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Part #1: Standstill

“I will not move my army until I am absolutely ready.”


“I will generally admit that Guns of the North is a fascinating and fun take on the genre of alternative history. Once again, Hawke crafts a strong narrative with a well research cast. But it is my obligation as a historian to look into the plausibility of the work. As far as most Northern Victory novels go, a standard in amongst American authors in the genre, this one goes beyond a singular ‘all-winning’ point of divergence. Many merely have McClellan be given some shocking revelation, or see Sherman step to the forefront through some miraculous victory, or kill off Lee as soon as feasible.

Hawke instead brings in new generals, rather than killing off the old ones. He brings in Hiram Ulysses Grant, a notable officer in the Mexican-American War that was noted for his potential and ability as a strategist, skill as a cavalry rider, and general aptitude. He died of malaria in 1858, but Hawke envisions him as a strong leader that would quickly become a general and leading commander, becoming a voice that joined Sherman in getting McClellan and Halleck both relieved of leadership. With Sherman in command and Grant as the man beneath him, the Union does far better in the early years of the war.[2]

I cannot make a firm judgment on the aptitude of Grant, but his record does indicate some very capable as a soldier and far more aggressive than McClellan. However, he also had issues with alcohol and a strong inclination for combat that could very well have seen him fall against the forces of Lee and Jackson. Notably, he did know Lee, which Hawke uses as grounds for how the Pride of Virginia agrees to a ceasefire, having their time in battle see them form begrudging respect for one another. The assumption that this relationship would ever be so strong, however, is a jump. I will give Hawke credit in that he makes it feel a logical one, and the use of Grant as a figure sympathetic to Lee helps make the restraint shown despite some rather horrid orders from Sherman (orders I personally agree are very much in his character and line of thinking) feel realistic of such a character.

Beyond Grant, the most interesting ‘new character’ Hawke introduces is Major General Chamberlain. We never get the man’s full name, but other historians have commented that he is based heavily on either Thomas Chamberlain, a colonel and later Brigadier General in the war who eventually served with Sherman, or his brother Joshua Chamberlain, who was a professor and later President of Bowdoin College becoming an instructor at West Point and serving as an advisor in the Department of War.[3] I believe he is a mix, but possibly directly an alternate version of Joshua, who gained some notoriety for urging all his students to enlist in the war, and later for sending ideas for tactics to Thomas, who applied them as his own. Joshua, who was even sent on a leave of absence by the school leadership who disliked his jingoism, never enlisted himself despite numerous letters implying her wished to due to a heavy limp sustained from breaking his ankle after a fall in 1858 on the Bowdoin campus. Perhaps Chamberlain in the novel is Thomas, who listened to his brother’s lessons a little better, or a version of Joshua who never broke his ankle and enlisted. Either is dubious in plausibility for how masterful the character is as a soldier. He also serves as a rival and counter to Sickles, keeping the man in check, and this antagonism is without any historical basis beyond Sickles’ lack of likeability and the author’s wishes.[4]

I think the biggest thing that Guns of the North does right is focus on how the faster Northern action needed to be accompanied by restraint on the part of the generals invading. Many novels on this topic fail to look at the animosity and cultural divides the war tore between the North and the South. Hawke is very conscious of these and specifically mentions that too harsh a campaign would like have made an occupation of the South so full of animosity that a revolt would have been inevitable. Perhaps only Dixie, Darkly takes note of this as well but instead follows this narrative concept to create a hellish military-run region oppressed by northern hatred for decades. Of course, Hawke’s novel is far more realistic, and while the author, of course, takes some liberties, I give a general mark of approval.[5] Grant is certainly a case of a ‘perfect commander’ who makes no error, but in many ways, he serves a good foil for Lee’s many real exploits…”



“The war had only just begun, and McClellan was cautious.[6] The capabilities of the South was not truly known, the terrain full of hazards, the population enthusiastic, and they had a number of incredibly capable generals working with all of these variables. If McClellan was anything, it was a man who loathed uncertainty. President Lincoln wanted a more active campaign, but the general thought little of his Commander-in-Chief’s capabilities, referring to him as a ‘well-meaning baboon’.[7] And while a number of generals opposed the level of inaction that McClellan enforced, they ultimately had to do as told by the general-in-chief.

The early war had seen a strong repulsion of the Confederates from Missouri and West Virginia. And several of these victories belonged to McClellan, who swiftly became the rising star of the Union Army. Many worried he was too cautious, waited too long before acting. Given the failure, however, to drive the South from Kentucky, and their control of the entryway to the Mississippi from Belmont and Columbus, alongside their strong defensive line being held by General Joseph E. Johnston in Virginia, there seemed little to do offensively until a crack could be made in the South.[8]

However, pressure was on McClellan to earn victories. He needed glory to his command in order to maintain his post. This, of course, was how he also felt he could save his country. Brigadier General Burnside had seen success in raiding the coast of North Carolina, with an aggressive mindset that McClellan felt was better served poking through the Confederates in the northwest. McClellan generally did not see that theatre as a critical priority, but with few victories there and generally wary of ‘hot-headed’ commanders, it was the perfect choice in his mind to send Burnside. Burnside and his men were sent into Missouri soon after this assessment, the first of many hellish visits for Burnside.[9] His first battle was known as the Battle of Harrison Fields, so named for the farmer killed in the crossfire. The Battle saw a Confederate division from Belmont attempting to encroach West from the river, and Burnside caught word of this. His men moved into position just before a hillscape, crossing its zenith just in time to come into full view for the Southern force.

Thanks in part to Burnside’s reliance on riflemen at Harrison Fields, he began making headway in driving the South from Missouri, successfully taking control of Belmont in December. However, Columbus had only grown into a greater stronghold in that time, described by Burnside as a ‘festering, infected wart.’ This would result in a relationship of mutual disdain for the region that he shared with then Brigadier General William T. Sherman, whose story is of course deserving a book in its own right…

...This would be the victory McClellan needed to secure the respect of his well-planning ways. Pope was much like McClellan, and while Frémont certainly had a low opinion of them both, the fact remained Brigadier General Pope’s victory in Virginia was perhaps the first critical victory of the Union in the Winter of 1861.[10] He had succeeded in routing a force directly under Joseph Johnston’s command thanks to the superiority of resources at his disposal and the careful examination of the terrain that McClellan had championed beforehand. Public support for the two generals rose as press caught wind of the success.

Pope, always a braggart, spoke to them of his and McClellan’s supposedly close correspondence and the genius of their plan. Rather than directly send Union soldiers to their deaths ‘horrid swamps and humid plains,’ Pope had said, ‘they would trap the Southerns in their own grave.’ In holding a firm line and pushing back the ‘foolhardy traitors’ with superior planning, blockades and port raids would mean they would effectively starve them out.[11]

Explained in such a manner, spoken of as making the war nearly bloodless and based in showing the South just what horrors they face without aid, the public had approval for the plan. This, however, outraged Lincoln, as the main strategy of the Union was now in direct discussion by the public at large, and meant that all expected a quick and easy war. While officially in order to ensure he could properly command the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia directly and without hindrance, McClellan was replaced as general-in-chief by Henry Halleck in February of 1862. Of course, McClellan mixed success would only brighten his shine, and make his return to the post logical…” [12]




“The Battle of Elizabethtown was a turning point in Sherman’s career. Prior to this, he was known as a paranoid, overcomplaining lout who hated his position in Kentucky.[13] He’d been given orders to press Bowling Green into capitulation, but his frontal assault had resulted in failure. The Confederate garrison held out long enough for reinforcements to fully flank Sherman’s army, inflicting heavy casualties that would make a similar assault infeasible for some time.[14] Instead, he was given orders to try and keep as much of the state under his control as possible. To that end, when word reached his retreating army that Confederate army that hard flanked his so mercilessly had since moved north to occupy Elizabethtown, Sherman marked it his priority target.

Turning his army around, he whipped his troops into a fiery fervor. Some say this was aided by a good bit of liquid courage. Regardless, Sherman had an army that was filled with a lust for revenge, and his loosed them upon the town. The battle was more of a massacre, beginning at sundown, with the far more rambunctious Confederates having a celebration of their victories. Drunk and unprepared, the first shots fired caused a panic. The Confederates had no true formation. They only emerged, trying to fight, from the town into the surrounding area, where Sherman had encircled them. It was at this point that a small fire broke out. The Confederates came running, and Sherman showed no quarter as he opened fire on the fleeing men.

Thus a victory was put onto his belt, and as Sherman had the fire put out, some say an idea came into his mind.[15] It would take some time to grow, festering in his psyche until it matured into his own theories of war. But for now it had given a sense of accomplishment and began to drive out his encroaching depression. However, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Word of Sherman’s merciless attack and the fire that came with it circulated, morphing into a sort of dishonorable hunt, Sherman lighting a fire to smoke out his prey before he had them all killed. While inaccurate, Sherman had garnered a reputation, one that soon turned the spies he deluded about into a very real threat around him, the people of Kentucky growing scared of his wrath…

...It was in this attempt at a Northern jab that Burnside and Sherman had their first significant interaction. While Columbus held out, the assault from two fronts had greatly weakened the Confederate position. Burnside proposed a second try, this time with his men moving South and crossing the Mississippi there to allow an attack up towards Columbus. Sherman was keen on the idea, and their planning resulted in the beginnings of a lifelong friendship. Unfortunately, Burnside was needed elsewhere. His focus on Belmont and Columbus had left the rest of Missouri far less defended.

With Burnside unable to coordinate the assault, Sherman abandoned the plan for the moment. Instead, he turned towards Bowling Green, the supposed capital of Confederate Kentucky. His army was nowhere near full strength. Acting quickly, he had a detachment of cavalry remain in the region between Bowling Green and Columbus while he returned to Louisville. These riders had one job, and it didn’t include direct engagement of the enemy. Instead, it was to raid supply caravans, harass moving troops, and sabotage transit, from digging trenches in dirt roads to mangling the few rail lines nearby.

This tactic would later inspire Sherman as the war progressed. He had divided the Confederates in Kentucky, but he, unfortunately, lacked the necessary manpower to exploit that advantage. And, worse for Sherman, his complaining in times past, when he had been more on the edge of mental breakdown, meant that his requests for reinforcements and supplies remained ignored for a while longer…[16]

...McClellan entered Virginia unhappy. He knew the campaign was important, but the fact remained that he had been forced to lead it partly to get him out of Lincoln’s hair. He wrote in a letter that he thanked God that at least someone with a ‘calm head’ had taken his place in the form of Henry Halleck. Halleck was similarly slow-going in tactics, and McClellan was indeed able to put his skillful focus on the campaign before him. His enemy was Joseph Johnston, still in command of Northern Virginia for reasons unknown after his loss to Brigadier General Pope.

This meant a tactical game was afoot. Johnston was cautious. Like McClellan, he preferred to plan things carefully, but unlike McClellan he had a far superior scouting force that knew the region incredibly well.[17] This set the Union army on high alert. They were in the enemy’s turf, against a man who knew how to plan out an attack. Marching from Fort Monroe, they saw combat at Yorktown, a battle that McClellan was thankfully able to win despite the larger width of the Confederate line, due to the greater overall size of the landing Union force. Occupying Yorktown, McClellan left a solid chunk of his men to stay there as a garrison, leaving Keyes in command, hoping they might serve as rear reinforcements in case Johnston played any tricks.[18]

Some wonder what the campaign might have been like had McClellan not been in direct command from its start. He was controlling, and turned the planned rush up the peninsula into a crawl. Johnston pressed an attack only a few miles from Yorktown, and McClellan was forced to begin a retreat. His placement of Keyes as a rearguard, however, inadvertently worked out for him, as Keyes had decided to leave Yorktown in impatience, intending to follow his commander from a distance. This meant that as McClellan entered the town, furious to find it empty and quickly attempting to fortify, Johnston saw a chance to press an attack. It was a bold move rare for the man, but the situation was a strong enough advantage, and given the prize McClellan would be if captured, he took the risk. Keyes came in as if out of nowhere a few hours later, hitting Johnston’s rear and right flank.[19]

This gave McClellan a chance to lead a charge out of Yorktown that broke the army and ultimately saw Johnston be forced to surrender. Captured and humiliated, Johnston was quickly placed under arrest, and it seemed that the Union was going to win the Peninsula. Or they would have, had Lee not just arrived. Mysteriously absent for some time, he had now come to reinforce Virginia and the capital of Richmond. McClellan was struck by the aggressive Lee in late May and early June, and his hold on the Virginian peninsulas faltered. A retreat had to be ordered, though they took Johnston and many of his men with them. Leaving from Fort Monroe, it was a mixed bag. Still, the capture of Joseph Johnston was a victory, and the prowess of Robert E. Lee was known, and meant that a loss to him so soon after annihilating another Confederate army did little to curb McClellan’s fame.

The Peninsula Campaign had failed, and yet McClellan was still on the rise. Upon his return to Washington, DC he was not immediately given the position of general-in-chief. However, it would be restored to him in July of 1862 when Halleck was asked by Lincoln to lead an attack into Tennessee. Some believed the president preferred McClellan in command rather than ‘blundering into fame’ on the field, as Lincoln once said of his general.

Joseph Johnston was tried for treason and sentenced to prison. However, in September 1862 he attempted an escape alongside several other Confederate prisoners of war from a military jail with the aid of a sympathizer in the guard. He would be shot dead in the escape. Of course, the story was soon changed as it reached the South, that Johnston and his men had all been executed, a riot used as a flimsy excuse to do so.[20] This rumor soon sparked a fervor in the South; they were traitors, there was no questioning that, and now it seemed clear that the Union was out to kill them all for it. As early as October 1 there was a new poster being put up in Atlanta, Birmingham, and Charleston to try and recruit men to enlist, and it had on it a phrase that resonated in the hearts of many, and made them feel much as their forefathers had when they chose to fight the British: Join or Die.”




“It had been a question since 1862 had rolled in: Where was Lee? He seemed to appear back on the front only in late May. Even then, he gave a few orders before letting generals beneath him hold pressure on McClellan while he departed. It was only in June that General Lee was truly back in command. And he had with him the Army of the Appalachians. The truth soon became evident as these men under the Pride of Virginia did battle with the Army of the Potomac under the command of General Henry Halleck at the Second Battle of Sitlington's Hill.[21]

These men were no ordinary force of rabble. They weren’t a few young fools being barked at by aging veterans. No, they were young, but a well oiled fighting force, with clear training and practiced maneuvers. As it became apparent to Halleck, Lee’s absence had been spent training and drilling the militia he had been given into a true military, an army of the Confederacy that could go blow for blow with the boys of West Point.[22] What they lacked in experience, they made up for in spirit, firmly in belief of their cause, a fact that only grew stronger when word came of General Joseph Johnston’s execution.

Many military historians blame the inactive stance of McClellan and Halleck, but the fact of the matter was that the Confederacy had managed to keep the Union from making significant headway in the South. It had become clear to the government in Richmond that the North was taking a defensive stance. Truthfully they were most emboldened by General Pope’s very public declaration of this fact in the Winter of 1861, and it was decided, with General Johnston at the time successfully holding Virginia, to give General Lee a fresh army, but to then allow him a period of time exclusively to train and drill this army, a decision Lee took on with gusto. Many have made allusions to Washington at Valley Forge, with Lee taking the boys under his command to the mountains in southwestern Virginia and making them train and train and train, giving speech after speech.

Given Lee’s discomfort with how deified he seemed to be amongst the army, many suspect he had little idea just how much his words would get to these young men. They weren’t just fresh cadets in need of morale, but scared civilians, fighting a war they barely understood. Lee’s speeches gave them direction, gave them purpose, and he was soon being called ‘Granny Lee’ and ‘Uncle Bobby’ when not present, many of his men seeing him as a father figure.[23] Most startling to Lee was at the erroneously named Battle of Arlington, when Private James Beaufort ‘Jimbo’ Tucker intentionally jumped and shoved Lee from his horse, knocking him to the ground just as a Union rifleman attempted to shoot him. Tucker was shot in the neck and shoulder, and bled profusely over Lee, who tried to ask the boy if he was alright. As recorded in Lee’s journals;

‘He looked up at me and smiled. Smiled, as blood made his uniform look British. He said to me, ‘Just glad you’s alright, uncle.’ Jimbo couldn’t have been more than seventeen. When he first joined I knew he wasn’t old enough, but I turned a blind eye to it. And then he was dead. A child jumped to his death to save me, only caring for me, calling me his kin when he had come from South Carolina. Did Washington bear this burden? Did Napoleon? To have boys look at you like a god and be so eager to give their own life for you?

‘I have watched men die before. I have even looked them in the eye. But a boy so young, all while I knew more boys were dying around me. I write this now, knowing it to be truer than ever: There is not a thing on this Earth more horrid, tragic, or vile than War. I say that as a warrior, a general, a slayer of men. May God have mercy upon us who command, for our hands are stained with the blood of friend and foe alike.’

This passage often seen by most as the beginning of Lee’s slow withdrawal from the world. Many wanted him to run for President of the Confederacy, but he would refuse time and time again…

...The Army of Appalachia struck hard at Fredericksburg,[24] with Stonewall Jackson’s Army of Northern Virginia supplemented after a grueling battle against Henry Halleck, who had again replaced McClellan as general-in-chief, the two men having become rivals. Robert E. Lee broke the stalemate that had begun to form, and turned what was an even fight into a massacre.

Bloody and swift, the battle saw few men survive. One of the few men to garner a degree of victory and strike a strong blow against Jackson was a unit under the commander of George Meade. While stille forced to retreat, Meade was promoted quickly, and given command. Pope was handed control of the Army of the Potomac after Halleck’s death at Fredericksburg.[25] McClellan, then, was once again in command of the US military. His attention went West, hoping to use Burnside, Pope, and Sherman to gain more victories to aid the war effort, siphoning men away from Meade and later from Sickles in a move that ultimately left the North ripe for Lee’s Invasion…”




“The Bonnie Blue saw a resurgence in usage as 1862 rolled in, with the Stars and Bars having been a confusing battle flag on a number of occasions. While some disliked the usage of blue, so linked to the uniforms of the Union Army, the Bonnie Blue flag held a sort of reverence for the men of Mississippi, a number of which formed a part of Lee’s Army of Appalachia. While they had their own regimental flag, they carried the Bonnie Blue as their banner into battle, and it was then subsequently used in Western Theatre by men promoted to command from under Lee, and Stonewall Jackson also then used it after one particularly embarrassing instance of firing on one of his own units whose flag had gotten turn up, the shreds looking like numerous stripes rather than two large bars.[26]

The famous battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was also used by Jackson, and would later become the basis for the second naval jack of the Confederate Navy. Ironically, a flag looking much like the first naval jack was starting to creep into civilian centers, stitching stars onto blue sheets to create a ‘new’ Bonnie Blue to represent the larger Confederacy. While the government would, during wartime, declare a new banner bearing the Northern Virginia saltire in the canton of a white field as the national flag, it failed to gain great use as high winds made it become a flag of surrender.[27] Thus the civilian Bonnie Blue spread to the military as well.

By the war’s end, the new government proposal for a flag was rejected in favor of continued use of the updated Bonnie, but a second proposal would come that combined both proposals. From the perspective of most historians, however, the Bonnie Blue was the popular, if unofficial flag of the Confederate States from 1862 to 1866.”




“Bonnie Blue Flag

1. We are a band of brothers and native to the soil
Fighting for the liberty we gained by honest toil
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars![28]

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

2. As long as the Union was faithful to her trust
Like friends and like brethren, kind were we, and just
But now, when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

3. First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand
Then came Mississippi and took her by the hand
Next, quickly Alabama, Florida, and Georgia
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

4. Ye men of valor gather ‘round the banner of the right
Louisiana and fair Texas join us in the fight
Davis, our loved President, and Uncle Lee a general rare [29]
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

5. Now here's to brave Virginia, the Old Dominion State,
With the young Confederacy at last has sealed her fate,
And spurred by her example, every other state prepares
To hoist high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

6. Then cheer, boys, cheer, raise a joyous shout
For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out,
And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given,
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

7. Dixies, one and all, are proud that's a fact
As Missouri and Oklahoma now have joined our pact
And each every soldier mans his noble station
For now that Bonnie Blue Flag flies across our nation.[30]

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

8. Then here's to our Confederacy, strong we are and brave,
Like patriots of old we'll fight, our heritage to save;
And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer,
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars.

Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears our sov’reign stars!"