alternatehistory.com

22 May

An elaborate system involving telegraph wire run from the site of Fort Lyon south through Virginia, west, around and then across the Potomac into Maryland - then down to the Confederate forces on the Pipe Creek Line - is used to spot fall of shot for an ex-Union 9" shell firing gun. The gun fires rarely, but it aims specifically for the White House.
While the actual damage done is minor - the shell flight time is so long that most of them burst in mid-air and those which do not are not well controlled - the effect on morale in the capital is devastating. A few members of Congress raise the subject that has been taboo up until now - a negotiated peace.
This discussion collapses in accusations of defeatism and foolishness, and nothing is done.
Meanwhile, McClellan requisitions the entire products of Springfield with their ad-hoc construction methods (some of which involves taking broken weapons and re-forging them, which has negative implications for barrel life) along with everything that has filtered through the blockade in the last month. He uses the results to replace his own breakages and gain around a 10,000 increase.
The army - now the Army of the Potomac in name only as it is currently if anything closer to the Susquehanna - is being put through training McClellan hopes will give them the will to fight, despite the string of reverses they suffered earlier in the year.


23 May
Lightened of her guns (following separately) the City-class ironclad Louisville completes passage through the Illinois and Michigan canal. It has been a tight squeeze and the ironclad vessel grounded several times, but with her present the Union has an ironclad unit on the lakes.
There is some celebration of this fact, though it is moderated by the observation that there are British ironclads also on the lakes.

As the Passiac class ironclad built in Pittsburgh is too large to follow the same route, there are arguments about what to do with her. Notable suggestions include keeping her in Pittsburgh to protect the city, sending her down the Mississippi to thence come around the west coast, and even disassembling her completely and rebuilding her at a port of greater convenience.

The CSS Mississippi and Louisiana are declared complete at New Orleans. Low powered as they are, they are still considered useful, and begin sailing up the Mississippi with tugs beinging them upriver. When combined with the Arkansas and the Eastport, as well as the Tennessee when she is finished, the Confederacy hope to be able to push upriver and neutralize the Union's river navy.