alternatehistory.com

18 February

In Mexico, the city of Monclova is captured after a bloody battle.
This particular battle is notable as it has been conducted entirely with Mexican troops - though the Imperialists were trained by French troops, and as such display similar if less expert tactical methods.
One way in which the Imperial troops have surpassed their French tutors, however, is in artillery - this is due to the simple reason that the Mexican gunners are firing at the equivalent range for their rifled guns (a Parrott battery purchased from the United States) that they would have fired their smoothbores in previous wars. (The French artillery arm prefers to use the accuracy of their rifled guns only, for the most part.)

20 February
German cavalry squadrons confirm that a substantial part of the Danish army is entrenched in Dybbol.
This is some way north of the Schleiswig-Holstein border (indeed it is north of Flensburg) and as such the German advance slows while political matters begin to work themselves out - the Confederation's authorization of force included a number of points where conditional peace offers should be made, and this is one of them.
One of the details which impresses itself on the mind of the Prussian corps commander is that, here in South Schleiswig, his men are reporting that they are being back-talked with in German. This detail (the language shift, and how it was discovered) is mentioned in his personal letters back to Frederick III.



23 February
Palmerston makes a speech about the war taking place between Denmark and the German Confederation. Answering charges of passivity, he notes that in the event of either power wishing to overstep the bounds of common decency the British Empire can deploy a force consisting of "three ironclads, seven ships-of-the-line, smaller ships sufficient to enforce blockade, and twenty thousand well-armed troops" on about a week's notice.
It is asked what this would do to stop Prussia, which has an army rather larger than twenty thousand well-armed troops, and Palmerston's reply is that in the event of Prussia being the one to transgress then the British force will be defending Denmark (and there are about thirty thousand Prussian troops in Denmark, of whom two thirds at least are 'militia') and that in the event of Denmark being the one to transgress then Prussia will not be a problem.


27 February
Danish attack on Swinemunde.
The town is not well fortified, and as such the attack turns into something of a comical event - with no troops the Danes cannot take permanent or semi-permanent possession of the town, with no forts there is nothing to visibly destroy, and without much major commerce or military threat residing in the town itself there is not anything major to damage in the dockyards either. The result is that the Danes land a few hundred marines who garrison the town for the day, then retreat with alacrity when an entire corps of Prussians is reported to be moving towards them. (Actually this is some elements of the I Corps, shifting by rail from their positions as reserve for the Danish campaign.)
As a result, a joke goes around in Berlin that the Danes landed troops and the Prussian police arrested them; this is false.


1 March
Committee on Firearms gives their final report on the Snider. The thrust of their conclusion is that this fine weapon is superior to the Enfield rifle it replaces in all aspects, and that the new metallic cartridges coming into production will render it "the best long arm in Europe at this date".