…Following the liberation of Annapolis, Red troops were poured into the city, pushing northwest towards Fort Meade. The objective was to link up with the Army of Cleveland and cut off Baltimore. There was some hope that the Whites would see Baltimore as the target and try to reinforce the city, depriving Washington of troops…
…Unfortunately, Simmons did not fall into this trap. Fanatical he might be, he recognized that Baltimore was being surrounded. He therefore ordered that all heavy weapons be withdrawn from the city, along with some of his KKK units. The US Army regulars, some of whom had been with the Army of the Chesapeake since its inception, would be left behind. Their job was not to save Baltimore but simply slow the Reds down…
…With little in the way of good fortifications to stop them, the troops from Annapolis reached Fort Meade on November 10. Fort Meade was new, more of a fortified camp, but it was still going to be a tough nut to crack. A massive railyard had been built in Odenton to produce armored trains. These would be employed largely as mobile bunkers, although their mobility was questionable given that coal was in short supply and Red bombers were not…
…To the west, once he reached the town of Dickerson, near a bend in the Potomac, Bradley split the Army of Cleveland in two. A small force – including a battalion of armored cars – would proceed towards Fort Meade. The main force would stay on the south bank of the Potomac and advance on Arlington. If Bradley could secure Arlington, he could set up artillery batteries to threaten the heart of Washington…
…Fighting continued outside of the Potomac Basin. The Army of Memphis took Birmingham on November 7. The last remnants of the White Navy at Pensacola surrendered on November 13 after the fall of Mobile. Rumor said that the Governor of Florida was contemplating surrender. But the fighting raged on…
…On November 25, Fort Meade surrendered. This was in direct violation of orders from Simmons, who had decreed that no troops were to surrender, but that they should retreat if possible and fight to the death if not. But the garrison commander, Major Dwight Eisenhower, realized that retreat would only see his men bottled up in Washington or Baltimore. After the war, Eisenhower would emigrate to Germany…
- From Red Star Rising: A History of the Second American Revolution by Tom Clancy