Canada Wank (YACW)

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Dathi THorfinnsson

Indiana 10 riverine warfare (May-June '43)

Indiana 10 riverine warfare (May-June '43)

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]During the night of May 14, the US crews patched the Shenandoah, refloated her, and sent her downstream out of Canadian reach. Similarly, they had managed some salvage from the sunk Lemming and over the course of the next few weeks, they rebuilt the Shenandoah (with lots of new parts, and parts salvaged from both the old Shenandoah and the Lemming), launching it as the Shenandoah II on 2 June. The Shenandoah II then tried moving up-river to take on the Mouse and relieve Fort Scott[OTL Waverly]. The Mouse, which had been ranging and raiding much further south, temporarily retreated north past Ft. Scott. While the Mouse should certainly have been able to beat the Shenandoah again, nothing in warfare is guaranteed, and if the Mouse had been damaged in a US controlled part of the river, she might well have been lost. Better to wait for reinforcements. And, indeed, once the Vole was launched on 6 June, with two boats to the US one, they attacked, forcing the Shenandoah way down river, thus isolating Ft. Scott and a few smaller forts along the White. The Canadians can't TAKE these forts yet, as they lack the manpower, but they can start applying 'scorched earth' quite a bit further south, and Ft. Scott gets very lonely and hungry.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile the US yards having been working, launching the Louisiana on 28 May and the Ouisconsin on 20 June (Territory class), and the Rappahannock on 15 June and the Hudson on 8 July (Valley class). Each takes about a week to get in place.[1] [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On the Canadian side, the Mole arrived on station 8 June, and the Shrew would arrive 26 June on the Wabash. To counter this build up, the Florida moved north to join the Michigan (at which point they stopped rotating the boats). This leaves just 3 boats[2] on the Ohio to block the British. With 2 crews that had lots of practice by now, and a week to practice with the Mole, the Canadians attacked on 16 June. The fact that the Canadian boats were better than the Susquehanna and far more manoeuvrable than the Michigan or Florida, had better cannon than either type and have had far more practice, especially target practice with their cannon, means a Canadian victory. The better armour of the Michigan and Florida and the even numbers means it wasn't not a decisive one. Two boats sank (Mole and Florida) and the Michigan and Susquehanna limp back down river to Vincennes where they can rest and repair under the guns of the forts. The Groundhog is down for repair, too, but the Pica is in good enough shape to interdict traffic on the River north of Vincennes, massively interrupting the supply to the siege at Liverpool.[3] With the besiegers now besieged, Liverpool was safe. Which is just as well for the Canadians, as Ft. Brock fell in mid May.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The next reinforcement for the Wabash is Rappahannock, but since the other 2 boats aren't quite finished repairs yet, and since the Pica is a match for her alone, the US don't try to contest the river. The balance of forces shifts back and forth somewhat as boats are repaired and new ones arrive[4], but the US never achieves clear superiority, and they managed to complete the siege at Liverpool. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, the move of the Florida north meant that there were only three boats left guarding the Ohio. The British flotilla on the Mississippi can't believe their luck. They had 4 boats[5] available and so attack, sinking the Indiana and sending the Missouri and Louisiana retreating up the Ohio. The Missouri is damaged enough she had to stop briefly to patch up once the British boats gave up the chase, but then the US boats retreated all the way to Shelby[OTL Evansville, IN]. (Note that this is UPRIVER of the mouth of the Wabash, but it is the first significant town that's safe.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Two of the British boats were damaged enough they have to retreat for repairs, in fact the Glutton couldn't make enough headway to fight the current and had to drift down to New Madrid. But the Wolf and Coyote patrolled the lower Ohio for a while, smashing up Harrison [OTL Paducah] Kentucky (the only sizeable town on the lower Ohio, i.e. below the mouth of the Wabash). [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The balance of forces means that the lower reaches of the Ohio were now vulnerable to British attack any time they wanted. The only limit was the number of boats they can put on the river (which, while it's greater than the US production, isn't unlimited). Moreover, this IS the 1840s and mechanical reliability and fuel supply was a problem. The British simply don't dare push more than, say 100 miles/150km up river. This doesn't get them to the mouth of the Wabash, let alone to Louisville, KY. (Both would be wonderful strategic targets, if they could be reached.) But it does mean that Harrison was wide open to the British, which, in turn meant that US navigation from the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers onto the Ohio was … impeded. Some loads (especially early in the summer) chance the possibility of British attack and scoot through the British patrolled zone as fast as possible. Others travel overland from Pinckneyville[6] on the Cumberland, through Salem down Flatlick Creek to Cumberland Portage on the Ohio River.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Even when the British got more boats, they stepped up the frequency of patrols to Harrison, but rarely got as far as Cumberland Portage. They would dearly have loved to push as far as the mouth of the Wabash, and cut off Vincennes from both sides, but that just wasn't in the cards.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The raids up the Ohio, and the severing of the Tennessee River/Ohio connexion, raised a huge outcry from Kentucky and the west, who demanded loudly the building of coastal forts on the Ohio to stop the British. These forts get built, but it takes some time, and cannon are in short supply and powder even more so, adding to the strain on US logistics and the US treasury. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Militarily, the best solution for the US might have been to pull ALL her Territory class boats up the Wabash and press the siege of Liverpool until it was taken. This would, however, have meant leaving the Ohio completely undefended for months, and that was politically impossible. The fact that it made no practical difference, since realistically there was little the British could do to attack that far up river – and the river boats don't dare go down, was irrelevant to the political calculus of the day.[/FONT]


–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 Yes, I know that 'classes', especially with themed names is totally anachronistic. However, it helps me, as the author, and you as the reader, keep these blasted things straight. If I say the “Louisiana” and the “Wolf” are in combat, you know that both are larger boats meant for the large rivers, bigger and better armoured; and which one was US and which Canadian/Brit. If they were totally random, it'd be a lot harder to tell apart. Besides, themed names are an idea that SHOULD have happened earlier. IM(nsH)O.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 the Indiana, the Missouri, and the Louisiana[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 remember, they'd moved mostly to river supply to avoid the problem with rail raids – and because it was a lot cheaper.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 Shrew arrives (2-1), Michigan back in service (2-2), Susquehanna back (2-3), but the Groundhog back 2 days later before the US can really take advantage of the situation. Then the Hare appears in early July, followed by the Hudson in mid July, the raised Mole is back in service, then the Muskrat at the end of July.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 that's 3 surviving weasel boats (Sable, Wolverine and Glutton), plus 3 Predator boats (Wolf and Lynx and Coyote; the Cougar is launched, but not yet worked up or in position). The US seems to have thought the British would hold back most of their boats for patrolling the Mississippi. In fact, the Wolverine and the Lynx were not available, but 4 against 3 means a British victory.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]6 Pinckneyville I can find no information on, but given the name, it may be old enough to have the same name as OTL. Salem was founded in 1810, before the War of 1812, which is when butterflies really have an effect in this area. I assume that a similar group of people founded it and gave it the same name. Cumberland Portage grew up around the mouth of Flatlick Creek that summer. It's a few miles up stream from OTL's Carrsville.[/FONT]
 

Shevek23

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
Good grief, this was nominated for a Turtledove this year on the basis of two posts!

Thanks for the support people, and I sure wouldn't mind if people voted in the initial round for it 2012 Turtledove Poll Continuing 18th Century. But I'm up against THANDE for crying out loud, so clearly I have no hope this year of actually winning.
Click to expand...

But that category has Thande every year, because he's been at LTTW for years, and it's always good. It's approval voting, remember. One votes for every one that deserves it, and whoever gets the most wins.

So I for instance was perfectly capable of voting for both LTTW and this. And I did!

I'm frankly not so enamored of this river battle stuff. What I loved about CanadaWank was the sociological development of the greater BNA.

I love this new Canada you are developing. The USA is turning into something stupid and ugly, which is sad, but Canada with its own Catholic king as it is developing, the scrappy little New England, the foreseeable fusion of Louisiana into Canada with its African-descended citizens and the way this opens for a greater BNA encompassing the Caribbean (including, it seems likely now, Florida since the Spanish keep dropping the ball there)--it's magnificent.

And what's best about it is, the spiritual side. It's Canada; there's a certain persistent human decency about it.

I think the new King will contribute to that. My impression of the wayward former PoW is, he's a romantic. He likes ceremony, he probably likes Arthurian legend, he's a sentimental sap. That's why he likes Catholicism; the ceremonial stirs his blood. It gives continuity with romanticized visions of the Middle Ages and chivalry.

In Canada, this mentality may serve him and his new country very well indeed. Medievalist romanticism helps tie together British and French populations; contemporary romanticization of the Red Man (or rather, an anticipation of the sort of sentiment that became popular as soon as the Indians became Dead, and therefore now Good:p) brings Indiana and Native peoples all through the various BNA dominions and protectorates or whatnot into the warm fireplace glow. I bet he loves the legends of the Voyageurs and finds the Metis very stimulating. He is almost certainly falling in love with Canada in all its diversity and loves the idea of melding it all together into one magnificent composite. He's doubtless fermenting in his mind all sorts of notions of rituals and celebrations and so forth that can objectively work to tie the place together as one multicultural family.

So the question is, does he have the gravitas to be a king? From his character as glimpsed thus far, I guess he can rise to that.

Here, he's doing yeoman work in the unglamorous supply side of the Canadian forces. I do wonder whether his job is going to bring him into direct contact with battle and all its ugliness; that might sober him up some, but with the right mentality, it will just give the chivalrous virtues an extra relief of realism. He could learn that war is very serious business and avoiding it a virtue, but facing it down and following through when necessary also vital.

I've been hoping the war will bring his character into relief.

Having read the controversy among your older readers about him, I didn't feel he was properly understood and appreciated. (Certainly it seems his mother and the British establishment don't properly understand him and his role in the timeline yet!) I wanted to argue my perception, which is that the man is neither unrealistic nor useless; he's much more of a solution than a problem. Whatever calculation or instinct led you to propose him in the first place was sound, I believe, Dathi.
---
Regarding ship class names--well, I guess ITTL that's another Canadian innovation, eh?:D

Hey, maybe the Prince came up the idea?

The man is a visionary, I tell you!
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Shevek23 said:
But that category has Thande every year, because he's been at LTTW for years, and it's always good.
Click to expand...
Not last year, actually, or he was in a different category or something. Maybe I was 'new' last year.

Shevek23 said:
I'm frankly not so enamored of this river battle stuff.
Click to expand...
chacun à son goût. I have to figure this stuff out, so I know what's reasonably plausible. Initial plans were going to have the British boats shelling Louisville:(, but that just doesn't work out.

It is also true that not everything I research NEEDS to go in, and, in fact, I've often (OK, occasionally) skipped over stuff that had to have been figured out but didn't add to the narrative flow.

Unfortunately, that involves editing stuff OUT, which takes more work, and I wanted to get that post out. So I probably left too much detail in.


Shevek23 said:
What I loved about CanadaWank was the sociological development of the greater BNA.

I love this new Canada you are developing. The USA is turning into something stupid and ugly, which is sad, but Canada with its own Catholic king as it is developing, the scrappy little New England, the foreseeable fusion of Louisiana into Canada with its African-descended citizens and the way this opens for a greater BNA encompassing the Caribbean (including, it seems likely now, Florida since the Spanish keep dropping the ball there)--it's magnificent.

And what's best about it is, the spiritual side. It's Canada; there's a certain persistent human decency about it.
Click to expand...
Thanks. That's part of the point. Create the biggest possible Canada that's also recognizably 'Canada', although certainly not the same.

The US is ... less 'stupid and ugly' than actively showing some of that side of its character that it historically has. Here, slightly better starting conditions and a couple of reasonable flips of the coin (as it were) gave BNA a much better chance, and hemmed in the US. I mean, c'mon, if anyone invented Andrew Jackson in a fiction piece we'd probably cry ASB (!).

Shevek23 said:
I think the new King will contribute to that. My impression of the wayward former PoW is, he's a romantic. He likes ceremony, he probably likes Arthurian legend, he's a sentimental sap. That's why he likes Catholicism; the ceremonial stirs his blood. It gives continuity with romanticized visions of the Middle Ages and chivalry.

In Canada, this mentality may serve him and his new country very well indeed. Medievalist romanticism helps tie together British and French populations; contemporary romanticization of the Red Man (or rather, an anticipation of the sort of sentiment that became popular as soon as the Indians became Dead, and therefore now Good:p) brings Indiana and Native peoples all through the various BNA dominions and protectorates or whatnot into the warm fireplace glow. I bet he loves the legends of the Voyageurs and finds the Metis very stimulating. He is almost certainly falling in love with Canada in all its diversity and loves the idea of melding it all together into one magnificent composite. He's doubtless fermenting in his mind all sorts of notions of rituals and celebrations and so forth that can objectively work to tie the place together as one multicultural family.

So the question is, does he have the gravitas to be a king? From his character as glimpsed thus far, I guess he can rise to that.

Here, he's doing yeoman work in the unglamorous supply side of the Canadian forces. I do wonder whether his job is going to bring him into direct contact with battle and all its ugliness; that might sober him up some, but with the right mentality, it will just give the chivalrous virtues an extra relief of realism. He could learn that war is very serious business and avoiding it a virtue, but facing it down and following through when necessary also vital.

I've been hoping the war will bring his character into relief.

Having read the controversy among your older readers about him, I didn't feel he was properly understood and appreciated. (Certainly it seems his mother and the British establishment don't properly understand him and his role in the timeline yet!) I wanted to argue my perception, which is that the man is neither unrealistic nor useless; he's much more of a solution than a problem. Whatever calculation or instinct led you to propose him in the first place was sound, I believe, Dathi.
---
Regarding ship class names--well, I guess ITTL that's another Canadian innovation, eh?:D

Hey, maybe the Prince came up the idea?

The man is a visionary, I tell you!
Click to expand...
William is NOT the King, and won't be. However, yes, having a romantic figure who's actually competent (in some things) and can be seen as a Hero will help the country stabilize.

His big sis and her husband are rather less colourful, but more practical, and better choices for monarchs anyway. (Co-rulers: Peter and Sophia, like William and Mary).
 

stevep

Guys

Actually I'm enjoying all of it. The social developments are definitely very interesting but the combats and the effects of various logistical limitations are also very interesting and important for the TL.

Steve
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

I had to put the following list together so that I could find where I'd written things.:p:eek:

Partition of Massachusetts : 850
Start of the War : 854
Allied Response : 865
Addendum thereto : 867
PPS : 876
Allied Command Structure: 891
Lakes Theatre 1 moving the border south:893
Indiana 1 : 895
Mississippi 1 ASBs: 902
retcon and addendum to M1 : 906
Tejas 1 : 912
Battle of the Sabine, Tejas 1a : 919
Atlantic 1 (-Jan) : 929
Guerilla warfare : 939
Mississippi 2 (Dec-early Jan): 942
Samuel Morse and the Electric Telegraph : 954
Indiana (and Great Lakes) 2 (-Feb '43) : 958
Political Developments : 968
Atlantic 2 : 972
Reactions (manpower and ammunition) : 973
Tejas 2 (pull back; logistics:winkytongue:olitical strain): 980
Indiana 3 (late winter) : 984
League deliberations (incl. piracy, neutrality, tariff increases, new 'friendly' status): 990
Indiana 4 (-April 2, '43 ) : 1002
Atlantic 3 (~April '43, includes Palliser shot) : 1021
Mississippi 3 (Jan '43) : 1068
Mississippi 4 (-early Feb '43) : 1073
Mississippi 5 (Feb et seq '43) : 1080
Florida 1 (Dec '42-Jun '43) : 1082
Great Lakes 3 (Dec '42-Jul '43): 1083
Diplomacy 1 ('spring'43):1089
Atlantic 4 (spring/summer '43 taking of Long Island):1091
Florida 2 (Aug-Oct '43): 1096
Indiana 5 (April '43) :1097
Great Lakes 4 (Summer-Fall) : 1105
Indiana 6 (Feb-Mar '43) : 1109
Yet Another Logistics Post : 1112
Ammunition Supply (revisited) : 1142
Afghanistan: 1165
All the Tea in China : 1172
Indiana 7 US (Apr '43) : 1175
Indiana 8 rail raiding (April on): 1176
Indiana 9 riverine warfare (May '43) : 1178
Indiana 10 riverine warfare (May-June '43) : 1181
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

And here's a chronology of the war so far.

Chronology of the war so far:
1942
December 7 - US ultimata
December 15 - US attack on all fronts
December 18 - Allied ironclads give Allies naval superiority on the Eastern Seaboard. (US warships essentially confined to port. Coastal shipping not yet stopped).
1943
January 1 - battle of East Baton Rouge (east bank, near Baton Rouge)
- Charlotte's coronation as Queen of Ireland
January 3 - battle of West Baton Rouge (west bank, near Baton Rouge)
'January' - Neo-Delian League formally equates commerce raiding and privateers with pirates
January 18 - Mexican/US attack out of Tejas (Sabine/Orange)
January 20 - British relieve Ft. Tecumseh
January 24 - Spain declares war on US, starts preparing for war
January 'end' - bulk of EIC troops arrive Louisiana (4.3k 3.7k EIC, .7k West Indies)
- 'Illinois' 'pacified'
- siege of Ft. Francis 'well under way'

February 1 - Charlotte's coronation as Empress
- Sophia & Peter's coronation as monarchs of Canada
February early - devastation of the Norfolk naval yard.
February early - Gonzales starts pulling troops back to San Antonio
February mid - first Spanish regiments sail for Cuba
February end - Indianapolis relieved

March beginning - raid on Charleston
- second West Indies regiment arrives
- Mexican troops arrive back in San Antonio
March 17 - William and Antonia' first child Patricia born in Montreal
March ?end? - Canadian advance towards Liverpool stops at the Eel river.
March end - telegraph from Montreal to Ft. Wayne complete
March end - 2k Cono Sur troops,, 5k EIC, .7k Spanish (swapped for a WI regiment) all in Louisiana. Of which, 1kEIC, .7k Spanish and 1k Cono Sur are cavalry total 2.7k

April 2 - Ft. Francis falls.
early April - US forces in 'Indiana' suffer food poisoning
mid-April - US forces redistributed to put more pressure on Liverpool and Brock
?April? ASB battle on the Mississippi. 1 boat each sunk and other damaged. US retreats to Ohio River. British still control the Mississippi
April 15 - British effective control of Great Lakes
16 April - easter
late April, one US 'Territory' boat patrols the Wabash, 2 guard the Ohio
- attack on the Sabine river US/Mexican force.

May - 2.5k Bavarian troops arrive to defend Tejas.
May 8 battle between the Lemming and Shenandoah, Lemming sunk, Shenandoah damaged
May 14 Mouse takes on the Shenandoah (which hasn't completed repairs) and sinks her. Canadians control the upper White.
May 18 battle between the Pika and Groundhog vs the Michigan, inconclusive
May 27 USAB Susquehanna arrives at Vincennes

'June' - almost all ports are closed to US Privateers (due to the privateer=pirate pronouncement)
'June' - New England takes most of Long Island
'June' - Rail completed from Montreal to Lake Michigan
end of June - Battle of the Colorado.

July 2 - Cicero sunk and British control of the Great Lakes completed. (for the cost of the 1st rate St. Lawrence and the frigate Princess Charlotte)
July 7 - Ft. Biscayne (US fort at Miami) falls
July end - Spanish hold Tallahassee, Tampa Bay, Miami [OTL names]


'late summer' - US farmers starting to worry about bank-notes, and prices rising. But don't have other markets, so...

October 28 - Gen. Charles surrenders to Spanish, meaning all (East) Florida solidly held by the Spanish
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Tejas 3 (Mar-Jun '43)

Tejas 3 (Mar-Jun '43)



[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the end of March, the bulk of Gonzales's forces had retreated to San Antonio and were stuck there, not moving.[1] They were incredibly expensive to support from Mexico, they were useless against the British, and the British were raiding up and down Tejas, sending small parties up rivers and providing arms and ammo to any local who'll used them against the Mexicans.[2][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Mexican government was furious. Not having a good grasp on logistics[3], they truly didn't understand why Gonzales pulled back, and can't deal with the raids. And it doesn't help that the US government in the person of the ambassador was screaming in the President's ear.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Mexico sends nastier and nastier notes telling Gonzales to “Do something”. But there's not really a lot he can do – except return home, and he doesn't yet have permission to do that. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Also by the end of March, the Allies had accumulated more troops including 4000 cavalry[4], Spanish, Portuguese, Sikh, Bengali and South American, and 10,000 infantry. However, many of these troops were newly arrived, and none had worked together before. Initial plans for an immediate surprise operation, therefore, were placed on hold while the units take a couple of weeks to learn to function smoothly together. Moreover, most of these troops were (nominally) pious Roman Catholics, and Holy week runs April 10-16. Training took a break for the Triduum, resuming for a couple of days of final polishing on Easter Monday. That Friday (April 21), the troops loaded up and moved out, embarking on a wide range of water craft to travel around to the Neches River, where they unloaded to cut off the Mexican/US force. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Gonzalez had left 4000 troops on the Sabine, which he hoped was a large enough force to hold the British in place and defend against any reasonable attack; while being small enough that there was some hope of supplying them. Moreover, the British troops opposing them (at the time he pulled out) were all infantry (well there was 2000 light horse, but they hardly count). If the British had attacked in enough force to be dangerous, why his cavalry could just manoeuvre around them, providing enough cover for the infantry to pull back.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]That was then. Now the Allied force has enough cavalry to prevent the US/Mexican force from escaping, and enough infantry to take them. So, at the end of April, the British sailed up the Neches river behind them, landed the cavalry to hem the Mexicans in, and then the infantry and artillery. Mexican scouts noticed the operation, and reported back. There was a furious argument – the US officer Thomas Walker Insisted that 'we can't abandon our post' and shouted 'are you going run away like Gonzales?'. Everyone was hungry (they've foraged everything available locally, and the supply across the entire width of Texas is a joke), there's been friction for months, and tempers rise and break.[5] The Americans and Mexicans almost came to blows, and the end result is the Mexican cavalry fled north, abandoning the US and the infantry, trying to break through the closing Allied net. Of 1000 Mexican cavalry, only 300 made it clear (the Allied horses are strong and grain-fed, the Mexican ones grass fed, which makes a huge difference), with the other 700 being captured (mostly, a few killed). Now the Allied force was even stronger compared to the US/Mexican one. The Mexican infantry, looking at the numbers, surrendered. The US cavalry charged and was completely destroyed (as a unit), with none escaping to fight another day.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Up until now, Gonzales was able to make the reasonable case that he had all of Tejas occupied. OK, so it wasn't exactly true, but he did have units scattered all over the map that made it look that way. And he DID hold the British off for 3 months. Now... it soon becomes clear that the Mexican force in most of Tejas was a house of cards.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Over the next months, the Allies swept up the Sabine and the Neches and the Trinity and the Brazos Rivers, making raids in force, all well supplied by river boats. Since each cavalry force they used was much larger than any individual Mexican force left (except for Gonzales in San Antonio), and since they stayed away from San Antonio, the Mexicans were impotent, and the penny-packet occupation forces that were spread over most of the duchy are swept up or scattered. Of the 6000 troops out there, about 2000 eventually made it back to San Antonio, about the same were captured/killed by the British and the last third? no one knows for sure what happened. Some probably fled north, others may have tried to blend in with the local population, either settlers or Indians, and some may have been killed by hostile Indian encounters. Some probably had deserted months before and their officers were covering up and still collecting their pay.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As the Allied forces move west and clear out the Mexicans, the Tejas refugees, including Duke Charles, start returning home.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In May, the Bavarian troops arrived, mostly cavalry. This allowed the British to pull out the Sikhs, Bengalis and Portuguese and return them to the main fight – against the US[6]. Duke Charles complained, but the British pointed out that the forces he had left were quite sufficient against any individual group of Mexicans or Indians they can encounter, while the entire force, combined, even with reinforcements (which weren't available) wouldn't suffice to take on Gonzales' 25,000 strong force in San Antonio. So the British troops were redundant, and were desperately needed elsewhere. The British pointed out, too, that Charles now had over half of his Duchy back[7], and promised that if diplomacy didn't work with Gonzales, that sufficient forces would be freed up once the US war was over, whenever that would be. Charles wasn't happy, but he's still in a better situation than he had been a month ago.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Spanish troops on loan do stay, as the Spanish government was far happier to support Tejas than to get sucked into the main battle against the US. The South American cavalry stayed, too, at least for now. (They're more comfortable on open prairie and where a main language is Spanish.[8] The (second and third hand) horror stories about Canadian winters didn't help either.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, Gonzales was stuck in San Antonio, and feeling frustrated, almost impotent. The closest he was able to come to being effective was when the Allies finally reached the Colorado. Gonzales sortied out of San Antonio with a third of his force, including the remaining US troops, and tried to intercept them on their way back down river[9]. However, while he arrived there 'in time', he didn't have time for any elaborate preparations, so the trap failed. Lacking artillery, he couldn't stop the boats on the river, and what the Allied cavalry was on land just swirled away on the other side, staying out his reach. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Seeing there was nothing effective he could do, he retreated. Robinson blew up, and insisted on pursuing. Gonzales basically said 'OK, sure, whatever' and returned to San Antonio, while Robinson chased after the Allied force.[10] He chased them until his horses were blown[11], at which point they turned and attacked. The Allied force was actually slightly smaller, but their horses still had some strength, and they had some light field artillery, so it doesn't end well for Robinson. He bloodied them, but destroyed his own force, losing his life and his command - only a handful made it back to San Antonio. (Note that injured Allied forces (and prisoners) can be put on boats and ride out for treatment. Injured fleeing US soldiers have to make it some 80 or more miles back to San Antonio under their own power. Many who try don't make it.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This marks the furthest advance of the Allies – they stayed on the east of the Colorado, and Gonzales stayed on the west. The Allies didn't have anything like the number of soldiers they'd need to take San Antonio, and they knew it. On the other hand, Gonzales couldn't do anything either. He can either send out small forces that might get smashed, or large ones that would starve. Neither would achieve anything. So a stalemate arose. The Allies were in control of all of south east Tejas; Gonzales and the Mexicans controlled the south west from San Antonio to the Mexican border, and the north was largely chaos.[/FONT]




–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 the previous Tejas posts were 912, 919 and 980. To summarize the force distribution at the end of that, there were 23k or so fallen back to San Antonio where they could be supplied; 6k spread out over the whole rest of Tejas, and 4k troops on the Sabine, of which 1.5k infantry (all Mexican), 1k Mexican cavalry, 1.5k US cavalry.[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 The author here is being imprecise. The British, at this point, are doing very little actual raiding themselves, yet. What they are mostly doing is distributing guns, ammunition and some food supplies so the remaining locals can attack the Mexicans. [/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 this is NOT 'stupid Mexicans'. This is mostly 'we've never sent this size of an expedition into this empty a territory, we've no experience'. Well, it is a little 'Stupid “I don't want to hear excuses” Santa Anna'.<g>[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 as it happens, the cavalry is 1k EIC (2/3 Sikh 1/3 Bengali), 1k Portuguese, .7k Spanish, 1.3k South American. (The Portuguese were originally sent to Canada, but are more use here than there right now.) The infantry is 3.7k EIC and .3k Hawaiian, in addition to what had been on hand, namely 10k militia and 2k British regulars. Of these, 4k stay on east bank to keep the Mexican/US force from crossing, leaving 6 k total for the operation.[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So... 4k Cavalry, +1k light horse (Texian, less militia than armed ranchers, and mostly good for scouting), 10k infantry vs 2.5k cavalry, 1.5k infantry. [/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 This disagreement is partly due to the differing goals of the two countries/forces. For the Mexicans, the war is about getting Tejas back, and, if convenient, helping the US with Louisiana. For the US, it's all about Louisiana, and Tejas was just a warm up. Walker is not stupid enough to think that Gonzales's entire force could have been supported by land that far – but, for the US, the expedition FAILED on January 18, and he's spent months being bitter. For the Mexicans, the expedition had ALREADY SUCCEEDED on that day, so they're quite happy to guard the border. The final shouting match was only the culmination of months of friction.[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]6 much of the infantry had already returned. A few small units for garrisons stay, but the war is now mostly raids of swirling cavalry, where the infantry are no use. If San Antonio were to be reduced, that would be another thing, but there simply aren't enough forces available for that. At the moment.[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]7 OK, they're overstating the case, assuming that the chaotic north is his. The Mexicans have well under half, certainly. But the amount that Charles can actually control is also well under half. [/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]8 Certainly, the force left in Tejas is still polyglot, but many of the locals are hispanic and even the Anglo settlers can often get by in it. The Uruguayans and Argentines are obviously Spanish speakers, but even the Brazilians can mostly make do. That might not have been the case for so many when they left home, but they've been working with the Spanish and Uruguayans for the last months and that's improved their Spanish. TTL's equivalent of Tex-Mex may end up being a bit strange(r).[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]9 near OTL's Austin. This is at the end of June[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]10 Similar dynamic as in footnote 5. Gonzales, while frustrated, still controls a huge chunk of Tejas, and is sitting pretty for any negotiations, while Robinson has failed miserably. [/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]11 all the Napoleonic war stuff I've read indicates that one of the huge advantages the British cavalry had over the French in Spain was the British horses were corn fed and the French grass fed. That gave the British units more speed and stamina. The same is true here. [/FONT][/FONT]
 

stevep

Dathi

Well that pretty much secures the SW flank against Mexico. As you say can always concentrate against Gonzales later or he could simply be defeated by his own government.

Forgetting what the situation is like on the Louisianan eastern border but think that with control of the river its pretty much secure. Going to be good if a 'British' force that is mainly from India ends up clashing with Americans, especially in the latter's south.

Steve
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][/FONT]
 
Ming777

Ming777

Monthly Donor
Dathi, would the American Aggression begin to get Louisiana, the Eastern/Maritime Provinces and other British held areas to perhaps consider the idea of increased unity against the Yankee threat to their lands?

Certainly, there won't be a confederation, at least for the forseeable future, but perhaps there are plans to pool resources and a start of a BNA identity?
 

Shevek23

Ming777 said:
Dathi, would the American Aggression begin to get Louisiana, the Eastern/Maritime Provinces and other British held areas to perhaps consider the idea of increased unity against the Yankee threat to their lands?

Certainly, there won't be a confederation, at least for the forseeable future, but perhaps there are plans to pool resources and a start of a BNA identity?
Click to expand...

I think that's been indicated, in at least a vague way, in that the various British lands in North America do have a Viceroy, who is one person, usually based in Canada and often wearing the hat of the Canadian governor too.

Now of course there's a branch of the Royal Family reigning in America and living in Canada; presumably there's a parallel hierarchy implied such that if any other territory gets a hereditary house, it is feudally or whatever subordinate to the King in Canada, so the idea is in place. A common threat to the region would naturally draw up a common defense that would naturally fall under Canadian leadership by these two parallel channels; a local threat would be one that the hierarchy may or may not leave the local entity to handle but they'd certainly intervene if things started going off track; if say Louisiana started getting warlike against someone (say Spanish Florida) the Empire as a whole wanted peace with, then I do think before the question gets to London, the Empress/Emperor and Parliament there, eyebrows would be raised if the Canadian-based institutions had not already reined them in, informally or formally.

Certainly the Viceroy, who might also personally be the Canadian King, would have the authority to harumph at New Orleans, and do something more drastic like recall the Louisiana governor if that didn't accomplish the purpose.

It seems mighty unlikely any British possession would get that far out of line on its own hook. They might however make a stink about broader Imperial policy not going the way they think it should. And if there is objectively some threat to one possession I'd think it would be expected for the Viceroy to see to it the threat is countered, whether by routing resources to that possession or by formally involving more regions.

Strictly military stuff is all supposed to be ultimately under British command anyway, right? But the chain of that command probably routes through Canada.

Dunno about the Caribbean. It's a long way away. But Bermuda and the Bahamas are natural links in the chain down to Jamaica; if Louisiana gets more and more integrated into the Canadian-headed system forming up north, that will be another channel down to there.

Of course one problem with Canada-wank, even one that is as successful as this one at preserving a distinct and recognizably Canadian identity, is that it is also automatically Brit-wank. OTL Britain was so strong on the high seas in the 19th century it would be idiotic to challenge them there; the Germans tried in theory, by building their own fleet, but when push came to shove aside from U-boats and roving surface commerce raiders they couldn't manage much in the way of pitched battles.

With Canadian potential to make ships itself, which surely would be integrated in some fashion into the Royal Navy as a whole, and New England throwing its hat into the ring alongside the Empire, who dares threaten a British possession in the Caribbean? The United States might want to but if this war isn't teaching them a final lesson about the futility of attacking British-held lands, they're obviously doomed to become a crazy pariah state.

Perhaps much later if the Empire as a whole gets into another jam as bad as the Napoleonic Wars, like an Alt-WWI, the revanchist Americans might feel they've got a chance. By then, between natural increase in Canada's and Louisiana's wide territories and a predictable flood of immigration, Canada will be bigger, while the USA deprived of much of OTL immigration by its own nativism and a stunted economy, will be considerably smaller than OTL. They might feel ready for yet another round with Britain even so, while the Empire is distracted, but any efforts they put into roving around the Caribbean will be themselves distracted by the main project of grappling with Canada on land, on their border.

The point being, while Louisiana and Canada have all kinds of obvious links that might draw them much closer pretty soon, the Caribbean islands can muddle along in the same vague relationship they are in now, there being no threat aimed particularly at them; enemies of the Empire in general will draw defenders from the Empire in general automatically. Even in terms of Yankee aggression in the form of possible attempts at opportunistic land grabs, the Spanish are their buffer and tripwire--first the Americans have to get through Florida, then into or around Cuba, before they can start bothering Jamaica. Right now it's British policy to support Spain so again the issue doesn't come up directly; the Caribbean islands would participate mainly as bases for expeditions planned and payed for and manned elsewhere.

Though we've already seen quite a lot of recruitment in the islands of men who wound up in Louisiana.

I think it's natural for them all to come together, but I could also see London preferring they don't. On the American continent, fusion seems inevitable to me, but then again Louisiana and Canada do have distinct though parallel and related cultures. I suspect that keeping all vague and informal as long as possible is the British way; only some really stark crisis could force a formal fusion. Even this war against conquest-crazed Yankees is not turning into that sort of stark crisis.

Now if Dathi manages to work in some daring Yankee raiding in the Caribbean that might change the picture. But they'd have to be really crazy in a way that can't even delude itself it's sane to try that! If they were doing well on land, then maybe. But they can't afford to fritter away resources on long-shot schemes like that. Any naval capability the Americans can scrape together now is must first attempt to protect the coast, then (in some dreamworld where they aren't as far behind as this one) maybe try to interdict communications between Canada and Britain. From troops pouring in from every point of the compass as we've seen here, the task is hopeless--even some ASB total stoppage of all Atlantic traffic wouldn't have stopped the EIC troops from sailing in from the west! The USA has no ports on the Gulf of Mexico at all. They thought they'd get a few but that's not going well for them.

Nope, the Caribbean islands are snoozing along.

I always forget when people ask about these things they are talking about unity of Canada with the Maritimes! Silly American I am, I always just assume those provinces are naturally subsumed into Canada.:eek::p
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Shevek23 said:
I think that's been indicated, in at least a vague way, in that the various British lands in North America do have a Viceroy, who is one person, usually based in Canada and often wearing the hat of the Canadian governor too.
....
Click to expand...

Very astute commentary. Not going to say precisely how much is accurate and how much isn't...

I WILL say, that iTTL, the US has actually invaded twice. iOTL, the theoretical, hypothetical possibility of a second invasion caused the Brits to push the colonies to confederate. ...

Besides, we've already seen the scene where... (Oh, no, I haven't posted that one yet:):p)
 
Last edited:
Ming777

Ming777

Monthly Donor
With the advent of raiding parties, will we see the beginnings of small unit based warfare, as opposed to the traditional forming of lines and firing volleys.
What I mean is the use of skirmishers equipped with (what I hope is coming around soon) repeating rifles used to harass and snipe the enemy. This type of tactic would likely be pioneered by the Iroquois Protectorate.
 

Nugax

Thing is with the Caribbean - until you get oil fired ships its pretty much the same distance from Britain to the Canadian centers of power. Even basing a navy out of New Orleans is dubious - too vulnerable to land assault, can very easily be bottled up, and the storm-wracked and boggy gulf coast is all together not very good for naval installations. Its better to have Britain manage the Caribbean for a long long time.
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Firearms

A technology update

Firearms

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]US caplock rifles[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Reports from the Battle of Baton Rouge indicated that the Hall Rifles, especially the ones with percussion caps were a bit tricky. But no official action is taken for awhile. While the reports were believed, the weapons weren't returned, and there were few to no problems further north. So the Army didn't know what the problem was.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Then, as weather heats up, more and more of the US percussion caps are going off accidentally. Misfiring, going off in soldiers pouches, while transported etc. Soldiers start refusing to use them... By the end of June, the US is back to only using the flintlock guns, mostly.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Now, there were only 20k percussion cap Hall Rifles at the start of the war, anyway, and a good third of them went south (in both senses of the phrase) in the Louisiana expedition.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Because of the possible problems, a few more of the cap-Halls are converted to flintlock, and all new production is flintlock. The rest of the US army, and all the militia is equipped with muzzle-loading flintlock muskets.[1] Also, the US is facing a very serious ammunition shortage now, so one of the major advantages of the Hall, namely higher rate of fire, is not really affordable.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British percussion caps[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, British are well on their way to converting from flintlock to caplock Nortons. By June, most of the soldiers on the pointy end of the stick have caplocks, although many of the garrison troops and the part-time militia are still using firelocks. The Allied forces aren't having the same problem with cap quality, because they have farmed production out to much of Europe. Thus the only chemists working on the fulminates are highly skilled. The US doesn't have that many chemists, and so many of their caps are being produced by less skilled workers, and their product is nothing as reliable. The fact that a few US producers tried using silver fulminate to extend the mercury (which is in very short supply and very expensive) only adds to the problem.[/FONT]




[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British breech-loaders[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Since March, a few elite troops have now been furnished with breechloaders. There are 2 models in use by the summer of '43 – the Needle gun[2] (several thousand in use now) and the Kammerlader (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammerlader) which is just entering service. While Norway is not one of the Allies, she is in the Delian League, and during negotiations, the Brits were shown experimental versions.[3] Since the Needle Gun would require completely different ammunition (the percussion cap is attached to the bullet), any wide deployment means supplying 2 kinds of ammo. This is certainly not an insurmountable problem, but would be nice if it could be avoided. A worse problem is that the seal of the breech was often imprecise. This meant that when you fired the gun, bits of burning powder would sometimes escape the lock and blow into the shooter's face. This blow back happened often enough that soldiers soon learned that they didn't want to fire it with their face near the lock, but say, from the hip, which rather negates the whole point of a rifle. Combined, these are good reasons not to go with the Dreyse in the long run. But early in the war, that's what was available. Basically, the army orders every Needle Gun that Dreyse has in stock, and up to 3,000 a month (or as much as he can produce) until further notice[4]. Dreyse had had an order from the Prussian government for an initial supply, so his shop was set up for reasonable scale production. On the other hand, the Prussians hadn't put it into distribution or service yet, and therefore hadn't ordered any more, so Dreyse's business was able to devote their production to the Brits for now. He was overjoyed (to be able to recoup his investment). Prussia then complained that Dreyse was selling off 'their' guns, but he pointed out that they didn't follow up after the first order. They did, then place an order, and Dreyse did divert some guns their way.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Norwegian arm is much newer, and has to be adapted to British production, while the Dreyse is in production. So... The Brits take a couple of thousand Dreyse's in March, with about the same every month until further notice. Meanwhile, they ramp up the KammerNorton as fast as they can. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]There is some discussion of retrofitting existing Nortons with the new lock. But most of the production bottleneck is producing the new, finicky locks, so, for now, making retrofits might actually decrease total numbers of KammerNortons available. Still, by July, the Gun Quarter in Birmingham[5] is churning out 1000 a month of the new KammerNortons, and production is still ramping up. The hit in production of the standard Nortons is OK because most troops (or the troops that need them) now have a caplock Norton. [/FONT]




[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]British revolvers[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Eli Kalb, a journeymen gunsmith in Suhl, Thuringia, Germany invented the revolver in 1834[6], and successfully convinced some partners to back him in producing it. Mechanically, the gun worked fine, but his business sense left much to be desired, and the company went bankrupt in 1838. He fled Germany just barely ahead of his creditors, and ended up in Birmingham. There he found partners to help him produce his gun – but who kept the purse strings thoroughly under their control. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Kalb revolver in the 1830s and 40s was something like a muzzle-loader (no metallic cartridges to allow fast reloads, yet), where you loaded each chamber of a removable cylinder with powder and ball, from the front, and then placed caps in the back. Then you insert the cylinder into the revolver. Using a bit of wax or grease helped keep the ball and the cap in place (and waterproof it).[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Because the cylinders are loaded separately, and long before use, it is possible to carry multiple cylinders for each gun. Fire your 6 bullets from one cylinder, swap in a new cylinder and fire 6 more. Not as fast as a speed loader of later decades, but still a huge advance in rate of fire.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Since the British knew that their forts on the front lines might be sorely lacking in firepower against greater numbers of attackers, Ft. Tecumseh got 100 as an experiment. Once the fort was relieved and the defenders debriefed, it became apparent that the guns were almost as useful as had been hoped. So, several hundred more were ordered. By the time the order had been shipped to England, the guns manufactured and the finished products shipped back to Canada, the first batch of new guns only arrived at the end of May. They would be very useful.[/FONT]




[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Indian sensibilities[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When the EIC troops first arrived in Louisiana they were given old muskets to use, partly because they were considered 'black' (or at least 'not-white'), partly because there weren't enough new Nortons, and partly because muskets is what they had been trained with in India. However, as the supply of rifles improved, they were given rifles and rifle training. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Weeks into training, rumours spread that the greased cartridges used in the rifles were greased with a mixture of pig and beef fat, thus polluting both the Hindus and the Muslims in the troop. Since the cartridges were pre-prepared, by people who had no clue about dietary restrictions, the facts, if not the motives, were in part correct. Facing a revolt by one of the major elements of his force, General Quincy (by now in charge of all military operations in Louisiana) ordered that the soldiers be placed in charge of assembling their own cartridges from provided gunpowder, paper, bullets, and whatever grease they chose. This proved to be a satisfactory solution, and careful note was made for future reference.[7][/FONT]




–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 note that you need something like a Minié ball to get anything like reasonable rates of fire out of a rifle. The Brits followed up Norton's invention, iTTL, and have the lead on the rest of the world. While the US has, by now, captured and reverse engineered the Norton, they're even rarer than Halls.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 Post 1142 described the outsourcing of British percussion caps and specifically mentioned Sömmerda (the town Dreyse where came from and where he has his business) as foreshadowing. Dreyse was born 1787, so is the same person. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 the actual Kammerlader is the wrong calibre for direct use. What happens is that the British license the mechanism and exchange gunsmiths to learn how to adapt the Nortons to Breech-loading.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 Dreyse thinks this means at least until the end of '43, probably longer, because he knows how much the British army now wants breech-loaders. And he knows that his is the only breech-loader on the market. (The Norwegians weren't selling theirs abroad. Dreyse's comments later about whether he even knew of the existence of that gun are inconsistent.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Quarter major manufacturing area in Birmingham, home of most of the gun makers. [/FONT]
“and between 1804 and 1817 a total of 1,827,889 muskets, rifles, carbines, and pistols were manufactured for the Government alone. 3,037,644 barrels and 2,879,203 locks were made and then delivered to London for assembly “
“By the nineteenth century, the introduction of the percussion system combined with the adoption of modern production methods led to Birmingham becoming the dominant producer in British firearms.”


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]6 Kalb is an approximate replacement for Samuel Colt, who never existed in this TL. Note that there had been earlier revolvers, but these (Kalb's iTTL, Colt's iOTL) are so famous people forget about the others. For comparison see http://www.hackman-adams.com/guns/capandball.htm and or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Paterson[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]7 one of numerous reasons why the Sepoy Mutiny won't happen iTTL. Well, OK, there will be small uprisings here and there, but nothing like OTL's Sepoy Mutiny.[/FONT]
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

Human Resources

Human Resources



[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]US military recruitment[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The US government tried raising another 100,000 troops for defence on all fronts and to take the offensive again in Indiana. They failed miserably. Although, technically, the 100,000 were raised, very few made it to the desired fronts. New Yorkers thronged to their state militia – but they went to the Connecticut border to guard/fight against the New Englanders; the seaboard states raised 10s of thousands – but they stayed home to guard the coast lines. Alabama and Mississippi raised 10s of thousands more – but they fortified the southern border with Florida[1]. New York, Alabama and Mississippi all lined up their men, ready to go on the offensive – all they needed is ammunition. (Well, that's all they THOUGHT they needed.) They refused to release their State militias to Federal authority – and the Feds refused to issue the lead and gunpowder – which was desperately needed in Indiana. Kentucky also needed men to defend the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, so only a few from the eastern part of the state were available. What's worse is that, because the new levies were called for by the Federal government, the various states claimed that they should be paid by them. The national government, however, maintained that, since the troops never left their home states, that they weren't, in fact, federalized, and they wouldn't pay.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Feds did get some militia from Ohio, eastern KY, western PA, and north west VA, but those areas were pretty tapped out (they had had heavy volunteering early in the war), and mostly what they got is about 10k seasonal militia for just a couple of months before harvest. They did get 10k troops from TN.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Prisoner exchanges[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Prisoner exchange negotiations started in April. First actual soldiers the US had captured (in any number) were the ones in Ft. Francis, so they really hadn't had much to negotiate with before. There were also some interned men of military age from the initial invasion of occupied territories (largely Indiana). Formally, the negotiators agreed to a 1-1 exchange, which rather benefits the US, as the permanently injured from Louisiana, say, have already been returned, while the permanently injured from Ft. Francis got traded 1-1 with (reasonably) healthy US soldiers. (Green's force at West Baton Rouge was paroled, but the main force wasn't – or hasn't been yet.) Moreover, real soldiers from Louisiana are traded for potential ones (military age civilians). Still, the British/Canadians want their own back, and the feeding and guarding of so many troops was a serious burden. There are even voices on the Canadian side that realize that the US problem is less bodies than supplies...[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Proto-feminism [2][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Basically, almost every able bodied man in Canada is directly contributing to the war effort, whether in a factory, building railways, on a farm, or in the army. Many in two capacities – farmer AND soldier. Many jobs that aren't absolutely, vitally important go empty. Obviously, many are filled by men too old to fight, some by boys too young to fight, and some by disabled veterans. That still leaves a vast gap. Women become secretaries and store clerks, which would have been unheard of before, and hundreds volunteer for logistics support and FNS led nursing teams. Women who had been schoolmarms before they married, come back and teach while the (male) school teachers head off to war. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One of the lasting woman's jobs is in telegraphy. Since the telegraph is a new invention, and only starting to be installed in the run up to the war, when male manpower is a premium, and then massively expanded when male manpower was simply unavailable, being a telegraph clerk becomes a 'woman's job'. It is true that men are hired later, it's not quite a 'pink collar ghetto' like nursing [iTTL and iOTL], and it is one of the few jobs where numbers of married respectable women can be employed.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]While the end of the war will bring the men home, and send the women back out of the work place, there are stories and legends of the heroic women who stepped forward in the country's great hour of need. And, indeed, the precedent will have been set. Some women make themselves too valuable to be let go, some continue to run shops/businesses [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]when their husband died /was disabled in the war, or simply. And, of course, many women will be left to raise and provide for families when their husbands [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The legacy of women in the military, serving as line soldiers, is another set of stories that get told, in various tones of amazement, horror, scandal, and ultimately approbation, over the generations that followed. Most of the tales talk of young Indian maidens, who bereft of home and family took revenge on the invaders in the raiding parties that finally drove them out.[3] There were numbers of those, of course, but rather more, both native and white, who pretended to be male and joined the regular army (or militia). The army was desperate enough for soldiers that even thread-bare disguises were mostly ignored.[4] However, by far the greatest female contribution was, of course, among the southern blacks, often refugees, along the Mississippi. They fought alongside their menfolk against any US incursions across the river, in patrolling the riverbanks and doing anything else that the men did. Because they were poor, often refugee, uneducated, and not very 'romantic', their stories weren't made part of the whole 'heroic resistance' war narrative until recently.[5][/FONT]




–
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 “Florida” being both OTL's Florida and 'West Florida' = OTL's southern Alabama and Mississippi – neither of which have any seacoast. (Spanish) Florida directly abuts (British/Canadian) Louisiana iTTL.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 Hmmm... some of this was covered in 'Indiana and Great Lakes 3', but this is expanded.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 well, that's what the STORIES claim drove out the invaders. Note, too, that, in many ways, Indians are going to do MUCH better in Canada, iTTL than iOTL. Of course, that's not saying much. There will be a lot more pride in a Shawnee great-grandmother, for instance, like you sometimes see today iOTL in the US, people proudly claiming 'Cherokee' blood (sometimes even white supremacist types, apparently). [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]4 also, family legends in the coming generations counted far more 'heroic women soldiers' than there were. Once the meme got started, many women who had been camp-followers, for instance, reinvented their own past in a more socially acceptable form.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]5 no, I don't know when 'recently' is for this text. On the one hand, blacks will get a better deal in Canada than they did in the US, or even in OTL's Canada. OTOH, that's not saying much, unfortunately. [/FONT]
 
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