The American Autumn Offensive
The Americans followed up their "victory" at the Battle of Toledo with a large offensive into Canada itself. One target was expected, the other less expected. The British had a general sense that the Americans wouldn't try to attack from Michigan since the British Army was concentrated there and the natural barriers of the region would make it too difficult for the Americans to try. The next major jewel of Canada was the large city of Montreal, and as expected, the Americans advanced from New Hampshire into Quebec.
Overly optimistic American planning naturally assumed the Quebecoise would welcome the Americans as liberators and indeed, American war planners sketched out the possibility of an independent Quebec. The results were...less than optimal. The Americans had remarkably few French speakers at hand and while the Anglo-Canadians were disliked for being hostile to Roman Catholicism, the Americans were viewed as even more hostile. Quebecoise rallied to the Union Jack against the American invaders. The fall of 1896 had hit and temperatures were dropping, forcing the Americans to speed up, something that became difficult when Quebecoise militias, many of them skilled at trapping and hunting, began harassing American supply caravans. The Americans were rushing not only due to the winter, but because President Holmes understood that a presidential election would be held in November of 1896. The leading National Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, had become famed for his defense of Buffalo and was running on an antiwar ticket. In addition, the leading Republican candidate, John Hay, also called for a negotiated peace settlement.
In their hurry, the Americans neglected to bringing a lot of the heavier equipment, including artillery and boats. Although the American army was able to reach the St. Lawrence River, even managing to chase out wildly outnumbered Anglo-Canadian troops in fierce house-to-house firefights in the cities of Brossard and Boucherville, they really didn't have the capability to cross into Montreal proper. This was considered acceptable by the Americans, because the goal wasn't to necessarily seize Montreal (viewed as impossible given the time constraints and difficulty in supplying a large, artillery-based army), but rather to simply place an army across the river from Montreal capable of interdicting Anglo-Canadian commerce. As a result, the Americans came surprisingly prepared for the winter. Although the Americans suffered bad losses in Brossard and Boucherville, the majority of losses on both sides would simply be disease. Holmes figured peace would come soon, and this would give the Americans leverage.
Unfortunately for the Americans, it was not the blockade of Montreal that shined across world headlines. Instead, it was another daring American strike. The bulk of the Royal Navy busy patrolling the Atlantic or seizing Hawaii (much to the horror but also respect of the British, when the British closed onto Honolulu, rather than surrender, most of the Marines fled into the mountains of Hawaii to fight an insurgency). On the other hand, the British were relieved because this meant there would be no assault on Honolulu itself, sparing the city of civilian casualties. However, this meant that the Royal Navy stayed in Hawaii, allowing the Americans to sail up the West Coast towards their primary target. Cut off from the Trans-Pacific Railroad, the Canadian city of Vancouver had only a fairly undersupplied garrison. Members of the California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho State Militia landed via a shocking amphibious assault near on Vancouver itself, skirting all of the Anglo-Canadian defenses placed between Seattle and Vancouver. The American troops quickly moved up, crushing any Anglo-Canadian attempt to resist. American ships blew apart the naval defenses of Vancouver (a relatively new city), much to the shock of the Anglo-Canadians, who consistently underestimated American gunnery. Unable to easily travel between the islands of Vancouver, the Canadian garrison quickly ordered a surrender.
However, not even the shocking loss of Vancouver would be the news. Vancouver was a relatively small town, having only around 20,000 residents. However, a large proportion of them, around 4,000 (half from America), were actually Chinese laborers. Members of the California State Militia, egged on by California Governor Denis Kearny and citing the massacre of Americans in Qing China itself, went looting and searching for revenge in Chinatown, which caused many local Chinese gangsters to fight back. The violence quickly expanded into a massacre, as militiamen indiscriminately murdered civilians. The Canadians didn't care very much either way, but the British second-in-command of the garrison in Vancouver, a young very well-connected man who demanded to be put near the front-line but wasn't because of his politically powerful father, the young officer Winston Churchill, reacted with outrage, viewing this as a total breach of the British surrender. Churchill, although holding many racist attitudes, found the conduct profoundly dishonorable. Churchill then immediately revoked his surrender, ordering his subordinates to continue resisting the Americans and help any civilians escape. Some listened. Interestingly, the British were unable to actually reach Chinatown, so almost all of the escaping Chinese were aided by members of the Squamish tribe, who were skilled in canoeing and helped them escape via canoes.
An American squad sent to accept the surrender of British troops had not been told the battle was still on and they were indeed shot and killed by British troops when they came to receive the British surrender. News quickly spread throughout that British troops had plotted with "oriental gangsters and triads" to fake-surrender in order to murder American troops. Tragically, this led a gang of Americans to break into where the already-surrendered Anglo-Canadian troops and lynch most of them, causing the rest of the British Army to side with Churchill's order. The city of Vancouver broke into chaos as nobody was sure if the battle was still going on - something not aided when Churchill's men went on the offensive, even killing much of the American high command in a daring ambush! Several British POWs escaped in the chaos, disguising themselves as civilians, causing several American militiamen to conclude that many British civilians were actually British soldiers in disguise. An apocryphal order (not given, but rumor spread that it was given) for the Americans to arrest all Canadian men over 18 (or 16 or 14 depending on the rumor spreading). This caused many of the Canadians to violently resist, which only sparked the Americans to treat all male civilians as enemy combatants.
After a few days, horrified members of the American navy landed on shore to restore order. The city of Vancouver had almost entirely burned down. An estimated 10,000 people had died in the "Rape of Vancouver." The rest of the British garrison, including Churchill himself, were now safely in custody, but much of the city was still in flames. The Battle of Vancouver was surprisingly the last major battle of the American Front in First World War, but it would leave a remarkably bad taste in everyone's mouths.
