alternatehistory.com

2 June

Shogunal forces take light losses skirmishing with the Mito rebels, including an incident where three Mito men attempt a charge while shouting "ten thousand years for the Emperor". As the rest of the force do not share their conviction, the Mito Ronin are quickly shot down.
While this takes place, the 110-lber Armstrongs are moved into better positions - slowly, and by dint of much effort.


4 June

HMS Achilles completes for sea. She will serve on the North America and West Indies station for her first commission, and is intended to be part of a long-term test as to whether the current anti-fouling regime for iron hulls will work for long periods of time spent in foreign waters.


7 June

Under pressure from Shogunal forces - including a company of Shinsengumi armed with rifles for the field - the Mito rebels retreat into the damaged Mito Castle (abandoned by those who would normally live there due to the fighting in the area).
Upon hearing of this, the Shogun orders that the castle be surrounded and picketed, and that the 110 pounder rifles be positioned to bombard it - seeing a powerful opportunity to make a statement.


11 June

After a dispute over hiring fees, Fitzugh has contracted the services of both a small former CSN gunboat and sufficient transport capacity to transport his 700-odd adventurers to his intended destination - the war-torn island of Hispanola.

12 June

Queen Victoria writes a letter to her son-in-law, where she states that she admires the restraint shown by Prussia in the recent dispute.
Also on this date, Roon issues a circular on the Prussian Army. He states simply that everything about it is terrible and that it should use his system instead - it is suspected he was somewhat drunk when he wrote it, but unfortunately it was sent off before he sobered up.
The issue becomes a minor scandal, but nobody actually loses their jobs over it.


14 June

After several days of preparation, the Armstrong guns of the Shogunate open fire. Their shells are highly destructive to the walls of Mito castle, deranging the stonework or in some cases passing right through the packed-earth sections of the walls before detonating, and the rebels surrender (somewhat stunned) within a few hours.
The main exception is a dozen particularly fanatical men who refuse to surrender with the rest.


16 June

Armstrong makes the decision to use the same rifling method as the RML 7" stopgap guns, instead of his own Armstrong rifling - this means the new guns use the "Woolwich" rifling system - in order to simplify development. For this purpose he simply has one of his new gun blanks bored by the RML 7" borer.
To the resultant gun is added a much longer lever to give greater leverage, again as a stopgap, and this new gun - the serial number 12 - is booked in for another set of tests at Shoeburyness as soon as practical. (The testing field is currently in use by other experimenters.)


17 June

A sequence of tests demonstrate that armour penetration with current projectiles can to a first approximation be modelled as a matter of energy - the projectile requires a certain amount of work (in foot-tons) per inch of circumference to penetrate a given armour scheme - and that this means that a high velocity, heavy projectile from a small calibre gun is the most preferable for penetrating (though the amount of damage done by a bursting charge means a larger projectile is desired, and of course a larger gun can carry much more powder).


19 June

Fitzugh's band of adventurers lands in Santo Dominico, and makes itself known to the rebels on the island - offering their assistance, in return for pay.
Since Fitzugh not only has several hundred well armed troops but also a number of field guns (including two Whitworth rifles of questionably legal provenance) he is not turned away out of hand - but the concept of filibustering has been heard of here, so there are several days of debate on whether to employ his services.


22 June

The Armstrong-Elswick 7" rifle #12 is tested for ergonomics. It proves reliable, with no noticeable degredation in the rifling after fifty rounds fired at a high rate, and the loading speed is much closer to the old 110 pounder.
In order to test that the rifling switch has caused no particular degredation in performance, the same test as performed the previous month takes place with the Warrior target placed at the appropriate range.
The results are nothing short of startling - instead of having a penetration which results in the Palliser projectile bursting in the backing, the round goes completely through the Warrior target and bursts on the other side.
To verify this result, another projectile is fired - this time a Palliser round filled with sand - and a similar result is seen; to whit, the armour has been penetrated at battle range with considerable remaining energy.

It is later found that the previous iteration of the rifle was losing far more velocity than expected from the bite of the rifling, and that this is closer to the 'true' effectiveness that should be expected with the powder load and projectile dimensions. Everyone is impressed - except Reed, who has already realized that this means he will need to uprate his expectations of what armour is required to fight modern guns.

Armstrong is asked for as many guns of this pattern as possible as fast as possible - the weight is greater than the 110 lber or the 68 lber, but they can replace them on very roughly a four for five basis - and admits that the #12 is actually more properly a new test type, so it will take a while to set up a new production line (as well as fine-tuning the breech opening system). He also says he suspects that a much larger gun of this basic design may be practical, news which makes Cowper Coles (observing) visibly excited at the prospect of such a powerful gun to load into a turret.

The gun is formally designated the Armstrong-Elswick RBL 120-lber, or the Armstrong-Elswick RBL 7 inch.


23 June

The Republican National Convention convenes in Columbus, Ohio.
There are bitter arguments taking place, with no one faction obviously dominant and the inital balloting producing significant delegate counts for no fewer than four prospective candidates - Fremont, Blair, Butler and Bates.

Fitzugh is taken up on his offer after rumors of Spanish reinforcements landing on Hispaniola.