Late May, 1863
The St. Lawrence south of Montreal
General Hooker's initial attempt to bluff the city of Montreal into surrender were not accepted....he no doubt knew. The British commanders of the region would refuse such an idea and prattle about glory and what-have-you. The Americans would have bee no different.
Reminding the British and Canadians that the city of Montreal was defenseless against American artillery was a bit more straightforward. Not naturally gifted by geography, Montreal could easily be shelled into submission (or annihilation).
In truth, Hooker was delaying as well for two events to occur:
1. The heavy American siege artillery arrived by land through the woods south of the city. The Grand Trunk Railway had been effectively sabotaged by the retreating British and would be useless for at least most of the summer until replacement track could be laid. Thus moving the heavy guns took time.
2. His men to acquire or build enough boats along the St. Lawrence to cross the river in force.
To his surprise, Hooker was approached by the city fathers of Montreal. As the leading city in Canada, most of the wealthiest citizens lived on the island, usually on huge estates. The civilian government had managed to convince the British not to garrison the island. If America would accept, then the city would be considered "neutral".
Hooker and Lee considered this. It had been their assumption that that the island city would have to be conquered. However, taking the island would do relatively little to achieve their true objective....cutting Canada in half. For that, they had to get to the north face of the St. Lawrence.
The conquest of the city would only slow the Americans down. Its destruction would likely have the same emotional impact on Canadian sensitivities as Britain's torching of Manhattan. In short, Montreal didn't mean much.
Indeed the soldiers wondered just how the hell the Canadians had managed to get that past the British. Hooker opined that maybe the Queen's representatives were being held in low esteem after starting this war and then Canada having to live with the consequences of a three-pronged invasion.
Time was the deciding factor. The winter came early in this region and it seemed unlikely that the remnant of their campaign would see them cross the St. Lawrence, assume control over the Montreal region and then March on Quebec.
Thus the agreement was struck. America observers were allowed into the city but otherwise no fortification of Montreal would be accepted on either side.
Only later would history record that the French-Canadian politicians, regular regiments and militia threatened mutiny if the city were put in danger.
Toronto
Many years before, the city of Toronto (then known as York and perhaps closer to a town than a city) was burned to the ground by a retreating American army in the War of 1812.
America's reputation in Canada had not improved much since and the arrival of now 35,000 soldiers within the portion of Canada once known as Upper Canada were not being welcomed with open arms.
But General Hancock, commanding the 20,000 soldiers from Buffalo who had seized Kingston, the Welland Canal and now Toronto, would struggling to receive any semblance of support. At most, the Canadian public seemed to shun him.
After several small pitched battles, mainly against local militia which were easily enough dispatched by experienced and far better armed American regulars, would generally scatter.
Another 10,000 men had been requested and granted by Lincoln, this time including a full Brigade of Freedmen. Hancock suspected that, come winter, most of these men would be missing Alabama or South Carolina. But, for now, Hancock was accept any help he could get.
Even the Irish were failing to come out in droves to support the Union Army. Hancock reckoned that, the moment the Union left (of its own volition of compelled by British arms), that such welcoming fellows would be strung up by their neighbors much as King George's supporters would face a terrible retribution after Redcoats abandoned large swathes of America.
Still, Hancock had hoped for more. Would America really try to force these sullen Canadians into the national fold against their will?
It had happened the previous year with the Confederacy but there were other issues at stake there. For instance, they HAD been Americans. Also, the slavery question loomed large.
Was America's destiny to conquer and conquer?
The whole conflict began to leave a sour taste in Hancock's mouth.
June 1863
Providence, Rhode Island
After learning of the invasion of Canada, the First Lord of the Admiralty, frustrated at taking humiliating defeats such as Portland and the Chesapeake, authorized his Navy to "stop fighting with one hand behind its back" and approved seizure of any American ships caught at sea (oddly, this hadn't been explicitly ordered until this point) and for his fleet to assault a series of American coastal cities. Some cities were well defended by coastal batteries (like Baltimore) and others by geography (Boston).
But several others were easy pickings for the Royal Navy. Providence would burn in late May, 1863. It would be but the first of many cities along the east coast.
Istanbul
The British Mediterranean squadron had finally been challenge the Russian fleet in the Bosporus. While not directly given orders to "attack" the Russians, it was ordered to "forcibly compel Russia to remove naval vessels in the region by previous treaty" which, as best anyone could tell, meant keep the damned Russians out of the Mediterranean. Of course, by June 1863, the Russians were already besieging the Turks in Istanbul.
To the British shock, the seaway was not only guarded by the Russian Black Sea Fleet....but French as well.
This was the first signal of what Napoleon III was planning behind the scenes. It would only get worse from there as a pair of Corvettes dispatched to the Nile would report back that elements of the Russian Northern Fleet had somehow snuck past Gibraltar and made for their new friends in Egypt.
The British commander knew he could not act without adequate and, more importantly, DIRECT orders from London. Forming a blockade across the Bosporus was one thing. Effectively declaring war upon Egypt, Russia AND France would require a bit more instruction.
June 1863
Grand Duchy of Posen, Kingdom of Galicia.
The Franco-Russian Treaty of 1863 was largely a rehash of the agreement proposed by Napoleon III to the Czar near the end of the Crimean War. Effectively, it would split Europe into two spheres, one of French influence and one of Russian.
In the Crimea, the British had learned of this and made their own separate peace with Russia, vowing never to trust the French again. Of course, just a few years later, the Emperor would pull the same trick in Mexico.
Now Napoleon III would recreate Europe in his image. All he needed was the Russian Bear. Still smarting from Crimean War, the Czar reached an agreement.
After the general revolt among the Poles in Prussia's Grand Duchy of Posen and the Kingdom of Galicia, the Czar would dispatch 180,000 Russian troops across the border to "maintain the peace" among this neighbors.
At this time, Prussia had been pressed to the bring in the West, having lost most of the Rhineland and stubborn Austrian defenses had virtually stopped any southward momentum. The renewal of hostilities by Denmark were but a modest distraction, largely handled by the garrisons of Schleswig and Holstein. The Polish rebellion caused chaos leading almost to the breakdown of the Prussian government.
Then the damned Russians invaded. Frederick the Great had faced a similar situation a century earlier. But Wilhelm was NOT Frederick the Great.
Worse, believing that the Prussian King was on his last legs, his only remaining significant allies, Saxony and Mecklenburg, officially announced the withdrawal of their forces from the war. Saxony was an especially deep betrayal as the Protestant state was among the front line fighting Austria and, cutting her borders, had trapped a large number of Prussian soldiers.
Throughout the previous decades Prussia had come to represent the best....and worst of Germany. While driving the modernization of the German Confederation (with Austria as a rival), Prussia had brought northern Germany into the modern age. However, this came at a cost as the further the assorted German petty states advanced, the more defacto control Prussia gained. By 1863, the smaller states of northern Germany were terrified that disagreeing with the King of Prussia was tantamount to giving up their thrones.
Prosperity came with a terrible price.
When Prussia said go to war.....you went.
The Russian invasion of 120,000 into Posen would cut off East Prussia and leave Brandenburg largely on its own. Saxony and Mecklenburg promptly switched sides and joined the rest of the German Confederation centered around Hanover (and propped up by France).
Despite holding a great deal of Austrian territory, the King of Prussia would see the writing on the wall and remove is senior advisor starting with Bismarck, who had gotten him into this mess.
The Franco-Russian peace would be terrible....but the harsh terms were demanded by the German Confederation for fear of Prussia rising again to prey upon THEM.
Austria would find itself bankrupt, largely a spectator in the peace and with 60,000 Russians occupying Galicia and 90,000 Italians in Venetia. The Austrian Emperor could do little as his own will to fight had faded greatly.