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1864-1866
1864
The War in the South was still at a standstill, although one major campaign was launched. James Longstreet, General of Dixie, did make one major campaign, the Atlantic Campaign. Moving out of the city of Wilmington in March, Longstreet made it his goal to capture Norfolk, the shipping center of the Cumberland. At first, the campaign moved slowly, reaching Jacksonville, North Carolina in May. The battle that ensued lasted three days, and saw 7,000 total causalities, 3,000 being Dixie's and 4,000 being the Cumberland's. Then, the campaign moved quickly, reaching Washington, NC on June 3rd. Longstreet blitzed the city, quickly winning the battle with a 20:1 casualty ratio. However, the coastal domination could not be kept without winning Norfolk. The army march for days, reaching the city of Suffolk, Virginia, on July 7th. The Battle of Suffolk was the bloodiest battle of the entire campaign. The Army of Dixie attacked the southern part of the city, not realizing the Army of the Cumberland was dug in. The swamp to the East didn't help anything. After 8 hours of fighting, a siege ensued. The Dixie moved and seized Washington Street on July 12th. The sweltering summer heat made future advancements hard. Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee was focused on trying to break the coastal lines. Nathan Bedford Forrest desperately tried to break through the lines of Dixie but failed repeatedly. As Fall came, the battles drew to a close, with the Cumberland's hold on Suffolk finally breaking, with Dixie taking the city.

Meanwhile, other nations had business of their own. Emperor Stephen I and President William Seward where the leading figures of both alliances on the continent. Both began massive buildups of Armies. Seward had an advantage, West Point. The well-established military school allowed for training of people from across the American Parisian League. 1864 also saw the start of construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Leaders of California, Oregon, Deseret, Canada, and USA-3 built out a proposed line. The line would run along the California and Mormon trails, before breaking to cross Wyoming where it would meet the former Lewis and Clark trail, then it would cross Canada until it met USA-3, where it would met with New York City. It would connect the capitols of California, Deseret, Canada, and USA-3, and would take five years to complete.

Europe was transfixed in her own problems. The Cold War had continued to build up, but no new nations had joined. Then, in April, a border dispute in the Caucasus turned violent. The Ottoman Empire and Russia went to war on the issue, but the Treaty of Lyon stopped Britain and France from joining the war. The war of the Black Sea proved damaging to the Russian reputation, after the Ottoman Empire held back Russian forces and connected the Crimean and Caucasian fronts.

1865
A new political leader in the Americas came in 1865. In the Cumberland, leadership had proven incapable of holding back Dixie. Andrew Johnson, of the Conservative-Imperial Party replaced Liberal-Imperials as the party in power. The C-I and L-I parties came to power in most member-states of the Imperial Alliance after other political parties vanished. The Imperial Parties there split along Conservative and Liberal lines. Johnson, a Conservative-Imperial, supported a quick end to the war. He instructed Robert E. Lee to divert all military forces to a full attack on Atlanta, then move down the Georgia-South Carolina border to seize Savannah, then turn north and capture Charleston. When Lee protested, Johnson fired him. Braxton Bragg was the next replacement. Many disliked Bragg, and although he kept Norfolk, it was at heavy costs. He had evacuated the city where the Dixie Army would invade and put barrels of gunpowder underneath the streets. When the Army of Dixie came, the roads blew up. Longstreet was furious, but retreated. The war came to a cold stand-still for a while as both sides where running out of troops and supplies. Cumberland fared worse than Dixie, likely because of the lose of their ports. Hampton and Yorktown where the last operating ports in the Cumberland.

The rest of the Americas and Europe where remarkably quiet, as even the Russian-Ottoman War continued, mostly at standstill.

1866
The American Empire began to truly establish her claim on the Great Plains with the founding of Dakota Province, with Douglas being the capitol. Stephen I dedicated the city himself, but had secret plans. USA-3 was his biggest rival in North America, and their hold on New Greece (the region of former Southern Illinois centered around Athens) was disturbing. He made plans to invade the region as well as Pittsburgh and the Golden Horseshoe as part of his master plan to conquer the Americas. It would start when he bought the Cumberland and Mississippi in 1867, but no one knew that yet. Meanwhile, the supply shortage in the South put the war in a halt, for now.

In Europe, the Ottomans where pushed out of the Crimea. Britain and France began to count the days until January 1st, 1686, when the Treaty of Lyon would expire. Most excepted a second Crimean War to occur, with the Carolina Conflict in the Americas expanding.

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