The Bloody Decade began on March 7, 1841 when the Colombian Empire sent its east out of Valencia heading straight for Caracas the seat of the Bolivian Government. Following the Revolution of 32 the newly formed Imperial consisted of the core of the old Republican Army of 32,000 enlisted men plus officers. Over the course of the next ten years the Imperial Government would expand this small army to a force of 125,000 enlisted men plus officers. This was done slowly so that the training quality of the new recruits was just as good the older soldiers. The money it took to do this however required sacrifices upon its formation the Imperial Army had wished to up grade from the Flintlock Model 1812 Halls breechloading Rifle. However, as the coast of expanding the army to its needed size became apparent it was decided to for go this and keep the flintlock rifle. When the Colombian’s began their Invasion of Bolivia they committed were able to commit a force of 65,000 men supported by 90 field guns (15 batteries). In Bolivia the Republicans had not been able to replicate the success of the Imperials when it came to re-arming. As each state maintained its own military, this meant that the central government could not maintain a unified quality of the troops. It could control the arms that the Army was equipped with and though its murmurous contacts was able to secure the Palmetto Breach Loading Rifle for used on their troops. The Palmetto Rifle was not one of the McKnight series, it had been designed about the same time and fired a 50-56 caliber rimfire bullet, it was a single shot trapdoor action similar to the Custer Rifle that the Federals were using. When the Colombian Invasion began in the spring of 1841 Bolivia called up all the state armies to defend against the Imperial invasion a combined army of only 55,500 men supported by 72 field guns (12 Batteries) was all that they could assemble.
The Caracas campaign was the first of the war and it would show the difference that training made. The opening battle took place at Las Tejerias on March 21, 1841; here 35,000 supported by 48 field guns Bolivians entrenched around the town in the narrow valley met an Colombian Army of 40,000 supported by 60 Field guns. The battle was a bloody affair but two things became apparent quickly first the Bolivians not having the brass for the bullets for the Palmetto Rifle had used copper instead these shell began to swell in the humid conditions making jamming a major issue for the Bolivians, second the low quality of many of the Bolivian troops began to tell as the battle entered its second day. And the exhausted and frustrated Bolivian soldiers began to break under the pressure of Colombian attacks. By then end of the 22nd of May the Bolivians were forced to withdraw or risk their army breaking over course of battle on the 23rd of May. The Bolivians would fall back to the Fortress city of Los Teques where they would reinforce the 5,000 man garrison and prepare to make their next stand because behind Los Teques nothing stood between the Colombians and the gates of Caracas. The Battle of Las Tejerias was a bloody affair the Colombians took close to 3,500 men killed with 4,800 more men wounded. The Bolivians got off easier taking just 1,500 men killed and 2,600 men wounded. For the European observers the failure of the Bolivian rifles came as a relief as the firearms revolution that place in America had started to worry them just a bit. The Commonwealth advisors not pleased to learn of metal substitution in the shells however what they took away from the battle was the effect that the entrenchments had done for the Bolivians even with their ammunition issues. Meanwhile in Williamsburg the Filibusterer ambassador for Bolivia to the CAS began making the case for CAS intervention on Bolivia’s behalf.
Colombian Imperial Army attacks Bolivian Positions
The Colombians would push ahead with the next phase of their plan on May 30, 1841 the Colombian Imperial Navy would engage the Bolivian Counterpart off the Isla La Tortuga. Their for the first time ever two steam powered fleets would engage each other. The Bolivian Navy was more organized than the Army but over the last decade the Bolivian government had not been kind to the navy and many of their ships were far from fully seaworthy; still when the two fleets met the Bolivians fielded a fleet 38 ships centered around 1 50 gun steam powered ship of the line and 12 steam frigates the rest were a combination of steam sloops and brigs. The Imperial Armada fielded a fleet of 50 ships; the Imperial battle line featured a battle line of two 52 gun steam ships of the line and 17 steam frigates the rest of the fleet consisted of Sloops and brigs. The after a fierce five hour battle the Colombian Imperial Armada would emerge victorious. The Bolivians lost their ship of the line, 6 frigates, and 10 smaller ships; the Colombians lost 4 frigates and 8 smaller ships. The Colombians would go on to land 45,000 men at the town of Higuerote. This Army would quickly sever the remaining roads into the Bolivian Capital city and begin the siege of Caracas would officially begin on April 8, 1841.
Colombian Steamships on Patrol
Only 28,000 men and 24 field guns would escape the siege to continue field actions further east. This army would rally at El Guapo, where they would an additional 24,000 men to join the Army. However these men were ill trained and equipped with the older 1812 Halls Rifle not the newer palmetto rifle. This army commanded by Damián Zambrano would fight a series of battles along the eastern flank of the Colombian lines besieging Caracas. These attacks were easily driven off by the Colombian Imperial Army but they served to keep the moral of the defenders up. Meanwhile to the west Bolivian partisan groups constantly harassed Colombian supply trains as they bough supplies form Colombian Supply dumps to the front. Over the course of the Summer these hit and run attacks would continue but the Bolivians lacked the artillery to break the Colombian siege; and inside Caracas the defenders and civilians were fast running out of supplies. By mid-August The Bolivians would mount a desperate breakout. At dawn on August 18, 1841 the defenders began a massive bombardment having moved heavy artillery form other sectors of the front to concentrate on the Colombian eastern flank that had been subject to so many rear attacks by the Bolivian Field Army. The attack from inside the pocket caught the Colombians off guard and the Bolivians were able to successfully get 18,000 troops and some civilians out of the city before the Colombians closed the breech in the lines. This left just 10,000 men defending the city. Realizing what had happened the Colombians would launch two massive attacks on the defenses on the western flanks and the center of the line on August 20, 1841. These were the areas which had their heavy guns stripped away to support the breakout. The Bolivians would fight desperately but they were outnumbered 3 to 1 and lacked the heavy artillery support that could have made up of the lack of manpower, and they were forced back out of their earthworks and into the support trenches. The battle would continue until August 24, 1841 when with most of the city a smoking ruin Major General Isandro Diaz would surrender his command to Major General Marcio Pedroza of the Colombian 12th Army. When the fighting in Caracas finally ended just 3,500 Bolivians were left able to fight.
The Bolivian Army attacks the Colombian Siege lines around Caracas.
The Commonwealth of American States Chancellor Election of 1841
1841 would make the last year of the the Jackson administration. No one could argue that Jackson and the CMDP hadn’t reshaped the Commonwealth during the past nine years. As March approached the CCP, the CMDP, the SNA and Even the Aquila, and Louisiana Republican Parties would select who they would nominate for the Chancellor election. The CMDP would nominate the Forgein secretary William Henry Harrison. The CCP would nominate Virginia state senator Henry Clay. The SNA would field two candidates as its two wings couldn’t agree the Hawks would nominate Charles Coker Governor of South Carolina while the Doves would nominate Francis Underwood a state assembly man also form South Carolina. The Louisiana Republican Party would nominate Andre B. Roman; and lastly The Aquila Party would nominate Juan Carlos Garcia mayor of Havana. With so many candidates in the race every one was aware this could be the first election to go past two votes in decades. It also saw many start to question if the SNA would end up splitting like the UCP had.
March 11,1841 would be a sunny spring day in Williamsburg, CD as the candidates were delivering their speeches the House was shocked as the SNA Dove Candidate Francis Underwood would announce that he was withdrawing from the election and ask his supporters in the House to vote for Harrison the CCP candidate not his fellow South Carolinian and SNA party member Charles Coker. As Underwood was the last to give his speech the first vote would commence once he stepped down from the podium.
1841 Chancellor election first house vote 93 needed to win
Henry Clay (CCP-VA) 66 Votes
William Henry Harrison (CMDP-VA) 61 votes
Juan Carlos Garcia (AP-Ca) 36 votes
Charles Coker (SNA(H)-SC) 15 votes
Andre Roman (LPR-La) 5 votes
The results of the first vote saw Clay take a 5 vote lead but still no where near the 93 votes needed to win. Harrison came in a close second with 61 votes. The shock to many was how well the Cuban Candidate did as some Dominican votes defected to him. By the rules the two lowest candidates were dropped so the second vote would be between Clay, Harrison, and Garcia.
1841 Chancellor election second house vote 93 needed to win
Henry Clay (CCP-VA) 74 Votes
William Henry Harrison (CMDP-VA) 65 votes
Juan Carlos Garcia (AP-Ca) 44 votes
The Second vote would once again see Garcia shock the house as the Louisianan Cuban, and Dominican delegates would defect their party blocks to vote for him. Still Garcia came in third which meant that he would be dropped from the next vote. Clay was still leading in the votes to with 74 to Harrison’s 65.19 It appeared that Clay had the easier path to the win needing to covert just 19 of Garcia’s votes in place of the 28 needed by Harrison.
1841 Chancellor Election third house vote 93 needed to win
William Henry Harrison (CMDP-VA) 94 votes
Henry Clay (CCP-VA) 89 Votes
The outcome of the third and final vote saw Harrison rise to the win with 94 votes to Clay’s 89 votes. Which left much of the CCP in shock they had been expecting the win. The deciding factor turned out to have been the CCP’s stance on saving money by reducing Naval spending. As the Island states relied upon the Commonwealth Navy to keep their ties to the Continental states open and protect their trade with the rest of the Commonwealth much less international trade. Regardless the CMDP would keep the Chancellor’s office for the next nine years at least. Although Harrison was promising a much more low key administration than that of out going Chancellor Jackson.
Chancellor: William Henry Harrison (CMDP-VA)
Once the Election was conclude and William Henry Harrison sworn as the Chancellor of the Commonwealth of American States. Jackson would quietly leave the executive mansion heading for the recently completed Peninsular Railway station in Williamsburg The three story station doubled as the Railroads Headquarters and Corporate Office. From there Jackson would board a train that would take him to Petersburg where he would transfer to the Virginia and Carolina Railroad to travel south to Raleigh where he would transfer to the Carolina Great Smokey Mountains Railway which would take him Knoxville Nc, and finally board the Cumberland River Railway which would take him to Nashville. Jackson would think how complicated it was and made worse that Virginia and Carolina didn’t use the same Railroad gauge Virginia using a 5.0 track and North Carolina using the 4.6-foot gauge. Jackson the general in Jackson began to worry about the effectiveness that the developing rail system would have in the event of war since there were so many different gauges of track that meant tons of transfers between different trains. But as a politician he knew that the odds of fixing it before a war showed the flaws of the system would be near impossible. When Jackson arrived at his plantation near Nashville he would retire to the life of a North Carolina Gentleman for now but he wonder how long till he became bored.
The fall of Caracas was a planed for event of the Bolivians the location of the capital had been between a rock and a hard place when the Republican vs. Imperial border been settled during the Cold Civil War following the Revolution of 1832. But they had expected to keep more of their first line troops in the fight longer, than this, and recognized that the Army currently facing the Colombians had little chance of stopping the Imperials. If the world was a saner place they would have negotiated peace with the Imperials. But this was not a sane time and the Filibusterers in the Bolivian Government were able to push though an application to Join the Commonwealth of American States in exchange for help defeating the Colombians. The application was very generous to the CAS allowing them to divide the Republic of Bolivia up between the new state of Bolivia and up to 4 other states, and the CAS House of Delegates would be the ones to draw the new borders of these states.
The Application for state hood from the Republic of Bolivia would reach Williamsburg, CD on September 12, 1841. It would bring to the for front of Commonwealth politics the back seat debate over weather or not to intervein in the Colombian Civil War. The Application for State hood would trigger two weeks of debate before the Finally on September 25,1841 voting to accept the application and giving Colombia 30 days to with draw or be at war with the Commonwealth of American States. The vote for this had been close as the Commonwealth Chartist Party had worked hard to put together the votes to stay out of the war by accepting the application for statehood effective upon conclusion of the current conflict but the Aquila Party from the Commonwealth’s Caribbean states had gone fully in with the Commonwealth Manifest Destiny party to push for intervention and had won the vote. Chancellor Harrison would issue orders for and Army of 150,000 men and 20 batteries of artillery (120 guns) to be assembled in the city of Havana Cuba and for the Commonwealth Navy to ready a fleet to secure Commonwealth supremacy in the Caribbean Sea. On October 24, 1841 Colombia would reject the ultimatum and the Commonwealth Declaration of War would take affect, the Colombian Civil war had morphed into the Commonwealth-Colombia War.