67th Tigers
Banned
Outrage to our English Flag! RMS Trent seized by the United States!
It has been communicated to us by us by our agents in New York that the Royal Mail Streamer Trent, now ten days overdue, was not lost at sea but was in fact intercepted by the US Frigate San Jacinto. Finding two Confederate government ambassadors aboard Messieurs Sidell and Mason, her Captain, the renegade Charles Wilkes, well known for his piratical ways, seized her as a prize of war and was taken her to New York.
The prize court has not yet sat, but our intelligence suggests the Federal government is not disclaiming Captain Wilkes’ actions.....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Times, 2nd December, 1861
Editorial
It may have escaped the notice of our readers, but Msr DuPont, a Federal representative was recently in London on business, and his business was niter. The Federal States of America was clearly unprepared for such a momentous struggle and did not have sufficient reserves of niter and powder to fight a protracted war.
Msr DuPont spent a month buying all the available niter on the London market, and sailed with it for America barely a week ago. It seems fortunate for the Federals that news of the affair of the Trent did not reach our shores earlier, or we should surely have put a stop to its export....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Times, 3rd December, 1861
Chapter 1: The Cause of the War
... News of the capture was delayed for several days as the San Jacinto and Trent steamed for New York, putting in at Hampton Roads (the famous site of the Monitor vs Terror battle some months later) en route. In the meantime ships with several thousands of tons of Saltpetre (an essential ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder) had set sail for the USA from London. We can only speculate that if the news had reached England only days earlier then these ships could have been seized and perhaps the Federals could have been forced to back down. Similarly, a run on the banks in New York was forestalled by the arrival of a large quantity of specie from California.....
... The immediate British response was to begin full mobilisation for war. The militia was embodied on the 7th December and an army of 25,000 men ordered to set out for America immediately. However, by the time they reached Halifax, the first troopships found that the St Lawrence was already unnavigable. It is a testament to the organisational skills of Major General Doyle that the sledge route was still available and over 20,000 British troops travelled to Montreal via this route in January 1862....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Third Anglo-American War, 1861-1863; Oxford University Press, Oxford
26th December, 1861: Lincoln and Seward meet in the White House and decide to reject the British ultimatum, leading to the British declaration of war on the 14th January, 1862
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The War of the Seccession Day by Day, Longstreet University Press, Richmond
Notes
This is the start of an attempt to set up a Trent Affair war at its most favourable to the United States. Its point of divergence is that the Trent was seized as a prize of war, as Wilkes originally ordered. This alters the timing of events enough that the British have more difficulty getting troops into Canada and the Federals can ignore the powder question for a while.
The specie is entirely made up, but based on a huge loss of Specie a couple of years earlier. I assume that never happened, and there are enough butterflies to stabilise the US financial situation.
Also, I’m afraid I’m not a very good writer, so please bear with me.
It has been communicated to us by us by our agents in New York that the Royal Mail Streamer Trent, now ten days overdue, was not lost at sea but was in fact intercepted by the US Frigate San Jacinto. Finding two Confederate government ambassadors aboard Messieurs Sidell and Mason, her Captain, the renegade Charles Wilkes, well known for his piratical ways, seized her as a prize of war and was taken her to New York.
The prize court has not yet sat, but our intelligence suggests the Federal government is not disclaiming Captain Wilkes’ actions.....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Times, 2nd December, 1861
Editorial
It may have escaped the notice of our readers, but Msr DuPont, a Federal representative was recently in London on business, and his business was niter. The Federal States of America was clearly unprepared for such a momentous struggle and did not have sufficient reserves of niter and powder to fight a protracted war.
Msr DuPont spent a month buying all the available niter on the London market, and sailed with it for America barely a week ago. It seems fortunate for the Federals that news of the affair of the Trent did not reach our shores earlier, or we should surely have put a stop to its export....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Times, 3rd December, 1861
Chapter 1: The Cause of the War
... News of the capture was delayed for several days as the San Jacinto and Trent steamed for New York, putting in at Hampton Roads (the famous site of the Monitor vs Terror battle some months later) en route. In the meantime ships with several thousands of tons of Saltpetre (an essential ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder) had set sail for the USA from London. We can only speculate that if the news had reached England only days earlier then these ships could have been seized and perhaps the Federals could have been forced to back down. Similarly, a run on the banks in New York was forestalled by the arrival of a large quantity of specie from California.....
... The immediate British response was to begin full mobilisation for war. The militia was embodied on the 7th December and an army of 25,000 men ordered to set out for America immediately. However, by the time they reached Halifax, the first troopships found that the St Lawrence was already unnavigable. It is a testament to the organisational skills of Major General Doyle that the sledge route was still available and over 20,000 British troops travelled to Montreal via this route in January 1862....
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The Third Anglo-American War, 1861-1863; Oxford University Press, Oxford
26th December, 1861: Lincoln and Seward meet in the White House and decide to reject the British ultimatum, leading to the British declaration of war on the 14th January, 1862
-[FONT="] - [/FONT]The War of the Seccession Day by Day, Longstreet University Press, Richmond
Notes
This is the start of an attempt to set up a Trent Affair war at its most favourable to the United States. Its point of divergence is that the Trent was seized as a prize of war, as Wilkes originally ordered. This alters the timing of events enough that the British have more difficulty getting troops into Canada and the Federals can ignore the powder question for a while.
The specie is entirely made up, but based on a huge loss of Specie a couple of years earlier. I assume that never happened, and there are enough butterflies to stabilise the US financial situation.
Also, I’m afraid I’m not a very good writer, so please bear with me.
