ending the Peninsular Campaign. Some in Richmond would criticize Lee for not destroying the Army of the Potomac before it could withdraw. The Army of Northern Virginia however had been badly mauled during the campaign & over 30,000 casualties were estimated & the army had to refit. The Union Army however had came within a stones throw of capturing the Confederate capital which could have ended the war. To keep it from being used as a staging ground for future offensives Lee moved to capture Fort Monroe from the Union. On July 4 the Siege of Fort Monroe began & would last nearly six weeks with the Army of Northern Virginia hammering it from land & occasionally the CSS Virginia & other Confederate warships striking from sea though he Union Navy made those attacks infrequent. On August 22 with much of the fort in ruins Fort Monroe's garrison spiked the guns & blew the ammunition. While most escaped via the navy over 500 Union soldiers would surrender to the Confederacy.
 

herricks

Marion

With Autumn just around the corner the war in the Western Theater began to heat up once more. While the war in Kentucky had been going the way the Confederacy wished that was not true further south. In April the Confederacy's largest city New Orleans fell to the Union nearly unopposed. This was a major setback for the Confederacy not only for New Orleans being their most prominent port but it also now meant that the Confederacy had to divert resources to keep the Union from breaking out of New Orleans. This task was given to the Trans-Mississippi Department who besides the recent ill-fated New Mexico Campaign had seen little action. Aside from capturing New Orleans however this new theater would see very little action through the remainder of the year.

The Unions Department of the Ohio received a new commander in July with Major General Don Carlos Buell. Buell was given the task of driving the Confederates out of Kentucky & invading Tennessee. On August 20 General Johnston & General Bragg had led the Army of Tennessee out of Leitchfield to attempt & gain full control over Kentucky. The Eastern Kentucky Campaign's plan of action was to march on Lexington before circling around & taking Louisville. It was hoped that gaining control of these key cities that Kentucky would finally officially join the Confederacy. General Buell & his army had been based in Lexington & when word of Johnston's offensive reached him set out to stop him. On September 17 the two armies converged near the tiny settlement of Raywick. The Battle of Raywick was fought by 66,000 Union & 45,000 Confederate troops making it the largest battle of the western theater yet. This would be the bloodiest single day of the war causing over 25,000 casualties.

The Battle of Raywick was tactically inconclusive though would be considered strategically a Union victory as it halted Johnston's advance with the Confederates withdrawing back to Leitchfield. Buell would withdraw as well, back to Lexington & the war in Kentucky would remain quiet for the remainder of 1862
 

herricks

Another Year Gone By

Following the near disastrous Peninsular Campaign General McClellan would be relieved of his command on October 9,1862. In his place President Lincoln named Major General Ambrose Burnside as the Army of the Potomac's new commander. While the Army of the Potomac rebuilt itself Major General John Pope who commanded the Union's Army of Virginia invaded northern Virginia in late Spetember. While General Lee was moving the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia to combat the invading force Lee's subordinates General James Longstreet & Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson had went ahead to hold Pope at bay. Over the next weeks several engagements between Union & Confederate forces occurred, some the North won, others the South won but most were inconclusive.

On October 15 General Lee & his army had finally arrived & was ready to fight. On October 28 the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia & the Unions Army of Virginia met at the sight of the wars first major battle beginning the Second Battle of Manassas. The numbers of troops engaged in Second Manassas more than doubled that of the first battle with 71,000 Union & 56,000 Confederate troops participating. For two full days the Second Battle of Manassas raged. In the early morning of October 31 Pope withdrew his army out of Virginia in defeat. The battle made nearly 30,000 casualties, most of them Union, & marked the end of major combat operations in the eastern theater for the remainder of the year. On November 15 the Army of Virginia was disbanded & its troops integrated into the Army of the Potomac. The victories over the Union in the Peninsular Campaign & the Northern Virginia Campaign brought a sense of national pride to the Confederacy & Lee began planning an invasion of the north. It was his, & the Confederate governments, hope & belief that a decisive victory over the Union on northern soil would finally get the European powers to recognize the Confederacy's independence & intervene on its behalf.
 

herricks

Pushing the Attack

During the 1862 Congressional Elections a major shift in the seats occurred. After the 1860 elections the Republican Party had held 108 seats while the Democratic Party 45 & the Constitutional Union only 28. The Union had suffered more than 100,000 casualties since the wars beginning & with the near humiliating defeats in Virginia & the war in the west being fought in Kentucky, technically Union soil, public opinion on the war was turning & fast. Following the elections the Republicans would drop 29 seats, the Constitutional Union dropped 3 seats, & the Democratic Party gained 32 seats. While the Republican Party was still the majority seat holder they now only held that lead over the Democrats by two.

Despite having halted the Confederate advance into eastern Kentucky at the Battle of Raywick General Buell was criticized for not following up the victory by not pushing the attack & destroying the Army of Tennessee. On February 7,1863 General Johnston restarted the war in Kentucky by moving to capture eastern Kentucky once more. This time instead of marching on Lexington first, Johnston would move directly on Louisville. Under pressure from Washington Buell would march the Army of the Tennessee out of Louisville three days later. The next day the 55,000 strong Union Army of the Tennessee & the 40,000 strong Confederate Army of Tennessee met just south of Johnston's objective city.

The Battle of Pleasure Ridge began at 1145 on February 11,1863 with the sound of artillery fire. Throughout the day Union & Confederate blood would be spilled across the battlefield. Twice Confederate forces would charge Union lines in attempt to break them & twice the Confederates would fail & suffering large amounts of casualties. One of these casualties was General Johnston's second in command Lieutenant General Braxton Bragg who, after an artillery shell exploded nearby, had his horse fall on top of him shattering his left leg. Though he would eventually recover he would be out of the fight for several months.

The Confederacy wasn't the only one to attack the enemy lines. At 0930, at Lincoln's urging, a mass Union assault would be launched on Confederate lines. Ten minutes after the assault began Union forces were in small arms range & began being raked by Confederate rifle fire. Return fire from the advancing Union soldiers as well as Union artillery would keep enough Confederate heads down that by 0945 the armies were only 10 yards from each other. For the next several minutes a combination of heavy small arms & melee fighting would occur before Union troops began to withdraw. Despite not breaking the Confederate lines Union forces had severely bloodied the rebels & many of Buell's subordinates believed that a second attack with their numbers still, slightly, superior to the Confederates that they could still achieve victory. General Buell however didn't want to risk losing his army & leaving Louisville undefended.

At 1225 Buell ordered his forces to begin an orderly retreat from the field. Johnston didn't press Buell & allowed the retreat. Of the 26,000 casualties that the battle produced over 14,000 were Confederate. General Buell would withdraw first to Louisville & then on February 22 withdraw much of his army & his headquarters across the Ohio to New Albany. On February 28 President Lincoln would relieve Buell of his command & name Major General William Rosecrans the new commander of the Army of the Tennessee.
 

herricks

Invasion

Lee decided to take advantage of the victories the Confederacy had achieved in the Peninsular & Northern Virginia Campaign's as well as his army being fresh from the inter break & invade the North. His goal was to penetrate the major Northern states of Maryland and Pennsylvania and cut off the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line that supplied Washington. He also needed to supply his army and knew the farms of the North had been untouched by war, unlike those in Virginia. And he wished to lower Northern morale, believing that an invading army wreaking havoc inside the North might force Lincoln to negotiate an end to the war, particularly if he would be able to incite an uprising in the slave-holding state of Maryland.

On February 20,1863 the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac with 80,000 reaching Frederick, Maryland on the 24th. Lee's specific goals were to advance on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania & cut the east-west railroad links to the Northeast. If practicable this would be followed by operations against one of the major eastern cities, such as Philadelphia. The news of the invasion caused panic in the North, & Lincoln was forced to take quick action. Following his disastrous Peninsular Campaign, General McClellan had been in military limbo since returning from the Peninsula. Just a week before Lee's invasion President Lincoln had replaced McClellan with Major General Joseph Hooker named commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Lee divided his army with General James Longstreet assaulting Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry commanded Lee's supply lines through the Shenandoah Valley it was also a tempting target. In the Battle of Harpers Ferry, Longstreet placed artillery on the heights overlooking the town, forcing the surrender of the garrison of more than 12,000 men on March 1. Longstreet led most of his soldiers to join the rest of Lee's army, leaving most of General A.P. Hill's division to complete the occupation of the town. Hooker moved out of Washington with his 87,000 strong army in pursuit, reaching Frederick on February 28. That night the Army of the Potomac moved toward South Mountain. The following morning the small Battle of South Mountain between portions of the two sides armies. While inconclusive the battle succeeded in making the Confederate troops withdraw.

Just under 24 hours later Hooker's troops met & engaged General Longstreet's force near the town of Boonsboro. Quickly both sides commanders knew that this would not be another small limited battle. General Lee, who now had the bulk of his army in Hagerstown, headed south to unify the Army of Northern Virginia. General Jackson would take the lead & in a forced march reach the battlefield with his corps in just a few hours. The rapid arrival of Jackson was not expected by Hooker & Jackson's troops would overrun & capture hundreds of Union troops before he could move enough forces to semi-secure the army's flank. By that afternoon all of Lee's army had arrived & engaged in the battle. The next day would be by far the bloodiest of the battle with Lee launching several attacks against Union lines resulting in horrendous casualties. Again Jackson's corps flanked the Federals & routed the Union XI Corps & further driving back the Army of the Potomac.

In the morning of the third day south of the main battle Major General Jeb Stuart with 8000 Confederate cavalry fought the 10,000 strong Union cavalry force under Major General Alfred Pleasonton outside the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Sharpsburg, or Antietam in the North, was the largest predominately cavalry battle of the war & lasted for a bloody hour & a half before the battered Union cavalry broke loose & withdrew. The battle could only be called a partial Confederate victory though as of the 6000 total casualties in the battle 2800 were Confederate & Stuart began withdrawing his force back towards the Army of Northern Virginia.

The Battle of Sharpsburg was the largest part of the third day of the bigger Battle of Boonsboro & the fight was quickly winding down. On the morning of March 5, the fourth day of the battle, Hooker began withdrawing his army from the battlefield & by late afternoon the Battle of Boonsboro was over. The Battle of Boonsboro caused a staggering 34,000 casualties. Of these 18,000 were Union including nearly 6000 prisoners. While the Army of the Potomac withdrew to Frederick, Lee withdrew the Army of Northern Virginia to Sharpsburg the following day to allow for his army to be more easily resupplied. Eight days later Lee would resume his campaign.
 
BELFAST

BELFAST

herricks said:
It's staying the same. Confederacy can't do much more than they are on the sea I think but don't know if I'm right
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You could have the CSA being more successful at buying commerce raiders that OTL. Some of the ship ordered by the CSA navy OTL were seized before they could be handed over to the CSA navy.


  1. Another major crisis in Anglo-American relations arose over the un-neutral building in Britain of Confederate commerce-raiders, notably the Alabama; they were not warships in British law because they left their shipyards unarmed and picked up arms elsewhere
    1. The Alabama escaped in 1862 to the Portuguese Azores and took weapons and crew from two British ships that followed; although flying confederate flag and officered by Confederates, it was manned by Britons and never entered Confederate port
    2. Britain was thus the chief naval base of the Confederacy
    3. The Alabama lighted the skies form Europe to the Far East with the burning hulks of Yankee merchantmen; all told, this “British pirate” captured over sixty vessels
    4. Competing British shippers were delighted and an angered North had to divert naval strength from its blockade for wild-goose chases (defeated off coast of France, 1864)
  2. The Alabama was beneath the waves, but issue of British-built Confederate raiders stayed afloat; American minister Charles Francis Adams persuaded the British that allowing such ships to be built was a dangerous precedent that might be used against them
  3. In 1863 London openly violated its own leaky laws and seized another raider being built for the South; though efforts were made to stay neutral, the destroyers captured more than 250 Yankee ships, severely crippling the American merchant marine (never recovered)
Foreign Flare-ups

  1. A final Anglo-American crisis was touched off in 1863 by the Laird rams—two Confederate warships being constructed in the shipyard of John Laird and Sons in GB
    1. Designed to destroy the wooden ships of the Union navy with their iron rams and large-caliber guns, they were far more dangerous than the swift but lightly armed Alabama; if delivered to the south they were probably have sunk blockading ships
    2. In retaliation the North doubtless would have invaded Canada, and a full-dress war with Britain would have erupted; but American Minister Adams took the hard line, warning that “this is war” if the rams were released from Great Britain
    3. At the last minute the London government relented and bought the two ships for the Royal Navy; everyone seemed satisfied except the disappointed Confederates
    4. Britain also repented its sorry role in the Alabama business; it agreed in 1871 to submit the Alabama dispute to arbitration and in 1872 paid $15.5 million
https://www.apstudynotes.org/us-his...ng-for-war-the-north-and-the-south-1861-1865/
 

herricks

The Ridge

The Louisville Campaign began on March 10,1863. Opening moves of the campaign wouldn't begin on land but instead on the water. For the first time the Confederate river navy went on the offensive & sailed into the Ohio River with 10 cotton-clad steamers & 2 ironclads under the command of Commander Catesby ap Roger Jones. Since Forrest had burned the town, Cairo's batteries had only partially been repaired & the warships quickly destroying them. Two days later the fleet was within a few miles of Louisville where General Johnston was soon to begin his assault. The fleets main mission was to assist in the capture of Louisville by blocking Union troops in Indiana from reinforcing the city. Confederate vessels however were challenged by the Ohio River Squadron of 3 ironclads, 10 gunboats, & 4 rams under Rear Admiral Charles Henry Davis. The Battle of New Albany began at 0910 on March 12. As it was more & more the ironclads showed the world that they were the future. Within two hours the battle had came to an end. For the Confederacy eight cotton-clad steamers were either sunk or grounded as well as one ironclad. The Union didn't get away unscathed however, like the Confederacy its wooden ships had suffered heavily. The four rams & two gunboats had been sunk & one ironclad had been grounded after catching fire. All & all their were over 900 casualties during the battle making the Battle of New Albany the deadliest naval battle of the war to date.

With naval support for the assault on Louisville no more General Johnston would abandon capturing he heavily guarded city. Four days after the Battle of New Albany Johnston settled on a secondary target & the Army of Tennessee moved on the Kentucky capital Frankfort. General Rosecrans had expected Johnston to withdraw from Louisville after the defeat of the navy he had not expected him to change targets. This allowed the Confederate Army to travel over 20 miles before Rosecrans could get his army on the move in pursuit. Over the next week the Army of Tennessee stayed just ahead of Rosecrans as they moved their way towards Frankfort. Finally on March 25 General Johnston turned on the Army of the Ohio just a few miles from their target city. At 1430 that afternoon the Battle of Hemp Ridge began.

Confederate forces had gained the high ground before Union soldiers could take them for themselves. At 1545 Union forces assaulted the Confederate lines attempting to take the high ground. Confederate troops would fire rapidly into Federal lines for almost 20 minutes before forcing the Federals to withdraw. Two more times Rosecrans ordered his men to assault the rebel lines & on the third try nearly succeeded in breaking the Confederate lines. The next morning the battle opened up again with the two sides cavalry forces striking against one another just a few miles away in the Battle of Mulberry Creek. Here though outnumbered General Forrest's cavalry prevailed in defeating their Union counterparts driving them back behind their lines in less than an hour.

The cavalry battle was only the beginning of the second day of the Battle of Hemp Ridge. At 1015 a massive Union artillery barrage began & lasting 45 minutes. When the barrage finally ended the Confederates were subject to a massive frontal assault made up of nearly 18,000 soldiers bent on completely overwhelming Confederate lines. The distance that these troops had to cover was long ranging from a quarter to nearly half a mile long. For part of the march these troops were hit by sporadic Confederate artillery fire before getting too close to Confederate lines. By then they were nearly within range of the infantry & soon they were raked by relentless small arms fire. At 1125 the Union forces reached their high water mark with them reaching the Confederate lines in three areas. After 15 brutal minutes of fighting the Federals began to withdraw in defeat. This charge would be the last major action of the battle & on 1530 General Rosecrans ordered the withdrawal. Of the 65,000 Union troops that had entered the battle over 21,000 were killed, wounded or captured/missing. The Army of Tennessee on the other hand had started the battle with 48,000 troops & had suffered almost 16,000 casualties.

Following the defeat at Hemp Ridge the Union Army withdrew back to Louisville. The Army of Tennessee moved into Frankfort the day after the battle had ended & on April 1 General Forrest's cavalry corps captured Lexington. With the capture of Lexington the only major city in Kentucky remaining in Union hands would be Louisville. Two thirds of Kentucky was now in Confederate hands.
 
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