Reactions to events
Slightly out of order. This should probably be after the Tejas 2 post that isn't up yet, but it doesn't depend on that one, and this is ready.
Reactions to events
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]US manning[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The horrible punishment the US Atlantic coastal cities have received leads to loud cries for better protection. So the US has to dig up more militia to (try to) defend the coast – both rapid response groups to fend off descents, and crews for new coastal defence batteries protect the cities, more cannon for said batteries and construction materials to build them. This last isn't in nearly as short supply as the others, but does add to the cost. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Again, the railway line along the Atlantic coast has been proven vulnerable to British raids, and new forces have to be found to protect them. In particular, there need to be coastal defence batteries or other forts on all navigable rivers the entire length of the Atlantic coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Armed revolt by (some) Chickasaw and Choctaw in Mississippi and by newly armed blacks all across the south mean that even more militia are diverted to internal defence service. Fortunately for the US, they can use 3rd level militia for MOST of this. Also, protecting railroads, bridges, canals, government buildings, etc. Most of this work had been done by 2nd tier militia, but they have been called out for other needs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The initial US attacking force consisted of 150k Regular Army/federalized National Guard (1st tier militia), with 70k 1st and 2nd tier militia as back-up, support, garrisons and supply lines (on the frontier). That's a total of 220k mobilized and sent to/beyond the borders.[1] That doesn't count the garrisons on the Niagara frontier or on Lake Champlain or logistics forces throughout the US or coastal defence, both along the Atlantic coast and the shores of the Great Lakes. (All of these were rather shorted in the push to build an invasion force. The raids on the Atlantic coast and Canadian push on the northern New York border mean they have to, not only return them to full pre-war strength, but strengthen them even further to a war footing.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The massive demand for new coastal defence forces and internal security means that 3rd tier militia (many of whom treated militia duty as an excuse to get together with their buddies on weekends) are called to active duty, and many are asked to move to 2nd tier.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The raising of new troops to active duty (in this case, away from their homes) gets tougher and tougher. Most of the men who would volunteer have already volunteered, and so conscription of men into jobs they never expected, nor signed up, for has to happen. All the 1st tier militia are now functioning as army (most on one of the invasions forces), much of the second tier is now being called up and shipped away from home (to support the invasions, or for coastal defences or logistics work) and the 3rd tier is now having to handle local defence (patrolling railways and canals, guarding supply depots, etc.), that was mostly the 2nd tier's job. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Some grumbling is starting to be heard in the US, but it's at a pretty low level so far. While the east coast is getting pounded, and the Louisiana force was wiped out, the Florida force HAS taken (east) Florida, and the news from the Protectorate is good (not as good as hoped, of course, but good enough that it can be spun as victory in the late winter of '43). Thus there is enough good news to let people hope the effort is worth it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The other problem with the new troops is lack of practice, due to ammunition shortages, see below. This affects everyone from musketeers to coastal defence. The infantry at least had been practising (sort of) for years, but the new crew for the new coastal forts were totally green. Obviously, the older coastal fortresses, the ones in place before the war, with crew that had trained on those guns and in those locations, were pretty good. New York Harbour, Charleston, the forts near Washington, Baltimore and Norfolk naval yards, these were all trained and fairly effective. But even there, efficiency decreased over time. Trained men were 'borrowed' to establish the new batteries. While the individual men usually didn't mind, as it meant a promotion and greater authority, they were replaced by green men who never got a chance to train up properly, and so the efficiency of even the good batteries suffered.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]US Ammunition supply[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gunpowder[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]US manages to arm everyone they call up (if only because most white men were already in the militia at some level or other, and already had some sort of gun), but the supply of ammunition starts running low. The US had prepared for a blockade – and was harvesting saltpetre from bat caves, for instance. But the level of demand was much higher than expected, just in the initial stages of the war. Where the US expected the forward stockpiled supplies of ammo to last, not only through the winter, but well into the spring, they found that they were having to ration use of ammunition before spring break-up. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The added demands of internal security and coastal defences mean that even more powder and shot have to go there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This has several consequences. Live fire training, for instance, is almost cut out (even before the war it was rather less than would have been useful), which means that new units going into battle have little practice and are very green. And on going battles in e.g. Indiana are continuously undersupplied with ammunition (which makes the prime advantage of the Hall Rifle over the British Norton rifle go away immediately). Similarly, the coastal defence guns rarely dare fire their cannon unless there's an allied ship in sight – in case they should lack ammunition when such a ship DOES show up. This, in turn, means that their accuracy is abysmal, and rarely hit those ships. When the ship is even one of the semi-armoured ships, this usually means there are few enough hits that the ship survives. If it's one of the ironclads, well... they just shrug off the few shots that land.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Moreover, the US counted on a different war than what they got. What they EXPECTED was a quick war, with high initial consumption rates of ammunition (even if not quite as high as happened), but then, by spring dropping down to low levels (in particular in Louisiana and East Florida, which should have been thoroughly under control by then.) While they expected continued consumption in Indiana, they really thought they'd be far better off there too. It was HOPED (although not counted on) that the British might negotiate a return of some territory, when it was obvious they couldn't stand up to the US attack. When they DID stand up to it, it was a very unpleasant shock. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So, a gunpowder supply that was expected to last for conquering 3 territories in a blitzkrieg using stockpiled supplies, and then a much lower level of attrition based on continued production, was not at all adequate to the continued heavy fighting in both Indiana (the Protectorate) and East Florida.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The fact that much of the ammunition provided for the Mississippi branch of the attack was lost doesn't actually matter, since it had been expected to be largely expended in the conquering of Louisiana. OTOH, the fact that there are stores still stockpiled in e.g. Memphis for the expected resupply of that force actually eases supply constraints elsewhere, as that force is now gone, and the ammunition can be used in other theatres. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mercury[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Again, the supply of mercury for percussion caps is being cut off (not only due to the blockade, but due to the fact that the main supplier is Spain – with whom the US is currently at war). The US wasn't really in the habit of thinking of mercury as a strategic supply, and didn't work ahead of the curve fast enough to build up a large supply. And in any case, the increased demand already required increased production at the existing Spanish production facilities (so they couldn't deliver as much as the US wanted as fast as she wanted it). The US also expected that commercial shipments could be bought, say in Amsterdam, through third parties and smuggled into the US. Now, some of that is happening, but the US merchant fleet is much smaller iTTL than OTL and few neutral shippers want to brave the combined navies of the League. The other major source, Peru, has lots of mercury (used locally in the silver mining industry), and Peru is not friendly with the League. So the US reasonably expected that she could source her supplies of mercury there. However, Peru doesn't want to get into a shooting war with the League (it wouldn't be just Chile this time).[2] Moreover, Peruvian mercury would likely have to come overland across Central America and that means packing it on mules across Panama, since they're not going to be able to use Nicaragua. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The US does start experimenting with silver fulminate, as they have 'lots' of silver (compared to the needs of the percussion cap industry, anyway).[3][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]lead[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Even lead for casting bullets is in short supply. The best mines available were in Missouri and near the old Illinois/Wisconsin border. Old mines in central Pennsylvania that had been used during the Revolutionary War and small mines in Ulster and Sullivan counties in New York are expanded....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British ammunition supply.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British supply constraints exist, too. The British had a slightly better idea of how much gunpowder was burnt in battle, and their pre-war consumption was higher – British forces did far more live-fire training, both army and navy than other countries did – so their base level of imports was higher. Still, the massively increased forces we're talking about require massive increases in gunpowder production. Now. Britain has good access to the world's best supplies of saltpetre (namely Chile/Peru and India). But both those places are on the far side of the world from Britain, so if London orders a doubling of saltpetre production, say for instance, the order takes about 4 months to get to India, and 4 months to get back, so the time delay is some 8 months – even if they could instantly increase production. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Fortunately for the British, their major forts in the Protectorate stored up to 2 years expected supply, so the forts along the Maumee are able to 'lend' powder and shot to the arriving forces. The other fortunate aspect for the Brits is that the west coast of South America is much closer to the North American field of operation than it is to Britain (or than India is to either). In fact, shortly after the attack, the Governor of Louisiana sent an urgent request down to Chile and Peru to increase saltpetre shipments, and those can arrive much faster (say a month or so down, a month or so back), so the new supplies can start to arrive by some time in March. The saltpetre is shipped up the coast to Nicaragua, across the rail-line to the Caribbean, then to Louisiana. In the meantime, the governor orders construction of powder mills, and sends requests for expert help – and permission to do what he just did. Until the new powder production gets on-line, however, the governor is VERY nervous. They shot off much of their supply in the initial battles with the US, and if other similar waves hit (if the Mexicans launched a 25k man invasion, as they could), the British forces in Louisiana would be hard pressed to hold them off. Thankfully, some 4+k new troops arrive at the end of January (3.7 EIC troops from India, and a West Indies regiment), so the manpower is now less inadequate for another attack, and they have enough ammunition for about one more major battle, so they MIGHT survive another major attack, if they're lucky. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British lead production is fine. THEY have the best mines in North America, and the ones in south east Missouri aren't even frozen in.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So, British ammunition supply will be briefly pretty tight for a few months in the spring but then it should be able to ramp up to whatever is needed.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 100k (Indiana) + 30k (Mississippi) + 10k (Florida) + 10k (Tejas) =150k for 'Army'; + 30k (Indiana) + 20k (Mississippi) + 20k (Florida) 1st and 2nd tier militia (=70k)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 the TTL version of the Pacific War will be covered later (one of a raft of world updates that will happen after the British/American war coverage is done).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 if, and I say IF, silver fulminates are put into production, the US troops are NOT going to be amused. Silver fulminate apparently makes mercury fulminate look nice and stable.[/FONT]
