I don't think you need to have the RN be too hesitant... from what I've read, they were supremely confident that they could do the job, and quickly...
An Unfortunate Event: The Trent War
- Thread starter 67th Tigers
- Start date
67th Tigers
Banned
From “Milne’s Fury”
The Royal Navy in American waters had little trouble in smashing the US Navy at sea. Two detached squadrons swept much of the US Navy towards Chesapeake Bay, where Milne was waiting with the bulk of his force. What happened is perhaps one of the major what-ifs of history, for a major storm blew up, scattering Milne and taking him offstation. Much of the USN got past his scattered squadron, leading to the acclaim in the New York Times that “God is an American”.
With such a strong US squadron now in the Chesapeake, Milne’s plans were in ruins. He had planned to smash Fort Monroe and steam up to the mouth of the Potomac, smash Fort Washington and land an infantry force to occupy Washington DC, in concert with a Confederate force if practical. To assist him in cooperation, Jefferson Davies had sent Milne a trusted Virginian as a liason, Robert E. Lee, son of Harry “Light Horse” Lee. Milne was deeply impressed by Lee, as was Lee by Milne. It was Lee who signed the treaty allowing the Royal Navy to use Portsmouth Naval Base in Virginia as a British base, amongst others.
With his movement into the Chesapeake blocked, Milne established a strong blockading force under Erskine, including the armoured frigate HMS Warrior as its flag. Milne dispatched a strong blockading force north, while he personally dealt with the remaining US coastal garrisons.
Fort Monroe
By early March, his force was in a much better position. Their flanks were secured by the surrender of the final US coastal enclave at Pensacola, and he had enough ships to make what was initially a very leaky blockade effective. An order of the 1st March 1862 centralised several heavy units of the Royal Navy and a force of gunboats and ironclads under Milnes command off Bermuda. The ships included the Warrior, Defence, Terror and Aetna, all ironclads. Milne had resolved to take Fort Monroe.
Milne arrived off Fort Monroe at dawn, Warrior in the lead, Defence following, driving straight past the Fortress, guns silent as the American heavy shells failed to pierce their sides, they crossed through the Fortresses arcs, turned and started engaging the American squadron sheltering in Hampton Roads. The American Captains had heard rumours of a new British terror weapon, an unstoppable incendiary shell. These were not rumours, the Martin shell was real and it spelt the end of the wooden war of war.
The Martin Shell was a hollow iron sphere, lined with an insulator and filled before firing with molten iron. It combined the deadliness of hotshot and explosive shells together with none of the reliability or handling issues. The effect of this new weapon was devastating; indeed this weapon would be turned on the British before the war’s end with the same devastating effects. However, on this day it was the Federal Navy that was set afire and destroyed utterly, much to the chagrin of many RN Captains who wanted to take prizes.
Meanwhile the British ironclad batteries, gun and mortar boats took station and started bombarding Fort Monroe. Lee was a former US Engineer officer, and had briefed the British on the defences, allowing them to exploit gaps in Fort Monroe’s arcs of fire. After 13 hours of bombardment, Fort Monroe struck, but not before one of the most curious naval battles in history occurred.
Monitor vs Terror
The Monitor should never have gotten out of New York Harbor. However, steaming on smokless Pennsylvania coal in the dead of night, Monitor slipped past the blockaders at the mouth of the Long Island Sound and began her journey south. Warned by a spy at Bermuda of the British plans, the US had decided to send the only ironclad available to reinforce Fort Monroe. It arrived seven hours after the investment,
In the mouth of the Chesapeake was the ironclad Terror, an iron hulled armoured battery of 1856 with 4” of armour and 16 68 pounder guns, as the Monitor approach the Terror signalled to flag “Enemy shieldship bearing on me, am attacking” turned and moved to meet the Monitor in the first battle between ironclads.
The action has been well described elsewhere, but what is important is that Monitor had fully proofed guns and her Captain decided to use the wrought iron shot forged in New York. Terror had only common shot and shell. Terror’s belt was pierced several times, but the shot did little damage. Terror’s massed volleys of high velocity common shot did not pierce Monitors turret, but did knock it off its spindle, making the guns unworkable. Monitor retreated north, while Terror was forced to lick her wounds. Monitor outfoxed the Royal Navy again by slipping back past the New York blockaders.
Effects on Naval Design
The Martin Shell was so devastating that it was recognised that the hope that wooden warships could stand in the battleline a while longer were proved false. Meanwhile the protective power of the shielded cupola had been proved, and the need for heavy guns to pierce iron. That summer the Royal Navy razeed a dozen battleships, cladding them in iron and installing cupolas on Captain Coles’ design. The French followed suit, the age of the wooden man of war was at an end.
The Royal Navy in American waters had little trouble in smashing the US Navy at sea. Two detached squadrons swept much of the US Navy towards Chesapeake Bay, where Milne was waiting with the bulk of his force. What happened is perhaps one of the major what-ifs of history, for a major storm blew up, scattering Milne and taking him offstation. Much of the USN got past his scattered squadron, leading to the acclaim in the New York Times that “God is an American”.
With such a strong US squadron now in the Chesapeake, Milne’s plans were in ruins. He had planned to smash Fort Monroe and steam up to the mouth of the Potomac, smash Fort Washington and land an infantry force to occupy Washington DC, in concert with a Confederate force if practical. To assist him in cooperation, Jefferson Davies had sent Milne a trusted Virginian as a liason, Robert E. Lee, son of Harry “Light Horse” Lee. Milne was deeply impressed by Lee, as was Lee by Milne. It was Lee who signed the treaty allowing the Royal Navy to use Portsmouth Naval Base in Virginia as a British base, amongst others.
With his movement into the Chesapeake blocked, Milne established a strong blockading force under Erskine, including the armoured frigate HMS Warrior as its flag. Milne dispatched a strong blockading force north, while he personally dealt with the remaining US coastal garrisons.
Fort Monroe
By early March, his force was in a much better position. Their flanks were secured by the surrender of the final US coastal enclave at Pensacola, and he had enough ships to make what was initially a very leaky blockade effective. An order of the 1st March 1862 centralised several heavy units of the Royal Navy and a force of gunboats and ironclads under Milnes command off Bermuda. The ships included the Warrior, Defence, Terror and Aetna, all ironclads. Milne had resolved to take Fort Monroe.
Milne arrived off Fort Monroe at dawn, Warrior in the lead, Defence following, driving straight past the Fortress, guns silent as the American heavy shells failed to pierce their sides, they crossed through the Fortresses arcs, turned and started engaging the American squadron sheltering in Hampton Roads. The American Captains had heard rumours of a new British terror weapon, an unstoppable incendiary shell. These were not rumours, the Martin shell was real and it spelt the end of the wooden war of war.
The Martin Shell was a hollow iron sphere, lined with an insulator and filled before firing with molten iron. It combined the deadliness of hotshot and explosive shells together with none of the reliability or handling issues. The effect of this new weapon was devastating; indeed this weapon would be turned on the British before the war’s end with the same devastating effects. However, on this day it was the Federal Navy that was set afire and destroyed utterly, much to the chagrin of many RN Captains who wanted to take prizes.
Meanwhile the British ironclad batteries, gun and mortar boats took station and started bombarding Fort Monroe. Lee was a former US Engineer officer, and had briefed the British on the defences, allowing them to exploit gaps in Fort Monroe’s arcs of fire. After 13 hours of bombardment, Fort Monroe struck, but not before one of the most curious naval battles in history occurred.
Monitor vs Terror
The Monitor should never have gotten out of New York Harbor. However, steaming on smokless Pennsylvania coal in the dead of night, Monitor slipped past the blockaders at the mouth of the Long Island Sound and began her journey south. Warned by a spy at Bermuda of the British plans, the US had decided to send the only ironclad available to reinforce Fort Monroe. It arrived seven hours after the investment,
In the mouth of the Chesapeake was the ironclad Terror, an iron hulled armoured battery of 1856 with 4” of armour and 16 68 pounder guns, as the Monitor approach the Terror signalled to flag “Enemy shieldship bearing on me, am attacking” turned and moved to meet the Monitor in the first battle between ironclads.
The action has been well described elsewhere, but what is important is that Monitor had fully proofed guns and her Captain decided to use the wrought iron shot forged in New York. Terror had only common shot and shell. Terror’s belt was pierced several times, but the shot did little damage. Terror’s massed volleys of high velocity common shot did not pierce Monitors turret, but did knock it off its spindle, making the guns unworkable. Monitor retreated north, while Terror was forced to lick her wounds. Monitor outfoxed the Royal Navy again by slipping back past the New York blockaders.
Effects on Naval Design
The Martin Shell was so devastating that it was recognised that the hope that wooden warships could stand in the battleline a while longer were proved false. Meanwhile the protective power of the shielded cupola had been proved, and the need for heavy guns to pierce iron. That summer the Royal Navy razeed a dozen battleships, cladding them in iron and installing cupolas on Captain Coles’ design. The French followed suit, the age of the wooden man of war was at an end.
Excellent timeline so far, 67th. It's nice to see Canada survive for a change. As for the prairies though, I really can't see much happening past the Great Lakes, or maybe, maybe as far as Winnipeg, but that's it. There was virtually nothing there at that point in time.
Since McClellan will not be embarking on his Peninsular campaign in TTL does it mean then that Joe Johnston will be in charge of the Virginia theatre a bit longer? At least until Davis get fed up with him.
I'm very interested to see how Lee will gain command...as its only a matter of time until Davis put him in charge..and how his relationship with the British commanders will change things.
I'm very interested to see how Lee will gain command...as its only a matter of time until Davis put him in charge..and how his relationship with the British commanders will change things.
nice touch with the storm. That's one thing everyone forgets about... just how much Mother Nature screwed up damn near everyone's plans off the American coasts. When it comes to wars like this, everyone just plots out which ships go where.... when you read a history of the naval war in the ACW, storms were actually pretty significant; the Monitor was lost in one, after all...
67th Tigers
Banned
The Ballad of the ‘Calliope’ by A B “Banjo” Paterson
Riding lightly, head to wind,
With the coral reefs behind,
Three Germans and three Yankee ships were mirrored in the blue;
And on one ship unfurled
Was the flag that rules the world –
For on the old `Calliope’ the flag of England flew.
When the gentle off-shore breeze,
That had scarcely stirred the trees,
Dropped down to utter stillness, and the glass began to fall,
Away across the main
Lowered the coming hurricane,
And far away to seaward hung the cloud wrack like a pall.
If the word had passed around,
`Let us move to safer ground;
Let us steam away to seaward’ — then this tale were not to tell!
But each Captain seemed to say
`If the others stay, I stay!’
And they lingered at their moorings till the shades of evening fell.
Then the cloud wrack neared them fast,
And there came a sudden blast,
And the hurricane came leaping down a thousand miles of main!
Like a lion on its prey,
Leapt the storm fiend on the bay,
And the vessels shook and shivered as their cables felt the strain.
As the surging seas came by,
That were running mountains high,
The vessels started dragging, drifting slowly to the lee;
And the darkness of the night
Hid the coral reefs from sight,
And the Captains dared not risk the chance to grope their way to sea.
In the dark they dared not shift!
They were forced to wait and drift;
All hands stood by uncertain would the anchors hold or no.
But the men on deck could see
If a chance of hope might be –
There was little chance of safety for the men who were below.
Through that long, long night of dread,
While the storm raged overhead,
They were waiting by their engines, with the furnace fires aroar.
So they waited, staunch and true,
Though they knew, and well they knew,
They must drown like rats imprisoned if the vessel touched the shore.
When the grey dawn broke at last,
And the long, long night was past,
While the hurricane redoubled, lest its prey should steal away,
On the rocks, all smashed and strewn,
Were the German vessels thrown,
While the Yankees, swamped and helpless, drifted shorewards down the bay.
Then at last spoke Captain Kane,
`All our anchors are in vain,
And the Germans and the Yankees they have drifted to the lee!
Cut the cables at the bow!
We must trust the engines now!
Give her steam, and let her have it, lads, we’ll fight her out to sea!’
And the answer came with cheers
From the stalwart engineers,
From the grim and grimy firemen at the furnaces below;
And above the sullen roar
Of the breakers on the shore
Came the throbbing of the engines as they laboured to and fro.
If the strain should find a flaw,
Should a bolt or rivet draw,
Then — God help them! for the vessel were a plaything in the tide!
With a face of honest cheer,
Quoth an English engineer,
`I will answer for the engines that were built on old Thames side!
`For the stays and stanchions taut,
For the rivets truly wrought,
For the valves that fit their faces as a glove should fit the hand.
Give her every ounce of power,
If we make a knot an hour
Then it’s way enough to steer her and we’ll drive her from the land.’
Like a foam flake tossed and thrown,
She could barely hold her own,
While the other ships all helplessly were drifting to the lee.
Through the smother and the rout
The `Calliope’ steamed out –
And they cheered her from the Trenton that was foundering in the sea.
Aye! drifting shoreward there,
All helpless as they were,
Their vessel hurled upon the reefs as weed ashore is hurled.
Without a thought of fear
The Yankees raised a cheer –
A cheer that English-speaking folk should echo round the world.
San Francisco is important enough to capture. About the only other action you should see is San Juan Island falling under total British control. There are no US troops defending their half, so why not? The island would likely be under British administration following the war.
Would this be a "slave free" base? as i doubt that the British public would be happy about slave labour being used in a Royal Navy base. What would happen if a slave escaped in one of these bases, would the Royal Navy return the slave to their owner?
67th Tigers
Banned
The British public didn't give a monkeys about slavery, outside of a vocal minority. The bulk of the abolishionist movement in Britain came down on the CSA's side, and Cobden and Bright were reduced to a lunatic fringe. The ACW was only an abolishionist war post-facto.
Also, there are actually large numbers of colored soldiers in the Confederate Army (one as high as a Colonel in a Louisiana Regiment ISTR), both slave and free (the most common figure is 50,000). It's one of those oft ignored things which partially explains the superior forces per (white) Capita the CSA was able to field. Most were logistics and ambulance troops (the "(colored)" after various names on CS muster rolls are more often than not for bandsman (i.e. stretcher bearers) or wagon drivers).
However, this doesn't mean that the CSA didn't have colored combatants. "Negro sharpshooters" were particularly feared by Federal troops. One of the books I recently purchased has a collection of Federal accounts of colored confederate soldiers.
In 1862 the US and CSA allowed slavery so it was not perhaps an issue for Britain, but surely it would become one when British troops started relying on slaves for logistical support in the CSA british naval bases?
There is a difference between ignoring the slavery issue when Britain was neutral, but when Britain became involved things would change and perhaps that vocal minority against slavery would become larger?
As you said the ACW was abolitionist post-facto, but would there be an earlier emacipation proclamation if things start to go wrong for the US? as a way to put political pressure on Britain?
MrP
Banned
Jolly good, 67th. I must say I'm jolly surprised that anyone black could reach as high as colonel under the Confederacy! If robertp6165's reading this, don't hit me. 
Well, IOTL Lincoln didn't want to look as if it was about slavery, so he kept holding off making the EP until he had a victory. IOTL this was Gettysburg, but ITTL all bets are off.
Well, IOTL Lincoln didn't want to look as if it was about slavery, so he kept holding off making the EP until he had a victory. IOTL this was Gettysburg, but ITTL all bets are off.
If Lincoln made the emancipation declaration from a position of strength IOTL would he be able to do so from a position of weakness and in desperation ITTL? If the US lose the border Union Slave states to the CSA/Britain would slavery still be such a big issue for the US?
Also a ready supply of troops for Britain would be from the West Indies, but would these black troops would be trusted to fight alongside Confederate troops, thats if the CSA allowed them in?
The US would also be able to cause mischief in the West Indian colonies if troops were raised there to fight on American soil, "in defence of slavery".
Would we have rebellions in these colonies against Britain?
67th Tigers
Banned
Well, ca 1/7th - 1/8th of the Confederate Infantry (at least Jackson's Corps, the only one we have data for) were colored troops. They were completely integrated into the army at large though, no CSCT were organised until 1865.
The Division in the West Indies consisted of 2 white and 4 black battalions, organised as 2 brigades (each of a white and 2 black battalions, the West Indies Regiments being line regiments of the British Army). Their most frequent deployments were West Africa. Indeed, most campaigns in west Africa.
OTL, the Emancipation Proclamation also triggered British intervention to prevent a race war resulting from a possible slave rising. However, the British had misinterpreted the nature of Negro slavery in the south, most of the colored population remained loyal to the CSA.
OTL the original US Coloured Regiments (54th and 55th Mass) were recruited mostly from Canada. ITTL (as per OTL) they self organised a Canadian volunteer regiment, and were prepared to fight the Yankees during Trent. When they joined the 54th/55th Mass ISTR it was quite gaulling for many of their Commissioned Officers to have to give up their Commissions and become Sergeants.
Fascinating timeline,
Nice to see Kingston get involved in the ACW. Since the RN is one of my favorite areas of history I have a couple questions.
Will we see any RN ships fighting on the American rivers? Also will the British command of the seas free CSA garrisons from Coastal forts and ports, Mobile, Charleston, NO etc to have an active role in war?
Nice to see Kingston get involved in the ACW. Since the RN is one of my favorite areas of history I have a couple questions.
Will we see any RN ships fighting on the American rivers? Also will the British command of the seas free CSA garrisons from Coastal forts and ports, Mobile, Charleston, NO etc to have an active role in war?
67th Tigers
Banned
After much consideration, I now think that the US would kick British butts after all, then go on to liberate Ireland.
but first, the US would have to build a bunch of those Monitor class ships, and then sail them across the Atlantic to bombard the RN's home ports, right?