TL-191: Filling the Gaps

this must be like OTL's Grossdeutschland or the Panzer Lehr Divisions then?
You are exactly correct. It was obviously also based on OTL 4th Armored Division in terms of its Commander and initial combat history. My next post will be on the 24th South Carolina Infantry Regiment (Tom Colleton's Regiment) as the books mention multiple times that Tom's Regiment went faster and further then most other Confederate units, and made it the furthest into Pittsburgh and was one of if not the last pocket that held out
 
Here's another question that I've been thinking about based on the Mexican Civil War in the Centre Cannot Hold - Jefferson Pinkard talks about how the Freedom Party volunteers are not the only CSA volunteers fighting on behalf of the Mexican government. My take is that you could have an unaligned Confederate volunteers drawn from the ranks of the Tin Hat association, which might be more of the 'de facto' formation. Which would naturally have a rivalry with the Freedom Party volunteers, the question is if the Germans had the Condor Legion in Spain. Is there another suitably cool name we could use for the two Confederate volunteer formations? I thought the Eagle Legion might be too cliched.
 
Here's another question that I've been thinking about based on the Mexican Civil War in the Centre Cannot Hold - Jefferson Pinkard talks about how the Freedom Party volunteers are not the only CSA volunteers fighting on behalf of the Mexican government. My take is that you could have an unaligned Confederate volunteers drawn from the ranks of the Tin Hat association, which might be more of the 'de facto' formation. Which would naturally have a rivalry with the Freedom Party volunteers, the question is if the Germans had the Condor Legion in Spain. Is there another suitably cool name we could use for the two Confederate volunteer formations? I thought the Eagle Legion might be too cliched.
Building on that thought.

It's probably that both members of the Tin Hats (as the largest veterans organization) but also clandestinely actual Confederate military personnel that were brought in as Advisors.

It was probably unofficially organized similar to a State militia along Regimental or Brigade lines they probably had two or three Regiments worth of personnel down there.

Could have potentionally organized like this;

Official Confederate Black Staff - The Jeb Stuart Sr. Volunteer Regiment
Tin Hats - The Cardinal Brigade
Freedom Party - The Dixie Brigade

Jeb Stuart was Commander of the Department of the Transmississippi and his force was the first to enter into the newly acquired land and, considering Jeb Stuart Jr appears to he in most of our head canons as the Chief of the Confederate General Staff throughout most kf the internal years, it would make sense for him to name the detachment in honour of his father.

Brigades are more common in North American military use then Legions. The Cardinal is the State bird for multiple southern states if we are keeping the bird theme. The Dixie Brigade is just about Southern pride as a whole, and the Freedom Party essentially believed they are the only real patriots in the Confederacy.
 
That is awesome and I'm going to use your suggested CSA volunteer organisational structure @vesica within my tl, if that is okay.

I had Vinegar Joe commanding the Cardinal Brigade or at minimum a Battalion. Perhaps Patton commands the Barrel detachment?

Who do you see leading the Dixie regiment? Also I'm thinking about attaching Clarence Potter to the Staff HQ.
 
If this is a TL entirely based on your own thought then the assumption in your TL is that Potter remained within the Army as one of the elect after the war. He finished a Major.

I would be honestly surprised if Pattom hadn't been in Mexico at all with the "official" Confederate detachment. He had probably been a barrel Commander during the Great War and would wanted to get back into it the second he found out the Confederacy was clandestinely building and designing barrels in the Civil War. In my head Canon and an earlier post I made about the Confederate 4th Barrel Division I had Patton having been the Commander of a "Light Cavalry Brigade" which was one of the unofficial Armored units before the Confederacy officially unveiled their new toys. If he didn't pick up experience in Mexico, like I said, I would be astonished.

Feel free to use whatever you wish, and anything you need help with just let me know :)
 
I noticed that Amos Mizel essentially disappeared after the 33 Election.. also notable that there was never an acknowledged Secretary of War of the Confederate States.

What if Mizel had been the initial Secretary of War, but he got caught up with the attempted Knight Coup. Featherston could have used the excuse to essentially dismantle the role/assume control of it directly himself himself so he would have direct oversight over the Confederate Armed Forces. It would explain why Nathan Bedford Forrest III went to Featherston directly rather then the Secretary of War.

I might do a write up on the Knight-Mizel Affair....
 
I noticed that Amos Mizel essentially disappeared after the 33 Election.. also notable that there was never an acknowledged Secretary of War of the Confederate States.

What if Mizel had been the initial Secretary of War, but he got caught up with the attempted Knight Coup. Featherston could have used the excuse to essentially dismantle the role/assume control of it directly himself himself so he would have direct oversight over the Confederate Armed Forces. It would explain why Nathan Bedford Forrest III went to Featherston directly rather then the Secretary of War.

I might do a write up on the Knight-Mizel Affair....
What you're talking about here kinda is reminiscent of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair of OTL, when Hitler removed several Generals in positions in the high command and replaced them with others who were aligned with the Nazi Party.
 
What you're talking about here kinda is reminiscent of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair of OTL, when Hitler removed several Generals in positions in the high command and replaced them with others who were aligned with the Nazi Party.
Essentially accurate yeah. I had imagined the Knight Coup was a combination of both the Blomberg-Fritsch Affairs and one of the many attempted assassinations of Hitler.

My write up will overview Mizel's participation in the Coup, and touch on the reforms Featherston does in light of the attempted Coup.

Itll be the beginning of showing both how much Featherston wanted things micromanaged but also how much he didn't want any possible challengers to his ultimate authority. Hence why he never promotes anyone to full General or Admiral, and why officers that were in his favor were given direct access to him rather then going through their nominal superiors.
 
Honestly I see the Ottomans much like the Austro-Hungarian Empire;
in my personal opinion it's very likely that they would've had a chance to reform in this timeline as such they may be able to survive into the late 20th century and then it's up Air in the 90s Yugoslavia only existed in the 20th century
 
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bguy

Donor
I noticed that Amos Mizel essentially disappeared after the 33 Election.. also notable that there was never an acknowledged Secretary of War of the Confederate States.

What if Mizel had been the initial Secretary of War, but he got caught up with the attempted Knight Coup. Featherston could have used the excuse to essentially dismantle the role/assume control of it directly himself himself so he would have direct oversight over the Confederate Armed Forces. It would explain why Nathan Bedford Forrest III went to Featherston directly rather then the Secretary of War.

I might do a write up on the Knight-Mizel Affair....

Mizell as the initial Secretary of War makes a lot of sense. It's mentioned in The Victorious Opposition that Action Francaise purged the "deadwood" from their army much faster than Featherston did, and there's also a scene in Blood and Iron where Mizell expressed disapproval of Featherston describing the men in the War Department as traitors. Combining those two factoids, my head canon has always been that Mizell was Featherston's initial Secretary of War, and in that position he was the one who was protecting the army's senior leadership from Featherston (which helps explain how Jeb Stuart lasted in the army until 1936.)
 
Mizell as the initial Secretary of War makes a lot of sense. It's mentioned in The Victorious Opposition that Action Francaise purged the "deadwood" from their army much faster than Featherston did, and there's also a scene in Blood and Iron where Mizell expressed disapproval of Featherston describing the men in the War Department as traitors. Combining those two factoids, my head canon has always been that Mizell was Featherston's initial Secretary of War, and in that position he was the one who was protecting the army's senior leadership from Featherston (which helps explain how Jeb Stuart lasted in the army until 1936.)
That can also explain why Mizell supported Knights attempted Coup as after Stuart's firing it was notable that Featherston began firing Generals (as was mentioned by Chester Martin's brother in an off handed comment) so Mizell saw it as going against the country and undermining his authority as SecWar
 

bguy

Donor
That can also explain why Mizell supported Knights attempted Coup as after Stuart's firing it was notable that Featherston began firing Generals (as was mentioned by Chester Martin's brother in an off handed comment) so Mizell saw it as going against the country and undermining his authority as SecWar

Definitely. There's also a scene in "The Center Cannot Hold" where Mizell is speaking at a Freedom Party rally and seems unnerved when the crowd starts chanting Featherston's name, so while Mizell was fine with the Freedom Party's racism and revanchism, he did seem uneasy about Featherston getting too much personal power. If so I could see Mizell wanting to keep the army as a potential check on Featherston, and once Featherston succeeds in purging the army despite Mizell's best efforts, Mizell deciding that the Knight coup was the only way to save the country from a dictator.
 
I'll be working those thoughts into my write up!
So I'm guessing now for your write up, the Department of War becomes the Confederate Armed Forces/Army High Command. In this capacity leading Featherston's personal military staff, who becomes his de facto defense secretary? James F. Byrnes? Blanton Winship? A couple of oft-speculated names. Nathan Bedford Forrest III already acts as Army Chief of Staff in his capacity. What would become of the Department of Navy as well? It's also speculated the C.S. Air Force is its own department by the time of the SGW. The last two would be explored in other write ups .
 
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The War Department is going to retain its title, Clarence Potter mentioned multiple times that he worked in the War Department Offices. Instead Featherston is going to assume control of the Department directly, similarly to how Winston Churchill was also Minister of Decence during OTL WWII
 
The War Department is going to retain its title, Clarence Potter mentioned multiple times that he worked in the War Department Offices. Instead Featherston is going to assume control of the Department directly, similarly to how Winston Churchill was also Minister of Decence during OTL WWII
Well, with the Freedom Party becoming the sole legal party, they'll gladly rubber stamp Featherston serving concurrently as the Defense Secretary.
 
With the Canadian election being this past Monday, I have some ideas and questions on how different the state of Canadian politics would be pre-GW1 and post. First with the immediate prewar period: Robert Borden is mentioned as still being the PM during GW1; and in 1911, he came to power after a split in the Liberal Party under Wilfrid Laurier on the issue of freed trade, reducing tariffs, and cultural rapprochement with the United States. Of note, Champ Clark would never utter his wish to see the "American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole" since since the CSA are state allies with the British Empire, which drove the issue against free trade in favor of the Conservative. But with OTL's relations and cultural animosity, the end results would be the same and the Liberal's may split further as a result.

Now with the US winning the FGW and annexing Canada as a whole, how long would it take for Canadians of various political backgrounds to ultimately accept the US and know the UK was never coming back after the Great Wars? That would mean among the Conservatives, Liberals, and small left wing parties that were the predecessors to the NDP. The Conservatives would react strongly against this the most and would make up the lot of the rebels; the Liberals would be a mixed bag as they had wanted to work with the US, but now their country is gone and the US are their new overlords; left-wingers would perhaps try to cooperate the most IMO through negotiations. Though when Custer becomes the Governor General, Canadians are universally opposed to his heavy-handed rule and have total hatred toward him. Long term once the US tries to make the former provinces into states, it won't be an easy process. A bit of speculation is that the US offers the chance for Canadians to serve in the Armed Forces to become citizens, but there'd still animosity. An idea from David in his After the End thread is that Canadians become the foremost constitutionalist activists in trying to have their rights recognized as US subject and citizens for those born after annexation that ends up working out for them in their favor. What are all your thoughts and opinions on this matter? What are your speculations for long-term rapprochement between the US and their former Canadian subjects when it comes to politics and society, apart from what was mentioned in the books?
 
With the Canadian election being this past Monday, I have some ideas and questions on how different the state of Canadian politics would be pre-GW1 and post. First with the immediate prewar period: Robert Borden is mentioned as still being the PM during GW1; and in 1911, he came to power after a split in the Liberal Party under Wilfrid Laurier on the issue of freed trade, reducing tariffs, and cultural rapprochement with the United States. Of note, Champ Clark would never utter his wish to see the "American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole" since since the CSA are state allies with the British Empire, which drove the issue against free trade in favor of the Conservative. But with OTL's relations and cultural animosity, the end results would be the same and the Liberal's may split further as a result.

Now with the US winning the FGW and annexing Canada as a whole, how long would it take for Canadians of various political backgrounds to ultimately accept the US and know the UK was never coming back after the Great Wars? That would mean among the Conservatives, Liberals, and small left wing parties that were the predecessors to the NDP. The Conservatives would react strongly against this the most and would make up the lot of the rebels; the Liberals would be a mixed bag as they had wanted to work with the US, but now their country is gone and the US are their new overlords; left-wingers would perhaps try to cooperate the most IMO through negotiations. Though when Custer becomes the Governor General, Canadians are universally opposed to his heavy-handed rule and have total hatred toward him. Long term once the US tries to make the former provinces into states, it won't be an easy process. A bit of speculation is that the US offers the chance for Canadians to serve in the Armed Forces to become citizens, but there'd still animosity. An idea from David in his After the End thread is that Canadians become the foremost constitutionalist activists in trying to have their rights recognized as US subject and citizens for those born after annexation that ends up working out for them in their favor. What are all your thoughts and opinions on this matter? What are your speculations for long-term rapprochement between the US and their former Canadian subjects when it comes to politics and society, apart from what was mentioned in the books?
They'll probably aim for statehood to be granted the rights in the US constitution. Although the US could always try and flood Canada with settlers or attracting immigrants. Most likely they'll accept the situation and vote for those who are willing to extend the rights to them.
 
More on Canada, how do Afro-Canadians view the situation their country's in during GW1? One the one hand, their country's state allies with a country their ancestors fled from decades prior from slavery. On the other hand, the USA, who tried to abolish slavery and failed to defeat the CSA, invades and ultimately wants to destroy Canada and kick out the British. They're basically in for a conundrum on this issue.
 
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