1 April
Robert Whitehead, experimenting on his locomotive explosion vessel (an autonomous locomotive weapon), successfully sinks a ship in testing at Fiume. The achievement is marred somewhat by the way that the ship actually sunk was a gunboat undergoing sail replacement, rather than the hulk he was supposed to aim at.
There are no fatalities, but there is a very annoyed Austrian naval lieutenant and his crew to deal with.
5 April
A meeting takes place in secret between envoys from the domains of Tosa, Choshu and Hizen. The subject of discussion is the degree to which the Emperor is the rightful ruler of Japan, an entirely sensible and proper subject of discussion.
The envoys also allude to the number of retainers and Samurai which can be drawn upon by each Daimyo at short notice, which is also quite right and proper.
6 April
The comparative shooting trials done by the Louisiana Native Guard have come to a conclusion, which is that the Westley-Richards rifle is an appropriate purchase for now.
They also plan on buying at least one copy of the most modern British Army field manual, to see what conclusions the British have come to over the use of the breechloader.
9 April
The New York Stock Exchange formally opens their new headquarters at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York. The decision is associated with private assurances from the new President that the defense of New York is high on his priority list.
11 April
Internal memo in the US War Department which outlines the requirements for defence of New York. The memo makes clear that it should be considered "inevitable" that the guns of today will be rendered obsolete, and that as the 20 inch gun is far too large to be practicable in most cases it should
not be assumed that the increase in power will simply be an improvement in calibre.
Rather than a few very large forts, the purposes of defence would be better served by multiple smaller, distributed batteries with the facilities to host powerful guns - ideally intended to resist the most powerful weapons of the day, on the grounds that even after an advance of gun power the new, greater guns will be rare and fire slowly (so the defences would still resist the more common guns of the later day).
The actual guns should be possible to change out as need comes.
In specific terms, batteries are suggested on Sandy Hook and on Rockaway point, with the intent being to host multiple seacoast mortars pre-registered onto the known channels and anchorages (and thus to hit blockaders trying to lie in them). To fortify the whole coast of Long Island is impractical, so instead Jamaica Bay will be defended with batteries covering the entrance and a line from this point to Throgs Neck will have landward defences.
Aside from this most of the existing points of defence are considered well sited, in principle; the main want is to place many powerful guns in them and to build up the strength of the fortifications.
14 April
The
Jefferson Davis ships her newly designated armament for seakeeping tests. She bears sixteen 8" Brooke Rifles and eight surplus 110-pounder Armstrong rifles, the latter for the destruction of forts.
Much to the surprise of some (particularly in the US Navy), the
Jefferson Davis turns out to be a fine seakeeper - her lines allow her to cut through waves, and her high freeboard prevents any major water damage.
19 April
The biologist Huxley develops a simple method for comparing the results of Menel's inheritance predictions and for determining the true genetic makeup of a source, a crosswise grid system. It becomes known as the "Huxley Grid".
23 April
An Austrian army drill session is concluded, and the results make the army commanders feel very good about themselves. The "words of command" system functions very well under drill, allowing the officers to give their orders in German, and the men's charge home against the dummy targets (a long line, atop a hill) reminds those observing of how it felt to face the French bayonet charges in 1859 (at Solferino). Similarly, their system of range estimation has been improved, and NCOs are able to direct the men of the line to deliver rifle barrage fire at 400 yards.
Based on this, they feel that they have managed to recreate the system which defeated them, and therefore that they will be able to win future clashes.
26 April
The Confederacy finally picks a new flag. There are three variants.
The first is the battle flag, intended to be used for colours and for other military purposes, which is a white-edged blue saltire on a red background with seventeen stars - of which three are picked out in outline rather than solid colour. These outline stars represent Arizona Territory, New Mexico Territory and Indian Territory. (The intent, in future, is for the outlines to be filled in for Arizona and New Mexico and for the star for Indian Territory to be coloured differently - perhaps red within.)
The second is the national flag, which is a white and red flag using the battle flag (in square form) as a canton.
The third is the naval flag, which is similar to the national flag but reverses the red and the white of the main field.
28 April
A special commission determines that there are probably enough guns on Gibraltar, and that fortress upgrades should remove some of the guns so as to avoid confusion over the appropriate stations of the gunners in time of war. The commission also determines that such replacement should be performed as soon as there are sufficient Armstrong and Armstrong-Elswick guns available.
30 April
P.G.T. Beauregard and his staff produce Plan 65. It is broadly similar to Plan 64, but updated to account for new developments such as some additional rail lines and fortifications.
It also assigns a role to the
Jefferson Davis, that being to hang around off the Delmarva peninsula with scouting ships and to sink any movement south of Union warships.
