alternatehistory.com

5th October

The 5th Hussar regiment of France takes part in a long-range raid into Republican Mexico. They are armed with the Westley-Richards as part of a weapons trial under combat conditions, as Napoleon III's advisors consider this the best of the non-Snider weapons from the British trials.
Carrying 100 rounds of ammunition each along with three days of supplies, the 5th Hussars brush aside a Mexican picket with only three casualties and ride north into Chihuahua.


6th October
A large purchase of steam locomotives and rolling stock arrives in North Carolina, to operate on the rail line to Egypt NC (where there are coal and iron mines, and considerable production of pig iron is already taking place).
This also highlights one of the issues that some (notably PGT Beauregard) wish to address about the Confederacy's strategic geography - the rail lines are inconsistent in their gauge.
One plan under consideration is to double-gauge the sections currently of a wider gauge, though regauging is also a possibility. Beauregard suggests that the gauge used should not be the same as that used by the Union, if standardization is to be taken up. (Whether this is because it would offer defensive possibilities or just because it would be less Union-ish is not noted.)


7th October
The 5th Hussars run into a substantial Republican brigade at Santa Eulalia near Chihuahua (about three depleted regiments, roughly 2,000 strong) and a meeting engagement develops - distinctly not as planned for the Hussars, who were planning on a raiding operation with as little actual combat as possible.
Their superior weapons (along with their training to the standards of Vincennes) mean that despite being a cavalry formation running into superior numbers of infantry they are able to more than hold their own. A firefight develops which varies in intensity for some time, until Mexican cavalry reinforcements approach from the south and the 5th Hussars retreat.

What the French colonel does not realize for some time afterwards is that this small engagement (with about thirty dead on his own side, twice that wounded, and perhaps a hundred Mexican casualties) has had a huge effect on the war - the brigade was an escort for Benito Juarez, who took two bullets to the chest within minutes of the engagement starting and is in critical condition.



9th October
With less than a month to go before the first Confederate elections as an independent country, a terrifying vision has appeared in the new nation - the political party.
Most are still unaffiliated, but half-a-dozen candidates in Kentucky refer to themselves as the Independent Democrats and a group in Louisiana have taken the name of Southern Conservatives.

10 October
Benito Juarez dies of his wounds in Chihuahua.
This sparks an immediate question in the Republican cabinet - Juarez was elected by the Mexican people, and had his term extended by the Mexican congress, but the legitimacy of his successor will necessarily be in question. (A confirmatory election is obviously impossible under the circumstances.)
General Diaz suggests a temporary military government for the duration of the 'emergency', and is rebuffed.