alternatehistory.com

19 July

Fort Scammell of Portland, Maine and Fort Warren of Boston, Massachusets, are selected by the US Committee on Fortifications as examples of undamaged pre-war forts. The intent is to use them as targets to discover at what range they are vulnerable to modern US guns (including in particular the 6.4" Parrott rifle felt to be a close comparison to the Armstrong gun) and to then use this as a minimum baseline for possible fort structures.
There is some opposition in Congress to the idea of blowing up two of the only undamaged forts on the US east coast, though it is noted that as things currently stand they do not appear to be of much use in their current state.


20 July
South Carolina senator James L. Orr asks the Confederate Congress why the Confederate Navy has not agreed to commit their ironclads and frigates to the defence of Charleston.
In a long and detailed reply, Mallory (Secretary of the Navy) details why every ship is needed where it is. He includes the Alabama for her important diplomatic role, the Charleston for being half-cased, the Virginia and Old Dominion as needed to defend Gosport (and hence what is still the Confederate capital at Richmond, as the issue of moving into Washington is still undergoing debate), the various ironclads in the Mississippi system as not fit for oceanic transit, and the Three Presidents as being either on the ways or only just launched - thus unfit to fight.
Also mentioned are the two turret ironclads (the 'laird rams') which were purchased by the Royal Navy some months ago.


21 July
The CSS Saul and David are commissioned. These are two spar torpedo vessels, making use of the newly invented spar torpedo to deliver an explosive charge directly under the keel of an enemy ship.
Any hopes of keeping the concept a secret have been lost as the news in the Confederacy has been making much of it, but Singer's research on spar torpedoes has given the Confederacy an advantage in the deployment of this kind of vessel.


23 July
British squadron arrives off Edo to present demands to the Shogunate.
The British ships bring a conflict already taking place in the upper echelons of Japanese society into sharp focus - a matter of primacy between the Emperor and the Shogun.
The Shogun's position is that apology must be made - that the Namagumi Incident is and was dishonourable - and that negotiation to bring down the indemnity might be possible. The Emperor, by contrast - as the issuer of the Sonnou Joui decree to expel barbarians - feels that Yamato-daishii can overcome any mere matter of technology.

The upshot of all this is that no decision takes place immediately.


25 July
Alabama informs South Carolina that South Carolina cannot have the Hunley, as (paraphrased) they will break it.


28 July
The Shogun takes the unusual step of announcing both his opinion as advisor to the Emperor and his actions as commanded by the Emperor.
The internal political reason for this is that he feels that this is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate why the divine Emperor is the ruler of Japan only in a theoretical sense.
His statement is that an apology and restitution of honour was his intent, but that the Emperor has commanded him to 'expel barbarians'. (Slightly overstating things in the latter case, but entirely believable givven the Sonnou Joui decree). As such, he commands the navies of all the Daimyo to concentrate at Edo to follow the commands of the Emperor.

30 July
The Emperor of Japan hears about what the Shogun has done.
It is at this point he realizes he is, effectively, stuck - if he countermands the orders of the Shogun he appears arbitrary, whereas if he has (as it seems) overridden the Shogun's command to send the ships of Japan to war and the combined force of Japan is defeated then he will lose most of his prestige.
His only way out is a victory for the Japanese Navy.

1 August
Running slightly ahead of schedule, the Royal Naval squadron intended to remonstrate with South Carolina reaches Bermuda.
Those ships requiring recoaling enter the basin - the weather is fine, so even the liners can do it - and troops disembark for a day or two of rifle practice before going back aboard ship.