Indiana (Protectorate) Theatre, part 1
Indiana (Protectorate) Theatre, part 1
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The British/Canadian forts on the US border varied a lot in size. There was almost a continuous line of fortification along the Maumee from Bathurst [OTL's Toledo] to Ft. Wayne [OTL's Ft. Wayne]. Similarly, Ft. Liverpool [OTL Ft. Harrison/Terre Haute] and Indianapolis were major centres, with rail switching yards, warehouses, supply depots etc. On the other hand, there were also a handful of much smaller forts with maybe as few as 100 men. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Still. There were a string of major forts that held about 2000 men that anchored the line. St. Louis, Ft. Brock [near Centralia, IL], Ft. Francis [St. Francisville, IL], Liverpool, Indianapolis, Ft. Tecumseh [near Marion IN], Ft. Wayne, Ft. Necessity, and Ft. Bathurst. (The last three being on the Maumee line.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Once the pincers had cut most of the forts from each other, it was time to try to reduce them. Unfortunately for the US, they made a handful of miscalculations. 1) they didn't quite realize the state of these forts. The British had been working on them for 20 years, applying all the lessons learned from the Napoleonic wars, and these were not going to be easy forts to take. The US knew that, they just underestimated how hard they'd be. 2) about half the men manning the forts were natives, more at Ft. Brock, Ft Francis and Ft. Tecumseh, less along the Maumee. While the US had no doubt at all about the valour of the native warriors, or their prowess on the open field, especially skirmishing and in guerilla warfare (which they had encountered to their sorrow the last war), they rather doubted they'd be any good at siege warfare. 3) the very suddenness of the attack meant that the locals (white settler militia and natives) didn't have time to organize the evacuation of their families. So, while the forts are massively overcrowded, there are actually twice as many people who can fire guns than there are supposed to be, counting teenagers, oldsters and many women. And the ones that can't actually fight can reload, prepare food, etc., so the fighters can fight harder. And 4) it being winter with the ground frozen (or freezing) the digging of siege trenches to slowly approach the walls is difficult. The US felt they had to attack in the winter to impede British mobility, and felt that (most of) the forts would fall without requiring extensive sapping efforts (see points 1-3). Those sorts of sieges take time, and the US wants most of their victories in place before spring breakup. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Each of the 'Indian' forts is surrounded by enough soldiers to put them under siege and prevent reinforcements from marching to the rescue. Then the various forts will be reduced in turn.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, mobile forces are sweeping through what in OTL would be eastern Illinois, from near Ft. Brock [Centralia], up to OTL's Decatur and Champaign. They fight when necessary, but often approach a village in enough numbers that the village simply surrenders. The US troops announce that this is now US territory, and confiscate all the guns and ammunition that they find. They then build a series of strongpoints (palisaded forts) to serve as US administration and control centres. Supplies are requisitioned from the locals who are paid in scrip (reimbursable with the American government, but not likely until after the war ends). The initial sweeps are very successful, netting many guns and much in the way of provisions, but word gets out, and soon the take from each village drops significantly, with the villagers learning how to hide especially guns and other movable valuables. It's difficult to hide entire granaries, so the US can still requisition food, but they worry about the number of guns that are going missing. The first villages to claim they had NO guns suffered badly, as that was a patent lie, but later villages figured out a balance – giving up some their guns, especially the old muskets, while hiding the rest. There wasn't a lot the US forces could do, unless they actually found the hidden guns (which did happen occasionally), so there was worry for the future there. For now, many of the villagers were genuinely cowed by the US threat. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One problem that the US didn't quite take into account in the taking of the land was population density. The low density of settlement that allowed a smallish spear head[1] to sweep up and take this fairly large area also meant that there isn't a whole lot of food there. The farmers were almost all Indian in this area, and whether white or Indian, were essentially subsistence farmers. So the food they had stored was largely what they needed until the next crop comes in. So when the US soldiers take enough food to support them, the farmers are in danger of starving before harvest. Thus many farmers up stakes in the night and flee to British held territory, carrying a few possessions – and their hatred.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The local farmers also didn't use horses nearly as much as the US planners had assumed (based on their own experience), so there was a distinct shortage of forage for the US horses (most of the initial sweep, at least, was cavalry), which means that yet more grain was c/o/n/f/i/s/c/a/t/e/d/ requisitioned (in lieu of hay that WASN'T there), which means even more problems with the locals. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]One advantage in the US plans that had not originally been planned on was the Maceroni rockets. Because the sweep was done cross country with cavalry, trying to pull standard artillery along would have been very difficult. It turned out that rockets could be packed in on horses/pack mules, and were perfectly adequate for dealing with such wooden palisades as might be around a fortified village.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The US figures that the taking of this area is a down payment on reclaiming their land. First they take eastern Illinois [in OTL terms], then they reduce the individual forts, defeating the British/Canadians in detail, then they can take possession of more of the Protectorate. While they do know that more British reinforcements are coming, they hope to have the majority of the Protectorate under firm control before the reinforcements arrive – and by then they may be able to move north the forces that will have taken Louisiana – heck, a bunch of the Louisianan troops will surely switch sides and join the US after they've been defeated. Why should they fight for Britain, when many of them are [were] good Americans?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]By the end of January, the US has this area 'pacified'[2], and has started replacing many of the cavalry spearhead with infantry. This lets the spear-head raid in other directions, north and east between Liverpool and Prophetstown (hurting British lines of communications), and west (and north) to the Illinois river. Since especially the former area is not immediately going to be occupied by the US, there is more scorched earth tactics, and infrastructure destruction (which was specifically avoided in the occupied territory.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The taking of Ft. Francis[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The first fort to be reduced is Ft. Francis. Most of the defenders are Indian, and the fort is very near the US supply base of Vincennes. It will serve as a good training ground for American forces to learn how best to reduce a fort. Once it falls, they will move on to Ft. Brock and Ft. Tecumseh and try the tougher nut of Ft. Liverpool....[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Ft. Francis is very near Vincennes, the main US forward base. This meant that siege tools like large cannon were available here, where they wouldn't be in some other places. So the attack should be 'easy'.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Unfortunately for the US, the British (in this case Indians and settler militia) had other ideas.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]When the US set up their siege cannon to attack the walls, they discovered that the fort had Paixhans guns with explosive shells – which could outrange the US guns (if only because they were ON the walls shooting down). This made the first attempts suicide for the gun crews. They had to pull back the cannon out of range (which made them useless), and try plan B. Hundreds of rockets were shot at the fort, but they were not very effective against the walls. (Note that a well set cannon can continually pound a specific section of a wall until it crumbles. The Maceroni rockets were far more accurate than any previous rocket used in warfare – but that didn't mean much. Hitting the FORT was easy, hitting a single section of the wall, not so much – not unless the attackers were much closer, which, again, was pretty suicidal.) What the rockets were best for, in this instance, was firing OVER the walls into the fort, and creating damage and confusion there. But that did not lead to surrender, as the US forces had hoped.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The next suggestion was formal siege warfare, digging trenches in the freezing ground, gradually inching closer to the fortress, and then setting up revetments from which the cannon could pound the walls. But that would take weeks or months, and the General in charge was under a lot of pressure to win, and win quickly. If one fort took months, how could the US take all of them by spring?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So Plan C was a massed infantry charge. 5K soldiers were thrown at the fort, carrying scaling ladders, muskets and explosive charges. Between the round shot, the shells, shrapnel, murderous rifle fire from hundreds of yards out, and then finally grapeshot, the attack didn't really have a chance. It didn't help that some of the US troops in the attack had been garrison troopers themselves, and knew intimately the destruction THEY could have meted out, and this was worse. They were also not used to attack under fire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So the attack petered out, and rear units started pulling back without orders, even, and thousands of US dead and wounded lay on the field with nothing to show for it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The next day, the General wanted to try again with twice the troops – several units had made it to the wall, even if no one had actually made it to the top. With twice, or thrice the wave of attackers, they might well get a foot hold at the top of the wall. Of course, the death toll would be twice or thrice (or worse), and several units categorically refused. Besides, just because they got a lodging at the top of the wall wouldn't mean they could TAKE the place, as reinforcements would still have to stream across the killing ground.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]So plan D has to be to revert to the regular siege. The US has some 50k (or more) troops available[3] for this operation, and so they can besiege Ft. Francis, Ft. Brock and Ft. Liverpool all at the same time. Supplies like siege cannon and ammunition can be carried forward on the captured rail lines to those two places – get the stuff across the Wabash from the supply depot at Vincennes, and run it right up to those forts. Of course, because cannon were as much a back up plan as anything else, and because of the US difficulty with producing all the cannon she wanted for all the purposes and theatres, there aren't as many cannon here as they would like. There are, however, probably enough.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The fall back to regular siegecraft means that Ft. Tecumseh (the one near OTL Marion IN), is safe for the moment, as no cannon were brought forward to that fort. So orders have to go out to haul cannon across country there.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Meanwhile, at least Ft. Brock and Ft. Tecumseh are surrounded so no defenders can get there, and Ft. Liverpool (and Indianapolis for that matter) are also cut off – as the rail line from the north (and east) go by Ft. Tecumseh and are cut off by the American forces there. Moreover, the rail line itself is cut in several different places.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]1 10k cavalry wouldn't have been 'smallish' in the last war, but it really is here. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]2 for some value of the word 'pacified'.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]3 They have 100k regular troops in the theatre + 30k militia. They have probably 30 or 40k on the US side of the Maumee line, trying to keep the British from counterinvading. They have 10k cavalry on the sweep into Illinois, and 5k infantry moving in to man the small forts being set up. They have some 20k (mostly the second tier militia) doing logistics and support, and about 5k protecting the supply lines (railways etc). [/FONT]
