Fenians, Brits, Mexicans, Canucks and Frenchies....OH, MY! An alternate American Civil War

Chapter 74
August, 1866

Jamaica

Though no resident of Jamaica longed for the days of slavery, that did not mean that things were going well. The high "poll tax" intended to keep common Jamaicans from voting irritated the majority of the electorate while competition from Brazil had largely killed the sugar trade.

Efforts to move agricultural staples from sugar to cotton proved too fleeting and did little to improve the unemployment rate.

A series of protests would lead to a savage series of repressions which resulted in 400 dead over the course of a month. Given that there was no actual rebellion, this figure would shock many in Britain while others complimented the Royal Governor for keeping a tight lid on the situation.

Galveston / Houston

The waves of immigration appeared unending. With the unrest in Germany, large numbers of unemployed Germans (mostly from the German Confederation and Prussia) would start trickling into Texas after the War Between the States and the French and Mexican War ended. By 1866, this was becoming a flood.

Germans had long migrated to Texas, though many thousands had fled in the War Between the States as they were predominantly Unionist and Abolitionist. Most of these had long since returned by 1866 and they would welcome nearly 10,000 of their fellows per month arriving from Europe. Land remained cheap, particularly around the growing cities of Texas, Aranama (Southern Texas) Territory and Mescalero (West Texas) Territory. This influx would reach 15,000 per month in 1867.

Rome

Henri Gilbert was not a well man. Over the course of his life in Marseille, he'd been convinced at various times of being the anti-Christ, the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte I and, of course, Joan of Arc.

However, in his latest fevered daydreams, he'd become convinced that God wanted him to protect the rights of Kings. When Jefferson Davis was killed in the streets of Paris, Gilbert had determined that it was HIS duty to avenge this American King.

While he knew next to nothing about Americans, the famous General Grant was in Europe (ostentatiously avoiding France) going from Capital to Capital with his family. After four straight years of war, he was inclined to see some of the world and smoke the endless quantity of cigars his admirers had shipped to his home while he was in Mexico.

Gilbert learned that a tall American with a beard had killed "King" Jefferson. Grant apparently met that description and the Frenchman assumed that this must be his man. Gilbert travelled to Rome, where the General was expected to be in August and laid in wait. The Italian papers announced that the General and his family would be visiting the Vatican on the 17th and, carrying a small pistol in his pocket, waited outside the Vatican gates.

More by luck than any skill, it was less than a hour later that Grant and his family emerged, their eyes no doubt struck by God's Greatest Cathedral. For a moment, Gilbert wondered why the man had not been felled by the hand of God for defiling such a holy place but then realized that HE was the hand of God.

This eliminated any doubt. Grant was accosted by a few reporters, no doubt waiting for him to exit as well. He was among the most famous men in the world at the moment and even Italian, Hungarian and German Newspapers dispatched local reporters to get a quote.

While the man was somewhat patiently waiting for someone to finish asking a question in broken English, Gilbert crept forward, pushed the reporter aside and leveled his weapon at Grant.

Julia Grant screamed as the weapon fired. The General grunted and went down. Elated, Gilbert looked on, his weapon still pointed forward when he felt the sharp crack of a heavy walking cane coming down on his forearm. It took a long moment before the Frenchman realized his arm had snapped like a twig. A few seconds later, the pain emerged and Gilbert joined Grant on the ground.

The Frenchman looked up and saw the face of a withered friar repeatedly crossing himself, probably begging God's forgiveness for causing harm to another man.

Through the pain, Gilbert was mentally forgiving the Priest, who obviously did not know that he was interfering with God's own hand. The thoughts had just crossed his mind when one of the reporters kicked the Frenchman in the face and all went black.

Louisiana

General Philip Sheridan was taking his carriage from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Usually, he rode his own horse but Mrs. Sheridan (a local Louisiana lady) had become a friend to James Longstreet's wife in recent years. Longstreet, after years of service in Mexico, had returned to America in 1865 to New Orleans where Louisa Longstreet had been raising their children.

Sheridan and Longstreet had long known one another and become friends in the past year themselves. The diminutive Irish cavalryman was still in his thirties and had been commanding the Reconstruction government in Louisiana for the past year. While he loathed politics enormously, Sheridan was personally asked by Lincoln to assume this role due to the rise of anti-Freedmen Hate Groups.

If ever there was a man to hunt these people down, it was Sheridan.

On this particular evening, the Sheridans and Longstreets were on their way to the opening of the new "State University of Louisiana" which had been largely funded with Federal money. Sheridan had backed the idea in 1865 while Longstreet, who had been consulting with the Federal Government for years, would support it as well. Just as important was the Chancellor, William Tecumseh Sherman, who, like Longstreet, had regained his prestige in Washington after siding with the Confederacy by serving under Grant in Mexico.

The previous iteration, Louisiana State Seminary, had been located in Pineville but had been shut down during the war. Sherman had been its Chancellor and now would open the new institution.

Unfortunately, the Sheridans and Longstreets would not arrive to see the event. As the carriage rumbled over a bridge over a burbling creek, one of the local anti-Freedman fanatics, who'd been tipped off on the soldiers' plans, detonated a large amount of dynamite wired to the bottom of the bridge. The blast immediately killed the all four passengers as well the the driver and draft horses. The pair of Negro Cavalrymen escorting them thirty feet behind would be thrown completely off their mounts.

The assassin prepared to leap forward and kill the Negro Cavalrymen as well but fled upon the arrival of several wagons from the opposite direction. A local farmer and his five sons were taking their goods into New Orleans for sale at the market and happened to be at the right place at the right time.
 
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Bruh this fucking Frenchmen tried killing Grant? Fuck that guy. I hope Grant survives. He's too based for America. I want to see him as President after Lincoln.
 

Stretch

Donor
This is just a suggestion, but for the future, could you make the scene change locations in bold please? Just to make it easier to tell when the story moves from one location to another.
 
Bruh this fucking Frenchmen tried killing Grant? Fuck that guy. I hope Grant survives. He's too based for America. I want to see him as President after Lincoln.
I think he was shot to stop that happening as Grant as president was seen as being soft on the south during reconstruction.
Anyone getting in the way of hard reconstruction ITL will get bumped off.
Same for anyone to do with the lost cause.
The bad part of Grant not being President could be his reforms of the recruitment for the civil service might not happen.
 
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This is just a suggestion, but for the future, could you make the scene change locations in bold please? Just to make it easier to tell when the story moves from one location to another.

I used to but the bar had been whited out for weeks and it only seems to have come back today. I'll utilize in the future.
 
Chapter 75
September, 1866

Curupayty, Paraguay


George McClellan's eyes bulged at his bickering Generals, each demanding to lead THEIR forces against the enemy line. This was perhaps the stupidest thing McClelland had ever heard. If there was one thing he'd learned in 4 years of war in North America, it was one DID NOT ATTACK AN ENTRENCHED POSITION DIRECTLY.

And that was what Lopez and Diaz were inviting him to do.

Over the past months, McClellan's intelligence on the Paraguayan materials shortages were compounded with each prisoner taken. Between the obsolete weapons, critical shortage of powder and devastated navy, the Paraguayans were on the backfoot.

Indeed, with the loss of their Navy, the entire pretext of the Paraguayan War had vanished. They simply lacked the capacity to project their forces back to the Rio Plata without a Navy and thus were no threat to the allies. That they were still fighting was more a matter of mule-headedness or desperation.

Or, McClellan thought sourly, General Lopez merely hoped that the allies would fall part. Not exactly a forlorn hope given the obvious divisions between the allies.

The Paraguayans had found as strong a position as they could. The Curupayty River was to the west while wide lagoons blocked the east of the battlefield. Lopez had chosen his place to make his stand well. Having dug up a wide ditch with a large earthen battlement, the Paraguayans had significant cover the length of the mile-wide battlefield.

The American had seen FAR TOO MANY men die in the War Between the States by charges into such defenses. Given the allied artillery advantage - both and sea - this may be the Paraguayans' best chance to seize victory in this war. But only if the McClellan danced to Lopez' tune.

There was no way McClellan was going to order a direct attack on the defenses. Instead, he ordered his artillery to switch to shell and bombard the defenses while he ordered his cavalry division and two brigades of Argentine and Uruguayans to march around the wide lagoons to the east.

The predominantly Brazilian fleet along the Curupayty River would then then carry the bulk of the Brazilian forces two miles down the river to a safe landing spot. Caught between three forces, the Paraguayans would be caught.

The implementation of the complex plan did not go well. The Argentine and Paraguayans would get bogged down and take twice as along as expected to march to the Paraguayan rear while the Brazilians took nearly a full day to unload their supplies down the river.

Still, Lopez attempted to engage each of the three split forces in isolation. He would inflict 100 casualties on the Argentines while a group of Paraguayan cavalry took a few dozen prisoners among the Brazilian in his rear.

But Lopez could not be strong everywhere and McClellan saved his best for last. After nearly a day long artillery barrage, the American left the impression that he was not going to attack and, as Lopez was forced to pull more and more of his forces from the main line, McClellan would launch a daring night attack right at the end of the line less than 100 feet from the shores of the Curupayty.

Led by the French forces, hundreds of allied soldiers would managed to ford the ditch and the earthen walls. These men would be armed with the repeating weapons and the heavy rate of fire issued forth in the free-for-all would allow hundreds of more allies across the breach.

Unfortunately, both General Lopez and his best commander, Diaz, were leading the assaults against the other allied formations and a mass counter-attack by the Paraguayans was ordered too late.

The line broken and allies torching their precious supply train, the Paraguayans were forced to withdraw, quickly retreating northwards through the broken terrain. McClellan intended for the Brazilians under the Count of Puerto Alegre and the Argentines/Uruguayans under Flores to cut off the enemy retreat. However, only about 750 captives were taken, much to the American's disbelief.

Though McClellan was convinced that the Paraguyans had equal numbers of his 20,000 men, in reality they only managed to raise 5000. Later historians would concede, however, the capture of so much of the Paraguayan supply train would be of vital importance.

Within days, the fortress of Humaita would be besieged from the landward side while the Brazilian Navy prepared to speed by the massive fortress and isolate it from Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital.

Rome

General Ulysses Grant would received a series of visitors during his recovery in Rome from a gunshot to his left collarbone. Fortunately, the mad Frenchman's weapon was aged and underpowered. A Colt at that range would cut straight through the American.

Among Grant's visitors would be the American Ambassador to Italy, the great Italian General Garibaldi, Crown Prince Umberto and, astonishingly, Pope Pius IX. Apparently, a famous man being shot on the Vatican's doorstep merited a private visit.

Though the doctors feared some sort of blood poisoning, the General would recover well enough to return to his tour of Europe by October.

Washington DC

President Lincoln would be shocked at the assassination of Generals Sheridan and Longstreet and their wives. Even most Southerners were appalled at the murder of women. Within days, a massive manhunt would comb the state of Louisiana but the assassin would not be discovered.

In retribution, the assorted Union Reconstructionist Military governors would hunt down the "raiders" which had been so vexing the Freedmen population.

In Louisiana itself, Lincoln ordered General Rosecrans to replace Sheridan. Though not a "fighting General" of Sheridan's reputation, Rosecrans was an able organizer and administrator. He would ruthlessly hunt down any semblance of irregular resistance.

London

First Lord of the Treasury Benjamin Disraeli would learn of the French "intervention" in Siam and the Joseon Kingdom , the latter in conjunction with the Russians, in October of 1866 via a fast ship back from Asia.

For all Britain's occasional bluster, the government never had the slightest intention of forcibly opposing Russia in the Eastern Mediterranean without numerous allies. Yes, the Royal Navy could probably wipe the Russian Black Sea Fleet (it may have been renamed the "Mediterranean Squadron" by now) but that would not alter the fact that Russian forces occupied much of the Balkans and did not lack for allies even if one did not count France.

Britain had recently learned to her dismay that controlling the high seas did little to intimidate a nation the size of a continent. Unless that Navy power could be matched with landward military forces, any conflict would prove futile and only put Egypt, Greece and the other eastern nations further into the Russian-French camp.

There may be little Britain could do about the fait accompli in the Eastern Mediterranean but there was damned well something they could do in Southeast Asia. If the French thought that the resources they could bring to bear from Indochina could compete with those of the British Raj, they would be very, very disappointed.

Madrid

Worse for Britain, even Spain was looking increasing problematic.

Queen Isabella had rejected any entreaty from Britain for an alliance, seeing no reason to antagonize France. This would initially not vex anyone in London as an "alliance" with Spain would likely provide few actual benefits and probably draw Britain into other conflicts.

However, the Spanish Queen had her own colonial aspirations. News from the Chincha Islands west of Peru did not paint a positive picture as Chile, Peru and Ecuador were apparently allying against the Queen's forces. In truth, the Spanish Government had no real plans on the South American mainland but were willing to test throwing their weight around.

Much more importantly, the "reconquest" of Hispaniola would continue to suction the already limited Spanish resources. Had it not been for the wave of volunteers from Europe seeking land-grants for their service and the tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans and Cubans served as irregulars, the Haitians would probably have pushed the Spanish back into the Dominican by now.

With most of the Haitian cities having fallen, the inland campaigns were proving disastrous for all involved. By most estimates over 20,000 "Spanish" troops had died (this was actually a gross underrepresentation with the actual number), at least half to disease.

The Haitians, of course, suffered much, much worse as the conquest had led to mass slaughter. Lacking much in the way of modern weapons and powder, the Haitian irregulars would resort to using spears and clubs. Even the most conservative estimates held that 100,000 Haitians had been directly killed by the invaders and perhaps twice that of disease, starvation and exposure.

The population retreated inland where there were few supplies to be had. Malnutrition led to disease and greater and greater death. Even when the Haitians were taken prisoner, they were relegated to fenced compounds in which disease ran rampant.

By fall of 1866, no semblance of central government was left though Faustin II controlled the massive Citidelle Laferriere which the Spanish never bothered to assault. It was too far inland and there were more important things to do than besiege the Masada of Hispaniola. Thus Faustin II would use the fortress to raid outward among the other Haitians for supplies. Indeed, the "Emperor's" forces spent vastly more time feeding off their countrymen than opposing the Spanish.

The suffering would only grow worse and worse over the season as virtually no crops were being sown, no harvest collected and certainly no food imports reaching the population.

More importantly to Britain, the Spanish were also starting to covetously eye Morocco as well.
 
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Map of North America - 1866
Fenians - 1867 - North America.png
 
I get Quebec and the British Maritimes but srsly why is there that little sliver of Anglo Canada? Could we see those landlocked Anglos eventually asking for statehood in the Union?
To make sure the British in the next war have naval bases that can blockade the USA.
 
The op explained that they did not want to be part of the US and he would not force them.
That argument works until the Canadians realise that

A) their culture is very similar to America's
B) Britain abandoned them
C) they are landlocked and economically independent on the USA
D) Would likely be stronger economically and safer as an official state.

I bet you by 1900, Canada/Ontario petitions to be admitted as an official state of the Union.
 
That argument works until the Canadians realise that

A) their culture is very similar to America's
B) Britain abandoned them
C) they are landlocked and economically independent on the USA
D) Would likely be stronger economically and safer as an official state.

I bet you by 1900, Canada/Ontario petitions to be admitted as an official state of the Union.
They have access to the sea via the great lakes. Patriotism is not always practical.
 
They have access to the sea via the great lakes. Patriotism is not always practical.
Their access to the sea is dependent on the Americans and Quebecois. Also I don't even know if the Erie-Saint Lawrence canal was built yet so that access may be hindered further.

Bear in mind after WWII, Newfoundland was considering joining the US. Ontario is not staying out of the Union for more than a few decades.
 
Their access to the sea is dependent on the Americans and Quebecois. Also I don't even know if the Erie-Saint Lawrence canal was built yet so that access may be hindered further.

Bear in mind after WWII, Newfoundland was considering joining the US. Ontario is not staying out of the Union for more than a few decades.
Newfoundland has so many Irish in it it could join Ireland as the 33rd county.
Newfoundland is one of the few places in the new world with its own name in the Irish language.
Talamh an Éisc in English "The fishing grounds"
 
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Newfoundland has so many Irish in it it could join Ireland as the 33rd county.
Newfoundland is one of the few places in the new world with its own name in the Irish language.
Talamh an Éisc in English "The fishing grounds"
Fair point. Mind you though I still think they'll want to join the Union. There's simply more in it for them and states have a lot of rights and self-governance in the USA.

Imagine they have disputes with Quebec over border territories. Guess who they'll be joining to automatically win said disputes.
 
Fair point. Mind you though I still think they'll want to join the Union. There's simply more in it for them and states have a lot of rights and self-governance in the USA.

Imagine they have disputes with Quebec over border territories. Guess who they'll be joining to automatically win said disputes.
Indeed.
Then they can settle the matter by drinking a bottle of Hennesy cognac.
As it is Irish and French at the same time.
 
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