ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO EARLIER PORTIONS OF THE TIMELINE
March 1861--The Confederate Congress authorizes the use of 100,000 volunteer soldiers for twelve months. It also creates a much smaller regular Confederate Army. The process of recruiting, arming, and training these men begins.
Part Four: January through June 1862
January 1862--Word of the Anglo-French declaration of war reaches the United States. President Seward asks Congress for a declaration of war on Britain and France. This is granted on January 14, 1862. President Seward calls for 100,000 volunteers to fight the British and French.
President Lincoln of the Confederate States of America declares the neutrality of the Confederate States on January 15, 1862. Both Britain and France, through their ambassadors, attempt to entice the Confederacy to join the war on their side. President Lincoln plays “hard to get,” not refusing outright, but also not agreeing.
Meanwhile, Britain and France begin putting together an expeditionary force to be landed in Canada for operations against the northern U.S. British and French naval vessels begin seizing American merchant vessels at sea.
February 1862--Skirmishes are fought along the Canadian border between U.S. and Canadian militia units. The Anglo-French continue building their expeditionary force. Volunteers are pouring into Union recruiting camps, and beginning to be trained as soldiers.
John Ericsson, a Swedish-American engineer and naval designer, offers a new design for an ironclad warship, called the
Monitor, to the U.S. Navy Department. He promises he can build it within 100 days. The design, along with several others, is accepted. Royal Navy squadrons engage the U.S. Navy squadrons outside Charleston, South Carolina and Mobile, Alabama. The outnumbered and outgunned Union warships are either captured, sunk, or forced to flee.
Negotiations continue between the Confederacy and both the United States and the Anglo-French Alliance. President Lincoln refuses to commit to either side. Arkansas secedes from the Union, and is admitted to the Confederacy. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory introduces to President Lincoln a design for a casemate ironclad warship submitted by Lieutenants John Porter and John Brooke, CSN. The design is similar to that of the OTL
CSS Albemarle, designed to operate primarily in the shallow waters of Southern rivers and harbors and which can be built in the most primitive shipyards. President Lincoln goes to the Confederate Congress and obtains funding for the construction of several of these, at shipyards in Norfolk, Virginia, Wilmington, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas. Engines for these are to be imported from Britain and France.
March 1862--President Seward, knowing that the U.S. Navy has no chance in a general engagement with the Royal Navy, orders the U.S. Navy to abandon it’s stations off southern ports and to disperse, operating as commerce raiders against British and French shipping. Admiral Milne, commanding the British North American and West Indian Squadron, establishes a strict blockade of U.S. ports shortly afterward. Meanwhile, a Royal Navy vessel intercepts the
S.S. Athena, a paddle-wheel steamer carrying a load of gold and silver bullion from California to New York, whose Captain was totally unaware of the outbreak of war between the United States and Britain. News of the loss of this shipment of specie throws Union financial markets into chaos, vastly complicating President Seward’s task of arranging financing for the war.
On land, the Anglo-French continue building their expeditionary force and volunteers continue pouring into Union recruiting camps, to be trained as soldiers. A U.S. army of 60,000 men, called the Army of the Hudson, has been assembled at Plattsburg, New York, under the command of Major General Irvin McDowell. Under heavy political pressure, General McDowell advances across the Canadian border on March 19, advancing toward Montreal. The men of the Army of the Hudson are barely trained, and the advance, bedeviled by hit-and-run attacks by mounted units of Canadian militia, proceeds extremely slowly. The invading U.S. army is brought to battle by a British and Canadian force of 40,000 men (the British have been transporting approximately 13,000 men to Canada every 6 weeks since November 1861, and smaller numbers before that since the beginning of the
San Jacinto Crisis) near the village of Saint Jean Sur-Richelieu on March 29, 1862. Despite the U.S. army’s heavy advantage in numbers, the superior training and discipline of the British regulars wins out, and the Army of the Hudson is routed. The British pursue quite effectively, and barely half of the Union troops make it back across the border into the United States…about a third of those lost are dead or wounded, and the other two thirds end up sitting in British P.O.W. camps. The British army does not enter the United States, as, until the full Anglo-French expeditionary force is in place, the forces in Canada have been ordered to stand on the defensive.
The Confederate Congress, at President Lincoln’s urging, votes to allow the Confederate Army to accept 100,000 volunteers for a three-year term. Most of the 100,000 1-year volunteers re-enlist.
April 1862--News of the shocking defeat of the U.S. Army of the Hudson at the Battle of Saint Jean Sur-Richelieu sweeps across the Union via telegraph wires, and reaches Britain by fast steamer. In Britain, newspaper editorials loudly trumpet the expectation that the Americans will quickly surrender after this demonstration of British superiority. But instead, something quite different is happening in the Union…a hardening of resolve, and a realization that the war won’t be won quickly or easily. President Seward calls for 500,000 volunteers. Major General McDowell is replaced by one of the few officers in his army to acquit himself well during the ill-fated campaign…Major General William T. Sherman.
The British launch a raid against the U.S. naval base at Sacket’s Harbor, New York. They succeed in severely damaging the shipyards and other military facilities there. The British gain total domination of Lake Ontario.
The Anglo-French Expeditionary Force is almost ready to sail. The new iron steam and sail ocean liner,
S.S. Great Eastern, is pressed into duty as a troop ship. She is capable of transporting up to ten thousand men in one trip, and of making the trans-Atlantic crossing in a mere ten days. This greatly increases the capacity of the Anglo-French forces to bring troops from Europe to America.
Word of the outbreak of war between the British Empire and the United States has reached India, where an expeditionary force, intended for an invasion of the American West Coast, is soon being formed.
May 1862--The main Anglo-French Expeditionary Force sails. It lands at Quebec, where it has access to one of Canada’s few rail lines to move troops and supplies quickly to and from the front. Overall command of the expeditionary force is given to British Field Marshall Sir Colin Campbell. The main Anglo-French Field army is to consist of two Corps…one British, commanded by Lieutenant General Sir William Fenwick Williams, and a French Corps commanded by Marshal Patrice de MacMahon, Duc de Magenta.
Meanwhile, new U.S. armies are forming up at Buffalo, New York (commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant), and Detroit (commanded by Major General George B. McClellan).[1]
June 1862--Captain David Glasgow Farragut, in command of the
U.S.S. Hartford, has gained a reputation as a highly successful commerce raider, capturing over 30 ships in the three months since March. However, in June 1862, his luck runs out. The
Hartford is cornered, low on coal and ammunition, and sunk off Zanzibar by the British steam frigates,
H.M.S. Topaze and H.M.S. Euryalus. Farragut goes down with his ship, colors still flying defiantly as the
Hartford slips beneath the waves. Meanwhile, the
Monitor is launched at New York.
On land, a second, smaller Anglo-French force is landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia. This force will begin moving toward Frederickton, New Brunswick, which will be it’s base of operations against U.S. forces in Maine.
[1] It has been questioned why Grant and McClellan were chosen for the command of the U.S. armies at Buffalo and Detroit. Several other officers, including John C. Fremont, Robert Patterson, Henry Halleck, William S. Harney, Don Carlos Buell, and Nathaniel Banks have been suggested as being more likely. Therefore, I will explain my choices.
--William Seward disliked John C. Fremont, who had defeated him for the Republican nomination in 1856. He also distrusted Fremont and opposed his elevation to the post of Minister to France in OTL because he was afraid that Fremont might have divided loyalties given the secession of Georgia, the State where he had been born. I'm assuming that as President, this distrust leads him to refuse him an important command (why would sympathy for the South matter in the choice of a commander against the British? Because the South might well enter the war on the side of the British, and Seward wants to be sure of the loyalty of his generals in such a case).
--William S. Harney would probably be blocked by the same distrust by Seward because of his Southern origins and pro-Southern views.
--Robert Patterson was an old man, and only got a command in OTL because of his relationship with Winfield Scott, the commanding General of the Union army. Even then, he was given a relatively unimportant command, not command of a major army. It is unlikely he would be considered for a major command in the ATL.
--Henry Halleck was a Democrat and was known to be sympathetic to the South, although he did have a strong belief in the value of the Union. I think Seward will be loathe to trust him for those reasons.
--Don Carlos Buell had originally been assigned as a Division commander with the Army of the Potomac, before being transferred west prior to First Manassas in OTL. In the ATL, he was assigned as a Division commander to the Army of the Hudson, the ATL analog of the Army of the Potomac. Due to butterflies from the election of Seward instead of Lincoln to the Presidency, the transfer to the West never occurred, and he was with the Army of the Hudson at the Battle of Saint Jean Sur-Richelieu , commanding one of the divisions. He was disgraced and assigned to duty away from the main war front as a result.
--Nathaniel Banks is serving as Secretary of State under Seward (In OTL Lincoln was considering him for a cabinet post but gave him a military appointment instead...Seward decided to give him the cabinet post).
Meanwhile...
--George McClellan was, in OTL, widely known in military circles for his knowledge of what was called "big war science" and his railroad experience implied he would excel at military logistics. This placed him in great demand as the Union mobilized. The governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the three largest states of the Union, actively pursued him to command their states' militia. He also was supported by Salmon P. Chase, a very influential Republican politician and Secretary of the Treasury (he holds the same post in the ATL Seward Administration). Indeed, his political backing was so great in OTL that a month after the war began, he had already been appointed a Major General and was second in rank only to Winfield Scott...without having done anything. So his being appointed, in the ATL, to command of one of the major armies without the West Virginia experience is not at all implausible.
--Ulysses S. Grant also had strong political backing, namely from Congressman Elihu Washburn of Illinois and Governor Yates of Illinois. He did not vote in the 1860 election, so he was not politically tainted like some men were. And in OTL, he was given an important command, that of the Department of Southeast Missouri, within five months of the start of the war...and again, before he had really done anything. So there is no good reason to exclude him from a high command in at this time in the ATL.
