NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Wilmot Proviso Passes

[TheHedgehog]

NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM

The Amendment Passes
===================================

ACT ONE: The Great Divide​

Destiny Made Manifest

From “Westward Expansion: An American Story” by Harold Freeman
Published 1998

“The presidency of James K. Polk was defined by one question: should the United States expand north, or south? Judging Mexico to be the weaker power, and therefore, the easier victory, Polk set his sights on acquiring as much of Mexico as possible. The shift away from war over Oregon to war in Mexico was precipitated by not only persistent Mexican weakness in both Government and Army, but a rapid deterioration in relations between the two states over the American annexation of Texas.

The catalyst for Polk’s war of expansion came from a dispute over the Nueces strip. The Mexican government claimed that the southern border of Texas lay along the Nueces River. Texas, and by extension the United States government, insisted that the border lay along the Rio Grande River, and derived this claim from the Treaties of Velasco, which had established that river as the southern border, but the treaties had been repudiated by the Mexican Government. To intimidate Mexico, President Polk dispatched an army of 3,500 men, commanded by General Zachary Taylor, to occupy the territory in question. In reaction to this, Mexico was consumed by nationalist fervor. Despite having four different presidents in 1846, the people agreed that the government should resist American imperialism.

General Taylor refused Mexican demands to retreat north of the Nueces, prompting General Santa Anna to lead 2,000 cavalry troops in an attack on a 70-man American patrol group. Known as the Thornton Affair after Seth Thornton, the US commander, eleven US servicemen were killed in the US rout. Just a few days after the Thornton Affair, Mexican troops attacked the makeshift American camp built by Taylor, known as Fort Texas. The siege ended with the arrival of General Taylor himself, with 2,400 troops and a company of flying artillery [1]. The day after the abortive Mexican siege, the two sides engaged in the brutal Battle of Resaca de la Palma, fought in a dry riverbed and characterized by vicious hand-to-hand combat. In the end, the US army dealt far more casualties than it sustained, and the Mexican Army was forced to withdraw. The Mexican-American War had begun.”

From “The Sectional Rift” by Xander J. Walsh
Published 2009 (Re-print of the 1999 edition)

“Little did the members of the House of Representatives know, but the debate over a two-million-dollar appropriations bill would spiral into a great sectional debate, and, ultimately, a war for the preservation of the union. Little did these men of the House, Democrat or Whig, northern or southern, know that in a decade’s time, some of them would help lead the Union to victory or that some would become members of a secessionist alliance of states. What the members of the House of Representatives did know was that they had just come from a hearty meal, with not a small number intoxicated, and that they had just two hours to vote on the bill providing $2 million to finance Polk’s annexation of land taken from Mexico in the inevitable American victory, before Congress adjourned for recess.

Polk and his allies had carefully planned this last session of Congress before recess – two hours exactly were provided for debate and voting, with no Representative permitted to speak for longer than ten minutes. No sooner had the session opened than Representative Hugh White, a Whig from New York, lambasted President Polk for his expansionist plans. After White’s speaking time elapsed, Robert C. Winthrop, a Whig from Massachusetts, criticized the President in a similar manner to White, and called for an amendment to prohibit slavery in the territories annexed from Mexico. After Winthrop, two speakers defended Polk’s actions from the criticism of the two Whig congressmen.

Then, David Wilmot, a freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania, was recognized by the Chair from among the many Congressmen clamoring to speak. Wilmot was, up until now, a faithful Democrat. When the other Pennsylvanian Congressmen voted against Polk’s tariffs, Wilmot supported them. Wilmot had voted in favor of the Texan annexation treaty, and in favor of recognizing the northern border of the Oregon Territory as the 49th parallel, even when many northerners were agitating for a more northern boundary. It was all the more surprising to the administration when Wilmot began his address by criticizing Polk for masking his bid to extend slave power into the recently acquired territory under the guise of Manifest Destiny. He was not necessarily opposed to slavery – he supported admitting Texas as a slave state, but Wilmot opposed extending slavery to territories where it did not yet exist.
While White and Winthrop had called for an amendment barring slavery from the newly acquired territories, Wilmot introduced such an amendment to the appropriations bill after he finished his criticism of Polk. The ‘Wilmot Proviso’, as it has come to be called, mandated, “that, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico… neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.” The introduction of Wilmot’s amendment caused a stir on the House floor, and word spread quickly of the amendment. Three members of Polk’s cabinet rushed to view the proceedings. Though the amendment had disturbed the President’s plan for a quick and quiet vote of approval, the House Chair stuck to the two-hour time limit, and when that time elapsed, the House commenced its vote.

William W. Wick, a Democrat representing Indiana, tried to compromise by introducing an amendment extending the 36 30’ line established by the Missouri compromise all the way to the Pacific, but this measure was defeated 89-54. Then, finally, the House voted on whether to include the Wilmot Proviso in the appropriations bill. The amendment was added to the bill by a vote of 80-64, with the votes cast along strictly sectional lines – almost all votes in favor came from northern congressmen, and almost all votes against the bill came from southern congressmen. With the Proviso included, southern representatives launched a bid to simply kill the bill rather than ban the introduction of slavery into the territories in question. Despite this, the appropriations bill was approved by a vote of 85-80, with the votes once again falling along the north-south sectional divide.

As the next day was a Sunday, the Senate did not convene to vote on the appropriations bill, amendment included, until August 10th, the day before Congress adjourned. The day of the Senate vote, leaders in the administration planned to remove the Wilmot Amendment from the appropriations bill, return the legislation to the House, where, pressed for time by the looming adjournment, the representatives would have no choice but to approve the appropriations bill, sans the amendment. However, the administration’s plan was thwarted by Senator John Davis, a Whig from Massachusetts and a strong supporter of the Wilmot Amendment. Davis planned to talk until the Senate had no choice but to vote on the appropriations bill with the amendment attached. Davis planned to speak long enough that there would be exactly eight minutes to vote. Interestingly, he almost miscalculated how long that would be because of a slow clock in the Senate chamber. Fortunately for the pro-amendment members of Congress, the clock was repaired overnight after a senator pointed out the discrepancy between the wall clock and his own pocket watch [2]. On August 10th, Davis addressed the floor and spoke, as planned, until there were eight minutes left in the Senate session. The vote was called, and the fifty-eight senators filed up to cast their votes. Like in the House, votes were determined by the geographical location of the Senator’s state, rather than their party. Since the Senate was evenly divided north south, it came down to one Senator to pass the appropriations bill and amendment. Senator John Clayton was conflicted – while he felt that the spread of slavery should be arrested, he was also sensitive to the wants and demands of the South. Ultimately, Clayton cast his ballot in favor of the appropriations bill, and it passed, 30-28.
With the appropriations bill, Wilmot amendment included, passed by the Senate, it fell to President Polk to sign it into law. Here, however, Polk wavered. On the one hand, he had his desired two million dollars to compensate Mexico for annexing slightly over half of their territory, but he was angered that the institution of slavery would be barred from the new lands acquired. Further, he was pressured heavily to sign it – northerners to halt the spread of slavery, and imperialists to ensure the acquisition of the northern half of Mexico.As he told his cabinet, “if I refuse to sign the bill, I will forever earn the enmity of the abolitionists, the nation’s finances will suffer from a prolonged conflict in the unhospitable mountains and deserts of Mexico, and I will be charged with a failure to expand our nation to the Pacific. If I sign it, the southerners, and my own party, will all but disown me, but I will have accomplished my greatest goal in office: annexing what was once the north of the Mexican nation but is now the American south west. I suppose I shall have to sign it.” He had come to his decision, one that would change the course of history - he would sign the appropriations bill.

On August 12th, James Knox Polk signed the appropriations bill placed before him. He got his two million dollars, the northerners got their amendment, and the United States emerged with a newly divided political atmosphere, as the issue of slavery began to take center stage.”

From “Prelude to Tragedy” by Abraham Lincoln
Abridged Edition, Published 1967 (Original, 1876)

“With victory in Mexico assured, President Polk dispatched his Chief Negotiator, James Buchanan, to Mexico City. Polk initially wanted to invite Mexican delegates to America but was cautioned by Jefferson Davis that such a move would result in the delegates being shot immediately upon their return, and that any Mexican government that acquiesced to American demands would be quickly overthrown.

Buchanan’s goal was to obtain as much territory as possible from Mexico. He was able to get Mexican assent to the American annexation of Texas south to the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and Alta California. However, Buchanan knew that Polk wanted him to secure, at a minimum, the peninsula of Lower California. As this work does not concern the Mexican War itself, nor does it concern the minutiae of the negotiations, it will suffice that Buchanan successfully negotiated American annexation of the Baja California, as well as the northern halves of the states of Sonora and Chihuahua.

Though President Polk expressed his disappointment that the border was not pushed farther south to include the states of Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, he decided that Buchanan’s Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo was satisfactory and submitted the treaty for Senatorial ratification. Several attempts were made to amend the treaty – Senator Jefferson Davis introduced an amendment that included Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and Coahuila in the annexed territory, however this was defeated 44-11. On the other side, a Whig attempt to exclude California and New Mexico in the territories annexed failed 38-12 [3]. Aside from modifications to Article IX, which changed the process by which Mexicans living in the annexed territories were granted citizenship, the treaty proceeded to be ratified as it was drafted by Buchanan on March 10th, by a vote of 38-14.”

From “The Sectional Crises” by Herman Glass
Published 1973

“The signing of the appropriations act, and with it, the Wilmot Proviso, may have resolved the future of the new territories of the Southwest, but caused additional problems for attempts to incorporate the Oregon Country into a unified territory. The proposal to establish Oregon as an incorporated territory, whose inhabitants were already generally opposed to slavery, was most unwelcome to the south. Desperate to maintain a semblance of balance between free state and slave state, southern politicians, led by the most prominent of the pro-slavery southerners, South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, vowed to fight the incorporation of Oregon tooth and nail. As Representative Robert Rhett of South Carolina wrote to the new Senator of Alabama, William R. King, “the passage of that dangerous attachment, the ‘Wilmot Proviso’, has greatly set us back in our cause – and our cause is the preservation and extension of the careful, intricate equilibrium between the states with the institution of slavery, and those states without.”

The Oregon Bill to incorporate Oregon as a Federal territory threatened to create a new free state – something the south was loath to allow. The first attempt to pass an incorporation bill failed in the Senate, as a southern bloc, led by Calhoun and King, vociferously opposed its passage. In particular, the southern bloc objected to the bill’s allowance for Oregon becoming a free territory without attempting to even the score between free and slave.

The intransigence of the southerners’ is not to suggest that there was no sense of urgency in incorporating Oregon Country – the Whitman Massacre, where the Christian missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, along with eleven others, were killed by the Cayuse Indians, who accused them of poisoning 200 Cayuse, had just ocurred. The massacre precipitated the Cayuse War, in what is now southeastern Jefferson. Oregon was controlled by a provisional government, which promptly formed volunteer militias, known as the “Oregon Rifles”. Skirmishes took place along the Columbia River and the Columbia plateau, with the Oregon Rifles emerging the victor on the battlefield, but the Cayuse frequently stole rifles and cattle in raids. The Cayuse warriors also burned homesteads, mills, and missions as they fought the Oregonian Provisional Government, severely harming the territory’s economy, and exacerbating the divides and instability within the Provisional Government.

​

Despite the Cayuse War that was ravaging the settlements of the Columbia War, the Senate was unable to resolve the disputes surrounding the incorporation of the Oregon territory. Several compromises had been proposed – abrogating the Wilmot Proviso in favor of following the 36 30’ line to the Pacific, which was defeated by the northern factions, and holding a referendum in the territory, which was successfully stopped by the southern Senators, because, as John Calhoun declared, “we all know what the settlers of Oregon Country will determine – the prohibition of slavery. It matters not whether they choose to prohibit the institution by the ballot, or whether Congress decides to incorporate Oregon as free territory.” Ultimately, time ran out before the Senate could reach a decision – August 14th was the final day of Congressional sessions, and on that day, yet another attempt to incorporate Oregon, this one simply ignoring the slavery issue, was defeated, opposed by anti-slavery northerners and pro-slavery southerners, by a vote of 40-18. The matter of Oregon, governed by an increasingly fragile provisional government and beset by mounting debt and a wounded settler economy, would have to be settled in the next session of the 30th Congress [4].”

[1] The American term for Horse Artillery – light, mobile artillery. At the battle in question, the American artillery far outclassed the slow Mexican guns. (So far, all OTL background)
[2] The POD – OTL, the Senate clock was eight minutes slow.
[3] OTL, three Southern Whig Senators voted for the bill. Here, with no slavery permitted in the lands annexed, they vote against introducing new, free territory not included in the Treaty.
[4] OTL, Oregon was incorporated the day before recess. TTL, with a greater debate over slavery earlier, the issue is left for future Congresses and the Compromise of 1850.

Up Next on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: Zachary Taylor and the Compromise of 1850​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Last Compromise

From “The Sectional Rift” by Xander J. Walsh
Published 2009 (Re-print of the 1999 edition)

“Since the incumbent, President Polk, had declined to seek a second term, as he had promised in his 1844 campaign, the Democratic nomination was wide open.

Two candidates soon emerged as frontrunners – Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, a staunch supporter of popular sovereignty, and State Secretary James Buchanan, the Administration’s favorite. Cass believed that it should not be Congress or the Courts that decided whether a territory allowed or prohibited slavery, but that such a decision ought to be made by the people, via a referendum. Buchanan, on the other hand, was a strong supporter of abrogating the Wilmot Amendment and substituting the 36 30’ line. On the first ballot of the Convention, Cass emerged with a commanding lead of 125 delegates, but this was not enough to win the nomination; a two-third majority of 170 delegates being required. Over the next three ballots, however, Cass steadily gained delegates, until he secured 179 on the fourth ballot and clinched the Democratic nomination. For vice president, two main candidates emerged: Representative William O. Butler of Kentucky, and Senator William R. King of Alabama. Ultimately, King’s ardent support of slavery cost him the nomination, as northern delegates (those who hadn’t bolted to the Free Soilers) refused to support him. In the end, William O. Butler was selected as a less contentious running mate for Cass.

However, the nomination of Cass displeased several abolitionist Northern Democrats, who disliked the doctrine of popular sovereignty and believed that slavery throughout the United States should be barred, and the slaves there emancipated. Merging with the existing abolitionist Liberty Party, the new Free-Soil Party convened in Buffalo in August to nominate a presidential ticket. For the presidential nomination, the Free-Soilers turned to former President, and prominent abolitionist, Martin Van Buren. Though some doubted the sincerity of Van Buren’s abolitionist leanings, given the former President’s support for the gag rule barring debate over slavery, Van Buren won on the first ballot with the strong backing of most of the Democratic delegates, half of the Whigs, and a smattering of Liberty Party delegates. For Vice-President, the convention unanimously selected Charles Francis Adams, the son of the recently deceased former President and abolitionist John Quincy Adams.

The nomination of Cass also angered many southern delegates, who felt that popular sovereignty would not be enough to restore the free-slave equilibrium that had been upset by the passage of the Wilmot Amendment. Led by William L. Yancey of Alabama, a movement began to establish a party plank declaring that no Congress or Territorial legislature had the constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in a territory. When this failed by a vote of 46-206, Yancey and most of the Alabama delegation walked out of the convention [1]. Convening at a separate location, an “independent ticket” of John Calhoun, who, though not present at the convention, jumped at the chance to lead the ticket, and William R. King as his running mate. The “Southern Independent” ticket was thus born, making the election a four-way race.

The Whigs, despite having numerous candidates throw their hats into the ring, came down to just two: two-time nominee Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, and General Zachary Taylor, who had commanded troops in the War of 1812, various Indian Wars, and the recent Mexican War. Though Taylor was very vague on his political positions, he won 111 delegates on the first ballot, placing him in the lead. With the support of the southern delegates, Taylor gained ground with each successive ballot, while Clay steadily lost support. On the fourth ballot, General Taylor had won more than half the delegates and thus became his party’s nominee for President, though a few of the more ardently abolitionist For Vice President, a close race between Comptroller Millard Fillmore and former Representative Abbott Lawrence began. On the first ballot, Lawrence emerged in with a narrow lead of 114 delegates, with Fillmore in a close second with 110 delegates. However, on the second ballot, Fillmore’s support declined significantly, with the New York Comptroller ending up with 87 delegates. Abbott Lawrence, on the other hand, secured the nomination with 173 delegates – three more than the minimum.

The 1848 Presidential election was defined by a few central issues. The first, and most divisive issue, was that of the spread of slavery. There were two extreme views on this issue: the abolitionist Free Soil Party, which believed slavery to be an evil institution and sought to halt its spread and ultimately ban the practice. On the other extreme lay the Southern Independent ticket. Calhoun loudly proclaimed his hatred for the Wilmot Amendment, and stated in no uncertain terms that slavery should be permitted to spread to all territories of the United States.

In contrast, the Democrats resolutely stuck to Lewis Cass’s doctrine of popular sovereignty. Cass expressed his dissatisfaction with the Wilmot Amendment and pledged to replace it with referenda in the territories in question to determine whether slavery would be prohibited. This received the backing of the majority of the Democrats, but the breakaway factions, the Free Soilers and Southern Independents, were vocal opponents – the Free Soilers viewed popular sovereignty as selling the party out to southern interests, while the Southern Independents attacked it as an abolitionist conspiracy. Amid a divided Democratic party, the Whigs put forward General Zachary Taylor. Taylor, though a Louisiana slave owner with the appearance of having no solid political principles, was strongly backed by such radical abolitionists as William Seward and Thurlow Weed. The Whigs largely ignored the issue of slavery and Taylor ran mostly on his successful prosecution of the Mexican War. The Whig’s lack of a party platform in 1848, combined with the vagueness of Taylor’s positions, was a great boon as the Democrats, despite their attempts to avoid discussing slavery as much as possible (though Cass’s support of popular sovereignty meant that Americans generally knew where he stood on the issue), emerged looking the more forceful party.

Ultimately, Zachary Taylor won the election, with his victory in Pennsylvania securing an electoral majority. Van Buren played the part of a spoiler, capturing enough Democratic votes in New York to allow Taylor to win a majority, though he also drew away enough Whig votes to throw Ohio to Cass, and won Vermont himself. The Southern Independents also failed to win a single state, and indeed failed to get above 5% of votes nationally. However, the Southern Independents did help swing Mississippi to the Whigs. [2]

The election left many key issues unresolved. Taylor had carefully sidestepped discussing the issue, while it appeared that the doctrines of abolitionism, popular sovereignty, and the Southern Independent policy of banning the banning of slavery in new territories, had been repudiated. In the end, it would be up to the new 31st Congress and President Zachary Taylor to figure such issues out.”

From “A House Divided” by Floyd Gregory
Published 1956

“The 1848 House Elections returned a Whig plurality [3]; though the Free-Soil Party having drawn away seven Whig Congressmen. However, a plurality is not the same as a majority, and without a solid majority, the House experienced a deadlock over the election for Speaker of the House. Northern Whigs, backed by the Free-Soil Party, nominated Robert C. Winthrop, who had spoken in favor of the Wilmot Amendment and thus received the backing of the abolitionists. Southern Whigs backed Meredith P. Gentry of Tennessee, while the Democrats pushed Howell Cobb of Georgia.

after over two weeks of contentious debate, a group of Whigs, both northern and southern, nominated Representative Edward Stanly, from North Carolina’s 8th District, as a compromise candidate between Gentry and Winthrop. Initially, Stanly received little support. However, on the fifty-sixth ballot, Winthrop withdrew and endorsed Stanly, and on the next ballot Gentry endorsed Stanly, giving him a majority of the votes. Though the issue was resolved, and Edward Stanly was Speaker, the fight over the Speakership had highlighted the sectional divide in Congress, even within parties.”

From “The Sectional Crises” by Herman Glass
Published 1973

“When the 31st Congress convened in March 1849, the first issue on the table was that of the incorporation of Oregon Country. Since August 14th, the Cayuse War had continued to plague the region, while the Provisional Government of Oregon was so heavily indebted that its credit was exhausted, and they could no longer afford weapons for the Oregon Rifles. Settlements and missions up and down the Columbia River had been burned, while disease had begun to strike the settlers just as much as the Cayuse. The Senate had barely been gaveled in before a petition from the Provisional Government arrived, begging the Senate to incorporate the territory before all organized government in Oregon collapsed and, “the Cayuse are permitted to ravage the countryside, pillaging any signs of civilization.”

The other issue the Senate faced was the claims Texas had on the Provisional Government of New Mexico. The state of Texas laid claim to eastern New Mexico up to the Rio Grande River, while the Provisional Government held control of the land. The issue would have been quietly resolved, except that the New Mexican Provisional Government prohibited slavery and Texas permitted it. This dispute thus became affixed to the growing crisis over Oregon.

Upon taking office, President Taylor made no secret of the fact that he wanted territorial legislatures in Oregon, California, and New Mexico established [4], “all due and deliberate speed, so as to ensure the quick establishment of stable and unified territorial authorities and indeed a stable and unified Union”, as he wrote in his letter to Congress amid their deadlock over the Speakership. He insisted that, of these territories, the admission of California as a state be expedited, and Oregon be incorporated immediately.

Taylor dispatched his two key allies [5] in the Senate, John M. Clayton and John J. Crittenden, to ensure his views were heard and clearly expounded and circulated. The two most powerful Whigs, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, did not hold the President in high regard, and indeed did not even view him as a full Whig – the President had only joined to run for his office. It was opportune, then, that Clayton and Crittenden had remained in the Senate. In January, Senator Crittenden addressed the Senate and presented to the members of that body the proposals of the Administration. Eight resolutions were presented by Crittenden and served to affix firmly the national and Congressional spotlights upon the platform and ideals of the President, rather than Clay and Webster. The first of these resolutions concerned the dual issues of California and Texas. Given that slavery was barred in all lands annexed from Mexico, including California, Crittenden proposed splitting the northern half of the Californian Territory off into a separate state that would be admitted to the union as a free state. Next, Crittenden communicated the President’s desire to form New Mexico into a territory. However, this raised the question of the disputed lands east of the Rio Grande, controlled by New Mexico, but contested by Texas.

To remedy this, and maintain a balance between free and slave territories, Crittenden advanced the administration’s view that Texas should be divided into two states, and that the land east of the Rio Grande should be made into a slave state, with Texas ceding its claims in exchange for Federal debt relief on Texan debts carried over national debts incurred during the struggle for independence from Mexico. After several weeks of negotiations, Texas agreed to divide into two states, with the boundaries to be determined by a Federal commission led by Henry Clay, John Bell, and Thomas Hart Benton. Further resolutions affirmed the legality of the interstate slave trade and promised the continuation of slavery in Washington D.C. unless the people of Maryland and the District moved to abolish the institution.

However, Southern anger over the Wilmot Amendment boiled over into fiery attacks on the north and even some distant calls for secession. Robert Toombs declared in a speech castigating not only the Wilmot Amendment, but proposals to incorporate Oregon, that, “I am for disunion” if no new slave territories were incorporated. Adding fuel to the fire, in October 1849 a convention in Mississippi, with both Democrats and Whigs present, advocated for a larger convention to be held in Nashville. The convention’s purpose would be as a roundtable for southern and slaveholding interests to discuss the furthering of their interests in the face of abolitionism and northern opposition. In early 1850, the state legislatures of Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Mississippi, and South Carolina all passed resolutions supporting the Nashville Convention, which was scheduled for June. All of the previous states sent delegates, though Tennessee’s delegates comprised the majority, with several from each county.

President Taylor clearly and strongly opposed such a convention. It was his belief that the union be upheld without making concessions to those who sought to divide the United States, a doctrine clearly derived from Andrew Jackson’s stance during the Nullification Crisis. Amid debate over the Compromise of 1850, Taylor looked upon the convention as an attempt to bully the Federal government into overturning established Federal law, namely the Wilmot Amendment. Nevertheless, Taylor refrained from acting, even as many pro-secessionists, such as Jefferson Davis, headed to Nashville. He instead restricted himself to denouncing the convention as a poor idea and a hotbed of secessionist thought. Ultimately, Taylor’s fears of the convention advocating for southern secession were unfounded as the moderates at the Convention narrowly outnumbered the secessionists [6] and simply recommended abrogating the Wilmot Amendment, the standard belief of a Southern Democrat.

On June 14th, three days after the end of the Nashville Convention, the Clay Committee released its findings on the division of Texas and the land east of the Rio Grande. The proposed borders were carefully drawn to split Texas more or less equally, to avoid leaving one state with the most population, bulk of the resources and arable land. The borders decided upon were a combination of Clay’s proposal for a diagonal line drawn from the Red River to just north of El Paso, and Benton’s proposal for a division along the Colorado River that bisected the state. The northern state, named Brazos after an important waterway, would comprise all the land north of the Colorado and east of the Clay Line. The southern state, Austin, comprised all the land south of the Colorado and east of the Clay Line.

The division of Texas to counterbalance the admission of California and the incorporation of New Mexico and Oregon was generally accepted by the Senate. However, among the resolutions presented by Clayton and Crittenden was an Escaped Slave Act. This legislation would force northern states, most of whom had laws protecting fugitive slaves from capture and re-enslavement, to return all fugitive slaves captured by slavecatchers. Such a notion was highly unpopular with northern Senators, especially the Free-Soilers and abolitionist Whigs. Despite his alliance with Taylor, Senator Seward, a noted abolitionist, lambasted the proposed Escaped Slave Act as, “an infringement upon the rights of free men everywhere, and a violation of the right of the state to protect its residents.” In spite of Taylor’s great concessions to the north in terms of territory, the idea of an Escaped Slave Act was cause for outrage.

Nevertheless, on July 31st, the laws drafted by Crittenden, Clayton, and Clay were put before the full Senate for a vote. The compromise consisted of four bills [7]: the Oregon Act, incorporating Oregon as a free territory, the Sacramento Act, admitting northern California as a free state, the Texas-New Mexico Act, dividing Texas, opening Indian Territory to slavery [8], and settling the border dispute, and the Escaped Slave Act. The final of those bills was set to be voted on last, so that if it was defeated by northern abolitionists, it would not jeopardize the others, which were viewed as more important by the Administration. In arranging the passage of the Compromise Acts, President Taylor was aided by Stephen Douglas, a Democratic Senator from Illinois. A powerful speaker, Douglas successfully positioned himself as an ally of the Administration’s agenda and was instrumental in assembling a majority for the acts.

The Administration and its Senatorial allies made effective use of “Compromise Blocs” which would stand with either the northern bloc or southern bloc to approve certain parts of the Compromise to form majorities. Of course, each bill had a separate compromise bloc to support it. The first three Compromise bills were put to the vote and swiftly confirmed – but the final one, the Escaped Slave Bill, proved far more controversial. With the provisions that an individual accused of being a slave could not testify to their freedom and that all private citizens had a duty to capture fugitive slaves by being summoned by a sheriff into a posse, it was detested in abolitionist circles and roundly denounced in Northern newspapers. Nevertheless, it too was passed through the Administration’s adept use of the Compromise Blocs. In the House, there was a greater fight over the Acts, and Douglas, Speaker Stanly, and Congressman Linn Boyd worked tirelessly to assemble the votes required to pass the four bills. Despite the majority of northern Representatives standing in opposition to the Texas Bill and the Escaped Slave Bill, the efforts of the Administration were successful in assembling a majority, and the Escaped Slave Act was passed by a comfortable margin and signed into law by President Taylor along with the other Compromise Acts.

The Compromise of 1850 did not solve everything – the future Utah, Colorado, and Sonora Territories remained unorganized, and the North and South were no closer to harmony than they were before. In fact, the Compromise opened new sores, with the passage of the Escaped Slave Act, even as it closed others.”

[1] OTL, only one delegate followed Yancey. TTL, due to greater southern militancy on slavery issues, Yancey is followed by about a dozen delegates, mostly from Mississippi and Alabama.
[2] The only real difference in TTL’s 1848 elections.
[3] Due to a stronger showing in 1846 and the victory of more northern Whigs, riding a wave of anti-slavery popular opinion, grant the Whigs a narrow plurality of five seats.
[4] OTL, Taylor wanted New Mexico admitted as a state. TTL, he changes to simply pushing for incorporation, not wanting an acrimonious debate over slavery to flare up.
[5] OTL, Clayton was appointed as Secretary of State, and Crittenden was elected Governor of Kentucky. TTL, neither of those events occur, and the two remain in the senate to serve as the floor leaders for the politically inexperienced Taylor, and prevent Clay from, as he did IOTL, seizing the opening and establishing himself, and not the President, as the leader of the Whigs.
[6] OTL, the secessionists were a small minority. TTL, they are a more sizeable group at the Convention, due to anger over the Wilmot Amendment.
[7] OTL, the Compromise was initially introduced to the Senate as a single, Omnibus Bill, which failed. TTL, with Taylor’s greater influence due to both having prominent spokesmen in the Senate and not dying on July 9th, the bills are introduced as separate bills right off the bat, rather than after the failure of the Omnibus.
[8] This doesn’t change much in the Indian Territory, but it does placate the South.

Up Next on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Election of 1852 and Cuba​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Impending Crisis

From “The Collapse of the Second Party System” by Reginald J. White II
Published 1977

“In keeping with Whig party principles, Zachary Taylor declined to seek a second term as President. He had successfully brokered the Compromise of 1850, and he was thus satisfied with his work. However, without a popular incumbent, the Whigs were forced to find a new candidate. Henry Clay was much too old and in poor health, and Daniel Webster was disliked by many party officials. Thus, two candidates emerged as the frontrunners for the nomination: General Winfield Scott, a hero of the Mexican War, and Senator John J. Crittenden, a staunch ally of the President.

Crittenden’s role in the passage and enforcement of the Escaped Slave Act made him unpopular among the northern Whigs, who instead backed Winfield Scott. On the first ballot, Crittenden held a slight lead of three delegates, but did not have the requisite majority to win the nomination.

After the eighth ballot, where once again no candidate had secured a nomination, the Ohio delegation held a vote to decide between continuing their support for Winfield Scott or switching to back Senator Thomas Corwin [1] as a compromise candidate. Corwin had opposed the Mexican War, which had the potential to earn him support from northern antislavery Whigs, but he was also a supporter of the Compromise of 1850 (though he remained silent on his opinion of the Escaped Slave Act), which could build popularity with the southern delegations. By just four votes, the delegation decided to back Corwin, who promptly hurried to the Convention from Washington D.C. On the next ballot, his name was officially entered as a candidate for the Presidential nomination. Initially, Corwin had only the support of Ohio and a few delegates from Indiana, which totaled twenty-five delegates. However, by the eleventh ballot, he had secured all but three Indianan delegates, and many delegates from Illinois and Michigan were beginning to switch to backing him.

After the twelfth ballot, where Corwin won forty delegates, several of his closest allies reached out to John J. Crittenden to secure his support. Though the north coalesced behind him, Corwin still needed the support of the south to secure the nomination. The two figures were, despite the perception of the delegates, similar in their beliefs. Though Corwin kept silent on the Escaped Slave Act, he, like Crittenden, was a strong supporter of the Compromise of 1850, and both supported further compromises to keep the south in the Union. Crittenden agreed to support Corwin, though he made his support conditional upon being allowed to pick the Vice-President and Secretary of State. Corwin, who was rather unprepared for his rise in popularity, agreed to Crittenden’s demands. The Kentucky Senator directed his supporters to switch to Corwin, telling one, “the Senator from Ohio is most uniquely a bridge between the two halves of the party. I have never seen a man who could simultaneously appeal to the southerners and to the Free-Soilers. We must do everything to ensure this scion of Compromise wins.”

On the thirteenth ballot, Corwin surged into the lead, with 141 delegates, just shy of half the votes. Though some southern delegates tried to push William A. Graham, the former Governor of North Carolina, as the southern-favored nominee, Corwin had by that point amassed enough momentum that he clinched the nomination on the fourteenth ballot, with 162 delegates. True to his word, he permitted Crittenden to select his running mate. Two candidates were seriously considered: Maryland Senator James A. Pearce, who had helped divide Texas, and Tennessee Senator John Bell of Tennessee, who was opposed to the spread of slavery and a staunch opponent of secession. Ultimately, Crittenden went with Bell, who he felt would attract more southern votes than Pearce.

The Democratic convention was similarly divided over the issue of slavery. However, unlike the Whigs, who were divided mainly between Free-Soilers and the south, the Democrats were divided between those who supported popular sovereignty and those who supported Compromise acts similar to the one in 1850. Senator Lewis Cass, the Democrats’ nominee in 1848, once again sought the nomination, and was backed by most midwestern and New English delegates. His primary rival, former Secretary of State James Buchanan, had the support of the south and Pennsylvania (his home state). Several minor candidates also won delegates – William L. Marcy controlled the New York delegation, and Brazos Senator Sam Houston was backed by Brazos, Austin, and South Carolina.

The convention was beset by deadlock. Cass’s support declined with each progressive ballot, while his fellow popular-sovereignty supporter, Stephen Douglas, saw a sharp rise in support. On the 26th ballot, Douglas emerged about twenty delegates behind James Buchanan, the frontrunner. On the 27th ballot, the Missourian, Californian, Kentuckian, Iowan, and Tennessean delegations flipped to Sam Houston, as well as seven delegates from Ohio. This sudden jump can be attributed to leaders in the Upper South regarding Houston as a possible compromise candidate, given his support for expansionism. Houston had encouraged the annexation of the Caribbean, in order to further American economic power and might. This was seen as, as a delegate from Tennessee, remarked to a fellow delegate, “an excellent opportunity to further the institution of slavery. Cuba and the rest of those islands have the exact agricultural economy for slavery to flourish. What we will see is the satiation of the south with the admission of these wealthy slave states.” While Houston himself did not see such expansionism as extending slavery, the notion of the expansion of slavery won him the support of the upper south. His frontiersman persona, meanwhile, won him support in California and Iowa, who saw a fellow westerner who would be favorable to, among other things, a transcontinental railroad. These supporters, the westerners and railroad men, placed him in direct opposition to Stephen Douglas, who saw many of his delegates switch to Houston in order to ride his upwards momentum.

However, in order to win, Houston needed to draw away Buchanan’s southern backers. To do this, he needed to assure them of his support for slavery and its spread. Houston and his allies met with delegates from Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana to convince them to jump ship. Houston promised three things: the annexation of Cuba as one or even two slave states, the construction of at least part of a transcontinental railroad through the south, and the incorporation of Kansas as a slave territory. Initially the states wavered, but the Virginian delegation, which was at that time pledged to James Buchanan, held a vote on whether to switch to Houston. dissatisfied with Buchanan’s declining popularity, the Virginian delegation agreed to back Houston, followed soon after by the rest of the states approached. These defections from Buchanan all but sank his candidacy, but Houston still lacked enough delegates for an outright win. Then, New Hampshire Senator Franklin Pierce requested to meet with Houston. Inside Houston’s hotel rooms, the northerner explained that he and the New Hampshire delegation had planned to enter his name as a candidate. But, Pierce told Houston, he was willing to support Houston. Pierce told Houston he had influence throughout the New English delegations. He told Houston that, in exchange for his support of Pierce’s ambitions to become Vice President, he would throw his support behind the Senator from Brazos. Houston agreed, a decision that certainly gave him the nomination, but one that would come back to haunt him come 1856.

On the thirtieth ballot, the New Hampshire delegation, thanks to Pierce’s machinations, abandoned Lewis Cass and voted for Samuel Houston. On the next ballot, Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut followed New Hampshire’s lead and voted for Houston. This gave Houston 160 delegates, more than half of the total delegates, but not the required two thirds. During the next three ballots, the convention appeared to be in deadlock once more. However, at the end of the 33rd ballot, Senator Stephen Douglas met with his remaining supporters, the Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin delegations, and urged them to switch to Houston. On the thirty-fourth ballot, those states switched their allegiance to Houston, who also gained the delegations of Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Delaware, and Rhode Island. This placed him at 198 delegates, one more than the minimum 197 delegates. True to his word, Houston threw his weight behind Franklin Pierce for the Vice-Presidential nomination. However, on the first ballot, Pierce was challenged by the William L. Marcy, backed by the mid-Atlantic and New York, and Stephen Douglas, who was supported by the Midwest. On the second ballot, Marcy dropped out and endorsed Pierce, which was enough to give him a nearly unanimous victory.”

From “American Realignment” by Jonas Walsh
Published 2019

“The Whigs suffered in 1852 from a nasty, festering divide over the issue of slavery. The southern wing favored continued compromises and negotiations, while a growing number of northern Whigs were free-soilers who demanded the spread of slavery be arrested. Senator Corwin was a compromise candidate and inspired little excitement in either wing of the party. He supported a Constitutional amendment barring Congress from restricting slavery, an end to American expansion, and he insisted that the Escaped Slave Act be rigorously enforced. This did not endear him to the free-soil wing, who were adamant that the Escaped Slave Act be abolished, and the spread of slavery halted.

By contrast, the Democrats were far more united. A diverse coalition of southerners, westerners, southerners, imperialists, filibusterers, and railroad interests assembled to place Sam Houston, the Senator of the State of Brazos, in the White House. He called for, as a campaign pamphlet put it, “COMPROMISE on the question of slavery, CONSTRUCTION of a transcontinental railroad, and CUBAN annexation.” These three “C’s”, compromise, construction, and Cuba were the linchpin of Houston’s campaign: they were what united the disparate groups behind him. Without the first C, compromise, the Southern planters would desert him. Without the second, construction, the railroad companies would abandon him. And without Cuba, the expansionists and imperialists would leave.

The fractious Whigs suffered their worst defeat in history. Thomas Corwin won only five states and fifty-nine electoral votes, the biggest loss since James Monroe won unopposed in 1820. In the House, the Democrats gained thirty seats, giving Sam Houston a large majority when he took office in March.”

From “A History of US” by Bruce Hakim [2]
Published 1993

“In his first year in office, Sam Houston pushed for his greatest dream: the annexation of Cuba. Most today know Cuba as a great vacation and gambling destination, or as the setting for some of the best Mob films. But in the 1850s, it was still a Spanish colony, and the south coveted it as a new slave state. A war was in neither nation's best interests - Spain was beset by growing economic and political troubles, and the United States had neither the army nor the navy to land in and conquer Cuba. Houston entertained the idea of a government-sponsored filibuster expedition. This plan was encouraged by Narciso Lopez, who had tried before to filibuster Cuba, and wanted government backing to assemble a true fighting force. Houston saw the most glaring problems with such a scheme: mainly, that such an expedition would be very likely to fail, and that it could easily draw the United States and Spain into a war neither wanted. However, Houston and his advisors saw a way to combine a filibuster with the other plan: purchasing Cuba outright. Houston could back Lopez's filibuster not in the hope of victory, but in the hope that such an expedition would convince Spain they could not hold onto Cuba and that they should sell it.

Thus, Houston gave his backing to Lopez's filibuster. to ensure they were successful in at least making the Spanish sweat, Houston convinced Major Robert E. Lee to command the filibuster army. Three hundred men were hired to undertake the expedition. Over a two-month period, the army was trained in using their weapons and in naval landings, before they sailed to Cuba. Under Lee's command, the army captured several towns near Havana and defeated two attempts by the authorities in Havana to defeat and capture them. By September 1853, despite lukewarm public attitudes, the filibusters had entrenched themselves and had actually expanded their control east and south to cut the island in half and prevent reinforcements from arriving in Havana. Queen Isabella II ordered an army of 3,000 to sail to Cuba and crush the revolt, but at that time a Carlist [2] revolt broke out in the Basque Country and Catalonia. Just four years after the Second Carlist War, a third one began when Carlos de Bourbon called for a restoration of the Catalan regional constitution abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees. Though this revolt was less intense than the previous uprising, it still consumed much of the ever-restless Catalonia and gave pause to Spanish plans to reinforce Cuba. At this moment, with a domestic insurrection in Spain and a very firmly entrenched filibuster army bisecting Cuba, President Houston directed his Secretary of State, James Buchanan, to offer Spain $115 million for Cuba. Though Isabella II was loathe to relinquish control of Spain's wealthiest colony, Buchanan heavily implied in his dispatches and negotiations that the United States would intervene militarily, and wrote "it would be inopportune for Your Majesty to engage in both open conflict in Cuba and open conflict with those within Catalonia who hold rebellious sentiments." Isabella strongly considered refusing to sell, but then the Spanish army was defeated trying to take a small village in Catalonia. 100 Spanish soldiers died, compared to 12 Carlist rebels. The defeat suggested that the new revolt would be harder to crush than the ruling generals thought, and they urged Isabella to sell Cuba rather than deal with both a potentially costly war with America and a Carlist revolt. On October 3rd, she told Buchanan that Spain would sell Cuba. However, Congress had to approve an appropriations bill to finance the annexation of Cuba.

President Houston jumped to push through the appropriations bill. With Democratic majorities in both houses, the passage of the bill should have been easy. However, there arose a debate over the free blacks of Cuba. Though slavery was legal [3] in Cuba, there were large communities of free blacks. Though the opposition forces in Congress knew they could not hope to overpower the Democrats over barring slavery, they thought that by proposing protections be put in place for the free blacks, they could win a small victory and help cement the anti-slavery coalition. President Houston was amenable to such an amendment, as it allowed for slavery to persist and allowed Houston to accomplish his pet project. Despite the fury of the Fire Eaters (Preston Brooks claimed that "any negro with half a brain could escape their rightful bonds and claim protection"), the bill passed the House and made its way to the Senate. There, it encountered an interruption.

You see, Senator Charles Sumner gave a speech in which he criticized attempts to block protections for free Cuban blacks and accused southern senators of “falling prey to the seductive whisperings of the harlot, slavery.” Sumner compared slavery to a prostitute and the expansion of slavery to the “rape of an innocent, virgin territory”. This carried the additional connotation of southern planters raping their female slaves, which northern abolitionists frequently accused planters of engaging in. In the process, he implied that these southern senators were involved in such a heinous practice. Sumner’s rhetoric angered Congressman Preston Brooks, whose cousin was mentioned in Sumner’s speech. Believing dueling Sumner was improper as Sumner was of a lower social class, Brooks instead resolved to savagely beat him with his cane. On October 11th, at the end of the Senate’s session, Brooks advanced upon Sumner, who sat writing at his desk. Brooks informed him that, “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine.” Sumner stood up to face Brooks and speak to him, but just as he got to his feet, Brooks struck him in the ribs with his cane. Sumner stumbled down the aisle as Brooks pursued and hit at him. A crowd soon gathered, and John Crittenden and William Seward tried to intervene but were halted by another Congressman brandishing a revolver. Sumner succeeded in wrestling the cane from Brooks, but not before suffering three broken ribs and a sprained wrist.

The brawl served to show just how fragile the peace was in the United States. As one Ohioan wrote in an editorial, “if not even a deliberative body as just and fair as the Senate of these United States is free from such sectional squabbling and regional invective, then the bonds of this Union are fragile indeed.” But exploring the ramifications of the Senate Brawl is getting ahead of ourselves. First, we have to finish with the battle over Cuban Annexation. The brawl hardened northern resolve to pass the bill, and enough Southerners who wanted Cuba admitted at all costs joined them that the Senate passed the appropriations bill. With the funding supplied, Houston gave Buchanan the go-ahead to sign the Treaty of Madrid, annexing Cuba to the United States. The treaty was signed on October 28th, and the Senate ratified the treaty on November 3rd. Houston had realized one of his chief goals in office, but the handover ceremony from Spanish to American rule was not the end of controversy. Cuba was held up by the nascent Freedom Party as an example of the "Slavocrat Conspiracy" - the idea that southern planter interests had, despite being the minority of the population, strong-armed the government into acceding to their wishes."

[1] OTL, Corwin proposed the 1860 Corwin Amendment that would have enshrined slavery in the Constitution.
[2] I know it's not the most plausible, and even though I try to make everything as realistic as possible, the acquisition of Cuba is very important in the lead-up to the Civil War, and I thought that the easiest way was to have Spain distracted by some internal matter.
[3] Not entirely true – Cuban slavery was declining, but the institution was still present and American annexation would not be a corrupting influence.

Up Next on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Birth of a Party and the Supreme Court’s Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decision​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Center Cannot Hold

From “The House of Freedom: A Story of America’s Oldest Party” by Leander Morris
Published 1987

“The Whig Party suffered from the same streak of bad luck as its predecessors, the National Republicans and the Federalists. The defeat in 1852 caused the party to completely collapse as the sectional cracks could no longer be papered over. Slavery was not the only woe that destroyed the Whigs – the old guards, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, were dead and the party had no charismatic preachers of unity to rally around. Instead, the abolitionist wing and the southern wing inexorably drifted apart.

But in even in the ashes of the Whigs, a new party took shape. Initially a coalition of anti-slavery politicians and former Northern Whigs tentatively called the Opposition Party rose to take up the mantle of the Whigs and abolitionists in the aftermath of the 1854 annexation of Cuba, which angered anti-slavery forces for expanding southern representation in Congress. However, it became clear that more permanent arrangements should be made to ensure the survival of a united, anti-slavery force in national politics, lest this new organization go the way of the Federalists, National Republicans, or Whigs. To this end, a formal convention was called in Milwaukee [1], organized, and attended by abolitionists, both Whig and Democrat (including Rep. David Wilmot), and former northern Whigs. The July Milwaukee convention was held to simply establish the principles and name of this new party – the Freedom Party would formally nominate candidates only in 1856.

The delegates had two choices for the new party. Either they could claim the mantle of the old Jeffersonian Republicans and call themselves the Republican Party, or they could instead channel the greatest American value: Freedom. The decision was rapidly reached: the new party would be named the Freedom Party. In terms of a national platform, a resolution was passed unanimously declaring that, “the spread of the morally corrupt institution of Slavery must be arrested.” The other pillars of the platform were standard Whig issue: high tariffs to grow American industry, a central banking system to regulate money, and Federal spending on internal improvements such as railroads. Shortly after the formal establishment of the Freedom Party, the 75 Representatives and 22 Senators of the Opposition Party switched their affiliations to the Freedom Party. Though the party was not yet fully united, the November midterm elections saw the Freedom Party win 94 House seats and 27 Senate seats on a wave of Northern anger over the annexation of Cuba [2] and unpopular enforcement of the Escaped Slave Act. This majority was, while not entirely unified, a formidable obstacle to Sam Houston’s agenda and ultimately one of the causes of the South’s descent into paranoia and fear that sparked the Civil War.”

From “The Westward March” by Nehemiah Jones
Published 2008

“Sam Houston had accomplished one of his great aims as President when he forced the Cuban annexation treaty through the Senate. Now, to complete his legacy, Houston turned to another matter entirely – the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Initially, Congress quietly approved surveying missions and other preliminary measures. It was when the surveyors came back with two recommended routes – one northern and one southern, that the sectional rift opened wide once more.

The first route began in Chicago and went through St. Louis and Kansas City, then Denver City and San Francisco, California. The second went from Philadelphia to Richmond, Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Jackson, and New Orleans. From Jackson and New Orleans, the route turned north up the Mississippi to St. Louis and Kansas City. The two routes met at Denver City, but the second option then turned south to San Diego in unincorporated territory. immediately, the two routes sparked a firestorm of controversy. Naturally, Northerners and Midwesterners overwhelmingly favored the northern route, while the south, to a man, backed the southern route. In his ongoing attempts to make a name for himself as the Second Coming of Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas proposed a compromise to resolve the issue: two railroad routes, one through the upper south and Louisiana, and one through the Midwest. At St. Louis, the routes would merge, and San Francisco would be established as the Pacific terminus, while Chicago and Atlanta would be the eastern termini.

While Douglas’ Railroad Compromise was easily passed, the issue of the vast unincorporated territories was once again raised. The question was raised not by a Freedomite, but by Representative Henry Winter Davis of the Native American Party (before their northern base collapsed). Davis spoke at length that, “when discussing the question of a railroad through the cities of Denver City and Kansas City, we must also discuss the status of those two settlements. Currently, no formal territorial legislature governs these vast tracts of land. It is my view that it is dangerous to the security of any prospective railroad, and dangerous to the residents of these cities, to leave them unprotected by territorial government. I do not think any member of this Body would wish the Indians of the Great Plains and the Mountains to raid and pillage trains and towns, with no Territorial militias and sheriffs to protect them.”

As Representative Davis pointed out, building a railroad through unincorporated territory without centralized government practically invited banditry and Indian raids. However, raising the previously ignored issue of the division of these tracts of land opened a whole other can of worms: the question of slavery. The south was prepared to fight tooth and nail over any incorporation of Utah (the Wilmot Amendment banned slavery in all lands taken from Mexico). Senator Jefferson Davis also prepared a crusade to force the incorporation of Kansas as slave territory (remarking to Alexander Stephens that, “we’ll get Kansas through, by hook or by crook”.) Crusade is in fact an apt term for the fights planned simultaneously by the Freedom Party and the southerners. Charles Sumner and John Fremont led the Freedomite charge in the Senate to incorporate Kansas as a free territory, while Jefferson Davis was at the helm of the southern push for the permittance of slavery. Seemingly not learning from his altercation with Preston Brooks, Sumner once again went on the offensive and once again attacked southern senators for raping a virgin territory by introducing slavery and comparing them to pimps to a prostitute slavery. This time, Sumner avoided a severe caning, but his speech did nothing to heal the rapidly growing rift.

Between the two Pillars of Hercules that were the South and the Freedom Party stood Senator Stephen Douglas. Douglas subscribed to a different method of solving slavery and criticized the Freedomite and Fire-Eaters for “spreading destabilizing Radical ideologies, one of radical abolitionism, and the other of radical slavery.” Douglas believed that rather than having Congress decide one way or the other, the residents of the soon-to-be territory should hold a constitutional convention, through free and fair elections, to determine the status of slavery. Douglas used his connections within the northern Democrats and upper south, as well as his oratory skill, to introduce the Kansas-Utah Bill on May 6th, 1855 and table other discussions over Kansas. The bill incorporated Utah as a free territory, while Kansas would hold elections for a constitutional convention that would determine the territory’s status. Douglas was opposed by both Sumner and Fremont and Jefferson Davis and David Rice Atchison. However, a good third of the Senate backed the proposal, and a heated debate began. Sumner’s opposition was clear: as previously stated, he compared forcing slavery upon Kansas to rape. Davis and Atchison came from a different angle: they suspected that the North would use their superior population to flood Kansas with Free Soilers and rig the election. Ironically, this was also the fear of Sumner and Fremont, who thought that southerners would pour in from Missouri and rig the election to implement slavery. Fremont, the Senator from California, condemned proposals to invalidate the Wilmot Amendment, and called for, “Federal law to be upheld and not tossed out to cater to the demands of the minority [i.e. the South]”.

It was critical for the bill’s passage for President Houston to lend his support. Without the pressure of the Administration, the Freedom Party and the South would kill the bill in the Senate. However, the Kansas-Utah Bill had the possibility that slavery would exist north of the 36 30’ line, and the line established by the Missouri Compromise was still technically valid. Douglas’ argument that such a law was vital for the construction of a transcontinental railroad won the President over, and Houston reluctantly agreed, as it had become quite clear that the Missouri Compromise was as good as dead. With his support, enough of the south and the upper south, as well as most of the Northern democrats, voted to pass the bill, 32-30.

It was in the House that the Kansas-Utah Bill needed Houston’s support the most. Fire-Eaters, led by Robert Rhett, aligned with the forces of Stephen Douglas (who they generally opposed as “Yankee Stooges”) However, the House had a Freedomite majority, and even a Freedomite Speaker (Nathaniel P. Banks [3]). And to a man, the Freedom Party was opposed to popular sovereignty and the Kansas-Utah Bill. The man who started the debate, Henry Winter Davis, took to the podium to speak on the issue once more, and declared: “It has become apparent to myself that the men of the South would sooner have no railroad than a railroad, that would greatly enhance Southern economic strength, and a free territory, with the possibility of a second free territory. Unfortunately, the coalition of southerners and northern Democrats was not enough, even with Houston’s (lukewarm) support. The Freedomite majority voted almost to a man to table the Kansas-Utah Bill, sending it to the purgatory of the Ways and Means Committee, where it would languish. Douglas lamented the defeat of his bill, telling the Senate, “has Compromise, a tool wielded by such great men as Henry Clay, fallen to the wayside? Has negotiation and cordial settlement been cast aside and abandoned? There is no room in America for the middle path, it seems. All around, we see the evidence that moderation is out of favor, and that the center cannot hold in the face of concerted assault by the forces of Radicalism.”

It was also at this time that the public began to weigh in on the swirling debate. Northern newspapers, led by Horace Greeley, attacked Stephen Douglas as a southern stooge and the South as attempting to manipulate the President and bully the north. One political cartoon displayed a short man in a coat and tails (representing Southern planters and politicians) swinging a club at the ankles of a giant in workingman’s clothes (representing the North).

Stephen Douglas’s attempt to bridge the ever-widening gap between north and south had failed spectacularly. Rather than mending ties and reuniting the nation with compromise, the battle over the Kansas-Utah Bill deepened the divide. The Democratic Party emerged from the debate divided between the Northern Democrats, furious at President Houston, and the Fire-Eaters, who were angry at Douglas for “selling out to Yankee interests”. The Freedom Party left the fracas hardened in their resolve to end the perceived southern stranglehold on politics and stop the spread of slavery. And trapped in the middle, lay the moderates, fast outpaced by a world no longer open to compromise.”

From “AMERICA: A Textbook for Middle-Schoolers” by Reginald Douglas

Published 1991

“Kansas experienced a flood of immigration in 1855 in anticipation of a territorial constitutional convention. Even after the Kansas-Utah Bill was killed, Northern and Southern immigrants continued to settle the area in the hopes of blocking the other from forming the majority. Northerners established towns like Lawrence and Manhattan and generally settled north of the Kansas River. The Southerners, termed Border Vagabonds by Horace Greeley’s paper, settled south of the Kansas River and clustered close to the Missouri border, where most of them were from.

Almost immediately, there was fighting. It began with Free-Soilers who settled south of the unofficial boundary being unceremoniously ridden out of town by the Border Vagabonds, with many, at least a hundred, killed in the process. Free-Soilers responded by raiding the Vagabond settlement of Dixon. Meanwhile, radical Free-Soilers, led by John Brown and his sons, massacred pro-slavery settlers with broadswords at Pottawatomie and defeated a pro-slavery militia in battle at Osawatomie. Two provisional governments were formed, one by the Free-Soilers and one by the Vagabonds. the Free-Staters established a capital at Manhattan and the Vagabonds retained their capital at Lecompton. Then, the two governments established militias and drafted their own constitutions.

The Free-Soil faction tasked John Brown, who had risen to prominence for his victories in a string of border skirmishes in Douglas County (neatly bisected by the two factions – Lawrence was a Free-Soil town and Lecompton was pro-Vagabond) and at Osawatomie, with heading their militia. Brown was a fiery abolitionist who had previously pledged, “I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery”. Brown ultimately commanded 1,000 militiamen and attacked Vagabond settlements all along the border between the two factions. Brown was a mediocre commander, but his talent resided in his fervor. His men, when they advanced into battle, “fought like men possessed. Their yells chilled our very blood to ice [4]. Surrender was no option for such zealots of Yankee abolitionism. Any southerner they came across was maimed or killed,” as one Border Vagabond wrote in his journal. The Vagabonds struck back, sacking border settlements and killing Free-Soilers, but they could not match the energy and zeal of Brown’s men.

Meanwhile, the two factions were busy petitioning the Senate for aid and recognition. President Houston attempted to broker a compromise, but the time for compromise was long over. The Freedom Party, led once more in their efforts by Sumner and Fremont, loudly called for the recognition of the Manhattan legislature and demanded that that legislature be incorporated by an act of Congress as the legitimate government of a (free) Kansan territory. The Fire-Eaters demanded the converse: that the Lecompton legislature be enshrined by Congress as a legitimate governing body of a slave-permitting Kansas Territory. The deadlock in Congress, and the uneasiness of the remaining moderates to side with radicals, prevented any action to quell the bloodshed from being taken.

Historians have agreed that the war in Kansas was the prelude to, and a microcosm of, the American Civil War that would break out in just over a year. The debate over slavery had turned the plains of Kansas red with blood, and unfortunately this was a portent of the coming storm.”

From “Prelude to Tragedy” by Abraham Lincoln
Abridged Edition, Published 1967 (Original, 1876)

“The march to civil war sped up with a Supreme Court decision regarded today as the worst in history. In the February 1856 Jacinto v. Sherwood, a slave, Hipolito Jacinto, claimed that his Freedom Papers, issued to all Cuban free blacks during the treaty ratification, had been ignored and his enslavement by slavecatchers while traveling through the south was illegal and unconstitutional.

Jacinto had departed Havana, with his papers in hand, to travel to New York City to visit an abolitionist conference. While traveling through Georgia, however, he was apprehended and, despite presenting his Freedom Papers, was sold into slavery in Missouri. Jacinto, with the help of a lawyer he met while running errands in town, sued for his freedom. He argued that his Freedom Papers should preclude his enslavement, as they clearly denoted his status as a free black. His master, Samuel Sherwood, claimed that such documents held no legal standing outside of Cuba, seizing upon the vagueness of the article establishing the Freedom Papers. Initially, the district court found for Sherwood, while the Court of Appeals found for Jacinto. Sherwood appealed to the Supreme Court, and his appeal was granted.

The Supreme Court, with only two outliers, issued a decision that would upend the political landscape. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in his majority opinion, decreed that not only were the Freedom Papers not legal tender outside of Cuba, but “the Negro, whose ancestors were not of this Land, is not a member of this Union, and is not entitled to the rights and protections of the Constitution. The Negro is not a citizen of these United States, and therefore are not entitled to even petition the fair and just courts of the Union. The Negro has, ever since the first one stepped onto this land, been the subordinate and inferior class of beings, subjugated, as is their rightful position, by the dominant race.” Not only did Taney rule that the Freedom Papers lacked jurisdiction and that Jacinto remained in bondage, but he also ruled that Jacinto was, even if he was free, not a citizen on account of his race, and was therefore unable to bring a suit in a court of law. [5]. Taney also ruled that Congress had no jurisdiction or right to impose restrictions in the Territories, which invalidated the Wilmot Proviso [6]. Associate Justices John McLean and Benjamin Robbins Curtis attacked Taney for his decision. In particular, they objected to Taney’s concept that Blacks were not citizens and could not ever be citizens. Curtis stated, “the Chief Justice’s decision that Mr. Jacinto is not to be considered a citizen is a matter of taste and not of the law. Free men of all races and colors have voted in American elections, state and federal, since the time of Washington.” McLean wrote similar attacks and called Taney’s opinion “unfounded in any precedent or law on the books past or present.” McLean also argued that if Jacinto’s suit was actually illegitimate, “then the Court should have decided it did not have jurisdiction and should have dismissed it. by accepting it and rendering judgement, the Court has, by simply hearing this case, decreed that Jacinto’s suit has merit and that he is a citizen.”

McLean and Curtis were not the only Americans expressing disgust. President Houston told Stephen Douglas and a group of representatives, “What kind of nation are we when free men are snatched off the street and sold? Americans have a right to own slaves, not enslave free men with the papers to prove it!” In his anger, Houston was joined by an outraged Freedom Party. The New-York Tribune’s fury was palpable when an editorial declared, “This is what our great Democracy has come to – Southern slavocrats and planters dictating the law to the Supreme Court! This despicable ruling has cheapened the Supreme Court’s power and turned it into yet another partisan battleground. The South has gone a bridge too far.” Senator Charles Sumner was furious as well, telling the Senate, “I have never felt such anger. This decision is a sham. It appears that slavery has seduced even the last bastion of fairness in this nation – the Supreme Court.” Historians have described Jacinto v. Sherwood as the worst Supreme Court decision ever, but the decision is undoubtedly the moment when the north’s patience had run thin – the South had crossed the Rubicon, and the Freedom Party was determined to punish such a transgression. It was in the aftermath of Jacinto v. Sherwood that the United States of America took its final lurches towards Civil War.”

[1] OTL, it was only informal meetings in 1854, and the first official meeting was in 1856. TTL, with an earlier polarization, the Republicans solidify their membership and party structure earlier.
[2] A little less than OTL in the House, where the Opposition Party had 100 seats in total, but better in the Senate. Keep in mind that the Freedom Party is able to do more with 94 seats than the Opposition Party was able to do with 100.
[3] Banks is elected as Speaker in a less contentious election due to the earlier unification of anti-Democrat forces.
[4] Sort of like the “Rebel Yell”, TTL called a Yankee Scream.
[5] Basically Taney’s OTL opinion for Scott v. Sanford
[6] OTL, Scott v. Sanford also declared the Federal government could not restrict slavery, but OTL this invalidated the Kansas-Nebraska Act. TTL, it invalidates the Wilmot Amendment.

Next Up on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Revolution of 1856 and the Union Torn Asunder

Spoiler: Author's Note

While this update is a bit boring for the most part, it is necessary to set up the political shifts of the next chapter.

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Union Cannot Endure

From “The Great Realignment: The Death of the Democrats and Whigs” by Eugene Bugders
Published 2017

“Sam Houston had every right to expect an easy renomination by his party – after all, he had stuck to the basic platform laid out in 1852 and had strived to balance North with South. However, the Fire-Eaters had risen to dominate the southern delegations and were furious with President Houston. Houston was labeled as a closeted abolitionist, and his statements in opposition to the Jacinto v. Sherwood decision only fueled the fire. Jefferson Davis, though a moderate, had grown disillusioned with the President and addressed the convention shortly after its opening, and proclaimed, “the President has forgotten who made him President. He has ignored his southern backers and has thrown his lot in with the Yankees and Abolitionists. He has forsaken us, and therefore we must choose a new nominee.” On the first three ballots, Houston held a commanding lead, but came up short of the required two-thirds to win the nomination. Meanwhile, the southern delegations searched to find a nominee to unite them. Previously, their support was divided between Preston Brooks, Jefferson Davis, and James Buchanan. Initially, the three factions could not decide on who to support, until Davis met with Vice President Franklin Pierce. Pierce harbored presidential ambitions of his own and sought to escape Houston’s administration, which he viewed as a sinking ship. Further, Pierce was a supporter of slavery who had opposed Houston’s concessions to the Free-Soilers during the Cuban annexation debate and had broken with the President over Houston’s criticism of the Jacinto v. Sherwood decision. Pierce offered to become the south’s nominee, as he, a northerner, would be able to attract the most northern support. Pierce’s ally, William L. Marcy, promised to deliver the votes of New York to the south should they select Pierce. Davis and Brooks agreed, as they knew that Pierce would be more appealing than pro-slavery southerners. Davis in particular favored Pierce because he believed Pierce would be a moderate and would try to keep the Union together rather than push for any radical action.

On the sixth ballot, Franklin Pierce was entered as a candidate, with the support of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and New York. Upon hearing of Pierce’s candidacy, Sam Houston reportedly shouted, “I knew that snake would try something. That two-timing scoundrel!” The Vice President secured the delegation of New Hampshire on the seventh ballot, while he reached out to western railroad interests. Pierce distanced himself from Houston, but he realized that in order to attract western support, he would have to identify with Houston’s platform. What happened was Pierce disavowed and condemned Houston’s policies regarding slavery while supporting his plans for a transcontinental railroad. On the eighth ballot, the Californian and Missourian delegations flipped to Pierce, followed by on the ninth Kentucky and Tennessee. The sudden rise of Pierce gave pause to the Western states and railroad interests, who wanted to back the winning horse. However, they, worried that Pierce would fizzle out, hung to Houston until the Iowan and Indianan delegations switched their allegiance on the eleventh ballot. This proved the cause for the switch of Sacramento's allegiance the next ballot. Northern support was still needed, and for this Pierce relied upon his own northern heritage as well as the help of William L. Marcy. Pierce’s own dealings bore fruit, with Vermont and Maine agreeing to lend their support, along with half of the Connecticut delegation. William L. Marcy, meanwhile, wrangled the delegations of New Jersey and Maryland to Pierce’s side, granting him almost total control of the East Coast delegations and 198 delegates, one more than the two-thirds minimum. Sam Houston reportedly pounded his fist on his desk and cursed “a thousand fiery deaths upon that thief” for stealing the nomination from him. For his running mate, Pierce decided to select a moderate southerner , and ultimately selected Senator Jefferson Davis.

But Houston’s path to reelection was not over, for a new party, the Native American Party, was organizing its first presidential campaign, and many in the party wanted to run Houston as their candidate. the Native American Party, better known as the “Ignorant” party for the answer given by members when asked about the organization (“I am ignorant”). The Ignorant Party was founded on xenophobia, especially towards Catholic immigrants. It was the belief of the party that all Catholics were agents of the Catholic Church, which was part of a “Romanist Conspiracy” that sought to infiltrate the United States government and rule the world. The Ignorants ignored the issue of slavery and pinned the blame for all of America’s woes on Catholic immigrants. The party believed that the President had enough popularity to win the west and the upper south to give the Native American Party a fighting chance. With the backing of the delegates, Houston defeated his strongest rival, steamboat tycoon George Law, on the first ballot of the convention. No doubt his status as an incumbent President gave him a boost in the Convention. Houston selected New Jersey Senator Robert F. Stockton as his running mate in an attempt to appeal to northern voters, but nevertheless the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, New York, and the New England states bolted to the Freedom Party over the party’s adopted plank of repealing the Wilmot Amendment and replacing it with a 36 - 30' line. Nevertheless, Houston was perhaps the best possible nominee – a prominent politician with a large base of support in the west, the Texases [1], and the upper south.”

From “The House of Freedom: A Story of America’s Oldest Party” by Leander Morris
Published 1987

“1856 was the first time the Freedom Party was running a Presidential candidate, and they wanted someone who could appeal to northerners who weren’t Free Soilers or radical abolitionists. This ruled out the strongest contender, Charles Sumner, who instead proposed Senator Fremont of California. Fremont was a founding member of the Freedom Party and was nationally known for his explorations of the west. He was also, while an ardent abolitionist and former Whig, relatively moderate on issues of slavery and was not nearly so radical as Sumner to insist upon full rights for blacks.

The 1856 Freedom Party convention was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The opening address was given by Representative Abraham Lincoln, who wowed the delegates with his oratorical prowess. His address’s electrifying endorsement of John Fremont was a significant blow to his main challenger, William Seward. With the backing of Speaker Nathaniel Banks, Fremont surged into the lead on the first ballot, and despite a setback on the second ballot, won the required majority on the third ballot. Given that he was a westerner, the convention came down to two main contenders for the Vice-Presidency: David Wilmot, the author of the divisive Amendment, and Abraham Lincoln, who had captivated the delegations with his opening speech earlier in the day. By a wide majority, Lincoln was confirmed as the Vice-Presidential nominee on the first ballot. Of course, Lincoln’s popularity with the Freedomites would not last [2], and the Freedom Party would come to regret their decision in time, but it is Lincoln’s presence on the ticket that secured Illinois for the Freedomites.

The party platform called for “the halting of the spread of slavery, so that this Union may be preserved.” Though the planks on slavery and the condemnation of Red Kansas as “a vile war perpetrated by the Border Vagabonds, who have thrust brutal violence and wanton bloodshed upon the peaceable settlers of Kansas”, the delegates also passed a standard Whig platform, which called for the completion of a transcontinental railroad, the creation of a central banking system, and a new tariff.”

From “American Realignment” by Jonas Walsh
Published 2019

“The Panic of 1856 yet another blow to the Democratic Party. Though neither President Houston nor Congressional Democrats were at fault, the Freedom Party jumped to blame the Democratic opposition to central banking as the reason for the severity of the recession. The Panic of 1856 began in the United States when, in August 1856, the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company announced it was suspending payments at its New York branch. The failure of Ohio Life was due to fraudulent business practices and sparked a run on the banks that devastated the northern industrial economy as businesses lost their money and closed, while workers’ savings were wiped out by the collapse of several large northern banks.

Any hopes Franklin Pierce had of winning moderate Northern votes evaporated as Northern workers, bankers, and businessmen deserted the already-ailing Democratic Party. Previously Democratic northern newspapers published editorials castigating them for “selling out to slave power, cutting the tariff, chaining the free man (in reference to Jacinto v. Sherwood), and sending the economy into free fall.” Other newspapers went after Pierce on character grounds, with one formerly Democratic paper in Ohio publishing an editorial saying “it disgusts me that the Democrats have placed such a scheming, backstabbing, corrupt individual as Senator Pierce at the head of the ticket. How can anyone trust a word spoken by the man who betrayed the President to pursue his own personal ambitions? I would rather even such a radical as Senator Fremont occupied the White House, for at least he has principles and beliefs. Pierce has none.”

Fremont, meanwhile, was struggling to attract both Ignorants and Catholic immigrants. He was hampered by the Ignorants claiming he was a Roman Catholic [3] and thus part of the Papist conspiracy to rule the world. He was, however, able to counter it by stating that while he was not a Catholic, “it is one of the founding principles of these United States, and one of my personal principles, that no matter their faith all men have a place here.” Fortunately, most northern voters didn’t dwell much on the rumor, as Fremont’s vociferous support for increased tariffs earned him the vote of the midwestern Germans and his support for a central banking system won the support of the northern industrial and financial interests.

The upper south and the Midwest were the two major battlegrounds, with the upper south contested between Houston, who was supported by moderate southerners, and Pierce, who was supported by the Fire-Eaters. Pierce did hold the advantage in the deep south, as this was the area where most Fire-Eaters were concentrated. With the strong backing of Fire-Eaters like Preston Brooks and moderates like Jefferson Davis, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia were securely in the Democratic camp. Though Tennessee had a large contingent of Houston supporters (after all, Tennessee was his home state), Pierce had confidence that his running mate, Andrew Johnson, would flip the state for the Democrats. In the Midwest, Pierce fought against Fremont for the votes of the farmers and frontiersmen in Iowa. The main battleground state was Illinois, which at that time was still very much a state of small farmers and the home of two rising stars in their respective parties: Stephen Douglas was the proponent of popular sovereignty and a powerful orator nicknamed the “Little Giant”, while Abraham Lincoln was a folksy, personable, and charismatic speaker. To woo the voters of Illinois for their respective tickets, Douglas and Lincoln held a series of debates throughout the state. The debates centered around the issue of slavery, which is a subject we have been ignoring for much of this chapter. Before we discuss the debates, which (though it seems difficult to comprehend today) made Lincoln extremely popular in the Freedom Party.

Slavery, predictably, took center stage during the campaign. The Freedom Party accused the south of a conspiracy to control and dominate the Federal government through corrupt measures. They pointed to southern pressure to annex Cuba, Southern refusal to “set aside the disagreements of Sectional character for the betterment of the nation” (i.e. the construction of a transcontinental railroad) [4], heel-dragging that resulted in Red Kansas, and the Supreme Court decision in Jacinto v. Sherwood. Let us unpack these one by one. Fremont and his surrogates believed that Cuba had only been annexed by the Federal government because of undue southern influence over the Houston administration. On the stump for Fremont, Charles Sumner declared that the bloodbath in Kansas was entirely the responsibility of the Democrats. “Were it not for the criminal recalcitrance, the malevolent reluctance of the southern party [5], the bloodshed and chaos currently besieging the fair plains of Kansas would have been avoided.” But the most invective was reserved for the Jacinto v. Sherwood decision. To the Freedom Party and many northerners, the decision meant that, as it was put by an editorial in Wisconsin, “the vile infection of the slavocrats has spread to not only the Congress and the Presidency, but also to the erstwhile neutral arbiter of the law, the Supreme Court. This corrupt and unlawful decision has proven that even the Supreme Court has succumbed to the perfidious influence of the Southron planter. We must win in November, lest the North become suborned to the minority and become just as shackled as our colored brethren.” Effigies of Roger Taney were burned, and he retired to his home in Maryland when his safety was no longer guaranteed. Freedomites pointed to the decision as proof that slavery would not die out on its own, for, as Abraham Lincoln put it in one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, “the South will fight tooth and nail, will drown the whole of the nation in the blood of patriot and traitor alike, to preserve their corrupt and evil institution. Either slavery is allowed to persist and spread, or the union will be torn asunder as the south fights to achieve those ends while the Union fights to prevent them from doing so. Either the whole Union succumbs, and slavery spreads its tendrils into every state and territory, or the South breaks away. Should they win, not a slave will be left in the union. Should they lose, not a slave will be left. This union cannot endure, half slave and half free.”

The south’s invective was far more rabid than even the most radical Freedomite. Fremont was tarred as a “black abolitionist, an amalgamationist who will plunge our fair and genteel society into the throes of race war.” Houston, meanwhile, was attacked by the Fire-Eaters as a secret abolitionist who would “allow our peculiar institution to become abolished or extinct by dithering and indifference, by simply doing nothing. Compromise will not save us.” Meanwhile, Houston’s supporters attacked Pierce and his Fire-Eater backers as “radicals of the worst sort, who would rather plunge the Union into chaos and war than give up a single slave. Slavery can only be preserved through compromise and careful negotiation, not a war the South cannot hope to win.”

Talk of secession swirled in Southern capitals, especially those in the lower south. Preston Brooks traveled across the south campaigning for Pierce, telling crowds in Charlotte, NC, “The only recourse we shall have if Fremont wins is secession. The Yankees have proven they can force their miscegenationist agendas upon us with their corrupt Wilmot Amendment. If the radical Black abolitionists win, they could do anything! Slavery would be abolished, the tariff would be raised, and the proud and noble traditions of the south would be forced under the heel of the North!” At a rally for Pierce in Memphis, Brooks declared that a Fremont victory “would represent the defeat of freedom and liberty in these United States. Blacks will run amok, raping the womenfolk, and murdering the men. It will be chaos. I would rather tear the Union apart than have Negro rule forced upon us by the Yankees. It is better to die fighting against Northern tyranny than die subservient to it.” Spurred by Brooks’ inflammatory rhetoric, many Southern legislatures made plans to vote on secession should Fremont win, while militias stockpiled weapons and supplies for the planned war of secession. Sam Houston was too consumed with his third-party bid to pay attention to the crumbling economy or the gaping rift between North and South and retreated into the Oval Office. This left his cabinet to its own devices, and his Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, supplied arms to arsenals throughout the South, and claimed it was because he received “credible threats of a Negro servile insurrection in the Southern states.” Still, many in the upper reaches of the south held out hope that Houston would be reelected, and compromise would be achieved. Whether the ultimate outcome was fortunate or unfortunate is a matter of debate, but we can all agree that the hopes of both the upper and lower south were dashed when November came and went.”

WI Pierce Doesn’t Run? Discussion on “Counterfactual.Net”
Started June 2013


Big Sam said: Many people assume that Sam Houston’s defeat for re-nomination was inevitable, but it was not guaranteed. Could Franklin Pierce have been defeated? Could Houston have defeated Fremont in the general?

Fremon_Fan56 said: After Franklin Pierce secured the support of northern delegates, Houston was finished. The best way to have Houston win is, in my opinion, to prevent Pierce from entering his name into contention. That way, whether the southerners back Davis or Brooks, their man won’t be able to readily gain the support of the north.

Harry Allen said: Of course, the convention could easily have become deadlocked. Houston wasn’t the most popular man in the north, after all, given his ardent support for the annexation of Cuba as slave territory. given the ease with which Pierce attracted northern backing, I think that had he not run, Stephen Douglas’s campaign could have gathered steam without Pierce sniping midwestern supporters. An interesting CF would be if Douglas won the nomination and implemented popular sovereignty. It could either have delayed (or even prevented) the civil war by settling the slavery dispute democratically, or it could have made Red Kansas a walk in the park and caused bloody wars in Platte and Sonora. Ultimately, a Douglas nomination is more likely than a Houston renomination.

Zachary T said: This is funny, because I was actually reading about this the other day. According to David Thomas’s excellent “The Rise and Fall of the Jacksonian Party”, Houston had not only lost the confidence of the south but was on thin ice with the northern political establishment.

“Many northern delegates disliked Houston’s perceived friendliness to southern interests and were planning to support Stephen Douglas when Pierce announced his candidacy. Douglas was seen as a neutral arbiter of the issue, and many delegates shared his opinion that the federal government should wash its hands of the sectional dispute and delegate the issue to the people, in the Jacksonian tradition. Jacksonian thought did, in fact, play a large role in how Douglas developed his political doctrine. In keeping with the belief that the people should be the primary arbiter of policy, Douglas decreed that the territories should be incorporated first, and their legislatures would decide the future of the state.

Of course, by 1856 Jacksonian doctrines were fading away, but the north was willing to rally behind Douglas once more, if only to stop Houston. However, the entrance of Pierce totally changed their equation, and Douglas found himself abandoned. A relative unknown, even as a senior member of the administration, Pierce inspired hope in Northern delegates that he would be able to compromise as compared to Douglas' steadfast devotion to Popular Sovereignty. After Pierce's nomination, it became apparent that he was a tool of the south to further their interests, and so many deserted to the Native American Party. Perhaps, had Douglas won, he could have led the Democratic Party to pose a strong threat to the Freedom Party, though he certainly would have performed worse in the South”
A Douglas victory is pretty likely in this scenario because he would appeal to moderate abolitionists who disliked Fremont but disliked the southern candidates more. It's my opinion that Douglas, would have defeated Fremont in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, the Midwest, and perhaps California, as well as winning the upper south (Esp. Missouri, Maryland, and Virginia). Do I think this would prevent the Civil War? Probably not. As Thomas continues:
"Popular Sovereignty was not a particularly inspiring ideology for the South. They viewed it as a moderate sop to the abolitionists. Though they might have supported popular sovereignty a decade or even five years ago, the south was unwilling to risk the north flooding territories in question with settlers and throwing the vote. Further, the Southern kingmakers like Jefferson Davis distrusted the northern Douglas and viewed him as a closet abolitionist, though there has never been any evidence that he opposed the institution in practice.”
God-Emperor of the Sun said: Interesting analysis, Zach. I agree, Douglas would have been a formidable opponent of Fremont. If the civil war begins, does it occur later or in the same time frame? Can Douglas win? Do states like Missouri or Kentucky secede? Could Virginia remain Unionist?
Fremont_Fan56 said: I think the civil war would begin no later than 1859. Its possible the Southern senators present Douglas with some sort of ultimatum to overturn the Wilmot Amendment or make some other blatantly pro-slavery move. Knowing Douglas, he’ll insist on popular sovereignty and refuse. I guess then the lower south secedes, but I don’t know about the upper south. First, Missouri had two state governments, so it never technically seceded. I think without Fremont’s [REDACTED], Kentucky stays neutral or even aligns with the Union, given that its not led by an outright abolitionist party. Virginia seceded only after the [REDACTED], and even then it only [REDACTED]. Nevertheless, I think the Union could be more successful without incompetent political generals like Nathaniel Banks. Maybe you could even see McClellan, Pope, or Sickles take on prominent roles! They were probably the most talented forgotten Civil War Generals, imo [7].

From “A Pocket History of France” by Eugene Barclay
Published 2001

“On the evening of January 14th, 1858, Napoleon III of France and his wife Eugenie were en route to the Salle Le Peletier Theater to see Rossini’s William Tell, when their carriage came under assault. Felice Orsini, an Italian anarchist, and his accomplices had three bombs prepared with which they planned to kill the Emperor and his wife. The first bomb thrown by Orsini landed under the front wheel, immobilizing the carriage. The second landed in the carriage itself, killing Napoleon III and maiming his wife. The third and final explosive also landed in the carriage and killed Empress Eugenie. All in all, eight people (the Emperor, his wife, the driver, and three guards) were killed in the assault. Over 150 passengers were wounded from the blast and shrapnel. Though Orsini fled the scene, he was quickly apprehended during the ensuing city-wide manhunt. The anarchist was quickly sentenced to death by guillotine and left behind two letters addressed to the deceased Emperor.

With the new Emperor, Napoleon IV, just under two years old, a regent was required. The first-in-line, the Empress Eugenie, was dead. Second in line was Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon III’s uncle and the former King of Westphalia. Jerome eagerly accepted, despite his advanced age. However, the new Regent was forced to contend with a sudden explosion in Republican and Royalist agitation. Many of Napoleon III’s backers were opportunists, especially those in the army, and they abandoned the Regency Council right as Republicans started to agitate for reform. The Legitimists and Orleanists had been united the year prior [8] by the Duke of Nemours, and had in their senior leadership Patrice de MacMahon, a hero of the Crimean War and a monarchist. With MacMahon’s assent, a coup was planned to depose the Bonapartists and implement a constitutional monarchy along the lines of the July Monarchy (but, in order to ensure its longevity, significantly more democratic). MacMahon was to lead troops loyal to the Fusionist cause into Paris, where the Regency Council was holding meetings. Once this was accomplished, the monarchy was to be declared restored and elections would be held to draft a new constitution.

While the Fusionists plotted, the Regency Council was forced to contend with the Republicans. Led by Emile Ollivier and Victor Hugo, the Republicans refused to cooperate with the Bonapartists in the Assembly, and Republicans marched and protested in the streets. This afforded an excellent opportunity to get troops into Paris without alerting the Regency to the Fusionist plot. Patrice de MacMahon thus leapt into action when the predicted order came from the Regency: suppress the Republican agitators and restore order to the streets of Paris. 2,000 troops, of which around half were veterans of the Crimean War and most of which were monarchists, were led by MacMahon into Paris. The Republican barricades and marches mostly ended peacefully, with only twelve fatalities. However, rather than return to their barracks like the Regency wanted, Marshal MacMahon led his troops to surround the Tuileries Palace and demanded the Regency Council abdicate to the National Assembly. Surrounded, and with both the monarchists and royalists in open opposition, the Regency dissolved itself and the Empire was, by all intents and purposes, dissolved.

Elections for a new National Assembly returned a Monarchist majority, with the Republicans forming a loud and strong opposition. Over the opposition of Emile Ollivier and his allies, Alphonse Thiers and the Fusionists ratified a new constitution, establishing the Duke of Chambord as Henry V of France, with the Orleanist prince as his heir. However, many demands of the Republicans were met, with universal male suffrage implemented and legal protections for newspapers and opposition groups passed. The new Fusionist Kingdom, as it is termed, was termed the ‘Republican Kingdom’ because Henry V lacked almost any political power.

Some supporters of a Bonapartist restoration argue that Napoleon III, had he survived, or even Napoleon IV, had he not been deposed, would have restored France as a continental hegemon and would have made France the premier imperial power.”

From “The Looming Crisis” by Albert Porter
Published 1998

“The three months leading into November 6th were the most chaotic of the 1856 campaign. Houston took a break from attacking Pierce and both took aim at Fremont. “A vote for Fremont is a vote for disunion, for these radicals will tear the Union asunder,” decreed a pamphlet released by the Houston campaign. Millard Fillmore stumped extensively throughout New York, joined by his political allies. The Native American Party saw New York as a make-or break for their campaign. The state was one of the largest Democratic bases in the north, and if Houston could win it would severely damage Fremont’s campaign. Fremont relied upon his ally William Seward to counter Fillmore, and Seward did an admirable job mobilizing his machine allies against the Ignorants.

Fremont ran a spirited campaign. Everywhere he went, crowds chanted “free men, free soil, Fremont”. Fremont constantly denied he was an abolitionist and insisted he merely wanted to arrest the spread of slavery and “contain it in the states and territories where it currently persists”. He clarified further, saying “the Wilmot Amendment is constitutional, and it retains its position as a just and fair Federal law. As President, I shall protect it from assault and see that its provisions are enforced fairly and properly.” This was interpreted by the south as a threat to the existence of slavery, while the north celebrated it as a principled stance against “slavocrat tyranny”. Fremont also went on the attack against his opponents, with his surrogates labeling Houston an “indecisive man, incapable of resolving the crises facing our nation.” Meanwhile, Pierce and his lower south backers were accused of “fomenting rebellion and secession in the Southern states”. Of course, the Panic of 1857 greatly helped Fremont against Pierce and Houston. Houston was despised as the instigator of the recession, while Pierce was tarred as a crony of Houston’s who would fail to resolve the issues. In fact, it was the strategy of the Freedomite campaign to paint their opponents as indecisive and weak, while portraying Fremont as a decisive man of action, capable of leading the nation.

The Freedom Party’s strategy worked, and on November 6th, John Charles Fremont won a resounding victory. Every state north of the Mason-Dixon Line voted for Fremont, with only two plurality victories – Indiana and New Jersey. Houston had hedged his bets on carrying New York and New Jersey, neither of which went for him. In fact, Houston came in a narrow second to Fremont in New Jersey (39.5% to 37.9%, with the rest going to Franklin Pierce), and a distant second in New York (54.6%-46.3%, the rest going to Pierce). Illinois, seen as a key state by the Freedom Party leadership, went for Fremont with 46.3%, with Franklin Pierce coming in second with 43.1% and Houston winning the remainder. The Freedom Party were greatly aided in their large margin of victory by record-high voter turnout (82% of eligible voters did so). In fact, Fremont won 54% of all the votes in the north, with the rest divided between Pierce and Houston.

The south was another battleground, even more hotly contested than the north. The lower south, as predicted, went for Franklin Pierce by a wide margin – he netted over 57% of the votes in the region. However, it was the upper south that was the true contest. Many states that permitted slavery but opposed secession, such as Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, the Texases, and North Carolina voted for Houston (North Carolina very narrowly, 51-49). Tennessee resulted in a great blow to Pierce’s campaign, as in spite of Andrew Johnson’s vigorous campaigning, Sam Houston took the state narrowly, as well as Arkansas. Though Pierce did not expect to win – he was too unpopular in the north – he was crushingly disappointed by his failure to carry the upper south, though he had the consolation of winning the 15 electoral votes of Virginia.

The south, especially the lower south, was aghast at Fremont’s victory. Not only did the upstart Freedom Party capture the White House, but they also expanded their majority in the House, winning 109 seats, and narrowly captured the Senate with 33 seats. The shock soon gave way to panic, as the south worried that if Fremont won without southern support, what else could he do with solely northern support? South Carolina didn’t wait to find out and the state legislature passed a resolution on the 9th entitled “A Resolution to Call the Election of John C. Fremont a Hostile Act” and stated the intention of the state to secede from the Union. Preston Brooks was a major supporter of secession and left Washington to rally popular support for outright secession (South Carolina had merely declared her intention to do so). In a speech in front of City Hall in Charleston, Brooks declared “our economy, our survival, our entire way of life, is under threat from the Black Abolitionists who have seized power in Washington. It is abundantly clear that sitting idly by is not an option, for the Negro shall, once he is seized from his master, rape, and pillage throughout the land. They shall despoil the countryside and brutalize our women. This corrupt Union is no protector of our sacred rights. When Fremont’s tyranny looms, we must fight to preserve our rights, and the rights of our states. Some have said: “We must negotiate! Surely a compromise can be found, a settlement reached!” And to that I say: We live not in a time where compromise can be found. It is either abolition or secession. We cannot have the former, so we must fight for the latter! Secession is the only option. Some have asked me, “Congressman, would you lay your life down to separate the bonds between the states?” and I answer: We have before us two options: death, or disunion. And I do not know about you, but I would rather destroy the Union than die!” Brook’s speech [8] succeeded in getting support for secession, and soon crowds of South Carolinians crowded the state capitol chanting their new slogan, “Disunion or Death!”

South Carolina voted to officially secede from the Union on December 10th, 1856. In their resolution, they declared “the Union that had previously existed between South Carolina and the other states currently members of the ‘United States of America’ is hereby dissolved, our bonds severed.” In January 1857, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana all seceded from the Union, and state militias raided armories, seized forts, and expelled Federal forces.

President Houston reacted swiftly to the secession crisis. Firstly, he strengthened the garrisons in Norfolk to safeguard the United States Navy’s largest base. Secondly, secessionist agitators in Brazos, Austin, and Maryland were all arrested and imprisoned in February, even as Federal military property was seized throughout the south, including in states like Arkansas that had not yet seceded. John Charles Fremont was inaugurated on March 4th, 1857 and was immediately faced with a threat to the Union itself. This is where our story comes to an end, for the Civil War is an entirely new subject matter. Six states had severed their ties to the Union, and all the tinderbox of the South needed to explode was a single spark. And that spark that would ignite war between the United States and the Confederate States would come at Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay.”

[1] TTL’s term for the two states created out of former Texas – Brazos and Austin.
[2] All I will say is this: Andrew Johnson.
[3] Just like OTL.
[5] This editorial conveniently ignores the refusal of the Freedom Party to treat with the south and allow popular sovereignty in exchange for a transcontinental railroad.
[6] Sumner is ignoring the massacres and raids perpetrated by John Brown, but then again, the Freedom Party views him as a hero of liberty.
[8] OTL, the Fusionist alliance was severely hampered by the Henri, Duke of Chambord’s refusal to agree to a tricolor flag. TTL, he gives in and the alliance is cemented.
[9] The emulation of Patrick Henry in Brooks’ “City Hall Address” plays into an overarching theme of the Confederates: portraying their fight as one against tyranny, much like the Thirteen Colonies fought against British tyranny.

Next Time on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: An Interlude While I Write the Civil War
END OF ACT ONE​

 

[TheHedgehog]

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
- W.B. Yates, The Second Coming
-------
"Washington made the Union, and Fremont saved the Union."
- Senator Carl Schurz
-------
"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."
- General William T. Sherman
-------
"Today marks one hundred years since a war began that threatened to tear our great Union asunder. I am, of course, speaking of the American Civil War. In just three and a half short years, the Union was broken and repaired, the slaves were emancipated, and the United States was forever changed. This course will cover the events of the Civil War, from the first shots at Fort Morgan to Johnston's surrender at Raleigh, from Nathaniel Banks to Richard Taylor, from the disaster on the James to the triumph at Seven Pines, and all of the political upheaval that resulted. I hope to explain just how significant this war is to the United States, in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. I'm Professor Henry Thomas Jr., and this is my Master Class."
-------​

 

[TheHedgehog]

For Union and For Liberty

From “The Presidency of John C. Fremont” by Albert White
Published 1988

“President Fremont traveled all the way to Washington D.C, addressing crowds at Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, New York, and Philadelphia, as well as the state legislatures of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania along the way. During his journey to his inauguration, Fremont was subject to no less than five separate assassination attempts, and arrived disguised as a railroad worker in Washington D.C. His inaugural address was largely directed at the six states then in secession and outlined what he believed the causes of “this present rift” to be. “There lies much apprehension among the people of the Southern States that this Freedomite Administration shall pose a threat to their peace, property, and personal security. There is no reasonable cause for such apprehension. The simple purpose of my administration where the matter of slavery is concerned is that it should be permitted to remain where it is currently practiced and arrested where it attempts to expand.”

Fremont then promised that, “the wayward and rebellious states of the South shall be restored to the Union, and the laws of the Union shall be practiced there once more. I have sworn an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and I shall follow said oath even if the use of force becomes necessary.” Fremont’s speech arguably inflamed tensions with the south, as he appeared to threaten the use of the army to crush the south. Indeed, when many of the states of the upper south seceded, they cited Fremont’s speech as “the cause for our separation, for this Tyranny of the Union cannot endure.”

From "The Administration of John C. Fremont", Electropedia.com
Uploaded 2002
------------------------------------
President: John C. Fremont
------------------------------------
Vice President: Abraham Lincoln
Secretary of State: William Seward
Secretary of the Treasury: William P. Fessenden
Secretary of War: Edwin Stanton
Attorney General: William L. Dayton
Postmaster-General: Andrew Jackson Hamilton
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
Secretary of the Interior: Robert F. Stockton
------------------------------------
From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert

Published 1973

“Immediately upon his inauguration, President Fremont informed Governor of Alabama Moore [1] that he would be sending a ship to resupply the fortifications on Ship Island. In January, the Star of the West had been sent by President Houston to resupply the fort but had been turned away by shore bombardment. Fremont’s message read: “an attempt will be made to supply Fort Morgan with provisions only, and should that attempt be permitted to succeed, no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice, [excepting] the case of an attack on Fort Morgan [2]”. It is important to note that Fremont directed this missive to Governor of the state, rather than President Quitman of the Confederacy. This was because Fremont refused to acknowledge the Confederate government as legitimate and viewed Alabama as merely in a “state of rebellion that should be resolved as quickly as possible”. Pettus consulted with the Confederate commander of the shore batteries, General P. Gustav Beauregard, who was shortly thereafter ordered by the Confederate cabinet to demand the surrender of Fort Morgan, and if this was refused, to bombard the fort and force its surrender. Gordon dispatched his aides Joseph Wells and Zachary Stone [3] to request the surrender of the fort, but the commander there, Major Robert Anderson, refused. Anderson refused further demands to evacuate the fort, and anxiously awaited the arrival of the relief flotilla. However, at 2am on April 14th, Anderson received a message from the Confederates, reading “On the order of Brigadier General John B. Gordon, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States of America, we have the honor to inform you that he will commence the firing of his batteries on Fort Morgan in one hour’s time.” Anderson shook hands with Wells and Stone before sending them back to shore with his refusal. One hour later, at 3am on April 14th, a single ten-inch mortar round exploded over the ramparts of Fort Morgan. This was the signal the thirty-seven other guns present were waiting for, and soon the sky was alight with muzzle flashes and explosions. In order to preserve ammunition (which Beauregard predicted would last only 36 hours), the guns fired three minutes apart. Several prominent secessionists, including Preston Brooks, were present to witness the beginning of the war. Brooks was even allowed to fire off a 64-pound cannon that Brooks later claimed “killed fifty of their men.” Fort Morgan began to return fire at 5am, but the relief fleet failed to materialize, as it had been dispatched instead to relieve Fort Sumter [4]. Major Anderson held out still, until the Confederate army began firing hot shot at the wooden barrack structures and several large fires broke out [5]. Unable to contain the fires, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Morgan to the Confederate army at 3pm. Fort Morgan had fallen, and the Civil War had begun.”

From “The Slave Republic: The Confederate Experiment” by Joseph Teller
Published 2017

“The first six states to secede from the Union, all in the period between the election of 1856 and Fremont’s inauguration in March, dispatched delegates to a convention in Montgomery to determine how best to form a united front. The February Montgomery Convention was responsible with drafting a provisional constitution for the new nation, as well as forming a provisional government and creating the Congress of the Confederate States of America.

The Confederate Constitution sought to undo any articles and rules that infringed upon states’ rights. This was reflected in the preamble to the Constitution, which modified the preamble of the United States to read “We the people of the Confederate States, each state acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America. [6]” In most respects, the Confederate Constitution was an excellent facsimile of the United States Constitution, with several major differences. Article I Section 2(5) was amended to permit the impeachment of federal officials by state legislatures, if those federal officials resided in that state. Article I Section 4(1) permits state legislatures to make their own election guidelines except for where the Constitution has established other guidelines. In order to prevent the protection of industry, the Constitution prohibited the imposition of tariffs “to promote or foster any branch of industry…”

Then, of course, we must consider the impact of the impetus for secession on the drafting of the Confederate Constitution – slavery. It was particularly important to the framers of the constitution that slavery be granted special protections to prevent abolition. Though international slave trade (except with the United States) remained illegal (Article I Section 9(1) [7]. The C.S. Congress did, however, have the authority to bar the importation of slaves from the United States (Article I Section 9(2)). There was also the obvious, Article I Section 9(4) which decreed: “No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves shall be passed.” Further, slaveowners were allowed to travel wherever in the Confederacy with their “slaves and other property, and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired (Article IV Section 2(1))”. Article IV Section 3(3) established slavery as legal in all territories annexed by the Confederacy, preventing any attempts at abolition there, either.

The other major concern of the framers of the Confederate Constitution was the protection of states’ rights. There is the aforementioned provision allowing for state legislatures to impeach Federal officials, as well as provisions permitting the states to issue bills of credit, tax ships and make treaties regarding riverine trade. However, states lost the right to determine if foreigners could vote in elections and restrict the rights of traveling slave owners.

…

With the constitution squared away and ratified, the Provisional Congress selected the Provisional President. Four candidates were proposed to head the Confederate government: Robert Toombs of Georgia, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, John A. Quitman of Mississippi, and Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Toombs was unpopular with the delegates due to his unpleasant personality, while Jefferson Davis did not particularly want the job and repeatedly asked of the Montgomery Convention, “do not consider my name for this task, for I fear I lack the conviction and the strength to see our great experiment succeed and thrive.” This left Stephens and Quitman. John A. Quitman was one of the most prominent Fire-Eaters, who had been one of the first to advocate secession, and who had been arrested for sponsoring filibusters in 1851, and was thus selected by the Convention. After his selection as the Provisional Confederate President, Quitman addressed the delegates of the Convention and told them: “Our foundations are laid, our cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Quitman, though one of the more radical secessionists, wished to balance Fire-Eaters and more moderate Southerners. His cabinet reflected these goals, consisting of Howell Cobb as Vice-President, Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War, Alexander Stephens as Attorney General, and Robert Toombs as Secretary of State. Quitman had two main goals in terms of leading the Confederacy: to preserve slavery, and to secure foreign recognition. Convinced by Louisiana Senator Judah P. Benjamin [8], Quitman sought to secure the recognition of European powers, especially Great Britain. It was the belief of Senator Benjamin and President Quitman that some sort of decisive victory over the Union should be won in order to convince the British that the Confederacy could stand on its own. In fact, there was a great debate in Britain’s parliament over whether to intervene to ensure the import of cotton from the American south. However, the first major battle of the war would not be a decisive victory for either side, for the Civil War would not be a quick, ninety-day operation but a long struggle.”

From “The Civil War” by Jordan Gustafsson
Published 2018

“The bombardment and capture of Fort Morgan was a great victory for the secessionists, and forced President Fremont to take action. The Confederate States of America had killed American soldiers, and this, combined with prior seizures of Federal property and the creation of a 100,000-man army, prompted Fremont to call for an army of 110,000 volunteers to fight the secessionists. This move angered many states of the upper south and prompted many states to hold secession conventions.

Virginia’s Secession Convention was called in response to both Fremont’s call for a volunteer army, as well as anger over the increased Federal army presence in Norfolk, where the US Atlantic Fleet maintained a large and important presence and shipyard. The Convention was initially divided, with three major factions emerging. There were the Fire-Eaters, led by Governor Henry Wise, and the Unionists, led by John S. Carlile. The stances of these factions were obvious – the Fire-Eaters wished to join the Confederacy, and the Unionists wished to remain loyal. However, there was a third faction that ultimately decided the fate of Virginia. The Conditional Unionists were in favor of remaining loyal only of certain demands were met, and otherwise they advocated secession. Initially, they argued that the state should wait and see how the Federal government acted, but then Fremont ordered the garrisons in Norfolk reinforced yet again, and the Conditional Unionists reacted with fury. One of their delegates addressed the Convention and said, “the Union has proven that they will use military force rather than the fair bargain to enforce their will. Virginia must fight, lest we be put under the yolk of Martial Law.” With the support of the Conditionals, the convention of Virginia voted by a margin of almost two-thirds to secede from the Union. Shortly after, the state voted to ratify the Confederate Constitution, and Governor Henry Wise demanded the Union evacuate the facilities in Norfolk, which remained firmly in Federal hands.

The secession of Virginia spurred Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas to hold conventions, and the three states seceded on May 7th, May 9th, and May 16th, respectively. Four other states held elections for their conventions, the states of Missouri, Brazos, Austin, and Kentucky. Austin, being the westernmost of the two Texases, looked to Brazos for guidance on whether to succeed. And Brazos turned to former President Sam Houston for guidance. Houston did not wish to see his home state leave the Union, and he especially did not want to see both states secede. So, after being elected first as a delegate to the secession convention and then as the President of the Convention, he made every effort to sway the debate in favor of Unionism. “Fellow-citizens, I know the notion of secession is tempting, but such a path will lead to the fury of the Union brought down upon us like a mighty hammer! I disagree with the President on many issues, but I will agree with him on this point: the great Union must be preserved, whatever the cost. And so, I urge you to tread the path of loyalty.”

Houston’s speech, while it did not on its own sway the convention, went a long way to convincing the delegates to make the final vote, with only ten delegates voting to secede and the overwhelming majority opting to instead remain a Union state. Austin followed in the footsteps of Brazos, voting as well to remain in the Union. In fact, Unionist sentiments were shared by many southerners, mainly in the mountains. Shortly after the secession of Tennessee and North Carolina, a convention was held by western North Carolinians and eastern Tennesseans to form a pro-Unionist state government, named Franklin after the failed state in the 1790s. Further, pro-Unionist Virginians established a new state government in Wheeling, in the Appalachian region of the state. This government soon elected Senators and Representatives to Washington and declared John Carlile the legitimate governor of Virginia [9].

Missouri’s second secession convention [10] was looked upon with much anxiety by the Federal government, as John C. Fremont recognized its secession as a serious threat to Union supremacy along the Mississippi River, a vital trade artery. Initially, it seemed as though Fremont would have nothing to worry about, as Missouri voted to remain in the Union, though they refused to provide men or supplies to either side. However, Governor Trusten Polk and his allies in the militia, Sterling Price and Claiborne Jackson, had planned a coup to overthrow the Unionist legislature and have Missouri join the Confederacy. Polk ordered out the state militia, which seized the US arsenal at Liberty, and attempted to seize the larger arsenal in St. Louis itself. Polk also appointed secessionist officers to the militia and obtained Confederate artillery pieces. However, the US Army was not expecting the Missouri state militia, commanded by Sterling Price, to advance upon the St. Louis Arsenal on the morning of May 27th. Though the militiamen failed to break into the arsenal, it was placed under siege and General-in-Chief Winfield Scott dispatched Nathaniel Lyon to secure the Arsenal and ensure its safe transport across the river to Illinois.

As the militia attempted to storm the Arsenal, which continued to hold, Lyon and 6,000 Unionist volunteers advanced upon the 700-odd militiamen and forced their surrender. However, as Lyon’s army conducted patrols to ensure the security of St. Louis, pro-Confederate citizens surrounded and assaulted individual patrols. After a gunshot went off, Union troops fired into crowds throughout the city, sparking several days of secessionist rioting. However, the violence was quickly quelled, and President Fremont ordered martial law imposed throughout Missouri. The Missouri General Assembly passed the Military Bill, reorganizing the militia into the Missouri State Guard and giving control of the State Guard to Governor Polk. Suspicious, Lyon met with Polk and Price at Planter’s House Hotel. The meeting was held to discuss how to govern the state but broke down over fundamental disagreements regarding states rights and the role of the US army in Missouri politics. Polk and Price demanded Federal control be limited to St. Louis, while Lyon was adamant that Fremont’s martial law order be extended to the entire state to contain Confederate rebels. Lyon then informed Polk that if he continued his resistance to Federal authority, “this means war.” Lyon thus began his pursuit of Polk as he and the State Guard fled south to Neosho, where the exiled secessionist government was recognized by the Confederacy.

With the decapitation of executive authority in Missouri, a constitutional convention was convened in Jefferson City that declared the Chief Justice of the state supreme court, Hamilton R. Gamble, the new governor of Unionist Missouri. However, the Confederate government received a great boost when President Fremont expanded his imposition of martial law on August 26th, announcing that the property of planters who supported secession would be seized, and their slaves set free. Fremont had been cautioned by Vice-President Lincoln that doing so would, “drive those fence-sitters in Kentucky towards the Confederacy and deliver the Ohio River straight into the hands of the rebels.” [11]. Nevertheless, Fremont issued his edict, which stated “all civilians in the State of Missouri found to have partaken in activities of rebellious nature face the penalties of court-martial, and the properties owned by those who aid secessionists shall be confiscated for the use of the United States of America, and all persons held in bondage by said individuals shall be emancipated immediately.” The move prompted a spike in rebellious acts, including cutting rail-lines and telegraph wires, and raiding Union military posts.

Kentucky, meanwhile, began to destabilize after Fremont’s edict. Though special elections held at the outbreak of Civil War had granted Unionist majorities in both houses of the State Legislature, as well as Unionist victories in eight of the ten Congressional districts. Still, however, the state steadfastly insisted that neither side violate its neutrality, though this did not stop General-in-Chief Taylor nor Braxton Bragg from placing their forces to be ready to strike should the need arise. Taylor established Camp Clay on the other side of the Ohio from Newport, and Camp Joe Holt opposite Louisville. Bragg ordered the construction of Forts Henry and Donelson at the Tennessee border and placed troops less than 50 yards from Cumberland Gap.

Internally, the legislature was often at loggerheads with Governor Morehead, who was sympathetic to the south yet insisted on neutrality. A commission of five men to control the state’s defenses and militia in the stead of the Governor was created by the agreement of Crittenden, Dixon, Breckinridge, Magoffin [12] Clay [13], and Hawes. This did not solve the division within the Kentuckian armed forces, as not only did volunteers leave the state to form what would ultimately become 45 Union regiments and 25 Confederate regiments, but the State Guard, led by Simon Bolivar Buckner, favored the Confederacy and the Domestic Militia was mostly Unionist in composition. Finally, in September 1857, things came to a head when President Fremont, worried that Kentucky would join the Confederacy, ordered Ulysses Grant, a subordinate of Lyon’s [14], to secure Columbus, a key point because of both its position on the Mississippi River and its function as the northernmost spur on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, while a smaller force captured the vital Cumberland Gap in the east. Angered by this (successful, as Columbus fell into Union hands) violation of their neutrality, Kentucky’s state legislature agreed to the demands of the Governor and held elections for a convention on secession. The elections returned a pro-secession majority, and Kentucky voted to secede on the first day the convention was in session. Fremont saw the Ohio River as vital for Union commerce and ordered General Grant to secure the southern bank. Thus, Grant and 23,000 men landed on either side of Louisville, Kentucky, on October 4th, 1857, and laid siege to the city. Caught by surprise, the city was undefended and soon surrendered. To the west, Union troops seized Cairo, Paducah, and Owensboro, while to the east, Maysville was captured. However, Confederate General Leonidas Polk launched his own invasion and soon overran the southern portion of the state, penetrating as far north as Danville. The war in the west had begun.”

[1] OTL, Moore was elected in 1857, TTL he is elected in 1855 after the preceding Governor, John Winston, dies of a heart attack.
[2] Basically verbatim from the OTL message Lincoln sent to the Governor of South Carolina.
[3] The aides Beauregard sent OTL were all from South Carolina, so I just made up two names.
[4] Curiously, Fort Sumter will be one of the few forts not to fall into Confederate hands during the war.
[5] OTL, the Confederates fired hot shot at Fort Sumter, but a rainstorm put out any fires that had begun.
[6] The OTL Confederate Preamble.
[7] “The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country, other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.” – OTL Constitution.
[8] OTL, Benjamin was first Attorney General, then Secretary of War, then Secretary of State. TTL, since secession occurs four years earlier, he is still a relatively new Senator from Louisiana, and remains in the Confederate Congress. It doesn’t stop him from having influence over the new President, however.
[9] TTL, the western regions of Virginia see themselves as more a “Government-in-Exile”
[10] OTL, Missouri held a session of their two-year long Constitutional Convention in February 1861 and decided against secession, then held another one after Fort Sumter. TTL, there is no Constitutional Convention, merely several separate secession conventions.
[11] Some things just never change.
[12] OTL Governor in 1861, TTL a member of the state legislature in 1857.
[13] Cassius Marcellus Clay, OTL namesake of Muhammad Ali’s father, and abolitionist former planter from Kentucky.
[14] In the OTL Civil War, Lyon refused to give Grant a commission. TTL, with a worse Confederate presence in Missouri, he gives him one.

Next Up on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: First Blood and First Blunder

Spoiler: Author's Note

As this timeline enters into the Civil War, do not hesistate to point out or question anything that isnt accurate or doesnt make sense.

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

A Hundred Circling Camps

From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert
Published 1973

“The first engagement of the Civil War was a vital wake-up call to north and south alike. The Battle of Manassas Junction [1] was the culmination of the Union’s attempt to seize Richmond and end Virginian secession. Though the Union army was still very much a green force, untrained and poorly disciplined, their ninety-day recruitment was running out, northern politicians were agitating for some sort of victory, and President Fremont was anxious to score a few victories before the army went home and new troops had to be trained. So, he pressured General Benjamin McCulloch [2], the commander of the nascent Union Army of 35,000, into launching an assault into northern Virginia. What has thus been retroactively named the Army of Northern Virginia thus began its brief existence with McCulloch’s advance across the Potomac.

The Confederates, meanwhile, were in a similar boat. President Quitman was eager to cement the unity of the Confederate States, as the fledgling nation was still essentially a loose coalition of rebellious state governments. Quitman hoped that a quick, decisive, early victory, perhaps followed by a glorious march into Maryland and the capture of Washington D.C. would not only foster a sense of unity among the states and win over any on-the fence southerners, but would also hopefully humiliate the Union into entering into negotiations for Confederate independence. To do this, Quitman ordered General P. Gustav Beauregard [3] to take a recently formed army of 33,000 men, though it was still quite green.

Jingoism was rampant on both sides, with overeager Union recruits writing in their journals such things as “today, we’ll give those rebs a right beating and we’ll be in Richmond by the end of the week, Charleston by the end of the month!” and “today, glory will be won and the Union will be restored. I am sure of that.” Confederates, meanwhile, expressed the opposite opinion. Private Daniel Jones of the 3rd Alabama Infantry wrote, “It is well that we fight early, so I may be home by Christmas bearing the joyous news that we drove those Yanks back to D.C. and Pennsylvania.” Meanwhile, Northern and Southern civilians both followed the armies to hopefully gain a glimpse of the glorious battle that was to play out beneath the hilltops they selected for their picnic spots. As one northern gentleman wrote in an editorial following the battle, “I had every confidence that the Union boys would drive off the rebels and score a victory like Napoleon’s blows at Austerlitz. I was much astonished by the bloodbath that unfolded before my eyes. Though the Union boys held in the end, I am sure that the whole of the continent will be bathed in American blood.” A Virginian planter who viewed Manassas Junction wrote “We all went to have a picnic and share in the glory of our great Confederate Army as they drove the Union back across the Potomac and then seized Washington D.C. from the corrupt Black Freedomites. We were much surprised at our retreat.”

Both McCulloch and Beauregard were more wary, as they knew the weaknesses of their respective armies. Both had to contend with volunteer armies of disorganized state militias, full of bellicose, yet inexperienced men. Nevertheless, McCulloch set out to occupy the north of Virginia, and Beauregard set out to defend the rail junctions of Manassas. Meanwhile, Joe Johnston campaigned in the Shenandoah Valley to prevent Irvin McDowell from capturing the vital agricultural region. The events of the Manassas Campaign were thus set in motion.”

From “The Civil War” by Daniel Davis
Published 2001

“Before the conclusion of the Manassas Campaign, numerous battles, mostly on a smaller scale, were fought between the Confederates and the Union as the two factions got their sea legs, so to speak, on the battlefield. The first of these was a brief battle at Hoke’s Run, where Irvin McDowell and his small force of 8,000 squared off against the 4,000-strong brigade commanded at that time by Thomas Jackson [4], a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Acting on the orders of his superior, Jackson resisted the Union force as part of a delaying tactic. Despite withdrawing, Jackson’s horse was shot and threw him. Thomas Jackson was thus trampled into the ground by his horse and died the following day of complications from a crushed ribcage.”

Review of “Men of Dixie, by Reginald T. James”, as reviewed by Howard Holt
New-York Tribune, 2001

“Men of Dixie is without a doubt one of the improbable counterfactual novels I have read, and I have read many terrible ones. I have no issues with a Confederate victory at Manassas – if the VMI Brigade had arrived earlier and had been more organized in defense, the Confederates could probably have forced a Union withdrawal. However, I question the author’s portrayal of Thomas Jackson, or, as he is known in the novel, “The Rock of Manassas”. James makes General Jackson out to be some sort of god amongst men. Somehow, Jackson’s survival and command of the VMI Brigade magically transforms Joe Johnston’s cautious counterattack into a vicious assault that sends McCulloch and his men fleeing north with their tails between their legs.

There are several major improbabilities about the course of the battle and its aftermath. First, northing about Manassas Junction is altered until the sudden, triumphant, heroic arrival of Jackson and his brigade. This means that the forces of P. Gustav Beauregard would still be exhausted and weakened from the admittedly poorly organized, yet nearly successful Union flanking attempt that morning. I see no reason why the sudden arrival of Jackson and the VMI Brigade would reinvigorate the Confederates. It seems to me like a magic trick! Nearly every source I have read states in no uncertain terms that neither Union nor Confederate could pursue offensive operations following the battle. Even if Jackson had survived and led his brigade into battle, the Confederate attack would still be bloodily repulsed, though maybe lest bloody for the Confederates, and the Union would counter-counterattack and force Beauregard to withdraw south. There is not a lot of room to change history this late in the battle. If James wanted to write a Confederate victory, he should have started with the Union flanking attempt failing even worse and being repulsed with heavier Union losses and lighter Confederate losses.

The insanity spreads after the miraculous Confederate victory and Union rout. Despite the fact that a Confederate army, even if they held the field of battle and forced the Union into a panicked and disorganized rout, fleeing on a road choked with civilians who came to watch the battle, would also be exhausted and burnt out. Nevertheless, James has Beauregard and the Confederate army press onward the next day, after a meagre 24 hours of rest – there isn’t time even to resupply on badly needed weapons and provisions. Then, James has the Confederacy launch into what is essentially Lee’s Potomac Campaign on steroids. The Confederates somehow, possibly by borrowing Mercury’s wings and shoes, catches up to the fleeing Union army at Arlington and, in a development that is somehow more ludicrous than everything else, encircles and destroys an entire Union Army. This is accomplished thanks to the “genius” of Thomas Jackson. While he might have possessed an insane intuition of the battlefield, being a professor at the VMI, there is no evidence to suggest this, though admittedly there is no evidence that he was particularly incompetent during his brief time commanding the VMI Brigade. Yet, James seems to make General Joshua Chamberlain, who came from a similarly collegial background as General Jackson, into a Confederate God, who is ten times as capable as General Chamberlain was. While there is no denial that Chamberlain was an excellent commander, I do not understand why Jackson is so cartoonishly heroic.

The novel concludes with the fall of Washington D.C., the capture of the President, and the secession of Maryland. Though it is not included in the book, its main character, none other than Thomas Jackson himself, predicts that Fremont shall allow the southern secession to proceed unmolested from, “Yankee tyranny”. The characterization of Jackson as a perfectly virtuous man, godly and a kind master to his slaves, is contrary to the records I have read that paint Jackson as, yes, devout, but also neither cruel nor particularly generous towards his slaves. The Union Generals are portrayed in a flat manner as well, with everyone to a man depicted as cowardly and scheming. McCulloch is the best example, being painted as a traitor for forsaking the South to remain with his state and a coward for fleeing the battlefield. I can only conclude that not only is the tale a Confederate fever-dream, but it paints the two sides in an absurd black-and-white dichotomy that simply does not match up with the beliefs and values of the north and south, nor does it match up with basic human nature. No one is as perfect as Thomas Jackson, north or south. No one is as incompetent as the fictional McCulloch, north or south. 3/10.”

From “The Eastern War” by Jonas Walker
Published 2023

“Manassas Junction was, despite its inconclusive results, a major event with far-reaching effects. Though the Union had forced the Confederates from the field, it had come at a steep price. McCulloch’s flanking attempt, though a well-planned endeavor, failed due to the poor training of his men, and the Confederates were able to drive off the Union, and caused heavy casualties.

The Confederate attack in the afternoon fared little better than McCulloch’s morning flanking assault, and in fact the Union counterattack was devastating. The Confederates, who had become overextended in their afternoon advance, were caught in a bad position and forced back. Faced with a bloodbath on his hands, Beauregard ordered a retreat, which was mostly well-organized, and the Confederates withdrew from Manassas with minimal further losses [5]. However, despite the retreat, the Confederates took pride in the casualties they dealt the Union. Back in Washington, the President shared the view of his opponents, writing, "I am saddened by the failure at Manassas Junction. The rebels have escaped destruction, while McCulloch's men are bloodied and in need of many weeks of recuperation. Though we have Manassas, the overland route to Richmond is closed to us." Fremont relieved McCulloch of his command in the aftermath of his failure to decisively defeat the Confederates [6] and entrusted a political ally of his, Nathaniel Banks, with the task of capturing Richmond.”

From “A History of the US Navy” by Alfred Gallagher
Published 1957

“The Confederate economy was heavily dependent upon the export of cash crops, namely cotton. The bulk of these agricultural goods were sold to the booming textile mills of Great Britain, where they were turned into cloth and clothes. General-in-Chief Winfield Scott saw this singular industry of the Confederacy, the industry of cotton cultivation and export, as the chief weakness. To exploit this weakness and, in so doing, choke off the Confederacy’s single largest revenue stream, Scott proposed a massive naval blockade of Confederate ports to prevent the export of cotton and the import of arms.

President Fremont and his Secretary of State, William Seward, and Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, were all supportive of Scott’s proposed blockade and the United States Navy was mustered from Norfolk and ordered to patrol the southern coasts. However, it became apparent that in its current state the Union navy would be unable to achieve the goal of the Anaconda Plan. In 1857, the USN had just 43 ships in active service, and 47 were in the reserves. Most were sailing ships, unsuited to catching steam-powered blockade runners, and some were stuck in the Great Lakes. Further, the navy lacked a strong riverine force, and such a force was necessary to cut off Confederate trade and troop movements along the many large rivers of the South, but especially the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers. There was also the question of Cuba. The island’s territorial legislature, guided by Governor William L. Yancey, had voted to join the Confederacy as Havana Territory, and could potentially impede Union attempts to choke off Confederate commerce. Scott correctly pointed out to Fremont that, “Cuba forces us to choose one of two options: take the island via a naval assault or include it in the blockade. Both require more ships than we have currently.” Fremont believed a military expedition to Cuba would be “unwise until we have established control over a port nearer to the island.” In the meantime, it was agreed to blockade Cuba and try and establish a Unionist government.

Thus, a program of rapid naval expansion was implemented, with Congress easily passing an appropriations bill allocating enough funds to build three riverine ironback navies and a massive expansion of the Atlantic Fleet [7].”

From “How the West Was Won” by Dick Hertz
Published 1966

“Fort Henry and Fort Donelson were two key fortifications that guarded the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River, which could open much of the South to Union invasion. Ulysses Grant, as the commander of the army that had taken Columbus, was tasked with ensuring the reduction and capture of the emplacements. Grant held a numerical advantage, with 24,000 men, while his opposite, Simon Bolivar Buckner, had at his disposal 16,000. However, as a preliminary to taking Fort Donelson, Grant had to reduce Fort Henry.

On January 29th, Grant landed two divisions of the Army of the Tennessee just north of Fort Henry, while a fleet of riverine ironbacks under Andrew Foote steamed towards the Fort. Grant’s master plan was to assault the Fort while it was simultaneously bombarded by the gunboats. The weather worked in Grant’s favor – only nine guns in the fort were operable due to heavy flooding from the rains. The morning after the floods, Foote arrived with the riverine navy, which consisted of four ironbacks and three timberbacks, and formed a line of fire. The flooding had reduced the elevation of Fort Henry’s guns, rendering them all but useless against the fire from the gunboats. After an hour and a half of withering bombardment, the commander of the fort, Lloyd Tilghman, surrendered to Foote and Grant. The route to Fort Donelson was thus opened.

Initially, Grant tried to capture the Fort by riverine bombardment, but heavy fire from Fort Donelson forced Admiral Foote to withdraw after suffering heavy damage. The Confederates were still worried about defeat and held a council of war to decide if they should try to break out. They ultimately decided to try and force their way out, but the vigilance of Grant prevented the attack from succeeding, and Gideon Pillow’s division was devastated by the Union defense. With the Confederates weakened, Grant ordered Lew Wallace and C.F. Smith to attack, which they did by successfully storming the Confederate trench system that ringed the fort. Grant remarked to an aide, “This is going splendidly. Soon, we’ll bag the lot.”

Grant would soon be proven right. The next morning, the Confederates tried a second time to break out, and during the battle Gideon Pillow and John B. Floyd tried to take 2,000 men and flee south but were soon caught by General McClernand and captured. Back at the fort, Nathan B. Forrest nearly succeeded at flanking C.F. Smith in conjunction with an infantry division. This was thwarted by the arrival of Lew Wallace with three attack divisions, and the Confederate infantry were driven off with heavy losses. Seeing the carnage outside, Pillow and Floyd readied 1,000 men and tried to fight their way past the Federal lines, but both Pillow and Floyd were captured along with their men. Faced with the cowardice of his fellow Generals and the failure of his men, Simon Bolivar Buckner raised the white flag and asked Grant for terms. Grant replied, “Sir: Yours of this date proposing Armistice, and appointment of Commissioners, to settle terms of Capitulation is just received. No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” Buckner had no choice but to accept and surrendered unconditionally to the Union army on February 3rd. The press quickly dubbed Grant “Unconditional Ulysses”, and he became a national hero and got a promotion and expanded command.

Simultaneous to the capture of the Forts Donelson and Henry, Union gunboats advanced upon Island Number 10 in the Mississippi River. Island No. 10 lay in the Kentucky Bend, between New Madrid, Missouri, and Lake County, Tennessee. The island, should it remain in Confederate hands, would impede riverine traffic and Union fleet movements because ships, as they passed down the Bend, had to slow down to turn, which rendered them vulnerable to raking fire from shore batteries. The fortifications on the island would make it difficult for ships to make the turns and could block any further Union offensives in the West. However, Island No. 10 had one critical weakness – it received all its supplies and reinforcements along a single road that connected it to shore. With the fall of Columbus in October 1857, the Confederate hold on Island No. 10 was increasingly tenuous. Thus, the Union General, John Pope, sought to strike swiftly and take the island.

Pope first moved overland to take Point Pleasant, Missouri, which lay almost due west of Island No. Ten, while the town was evacuated by the Confederates, who left behind lots of supplies, including heavy artillery. As gunboats and mortar ships moved downstream and began a three-week withering bombardment of both the Island and surrounding batteries, in a daring move the Union army at New Madrid began digging a canal to circumvent the section of river obstructed by the Island. Within two weeks, the canal was completed and, though warships could not pass, it enabled the movement of troops and supplies into position for the capture of Island No. 10. Though Admiral Foote initially refused to allow gunboats to attempt the run past the island, General Henry Halleck ordered a gunboat to be provided to Pope. The USS Cairo successfully snuck past Island No. 10 on the night of April 2nd, followed the next night by the USS Cincinnati. The two gunboats provided sufficient support to Pope for him to move his army across the Mississippi, which he did two days later. Outnumbered three to one, and cut off from retreat, the Confederates surrendered on April 7th.

With the fall of Island No. 10, the lower Mississippi was opened for further campaigns, and ultimately for the historic meeting of the Union armies at Vicksburg the following year.”

[1] The first engagements of the Civil War are essentially OTL’s civil war but four years earlier and with slightly different commanders.
[2] OTL, the commander at Manassas was Irving McDowell. However, here, another of Scott’s underlings, Benjamin McCulloch, is placed in command. Also, as both Texases are loyal to the Union, he does not go over to the Confederacy.
[3] Known by different initials TTL
[4] This just got a lot easier for the Union
[5] Two things help the Union at Manassas Junction – One, McCulloch is more competent than McDowell, so the Union performs a little better. Two, the death of Stonewall Jackson results in a delayed arrival of the VMI Brigade. Without their sudden arrival and heroic defense, the Confederates launch a failed counterattack which drives morale lower and the Union counter-counterattack forces a Confederate retreat. However, the beginning of the battle is mostly OTL, just four years earlier.
[6] It may seem like Manassas Junction is a Union victory but remember, the Union was hoping for a quick, decisive victory. The heavy Union casualties, and the inability of McCulloch to pursue, are major disappointments, while the Confederates take pride in forcing a stalemate, so overall the battle is viewed as a Union strategic defeat, though a tactical victory.
[7] To sum up: the Atlantic Fleet is being expanded to prevent the emergence of Cuba as a hub for blockade runners. The Union is worried the Confederates will exploit the overextension of the fleet in blockading the coast and Cuba, and will send blockade runners to Cuba, and then ship them in to the mainland, because the Union doesn’t have the resources for a separate blockade of Cuba.

Next Up on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: Banks's Blunders and Lee's Laurels

Spoiler: Author's Note

This was mostly OTL, but the really divergent stuff begins next time...

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

A Hard Road to Travel

From “From the Rock of Petersburg to Burnin’ Sheridan: The Civil War”, narrated by Joe Mason
Released on Home View 1997

“MASON: Nathaniel Banks started out in life as a man of simple means, working in the textile mill as his father had. However, he improved himself through reading at the Atheneum Library and attended lectures given by such prominent men as Daniel Webster, all sponsored by the textile mill he worked at. He made his first forays into politics after joining a debate club at the mill and, finding himself to be a talented orator, began speaking at local prohibitionist meetings. This brought the young Nathaniel Banks to the attention of local Democratic party officials, who had him speak at campaign events. His success prompted Banks to quit the mill and he first worked at two short-lived newspapers before he ran for a seat in the State House and lost. After another failed run in 1847, Banks finally won in 1848 and from there began his upwards climb. He moved on to national politics four years later, winning election to the 5th Congressional District of Massachusetts, though only narrowly and only with support from the Free-Soil Party. Banks entered the House in the midst of the collapse of the Whigs, and soon attached himself to various anti-slavery causes. He used the power vacuum in northern circles to emerge as an influential anti-slavery political force and leveraged this into chairing the 1854 Milwaukee Convention. After the 1854 midterms, he used the connections he had gained to become the new Speaker of the House. From these heights, he threw his weight behind Senator Fremont, if only to prevent his rival, Charles Sumner, from gaining the nomination. After the embarrassment at Manassas Junction and the Confederate advances into Kentucky and Missouri, Fremont searched for victory and decided to reward Banks for his loyalty by granting him a field command. And so, Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was made the commander of the Army of the James River, with the goal of attacking Richmond.

Prof. Emeritus STANLEY SCHULZ [1]: See, the thing about Nathaniel Banks was that he was completely unprepared. He had never commanded a field army before, hell, he hadn’t even served in the army before. He had no understanding of how to lead an army, fight a battle, or keep his supply chain intact and uninterrupted.

Banks planned to use the city of Norfolk as springboards for his invasion. First, he would land 25,000, commanded by General Edwin Sumner, of the hundred thousand men provided to him at Fort Monroe to secure the Virginia Peninsula. The overall plan was simple: The southern wing of 75,000 men would advance north along the southern bank of the James River to Petersburg and capture it, for the city functioned as the junction for four railroads: the Norfolk and Petersburg, Richmond and Petersburg, the Southside Railroad, and the Weldon Railroad. The northern wing, meanwhile, would proceed, “with all due speed” up the southern side (the northern bank of the James River) of the Virginia Peninsula, circumvent Yorktown, take Fort Magruder at Williamsburg, and storm across the Chickahominy River. Once across, General Sumner would capture Harrison’s Landing and secure that portion of the James River for naval operations. By this point, the three subdivisions of the main army group, each commanded by Samuel P. Heintzelman, Erasmus D. Keyes, and Zachary Taylor, would have reduced Petersburg and proceeded north. Heintzelman and Keyes were to reduce Fort Darling at Drewry’s Bluff, then advance to Richmond to link up with Sumner and Taylor and begin the siege.

Banks neglected several key things when formulating this plan. First, he assumed that the strategic city of Petersburg wouldn’t be defended by a sizeable contingent of Confederate troops, or at the very least heavily fortified. Second, he assumed that the points of Fort Magruder at Williamsburg, Harrison’s Landing, and Fort Darling would each be easily captured, despite two of those being forts, one being both an important city and a fort, and the last being a key riverine harbor. Third, he overestimated the capabilities of the US Navy, still primarily a littoral force, in prosecuting riverine warfare, especially against fortifications. Fourth, he either ignored or didn’t know that the Chickahominy, which he expected Sherman to cross with speed, frequently flooded during spring to be more than a mile wide. These oversights are generally pointed to as the fatal flaws in the James River Campaign, that doomed it to disaster before the first Union men even set foot in Norfolk.

Much to the chagrin of his subordinates, Banks paid only cursory attention to the matter of reconnaissance and as such did not bother to investigate where the Confederates, under Joseph Johnston and his subordinate Robert E. Lee, had placed their troops. Further, his Corps Commanders took exception to Banks’ zeal and aggression in his invasion plan. Even the man in charge of logistics, General George McClellan, had some choice words for Banks:

VOICEOVER: “Intelligence is paramount to any half-successful military endeavor. The General [Banks] is going to throw away one hundred thousand fine young men, because of this damn-fool, reckless, incompetent headlong dash to Richmond. He has no concept of moderation; the word caution is an unknown to him – his whole army risks annihilation. – George McClellan”

Prof. HENRY WAINWRIGHT: The Confederates knew that the capture of Richmond was the number-one priority for the Union army. Thus, Johnston planned his defense of Richmond. His initial strategy was to ignore the coastline and focus his efforts entirely on fortifying Richmond, as he knew that the Union navy far outpaced whatever he could muster, and that the Union army was double what he had at his disposal. However, this plan of defense was rejected by Robert E. Lee and President Brooks, who wanted to deploy Johnston’s Army of Virginia on the Virginia peninsula and near the Union pocket at Norfolk. It was this troop placement that was ultimately accepted, though Nathaniel Banks was unaware of this, as he had ignored all intelligence reports after the one informing him of the Confederate plan to concentrate their men in Richmond.

And now, we should discuss the Confederate defensive plans in the lead-up to the James River Campaign. First, a small Confederate detachment led reinforcements under Joe Hooker and Irvin McDowell on a chase through the Shenandoah Valley, preventing their 30,000 men from reaching Banks as reinforcements that were expected to arrive in time for the siege of Richmond to commence.

Now. Fortifications. In many ways, they were the linchpin of the Confederate defense, a system to delay the Union advance. The Confederates tasked John B. Magruder with preparing the defenses. First, he built a trench system consisting of infantry outposts and artillery redoubts that lay 12 miles to the north of Fort Monroe, though it was undermanned and would prove ineffective during Sumner’s landing. However, the first line did accomplish its goal of masking the presence of a secondary line which stretched between Williamsburg and Yorktown which was properly reinforced and defended, though Yorktown was left without a large troop placement as Johnston and Lee correctly believed that the main thrust of the Union offensive would come from the south bank of the James river, rather than along the Virginia peninsula. Magruder also constructed three lines of defense on the south bank, of which all three were well-manned and well-armed. The first began at Pig Point just west of Norfolk and ran along the west bank of the Nansemond River, which itself had chains and obstacles placed in it. The second line ran from Smithfield on the James River south to the Blackwater River, and was lightly manned due to the many swamps along its path that provided natural obstacles for Magruder to concentrate Union forces towards his main emplacements. In other words, or, uh, to be more concise about it, the swamps along the Smithfield Line funneled Union troops north and into Magruder’s best-manned defense posts. The third line of defense was a series of fortifications to south of Petersburg and was the most heavily manned. This line was where the Confederate artillery was concentrated. The Magruder Line can actually still be seen from the Commonwealth Route (CR) 10, if it’s a clear day.

[SS]: The IV Corps was the first to make landfall, on March 4th, 1858. Sumner advanced north-west from Fort Monroe, hugging the north shore of the James River as he made for Williamsburg. He was surprised at the ease with which the 25,000 men under his command overwhelmed the defense lines Magruder established, and reportedly wrote to Banks:

[VOICEOVER]: “Sir, the first line of fortifications has been breached. I must comment upon my surprise at the poorly manned nature of these defenses. We crossed their lines in less than a day and I report to you with pride that we shall be at Williamsburg within the fortnight. – Edwin Sumner”

[SS]: Sumner clearly intended to say that the scant defenses on the Peninsula meant that the three corps on the south shore would run into the bulk of Magruder’s forts, but Banks did not see it that way. He took it as a sign that the Confederates were preparing to flee and that he had to rush north to catch Johnston’s army before it withdrew into North Carolina. He ordered the three corps that had just landed in Norfolk to press north at their earliest possible opening to catch the Confederates from the southern angle.

Of course, there was no Confederate retreat, but Banks had not bothered to make himself aware of that and so the Union advance, undertaken on the new assumption that Virginian defenses were weakened, pressed on.

The II Corps was the first to arrive at the fortifications at Pig Point and the Nansemond River, arriving on March 7th, and General Keyes was forced to contend with the obstacles to his passage around or over the river. His reconnaissance informed him that there were three recently constructed bridges at the point where the river narrowed from its outlet into the James. Though there were heavy trenches and fortifications in the area, Keyes gave the order to storm the bridges because he was unwilling to ford the river. On the northernmost bridge, the first assault was bloodily repulsed, with the Union brigades tasked with taking the bridge losing 89 men. However, on the second attempt the Union army forced through, despite suffering 121 dead. The center bridge held against three separate assaults, but the Union breakthrough on the north bridge allowed thousands of men to cross the river and attack the rear of the guard, which opened the center bridge to the Union army. The southern bridge fell last, when the Confederate commander ordered a general withdrawal north to the Smithfield line.

The Union II and III corps linked up south of Smithfield to continue the advance, and here at the second line of fortifications, they encountered stiffer resistance. John Magruder ordered the troops to evacuate the southernmost posts to avoid overextension. This was because he had received orders to delay the Union and felt that tying them up with besieging the forts he had constructed would be a greater timewaster than fighting a battle. The Confederate troops took up artillery bombardment of the Union lines as Taylor and Keyes plotted their strategy. They concluded they could not afford a frontal assault and instead brought forth their heavy siege cannon and set up siege works to trap the Confederates. Magruder set up tricks to convince the Union armies that his situation was better than it was, including marching a single brigade in circles to give the illusion of a flood of reinforcements. The Union’s situation was compounded by Fremont ordering the I Corps to return north to guard Washington from Confederate assault. Nevertheless, both Keyes and Taylor were confident their 16 siege guns would reduce the Smithfield Line within the month.

It must have been both frustrating and relieving when Magruder withdrew north again on March 27th, leaving Taylor and Keyes to offer pursuit north to the forts guarding Petersburg. It was here that Taylor and Keyes set up siege works once more to reduce Petersburg so they could continue north. It was at this point that they received grave news regarding events on the Peninsula.

[HW]: Let us not forget about the operations on the Peninsula. General Sumner and his 25,000 men advanced north from Fort Monroe and soon encountered the secondary line of defense, which ran from Williamsburg to Yorktown. Banks had ignored the presence of Yorktown and expected Sumner to focus entirely on the James River coast of the Peninsula, though this left his connection to Fort Monroe compromised. Banks thus relied heavily on the US navy for supply, and it is fortunate the Confederates were struggling to field anything larger than a riverine gunboat or Sumner would have been totally screwed.

Williamsburg was, like the engagements at Smithfield, primarily a delaying action. General Sumner approached from the south, along Government Road. His opponent, D.H. Hill, arrived from the north-west, and placed his troops across a broad area. Robert Rhodes [3] commanded the right flank, Jubal Early led the brigades on the left flank, and Henry Greene commanded the center. On the Union side, George Thomas occupied the westernmost flank, Darius Couch took up the center, and Israel Richardson commanded the easternmost wing. The field of battle that D.H. Hill and Sumner clashed on is today neatly bisected by General Thomas’s Way, officially CR-60.

Sumner made the first move, sending his forces forward along Government Road at 8:45 am on March 19th, where they spread out and assumed lines. This prompted D.H. Hill into action, lest he lose the initiative. Hill had about 17,000 men under him, giving him a numerical disadvantage. Nevertheless, he remained confident, for he did not plan to win, per se, but to fight a delaying action [4] to allow the continued reinforcement of Richmond and Petersburg. As both sides advanced towards each other along the roads, they fanned out to take up formations.

[Henry Thomas Jr.] I’m standing here, by General Thomas’s Way, [Auto-carriages and Omnis [5] rush past], and on the historic battlefield of Williamsburg. To be more specific, I’m standing right where General Thomas, before he was appointed to an army command, advanced with his division up along Quarter Road during his attack upon Robert Rhodes’s brigades. Thomas’s goal was to both protect his flank, which was vitally important back when Napoleonic-era tactics were still in use, as well as roll up the Confederate right flank. The battle between Thomas and Rhodes began when Thomas, advancing in a generally straight row, while Rhodes approached towards him. Where I stand right now is where Thomas’s forces halted and formed firing lines, while [gestures] Rhodes’ men stopped to fire about 300 yards over yonder [6]. Rhodes then ordered two of the brigades on his flank to assault Thomas’s positions and hopefully force him into retreating. Unfortunately, the aggressive Rhodes underestimated Thomas’s strength, especially the strength of his flanking brigades, and so the charge petered out. Thomas was, however, able to respond quickly to the assault and ordered a counterattack. This counterattack proved much more successful than Rhodes’ initial assault, and soon the brigades fell back, and Thomas threatened the right flank of Rhodes’ division. Faced with this, the Confederate commander pulled back.

Decisive victory eluded Thomas that day, but it also eluded Darius Couch and Israel Richardson, whose attacks failed. Couch was able to hold against a Confederate counterattack, but Richardson was outmatched by the assaults led by Jubal Early, and he was forced first into pulling back from the front, and then into rotating to prevent being outflanked, further distancing his front from the action. The caution of Couch and Richardson also prevented Thomas from pursuing Rhodes, lest he become overextended and encircled.

When the dust settled, D.H. Hill and his army had escaped north, though Hill himself was wounded and soon to be replaced by one Robert Edward Lee. Williamsburg had fallen to the Union, but the crushing victory Sumner hoped for, to cement Union control of the Peninsula, had slipped away. Of course, he could not hope to capture Richmond on his own, he needed the other three corps as well. But Sumner still needed to exercise caution, what with a still-intact Confederate army just north of the Chickahominy, rather than advance at full speed as General Banks demanded. After the break, we will return to discuss the twin decisive engagements at Petersburg and the Chickahominy, but first a word from our sponsors.

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[MASON]: And we’re back. When we left off, it was when the Union army had reached the Chickahominy and the outskirts of Petersburg.

[SS]: Petersburg did not start off as a decisive Union defeat, though then again it did not begin as a crushing victory.

[HT]: The Chickahominy River almost entirely bisects the Virginia Peninsula, and lay directly in the path of General Sumner’s army. After arriving at the banks of the Chickahominy on March 23rd, Sumner made preparations to cross the river in the coming days and ordered the construction of numerous pontoon bridges and rafts. Unfortunately, thanks to the poor planning of Nathaniel Banks, the campaign was undertaken during spring when, as you can see, the Chickahominy flooded from rain and became, in some places, over a mile wide. Truly, a daunting task, that even Sheridan, in the fall of 1859, had difficulties accomplishing, and then when the river was its normal size. Given the logistical requirements of crossing a mile-wide river, Sumner ordered his corps to set up camp and begin constructing their means of crossing.

This gave Robert E. Lee ample opportunity to plan a counterattack. He had managed to get enough reinforcements to bring his army up to 21,500 men, which gave him more confidence that he could launch a successful counterattack. Lee decided to make a very risky move, the first of many that he would make during his time as a general. Before he departed to the Chickahominy, he requisitioned as many boats as possible and built hundreds of log rafts, amassing over 1,000. Carrying the boats and rafts on the march back to the river, Lee was ready to make his move. Though it is one of the most… ludicrous stories in American history, Lee was able to cross the Chickahominy with his armada of rafts, under the cover of darkness, no less! while Sumner’s men were still chopping trees and assembling their rafts, tents still pitched and with only a cursory watch placed – after all, why would the Confederates try such an audacious move?

Yet, Lee did cross over and waited, with 18,000 of his men (three thousand waited on the other shore to catch any Yankees who made it across) until dawn, when the visibility was better. As the soldiers began to wake up and as the sun crawled into the sky, the brush and woods burst open as the grey-clad rebel soldiers charged into the camp. Panic spread as soldiers staggered from their tents to find themselves surrounded by Confederate troops, while Sumner hurriedly called for a retreat. After only half an hour, the Confederates had captured 3,000 men and killed 300, while the Union men broke and fled, leaving behind their supplies and weapons. Thomas managed to rally his men and managed to escape with just enough food and weapons to make it back to Fort Monroe.

As the IV Corps retreated south, Lee pursued and savaged most of Richardson’s divisions at the Second Battle of Williamsburg. The battle is not particularly memorable, save for the Union’s 4,000 captured or killed. Lee’s assault on the rear of the Union, who lacked a guard, definitely contributed to the decisive nature of the defeat.

Meanwhile, on the south bank of the James River, the three remaining corps closed in on the outskirts of Petersburg. First, the Union army positioned its artillery so it would be in range of the Confederates. General Johnston, meanwhile, had dug a series of trenches for his 49,000 men, and additionally, reinforcements of Robert E. Lee’s army arrived on April 9th, bringing the Confederates to 70,000, almost at parity with the remaining three corps under the command of Nathaniel Banks. Banks planned a great pincer movement to capture the railroads leading south and north, and to encircle the city and the Confederates therein. He was opposed by the aforementioned entrenched forces of Joe Johnston and Robert E. Lee.

Banks directed his corps commanders to prepare frontal assaults on the fortifications in the path of his grand pincer movement. First came a three-hour artillery duel between the Confederate and Union batteries, which ended inconclusively, before the offensives began. On the right flank was Zachary Taylor’s corps. Taylor had been reluctantly coaxed out of his retirement to command once more, though he was merely given command of an army corps, rather than an overall command position like he desired. Nevertheless, Taylor returned to the field of battle as the commander of the III Corps. Taylor’s assault advanced to about 350 yards from the trenches of his opposite, James Longstreet. Longstreet’s men successfully prevented the storming of their fortifications and the two sides settled into exchanging volleys. Aware that the other assaults had stalled out as well, Taylor sought to inspire his corps and, hopefully, the other two by rallying his men. Taylor, the former President, and hero of the Mexican War successfully boosted the morale of his men as he rode among them, for all of six minutes.

Right as he triumphantly declared:

[VOICEOVER]: “Come on, men! They couldn’t hit a bright red elephant at this range!”

[HT]: Taylor was struck down by a bullet from a Confederate foxhole. He fell off his horse and landed right where this stone marker [image shows on screen] is erected at the National Battlefield Trust park. The death of Taylor first shocked the III Corps and the men halted. Then, the 7th New York and 9th Pennsylvania broke and fled, provoking a general rout of the entire right flank of the Union army. Things could have been salvaged, as Banks ordered the remaining III Corps brigades to form up and the II Corps to move and fill the gap, but then James Longstreet launched a sudden, ferocious attack on the fleeing troops. Faced with the Confederates pouring out of their foxholes, the remaining III Corps brigades fled as well. Faced with the possibility of a disastrous flanking assault, Banks gave the order to withdraw. Unfortunately, the orders informing General Keyes of the II Corps of the withdrawal were delayed, resulting in Longstreet pivoting, and attacking Keyes along his flank. With no orders from Banks, Keyes attempted to shift his lines to wheel the flank away from Longstreet, but several brigades turned and fled, following the men of the III Corps. Fortunately, Keyes’ withdrawal orders arrived at this time, and Keyes and the intact I Corps made an orderly and safe withdrawal from Petersburg. However, the damage was done. The III Corps, and an entire division of the II Corps, were in no shape for battle and had sustained terrible casualties.

The surviving three corps of the Army of the James arrived in Norfolk on April 17th, having abandoned so much ammunition and rations to the Confederates that Nathaniel Banks was labelled “Commissary Banks” by the southern soldiers. The Union had sustained 16,000 casualties overall, and the men remaining were extremely demoralized not just by their defeat, but by the death of General Taylor. They arrived to see the sight of the tattered two-and-a-half divisions that survived the campaign on the Peninsula. Of these, only the division of Philip Sheridan was anywhere close to in good spirits, as the men were consoled by the fact that they had ravaged the peninsula, even though they were forced into a retreat. 1858’s campaign in Virginia had proven a disastrous failure. McDowell had failed because of a green army and Banks had failed because of an overambitious plan. Perhaps this time, an overland campaign would succeed. More, after the break…”

[1] OTL, Stanley Schultz “edited” the Daily Show’s America: The Book for “historical inaccuracies”, of which there were many. I couldn’t resist using his name.
[2] Sheridan is not a Cavalry Commander TTL.
[3] Fictional – Since it’s about ten years after the POD, I think it’s safe to elevate fictional people to divisional command.
[4] OTL, Williamsburg had Fort Magruder, an earthen fortification. TTL, with less focus on the Peninsula, you don’t have much fortifications. Those are concentrated on the south bank to prevent Banks from seizing Petersburg and cutting off Confederate avenues of retreat from Richmond.
[5] Buses.
[6] At OTL’s Battle of Williamsburg, the Confederates were entrenched. TTL, with the main focus placed on Petersburg, there are no fortifications. Also, Longstreet is at Petersburg.
[7] gsf stands for “global search function”.mer stands for .mercantile, instead of .com.

Next Up on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: Once Again at Manassas

Spoiler: Author's Note

This was way longer than I expected, but here it is, the James River Campaign!

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

For Union and For Liberty

From “The War from the Southern Perspective” by Eugene Q. Jones
Published 2001

“Robert E. Lee, having replaced Joe Johnston as the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, sought to capitalize on Union weakness following their decisive defeats at the Chickahominy and at Petersburg. Indeed, there was ample opportunity to strike, for the Union army had gone from 100,000 men to 84,000, and of those 84,000, 20,000 were set aside for the defense of Washington D.C. and were unavailable to McClellan for any further operations. Though the Confederates had sustained casualties at Petersburg and Williamsburg, Lee still had, including new reinforcements from Tennessee, some 62,000 men [1], and plotted an offensive north to drive the Union from Manassas Junction and Alexandria.

Meanwhile, there was much fallout from the debacle in Washington, the bulk of which fell upon President Fremont. The pro-peace Democrats, known as the Hawks, attacked Fremont for the failed campaign, and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities with the Confederacy. Meanwhile, the war Democrats, led by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, pushed heavily for General George B. McClellan to be given command of the forces in Virginia. They argued that Banks, a Freedomite, had failed due to his overly aggressive nature, and proposed that the more cautious and logistically minded McClellan be given command of an Army in Virginia to take Richmond. Of course, the fact that McClellan was a Democrat who had supported Douglas for the 1856 nomination was not lost on Freedomite politicians. Nevertheless, Fremont recognized the precariousness of his position – he had to maintain good ties with the War Democrats in the face of looming defeat in the 1858 midterm elections. The announcement by Fremont that McClellan would head the new Army of the Potomac inspired a lukewarm response from the more radical Freedomites and a new sense of optimism among moderates and War Democrats. The only men in government upset at the appointment of McClellan were Rep. Daniel Sickles of New York, who was agitating to take the job himself, and the Peace Democrats, who wanted to recognize Southern secession.

Thus, McClellan took command of just over 65,000 men, most of whom had poor morale and no equipment. McClellan, though he is remembered as a cautious battlefield commander who failed to pursue the Army of Northern Virginia after the decisive battle at Bull Run, is remembered as an excellent strategic and logistical mind who should not have been reassigned after what is viewed as his greatest victory. McClellan set about procuring new equipment, and drilled his battered army extensively to prepare them for battle.

The Confederate Army was the opposite of the Union one – “Commissary Banks has provisioned us most generously”, wrote one Confederate private in September 1858. Indeed, such a copious quantity of ammunition and food was abandoned by Banks in the rout of Petersburg that Lee himself was worried that “such brave and hard-fighting men would find themselves stricken by that terrible ailment – victory disease. I worry the fruits of victory have tumbled into our mouths much to quickly.” Regardless of Lee’s efforts to temper expectations, his army jubilantly predicted they would “whip them Yanks in Maryland, then take Washington and hang the Tyrant Fremont, then loot Philadelphia.” Even those who had their doubts about such lofty goals were confident that they could coerce Maryland into joining their fellow Southerners in secession. Buoyed by their past triumphs, Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia left their camps in Richmond on June 7th, 1858 and headed north to face McClellan. At this point even Lee himself began to succumb to overconfidence, after he learned of McClellan’s conduct during a skirmish against militiamen in Arlington. Lee was eager to face the cautious McClellan and believed that he could defeat the Union General with some sort of great, audacious strategy like his crushing victory at the Chickahominy two months ago.

Lee’s goal was to retake the Union-occupied lands south of the Potomac, especially the railroad junction at Manassas and the towns of Alexandria and Arlington, which lay adjacent to Washington D.C., and then cross the Potomac to capture Washington D.C., which would hopefully inspire Maryland to secede and join the Confederate States of America. Of course, this lofty goal was predicated upon whether Lee was able to defeat McClellan decisively enough at any of the three targets south of the Virginia that a crossing of the Potomac became safe.

While Lee’s men were boisterous, bellicose, and eager for combat, McClellan’s camp was permeated by a sense of grim determination. While the Army of Northern Virginia marched north to Manassas Junction singing loudly, the Army of the Potomac silently readied their trenches and redoubts to defend the city. As one Union soldier wrote, “Lee was coming, everyone knew that. We also knew that though we had failed in the James, we could not fail now, for the capital and the government must be guarded.” McClellan assembled artillery batteries in and around Manassas Junction and Alexandria, while Fremont ordered Washington D.C. reinforced with further cannon, and the navy put to sea in the Potomac to ward off raiding groups.

McClellan, though an overly cautious man, and though he disliked President Fremont, understood the gravity of the situation, and deployed the bulk of his army, along with a recently arrived force of 15,000 reserves, in Manassas Junction. The city and its railroads were of great strategic importance to any campaigns in Virginia, and McClellan knew that he had to defend the city from the Confederates.

The first and only battle of Robert E. Lee’s planned crowning achievement began when he approached the Union lines in Manassas on August 29th, 1858. McClellan had positioned large batteries of artillery on four of the six hills on the field of battle, Stony Ridge, Matthew’s Hill, Dogan Hill, and Chinn Ridge. The fifth hill, Henry Hill, held a division of the IV Corps. The III Corps guarded the bases of Chinn Ridge and Henry Hill, while II Corps guarded a traverse road and Dogan Hill. The I Corps were positioned to protect the largest artillery battery, on Stony Ridge, and a smaller detachment also guarded the Manassas Gap Railroad. The III Corps were all the way on the eastern flank, right next to Henry Hill (and on top of it).

McClellan and his men occupied the north of the battlefield, while Lee advanced from the south. Lee had two major objectives: one, capture the artillery batteries atop the four hills, and two, capture the Manassas Gap Railroad. The first shots of Bull Run were fired when Lee’s army became visible and McClellan ordered his artillery to open fire. The initial volleys significantly delayed the deployment of Lee’s army, and allowed for further reinforcement of several trenches and defensive constructions.

The real battle began when the first Confederate divisions began firing upon the Union divisions along the railroad and guarding Chinn Ridge and Henry Hill. The Union and Confederate divisions exchanged fire for several hours, each side taking heavy losses. Finally, after a flanking attempt by a Confederate brigade was bloodily repulsed, and the fighting along the railroad died down.

Further blood was spilled when the Confederate Second Corps, commanded by James Longstreet, moved to take Chinn Ridge and Henry Hill. Longstreet ordered Robert Rhodes’s division to move between the hills and flank the two Union II Corps divisions guarding the Ridge and atop Bald Hill. Longstreet wanted Bald Hill so he could place a division on top and fire on the artillery battery on Chinn Ridge. He was thwarted in his rush by a brigade that included a Maine volunteer regiment commanded by Joshua Chamberlain. The Union defense, which held against a concerted Confederate attack and charge, was successful in part because of Chamberlain’s skillful and aggressive attack that prevented the 11th Alabama Volunteers from reaching the flank of the brigade. The battle for Henry Hill was initially a similar stalemate, with it proving impossible for the Confederates to storm up and drive away the division of George Halliday.

The most action was along the front between the Third Corps of the Confederate army and the IV Corps of the Union. D.H Hill, the commander of the Corps, sought to prevent the IV Corps from moving to reinforce Henry Hill, where the brigade on top was on the verge of defeat. He also wanted to relieve pressure on James Longstreet, who was bogged down in a bloody attempt to push towards Chinn Ridge and the II Corps, and repulse Union assaults on Bald Hill. Hill ordered one brigade, under the command of Gideon Dawes, to storm the side of Henry Hill, while the rest of the Corps was to concentrate on the main line of the IV Corps. The Confederates exchanged fire with the divisions of Thomas’s IV Corps. However, Thomas saw that Hill had made an error when he ordered the relief of the Confederates on Henry Hill – there was a gap between that brigade and the rest of the division, and so Thomas ordered a brigade into the gap. Sheridan’s daring flank assault was unsuccessful, as the regiment came under fire during the advance and was forced to halt, but D.H. Hill did have to pull back from Henry Hill to guard his flank.

The attack of the 1st Brigade successfully put Hill on the defensive, and Thomas launched his attack about half an hour after the end of the battle on Henry Hill (the Union brigade held its ground). With the artillery atop Matthew’s Hill opening fire again, Thomas launched a string of brigade-sized attacks on the left wing of Hill’s Corps. Meanwhile, Thomas reinforced the brigade on Henry Hill and waited for an opportunity. That came at around 2:15 in the afternoon, when Hill directed a brigade at the base of Henry Hill to move to the other wing to reinforce lost men. This left the Confederate left vulnerable, and Thomas ordered the brigade on the hill to attack Hill’s flank. The charge caught the left by surprise, and the division that comprised the left of Hill’s Corps fell back. Hill’s advance had failed.

Faced with such staggering casualties and the resoluteness of the Union defense, General Lee ordered a retreat at 2:47 and the Confederate army began their orderly withdrawal. The Battle of Bull Run had ended, and with it any Confederate ambitions of taking Washington D.C.

The casualties on both the Union and Confederate sides, including both killed and wounded, amounted to 24,000. It was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War, with no other battle coming within 7,000 of that number. However, one of those casualties would be the most devastating: the death of General Robert Edward Lee. Lee had been riding back to his Headquarters during the retreat, when a sentry, not recognizing him and panicked at the sudden appearance of a figure on horseback, opened fire and shot Lee in the shoulder and in the chest. “Granny Lee”, as his men called him, lingered for two days before dying of pneumonia from the shot in his lung. “Lee is dead,” one soldier wrote. “the war is lost without his guidance. May God have mercy upon us all.”

The dismal mood of the Confederate Army was in stark contrast to the excitement with which the campaign was begun. There was no jubilant singing on the withdrawal south, only somber prayer and mournful letters. “This is the end of the Confederacy,” President Quitman said to Preston Brooks. “There is no coming back, not in the east, not in the west, not anywhere.” Longstreet wrote home to Lee’s wife, saying, “I am honored to have served with such an illustrious and gallant man as General Lee. We all are worse off with him gone.”

The only saving grace, the only thing that prevented Virginia from falling to the Union, was McClellan’s continued belief that he was outnumbered, and he refused to pursue the Army of Northern Virginia, now commanded by James Longstreet, south, which led to President Fremont dismissing him in September.”

From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert
Published 1973

“While the Union and Confederacy locked horns inconclusively over Virginia, the frontlines were far more fluid in the west. While McCulloch and Beauregard settled into a stalemate in Manassas Junction, Unconditional Ulysses Grant took two Mississippi forts and occupied a key riverine passage in Tennessee, while at the same time occupying most of northern Kentucky. Missouri, too, was a war of action as Nathaniel Lyon drove the Confederate-aligned state government out of Jefferson City and into the area south of the Missouri River and west of the Mississippi in under four months. Grant had driven south into Kentucky and captured Bowling Green, forcing the retreat of one army and the quiet withdrawal of another. This victory ensuring that Kentucky was firmly occupied by the Union, with Cassius Clay as Military Governor.

In July 1858, Grant left Kentucky and set out to secure the rivers of the South for the Union. However, he first had to defeat the Army of the Tennessee, which remained at large after Beauregard’s retreat from Kentucky. Grant also wanted to capture the important riverine port city of Memphis, which was also the terminus of the recently completed Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Grant had at his disposal around 37,000 men and the Mississippi River Squadron of Charles Henry Davis. Grant planned to utilize the gunboats, which were innovatively armored with railroad iron, to blockade and bombard the city, while his army approached from the north and east and attacked the Confederate Army of the Tennessee encamped around Memphis.

Grant, the newly minted Commander of the Western Division [3], also received a new subordinate, one William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman had been transferred from the east at his request and was now in charge of securing the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, and with them, Nashville, for the Union. He arrived on August 19th, 1858, in Bowling Green to take command of the 32,000 troops camped there. Sherman set out a fortnight later, having planned his campaign. Sherman’s battleplan had his army march almost due south to Nashville, which lay guarded solely by a defensive army of 10,000 commanded by Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg. The 10,000-man army had organized to defend Nashville after the Confederates in Kentucky were driven out during Grant’s Kentucky Campaign. With such weak opposition to his campaign, Sherman set out straightaway to secure Nashville. His initial assault went south from Bowling Green, to the banks of the Cumberland River, where Nashville lay. Just north of the city, Braxton Bragg decided to launch an attack on one of the two Corps under Sherman’s command, the I Corps under William Rosecrans. Though Bragg had 5,000 less men than Rosecrans’ Corps, he felt he had to launch the assault to drive back the Union army. The attack went well at first, thanks to a poorly-worded order from Rosecrans that resulted in his Corps being divided in two, but the day was saved for the Union when the II Corps, and General Sherman himself, arrived and drove off Bragg’s army. Over a quarter of the Confederate army was killed or captured, and, thanks to Bragg’s poor strategy, Nashville was left practically undefended. Faced with the fall of the city, its mayor, Philip Mayhew, greeted Sherman’s army with a white flag and an unconditional surrender of Nashville. Sherman eagerly accepted and telegrammed Grant, “It is done. Nashville has surrendered.”

Meanwhile, Grant and his army advanced south along the east bank of the Mississippi and arrived at the outskirts of Memphis. While Nashville fell with ease, Grant had to contend with a field army in the area. Grant approached from the north and east and launched his attack. The Confederate Army had low morale due to their retreat, dysentery was working its way through the camp, and they were surrounded. The Battle of Memphis was a terrible blow to the Confederacy’s fortunes in the west and destroyed Beauregard’s reputation. Meanwhile, Braxton Bragg received a promotion for his efforts against Sherman, and was appointed to replace Beauregard. Regardless, the Confederates were driven from Memphis, and Grant occupied the city. A supply depot, Fort Freedom, was established to store ammunition and other supplies for future campaigns.

With both Nashville and Memphis in Union hands, President Fremont organized a military government, one like the Kentuckian administration helmed by Military Governor Cassius Clay. Fremont sought to appoint a similarly radical military Governor for Tennessee, which drew the ire of the Hawk Democrats and his own Vice President. The Hawk Democrats were angry that one of their most prominent leaders, Tennessean Andrew Johnson, was passed over by Fremont in favor of the much more radical William G. Brownlow. With a narrow victory in the 1858 midterm elections for the Democrats, Fremont was forced to compromise. The idea was first brought up by William Seward, and Fremont ran with it. The plan was to divide Tennessee into two states: Cumberland, which would be governed by Andrew Johnson, and Franklin, which consisted of territories not currently occupied by the Union, and would be governed by Brownlow once Knoxville, the intended capital, was taken.

While the Tennessee Campaigns, which would last through the end of 1858 and the beginning of 1859, began, Unconditional Ulysses Grant saw the importance of opening up a second western front, and arranged for the creation of the Army of Louisiana to strike at New Orleans. Initial plans called for a naval landing to capture the two forts guarding New Orleans harbor and take the city by naval assault, but the rising number of Confederate blockade runners and the impracticality of rapidly capturing two forts in succession led to Grant proposing a land route. The Army of Louisiana would set out from Brazos, and march along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. The principle advantage of such an overland advance was that the Union would not have the added hassle of reducing the harbor forts of New Orleans, with the hope being that the forts would surrender once the city was taken and supply was cut off. To command the Army of Louisiana, Grant appointed Richard Taylor, the son of the deceased former President and commander of the ill-fated III Corps at Petersburg, Zachary Taylor. Grant did not select Taylor because of who his father was, but because the two had served together during the Mexican War [2]. Taylor, despite owning one of the largest sugar plantations in the entire south, refused to support succession and was, from his seat in the Louisiana State Legislature, a leading opponent of secession. After Louisiana voted to join the Confederacy, Taylor escaped to Brazos and offered his services to the Union and was given a commission in the Brazos infantry as a Colonel. He distinguished himself at Manassas Junction and in the Battle of Harper’s Ferry, where he, appointed to a divisional command, guarded the retreat of Irvin McDowell’s army and prevented a rout. His defense led one Union soldier to exclaim, “there is Dick Taylor, standing like the Rock of Gibraltar!” And so, then-Lieutenant General Richard Taylor became known as Gibraltar Taylor.

The strategy was quite simple – as outlined previously, Taylor’s army of 30,000 was to march along the Gulf Coast and then move inland before attacking New Orleans directly. New Orleans was defended by 24,000 Confederates under the command of Theophilus H. Holmes. Taylor set out on June 6th from Galveston, with an army consisting mostly of Austinian and Brazos volunteer regiments and reached the Louisiana border on the 17th. After reviewing his plans, Taylor crossed into Confederate territory with his three corps. The advance started out well, and the Union marched almost unopposed to the city of Vermilionville, on the Vermilion River. However, General Holmes had organized a defense along the river with a forward guard of 12,000 men, in the hopes that they could delay Taylor’s advance enough for 15,000 reinforcements to arrive in New Orleans. The Battle of Vermilionville was the first major test of Gibraltar Taylor’s field command abilities, and it was a test he passed with flying colors [4]. The Union army, while it did not force a rout for the Confederates, did score a decisive victory that shattered the Confederate defensive line on the Vermilion River and drive Kirby Smith back east to hastily reinforce the defenses of New Orleans, with Taylor in hot pursuit. On July 5th, Taylor and the Army of Louisiana arrived at the outskirts and suburbs of New Orleans and commenced an artillery bombardment of the city and its docks from across the river.

… The Battle of New Orleans was a decisive, crushing victory for Gibraltar Taylor and the Union. Edmund Kirby Smith and his entire army were forced to surrender, leaving the gateway to the Mississippi firmly in Union hands. Now, Grant could implement his plan and lead his army south to link up with Taylor’s northwards-bound force. With the fall of New Orleans, Forts Jackson and St. Philip surrendered under blockade, and the war in the West was all but won.”

[1] OTL, the Confederates sustained worse casualties in the Peninsula Campaign.
[2] A result of butterflies after the Wilmot Proviso’s passage.
[3] Grant advances faster than OTL because he is granted a commission much earlier in the war.
[4] OTL, Nathan Bedford Forrest said of Taylor: "He's the biggest man in the lot. If we'd had more like him, we would have licked the Yankees long ago." So, Taylor is not one of those mediocre Generals who simply wins because he’s got more men, but a truly skilled commander like Grant or Thomas.

Up Next on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Political Struggle

Spoiler: Author's Note

A map of the frontlines at the end of 1858 will be coming up soon!

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Political Struggle, and the War Out West

From “The War in Washington: Civil War Politics” by Adam Wallace
Published 2003

“While the fields of America were turned into muddied and bloodied battlegrounds, cracks formed in the War Coalition of Radicals, Moderates, and Hawks that together controlled the effort to save the Union. The first major divide between the Freedomites and the Hawk Democrats was Fremont’s dismissal of General McClellan in the aftermath of his refusal to pursue after his victory at Bull Run and the death of General Lee. Stephen Douglas, the leading opponent of Freedomite leadership, attacked the sacking of McClellan as a grave mistake that destroyed all of McClellan’s careful plans for an Overland Campaign, and accused Fremont of having political motives for his dismissal of McClellan. Though the Hawk outcry settled after a few days with assurances from President Fremont and Vice-President Lincoln that McClellan’s removal from command was without consideration for his Democratic leanings, the Hawks only ceased their criticisms after McClellan was appointed to command the logistics and supply area of the war effort, being in command of weapons procurement and the maintenance of open supply for the various Union armies. Though Fremont was forced to allow McClellan to assume some sort of commanding role in the army, he was saved from reinstating the timid General by the surprise Freedomite victory in the midterm elections, with his party holding onto a majority, though their majority was reduced by twenty-five seats.”

From “The Peculiar Institution and it's Collapse” by John Silver
Published 1953

“President Fremont had, with Congressional approval, abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, with partial compensation to slaveholders. He was, of course, able to do this because the many pro-slavery Senators and Congressmen had all left with their states in the early months of 1857 and left the Freedom Party in the majority. However, Fremont broached the subject of declaring all Confederate slaves’ free numerous times with Congressional leadership and, while most radicals and even some moderate Freedomites supported it, most Freedomite politicians and even a few more progressive Hawk Democrats (mainly Kentucky Representative, and future Vice-President, Joseph Holt) advocated waiting to issue the declaration until there was some sort of great victory, to maximize the impact of the declaration.

Fremont took as his model for the Emancipation Declaration the declaration of Martial Law he issued in the State of Missouri, which stated that slaves and property of Missourian rebels could and would be seized, and the slaves emancipated. When he first proposed the idea in July 1858, Fremont’s cabinet cautioned him against implementing it immediately, with Secretary of State Seward telling him to wait until the Union army won some sort of major victory, so the Proclamation would not seem an act of desperation. The victory at Bull Run, which had also saved the Freedom Party from a disaster at the ballot in the 1858 midterms, was just the opportunity Fremont and his cabinet needed to issue the Emancipation Declaration.

While Lincoln and more moderate Freedomites wished to restrict the scope of the Emancipation Declaration to only “those states still in revolt”, Fremont insisted upon applying the declaration to not just the states still in the hands of the Confederacy, but also states under U.S. military administration (Kentucky, and Tennessee), areas under military occupation (Corinth, Mississippi and New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and states with both pro-Union and pro-Confederate governments [A] (Missouri, Brazos [1] and Virginia [2]). Under Fremont’s draft, the only slave-holding states exempted were Maryland, Delaware, and Austin. Lincoln could not dissuade the President from issuing his version of the Declaration, and a preliminary announcement was issued on September 18th, 1858, announcing that a second half of the Declaration would be issued January 1st, 1859, with more details. Though some historians, most notably Leonard Bartlett III, have alleged that the Emancipation Declaration failed to free a single slave, it undeniably had an impact from day one. In Missouri and Kentucky, Union soldiers seized and emancipated any slaves in the area, with instances of slaves being confiscated from Unionists being ignored by the Government, though there was a sharp increase in bushwhacking, and many slaveowners fled south to Arkansas and the parts of Tennessee still occupied by the Confederacy. News of the Declaration filtered south with the panicked slaveholders, and soon Grant’s army at Corinth, Taylor’s army at Baton Rouge, and Thomas's army in Virginia were inundated with escaped slaves seeking freedom. While Taylor refused to allow the escaped slaves into his camps, Grant and Thomas allowed the formation of contraband camps around their armies, and appealed to President Fremont for aid in relieving the strain placed on their supplies by the “contraband”. Fremont decided to push for the creation of colored divisions to allow contraband to join the army, using the authority granted to him by the Confiscation Act of 1858 (which allowed the President to confiscate the property (including slaves) of Confederates) and Colored Recruitment Act of 1858. Under pressure from Fremont (who, for once, was not having Lincoln urge caution), the War Department issued General Order No. 125 on March 18th, 1859, permitting the recruitment of colored troops at equal pay in the roles of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineering. Though there would be protests and desertions from white troops, and ultimately the implementation of a national draft, the government had taken on a new war aim: the emancipation of the slaves. For, as William Weston Patton wrote in The Battle Hymn of the Union , “Soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free…”

From “The Westward March” by Nehemiah Jones
Published 2008

“The Freedomite ideal was the parceling out of the vast, recently-organized western and south-western territories to create small farms, as opposed to the large plantations of the south. The plan of distributing western land was known as homesteading, and the Civil War provided an excellent opportunity to distribute the land without the opposition of the Southern planter elite. The proposed Land Parcel Act (which built on the 1856 Homestead Act, signed into law by President Houston, by making the land free to acquire for all naturalized citizens), commonly known as the “Homestead Act”, was able to secure bipartisan support, with Jacksonian Democrats such as Stephen Douglas and Andrew Johnson endorsing the bill, joining with Freedomites like Horace Greeley to pass the bill. President Fremont signed the Lard Parcel Act of 1858 into law on June 3rd.

Of course, these two acts, which had opened up much of the West to settlement, went a long way to the the Indian Wars that took center stage during the Bloody West period.”

From “The Wild, Wild West” by William Smith-Warburton
Published 1998

“The decision of most Southern Representatives and Senators to leave Washington and abandon their offices in order to serve the Confederacy left Congress with a clear Freedomite majority. Though this was significantly eroded in the aftermath of the disastrous James River Campaign and the emergence of a stalemate in Virginia, there was enough of an understanding between the Freedomites and the Hawk Democrats to allow the organization of the unincorporated western territories, especially Kansas.

Kansas was still a lawless, war-torn region when the Civil War began, as the Vagabond militias organized under Confederate oversight into proper armies, and Kansas became an organized territory within the Confederate states. Worried that the still poorly defined land of Kansas would be conquered by the Confederate states, a pro-Union delegation led by the famed and feared Kansas militia general John Brown and the pro-Union interim governor Charles L. Robinson appealed to President Fremont and the Congressional leadership of the Freedom Party to organize Kansas into a territory and organize Kansan free-state militia into a proper army.

The Kansas Act easily passed Congress, with even Stephen Douglas, the most prominent supporter of popular sovereignty, not protesting the organization of Kansas as a free state. As he later wrote, “it had been proven by that point that there were no other Unionists in Kansas than Free-Soilers, and with all the planters and ‘Vagabonds’ allied with the Confederacy, it did not make much sense to push the issue [of popular sovereignty].” After five years of turmoil and chaos, Kansas was finally declared a territory, and the Free Kansas Militia given Federal support to secure the territory against the Confederate territorial government. Federal aid arrived not a minute too soon, for Nathan B. Forrest had finally secured General Bragg’s permission for an expedition to conquer Kansas for the Confederate Territorial Government.

While the Forrest Expedition took shape, news of Kansas’s incorporation as a free state reached the Vagabond militia camps, pro-slavery settlements, and towns of western Missouri. Soon, a flood of both partisans fleeing harsh Union reprisals and eager volunteers hoping to kill, and loot poured over the border from Missouri and into Kansas. These new arrivals mixed with existing “Bushwhackers”, which were small bands, never larger than 500, that attacked and massacred Unionists and Free-Soilers along the border. With the influx of pro-Southern refugees [3] from Missouri, these bushwhackers expanded their reach farther into the Union-controlled parts of Kansas and proved a thorn in the side of Governor John Brown [4] and General William T. Sherman [5]. Particularly egregious was the Rape of Lawrence, where Jack Willis and his “Raiders” attacked Lawrence, pillaged the town, freed imprisoned bushwhackers, kidnapped and executed and burned down much of the downtown section. Willis and other prominent bushwhackers such as Red Bill Quantrill and Sam Hunt waged a brutal guerilla war, executing captured Union soldiers and Free-Soilers, with the goal of wearing down Sherman’s army and forcing a Union withdrawal from Kansas Territory.

In response to the Rape of Lawrence, which sparked a wave of public outrage at the “barbarous Southerners”, as one editorial declared, General Sherman issued Special Order No. 18. Special Order No. 18 authorized Union troops to “utilize any methods necessary to ensure the suppression of the Bushwhackers and Confederate raiders and the return of Kansas to a peaceful nature.” Governor Brown loudly endorsed Special Order No. 18, declaring in a speech to the Kansas Territorial Legislature, “Kansas bleeds with a new intensity. We must staunch the flow!” Special Order No. 18, though it left room for each Union commander under Sherman’s purview to make their own decisions, in effect authorized the use of even the harshest tactics to suppress the bushwhackers. One such example was when John Crandell [6] burned Lecompton after his army of 12,000 was raided by Red Bill Quantrill and his men. Red Bill and two hundred of his men had attacked the army camp on the night of June 22nd, 1858, killing thirty and stealing their weapons. Crandell, seeking to “teach these Vagabonders a lesson” ordered the nearby town of Lecompton, which also served as the capital of the Confederate government in Kansas, burned in retaliation. Crandell also declared, “this outbreak of Bushwhacking must end. Until every last Bushwhacker has laid down his rifle and gone home, we shall retaliate tenfold.” Despite criticism from some Union commanders, General Sherman refused to dismiss him, and Governor Brown rabidly praised the burning of Lecompton. Across the north, John Crandell became a household name, as the Freedomites praised his conduct and he was even approached by Freedomite organizers in Ohio for a Congressional run after the war, though he declined repeatedly. Union forces soon followed Crandell’s lead, with General John McNeil ordering the execution of ten Confederate hostages for every Union soldier killed. Crandell’s burning of pro-slavery towns and settlements and McNeil’s hostage executions (within four months, over 500 hostages were killed) sparked fury in the Confederate States, with President Quitman demanding the extradition of the two to be tried down South, while they were lambasted as “barbarians, unfitting of the label ‘American’”, as one Charleston newspaper angrily proclaimed in October of 1858. President Fremont refused, defending McNeil's and Crandell's actions as "necessary given the circumstances", though quietly he agreed with his cabinet that the actions of the two Generals were "unusually extreme".

Of course, everything changed when Nathan Bedford Forrest and his army of 10,000 marched north from the Confederate-controlled portion of Indian Territory and launched his infamous invasion of Kansas. The Civil War had truly arrived in Kansas.”

[A] States with both Union and Confederate governments were considered as “in rebellion”, which is a state similar to a state in secession. Its sort of a loophole.
A sort of mashup of OTL’s Battle Hymn of the Republic and John Brown’s Body.
[1] Brazos, while mostly in Union hands, has small bushwhacker revolts along the Arkansas and northern Louisiana borders, and a Confederate government-in-exile based in Shreveport.
[2] The Unionist government in Virginia (capital in Alexandria) has not yet split between Vandalia and Tidewater.
[3] With a stronger Confederate presence in Missouri, the Union is both harsher, and there are more pro-Southerners who flee.
[4] John Brown becomes governor after a string of defeats result in Fremont quietly and discreetly retiring him from active duty by making him Governor.
[5] Sherman is reassigned from Tennessee on his request, and he is sent to Kansas to head the Army of the West. A certain Virginian replaces him…
[6] Fictional, born 1823.

Next Up on NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM: The Road to Richmond

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

We’ll Take the Cursed Town!

From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert
Published 1973

“the dismissal of McClellan after he failed to press his advantage at Bull Run put the status of the Union Army in Virginia in limbo once more. President Fremont had greatly irritated the War Democrats by removing him from command, and now needed an able commander to rally popular and Congressional support with some sort of resounding victory. Fortunately, there was a candidate Fremont felt confident in entrusting the command of an army to – George Thomas, who had distinguished himself as a division commander in the James River Campaign and as a corps commander in the piercing of Bragg’s army and the fall of Nashville. Thomas had his name surface several times for an army command, first during the organization of the Army of the Potomac, and again in the formation of General Taylor’s Army of Tennessee. Each time, he was shunted aside in favor of other generals, with McClellan and Taylor being chosen over him to appease restless Democrats.

However, this time President Fremont selected Thomas, no doubt thanks to the urging of Ulysses Grant, who had witnessed firsthand Thomas’s battlefield prowess and wrote the President: “he [Thomas] is skilled on the battlefield… he is methodical and careful in planning, and decisive and swift when an opportunity for victory presents itself.” Fremont ultimately decided to appoint Thomas as the commander, after he heard that another of Grant’s Corps commanders, Francis P. Blair Jr., was agitating for a promotion. President Fremont detested the Blairs, an enmity that stemmed from Blair’s opposition to Fremont’s edicts issued in Missouri during the early days of the war. Wanting to do anything he could to block Blair from advancing, the President made George Thomas the new commander of the battered Army of the Potomac.

Thomas was given control of not only the veteran troops that constituted the Army of the Potomac, but an additional 20,000 in fresh recruits [1], many raised in Ohio. Fremont also assigned, at Thomas’s request, General John F. Reynolds and a force of 22,000 to attack and harass Confederate forces in the critical Shenandoah Valley to distract Longstreet [2]from the true crux of Thomas’s proposed campaign: the landings at Fort Monroe and the campaign up the Virginia Peninsula to Richmond. Though there was worry in the cabinet, especially from Fremont himself, that naval landings would be a repeat of the disastrous James River Campaign, Thomas assured the Executive branch that “the Rebels will be expecting some sort of action. They know that the James River was a mistake on our part, and they know that an overland route will be paved with blood. If Reynolds harries the Shenandoah, Longstreet will be forced to keep a portion of his forces (which I may add are reduced in strength and morale since Bull Run) in the area, and that will give us an advantage.” With Washington quieted, General Thomas commenced reconnoitering the area (which Nathaniel Banks failed to do in 1858), planning the campaign itself, and Quartermaster-General McClellan [3] worked to gather supplies and train further the fresh recruits.

The four corps from Bull Run were expanded and new commanders appointed for the I and II Corps, with Fitz John Porter, a close ally of McClellan, replaced with John Sedgwick, who Thomas selected for his distinguished service at Manassas Junction and in fighting in west Virginia, and Darius Couch, a veteran of the James River Campaign and Bull Run was replaced with Philip Kearney, who received a promotion from divisional command due to his skill at Bull Run. Thomas placed James McPherson in command of the IV Corps, which had formerly been commanded by Thomas. Thus, the four Corps commanders were John Sedgwick (I), Philip Kearney (II), Winfield S. Hancock (III), and James McPherson (IV).

Thomas’s plan took the plan for Sumner’s Corps and expanded it to include 100,000 men and the entirety of the Virginia peninsula. The Army of Virginia (renamed from Army of the Potomac) would land at Fort Monroe, then advance north. The combined army would first take Yorktown, then Williamsburg. Thomas hoped to score a decisive victory at either of the two cities and weaken Longstreet’s army enough to prevent a proper defense from forming in Richmond. Thomas, working in conjunction with the navy, planned to have a fleet of eleven turret ironbacks force the defenses on the James River and probe the fortifications of Richmond.

Thomas also arranged for a large number of transports to be readied to transport the II Corps across the Chickahominy River, so as to avoid the disaster that Sumner suffered when he was unable to rapidly cross the rain-swollen river. Fortunately, the weather of Spring 1859 was rather dry, with no heavy rains and occasional light showering. Nevertheless, Thomas planned for the event of a flood. After crossing the Chickahominy, Thomas planned to advance to the outskirts of Richmond, where he would engage Longstreet’s Army of Virginia and take the city. Even the most cursory of reconnaissance would reveal that Richmond had been heavily fortified by the Confederate government, ringed with trenches and artillery redoubts. In reality, despite the defenses set up by General Magruder and the 50,000 men stationed in and around the Confederate capital, the strong Union presence in Manassas and the arrival of a Union Corps threatening the Shenandoah Valley worried President Quitman and his cabinet, and preparations were made for transferring the government south, with Montgomery, Atlanta, Columbia, and Raleigh all considered as new capitals. Three trains were gathered to transport the President, Cabinet and Congress, and half of the Confederate money reserves, as well as Vice-President Howell Cobb were transferred south to Raleigh as a precaution, to secure both the ability of the government to finance the army and to ensure the continuance of government should the rest of the cabinet be captured.

While General Thomas was given a large number of reinforcements that brought his numbers up to equal the size of Nathaniel Banks’s army in 1858, James Longstreet had only 65,000 men, and that number was only reached with the arrival of 10,000 in reinforcements and conscripts from the Carolinas and Virginia itself to offset the losses sustained at Bull Run. Longstreet was heavily constricted in his operations by two factors: one, President Quitman wanted Richmond held at all costs, as Virginia was a major source of manpower, food, and money for the Confederate government and losing Richmond, and by extension Virginia, would be an utter disaster. While tax collection efforts and recruitment drives were stepped up in the rest of the unoccupied south, President Quitman instructed Longstreet to respond to any Union advance on Richmond with a ferocious counterattack.

The first Union troops set foot on the Peninsula on the morning of June 7th, with the entirety of the army having completed disembarking from the transports by the end of June 8th. After an additional day and a half spent organizing the hundred thousand men on the peninsula, the Army of Virginia set out on June 9th for Williamsburg and Yorktown, while frantic messages were sent off to Richmond to alert Longstreet that “the Yanks are coming! The Yanks are coming!” Longstreet met with President Quitman, who ordered him to strike Thomas’s army aggressively. Longstreet protested strongly, arguing that since he had at his disposal only 65% of the Union army and his reinforcements were held up, the best strategy was to remain on the defensive, concentrate the forces in Richmond, and savage Thomas’s forces when he arrived. When Longstreet refused, an argument ensued that resulted in Quitman angrily removing General Longstreet from command and replacing him with one of Longstreet’s Corps Commanders, Richard S. Ewell. Ewell departed immediately with his new army, planning to engage the Union at Williamsburg, as reports indicated that the Union was only halfway to Yorktown, which gave Ewell time to, if he hurried, arrive in Williamsburg before Thomas and attack.

Unfortunately for Ewell, the disorganization caused by Longstreet’s sudden replacement delayed the arrival of the Confederate army, with Ewell arriving in Williamsburg at the same time as General Thomas, on June 19th. Thomas had already taken Yorktown, whose mayor had surrendered without a fight on June 14th.

Thomas approached from the south, with his full 100,000-man army, and arrayed his forces in a line along the south end of the battlefield, and across the Government and Penniman Roads that ran north-south on the battlefield. Ewell approached from the north, with his three corps spreading out as they advanced to protect the flanks from attack. Despite this precaution, Ewell went into the Second Battle of Williamsburg [4] incredibly nervous, with his numerical inferiority being the main cause of this anxiety. The two forces began exchanging fire at 10:07 in the morning, with the first shots fired on the east of the battlefield. As the Union and Confederate armies came into closer contact, fighting intensified between Hancock’s III Corps and Jubal Early’s II Corps, on what was the Confederate left flank. Despite fierce resistance from Early, Hancock’s superior numbers proved decisive and he outflanked and defeated the Confederate II Corps. With the II Corps falling back, pressure was placed upon the other two Confederate Corps to shift and prevent a flanking assault. Despite Ewell’s orders to consolidate the lines and form a broad U-shape to guard the flanks, confusion spread as Philip Kearney launched an attack on the Confederate right flank right as the Confederates were moving to consolidate. Kearney’s attack caused a disorganized withdrawal of the Confederate III Corps to Ewell’s new lines. Meanwhile, Hancock renewed his offensive, wheeling fully around and pummeling the front and flank of Early’s Corps. As the II Corps began to lose cohesion, Hancock dispatched two divisions to cut off Early’s line of retreat, which was easily accomplished. The II Corps disintegrated in the ensuing fight, prompting Kearney to wheel around the right flank and attack A.P. Hill’s Corps. Sedgwick and McPherson to launch frontal attacks on the I Corps, which had up until then remained relatively safe from the battle. Kearney’s wheeling was only weakly opposed by the much smaller foe, and A.P. Hill’s Corps found itself crumbling under the weight of the Union assault. As his army was destroyed before his eyes, Ewell ordered a retreat and the I Corps, commanded by Richard Anderson, extricated itself, albeit with difficulty, from the assaults of Sedgwick and McPherson.

In less than a day, an entire Confederate army had been wrecked. Two Corps had been so savaged that they could not possibly be reconstituted or replenished, and the third had taken heavy losses. The remaining 25,000 men of Richard Ewell’s army limped back into Richmond on June 30th, with the Union Army in a methodical pursuit. When Quitman learned of the disaster that had befallen Ewell at Second Williamsburg, he furiously removed him from command, before begging James Longstreet to return and organize a defense of Richmond, for the threat of the city’s fall to the Union loomed larger than ever before. Longstreet reluctantly agreed, writing in his memoir, “I felt I had to, though it seemed to me that given the events at Williamsburg, our army was much too weak to offer any meaningful resistance. It was more a matter of honoring my oath to the Confederacy and doing my duty than any real belief in victory. I told him [President Quitman] to prepare for an evacuation, as I did not believe the city could be defended.” Longstreet’s view, pessimistic though it was, was an accurate judgement of the situation – the Confederacy’s loss of Richmond was not a matter of if, but when.

On August 5th, the first Union flags and crisp blue uniforms were spotted as they came over the horizon, standing in stark contrast to the powder-scorched Stars-and-Bars and ragged grey uniforms of the Confederate sentries who spotted the Union men. President Quitman and his cabinet boarded their waiting train and took off at the fastest safe speed for North Carolina. Soldiers worked to load the bullion still left in Richmond on board the waiting train, but the process was slow given the weight of the bullion and the distance between the treasury and the train station. While the government fled, General Thomas ordered his artillery batteries to fire on the Confederate redoubts and earthen forts. The barrage ended after an hour, having destroyed several blocks within Richmond and flattened two of the earthen forts. The south end of the Confederate line began to buckle as Sedgwick’s I Corps advanced, and finally collapsed after a Union charge broke through. Sedgwick rolled up the entire south, cutting off Richmond from its rail connection to Petersburg. As the rest of the Union army broke through and rushed towards the city itself, a Union company secured the bridge carrying the railroad from Richmond to Petersburg and halted a train that had been approaching. When it was searched, the Union men discovered crates and crates of gold bullion. A Confederate soldier who had been guarding the cargo informed them that this was half of the Confederacy’s treasury reserves and had been headed for Raleigh when the train was stopped. To the north, James Longstreet surrendered the tattered remnants of his army to George Thomas, who was now in possession of the capital of the Confederate States of America. The Stars-and-Bars were torn down from the Confederate capitol building, and the Stars-and-Stripes fluttered once more over the city of Richmond. After a celebratory parade through downtown, Thomas turned over administration of Richmond to the Virginian government in exile, which was based in Alexandria. Shortly after the fall of Richmond, James McPherson led a small expedition that captured Petersburg and John Reynolds secured the Shenandoah after the Confederate forces there learned of Richmond’s fall and fled south to North Carolina. Virginia had, except for a few border counties, been returned to the Union fold. The Union victory was celebrated across the north, with the New York Times declaring the day after Richmond’s fall “The Union is Saved! Rebel Capital Falls.” President Fremont predicted to the Freedom Party’s Congressional leadership, “we have struck a decisive blow against the rebels, and I believe I can safely predict our inevitable victory over the secessionists. The whole of the south shall, hopefully, be returned to our control by the end of the year.”

When President Quitman read the telegram informing him of the bullion’s capture, he had a heart attack and collapsed. As Quitman lingered in a coma, his cabinet squabbled over how to continue the war, as desperation and panic set in and unrest grew in the deep south…”

From “A History of the States” by Evan Q. Jones
Published 2008

“With Richmond once again in Union hands, the Unionist government of Virginia split over the future of the state. The north of Virginia, which had spent almost the entirety of the war under Unionist administration, wished to remain with the Unionist government, led by Governor Arthur I. Boreman. However, the south of Virginia, especially Norfolk and the recently captured Richmond, Petersburg, and Newport News, soon chafed under Appalachian leadership and appealed to Fremont to allow some sort of division between the north and south of Virginia. After several weeks of negotiation, in which proposals to create an Appalachian state in the counties that voted against secession, and a proposal for a “State Unity Government” that kept the whole state united, were both rejected, a settlement was reached. From the Rappahannock River north, the state of Vandalia was created, which consisted of both the Appalachian region of former Virginia and the cities of Alexandria, Arlington, and Manassas. South of the Rappahannock lay the reduced state of Virginia, with the cities of Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, and Newport News, as well as the Virginian section of the Delmarva peninsula. Vandalia was immediately admitted as a state, while Virginia, given that most of its counties supported secession, was placed under military occupation.”

From “The War in the West” by Grant Gage
Published 1965

“1859 was the year of tragedy, an annus horribilis, for the Confederate States of America. Richmond fell in the East, and in the West, Vicksburg was lost. After the Union occupation of Kentucky and Tennessee and the capture of New Orleans, President Fremont directed the two main Union generals in the west, Ulysses S. Grant and Richard Taylor, to move against Vicksburg. The two planned to towards each other along the Mississippi River and link up at Vicksburg. Taylor was to move north from Baton Rouge and take Vicksburg. Grant was to secure the north of the Mississippi, including areas such as Arkansas Post, and move south once Taylor had begun his siege of Vicksburg.

Taylor opened his campaign by marching upriver with his newly enlarged 50,000-man Army of Louisiana to besiege Port Hudson. Port Hudson lay 20 miles northwest of Baton Rouge and was a major Confederate port and stronghold on the lower Mississippi. Port Hudson was situated in an area perfect for defense, surrounded by hills, ridges, forested ravines, and swamps. The waterfront was, despite its location on an 80-foot bluff, a major cotton and sugar shipping center. While the Confederate commander, Warren Dawes [5] awaited reinforcements from Simon Bolivar Buckner [6], Taylor marched north from Baton Rouge to besiege Port Hudson. As Taylor neared Port Hudson, Admiral Farragut attacked the waterfront with a flotilla of sixteen ships (three sloops-of-war, five ironbacks, three turret ships, and five gunboats). He was opposed by seven Confederate batteries built along the bluffs near Port Hudson. The naval skirmish saw the Union fleet pass by Port Hudson in the night, as the Confederate guns were placed so as to make it difficult to hit vessels sailing by the bluffs. On the Union side, Farragut was able to knock out two of the seven batteries (including No. 5, which fired hot shot), though he was forced to withdraw as dawn broke and the Confederate gunner’s accuracy improved.

In the aftermath of Farragut’s moderately successful attack by sea, Taylor brought the Army of Louisiana up from its camp and began encircling Port Hudson. The final route leading into and out of the town was blocked after Taylor’s victory in the Battle of Springfield Road. Port Hudson was completely surrounded and cut off.

Taylor hoped to achieve a quick victory so he could proceed north to Vicksburg, but he faced a difficult target. Not only was Port Hudson well-defended by Mother Nature, but the Confederates had constructed earthen fortifications, complete with artillery lunettes to ward off infantry assaults. Taylor knew it would be suicide to attempt such an attack, and being well-read in classical warfare and tactics, decided to consult his books on the famous 17th century French General, Vauban [7]. Taylor elected to utilize a tactic called the “siege parallel”, which meant the digging of three parallel trenches near the defenses of Port Hudson, and using the dirt excavated to build walls protecting the trenches. Artillery would be placed into these trenches and used to bring down the walls of the enemy fortifications and create a breach for the infantry to storm into. There were three fortifications along the north wall that Taylor decided to target: Bull Pen, the Commissary Hill battery, and Fort Desperate. An assault in this direction placed Taylor’s army the shortest distance from the village of Port Hudson and the Port Hudson and Clinton Railroad. Digging commenced on January 17th, and the trenches were finished the next week, with the artillery fully in place by January 28th. “Gibraltar” Taylor began bombarding the walls of Port Hudson that same day. After five days straight of bombarding the earthen walls of Port Hudson’s defenses, three breaches were secured on February 2nd, and Taylor immediately capitalized. Three divisions were ordered through the gaps, and after several hours of fierce fighting, the breaches were secured, and the rest of the Union army poured through. By the end of the day on the 3rd, Port Hudson had fallen, and General Dawes surrendered his army and Port Hudson to Taylor. After the arrival of Albert Sidney Johnson and his army to garrison Port Hudson and campaign up the Red River, Taylor left and headed north to reduce Vicksburg.

While Richard Taylor laid siege to Port Hudson, Ulysses S. Grant swept from the north down. His first assault was directed against Arkansas, to secure the mouth of the Arkansas River. The Battle of Helena was a brief, two-day affair, and Grant successfully forced the surrender of the 5,000-man Confederate garrison. Since Richard Taylor was working his way north to Vicksburg, Grant decided to move against Little Rock, marching up the Arkansas River to take Arkansas Post. Here, he was halted by two things: his defeat at the Battle of Fort Hindman, and the capture of a large portion of his supplies in one of Earl van Dorn’s raids. Grant was thus unable to advance any further upriver, and he withdrew to Helena to replenish his supplies. After several weeks in Helena, and having received word that Taylor had reached Vicksburg, Grant elected to abandon any plans of occupying Arkansas and moved south to support the siege.

The Mississippi River was mostly under the control of the Confederacy, and the Confederate Army of the Mississippi maintained several batteries along the river, making it difficult to cross. Taylor wished to avoid having to run the guns of the many forts, and so decided to find an alternate route to cross the river. Vicksburg lay at the confluence of the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, which together formed the wealthy cotton-producing Mississippi Delta. Taylor decided to reroute the Mississippi to take the course of the river away from Confederate guns. As he wrote in his memoir: “I knew of the De Soto Peninsula near Delta since my days managing my father’s Louisiana plantation. My engineering chief, Brigadier General Barnard, suggested the diversion of the Mississippi River through a canal in the peninsula, which would allow our transports and ironbacks to navigate the river and avoid the formidable guns of Vicksburg.” Taylor’s army had been hounded by contraband slaves who had flocked to his camp when news reached them of Fremont’s Emancipation Declaration, though he had been reluctant to do anything with them. Now, he hired most of them as workers to dig the proposed canal, to supplement his own soldiers. The canal was to be dug to a depth of 12 feet and a width of 18, and dams were to be constructed at either end to allow the safe construction of the canal. Work commenced on March 11th, after a rise in the water level allowed the arrival of a guarding fleet. Once the dams were finished, work began and Taylor brought in not only most of his army, but over 3,000 contraband slaves that had either followed his army after the Emancipation Declaration or were gathered from the surrounding plantations.

The canal was finished after over a month and a half of nonstop work, and Taylor ordered the dams dynamited on April 29th, flooding the finished canal. Though the canal did not, as Taylor hoped, leave Vicksburg without river access, the river flowed into the artificial channel with enough speed so as to keep it from silting up, and now Union ships could pass Vicksburg without having to round the De Soto Peninsula (now an island). On June 9th, the first Union transports passed through the canal, and General Taylor began landing his army on the eastern bank, just south of Vicksburg. Moving rapidly, Taylor encircled and trapped Simon B. Buckner and his army in Vicksburg. The Confederate defenses were, similar to Port Hudson, a chain of walls and forts. Unlike Port Hudson, Vicksburg’s defenses were more complex, with lunettes, gun batteries, trenches, and redoubts. Unlike Port Hudson, where Taylor was able to close in on the fortifications, Vicksburg’s defenses were built along a series of steep hills that made it much more difficult to storm the fortifications. Taylor decided to, rather than dig artillery trenches and try to open a breach that way, dig tunnels under major redoubts and forts and blow up the tunnels. The Army of Louisiana’s engineer division, with the aid of the II Corp’s Second Division, began tunneling beneath the redans [8] along the north of Vicksburg, with the three principle targets being the Stockade Redan, Green’s Redan, and the 6th Louisiana Redan. The sappers had to excavate slowly, lest the defenders hear them and prevent the completion of the tunnel. While excavation began on June 14th, it took over two weeks to dig under the three Redans and pack them with dynamite and gunpowder, but by June 30th, everything was in place for the detonation of the mines and the storming of Vicksburg’s defenses. On July 1st, Taylor gave the order to blow the mines. Three huge clouds of smoke and dust rose into the sky, above three craters where the Redans used to be.

Into the rubble and smoke rushed the Union army, four divisions to a crater. Vicious close-quarters combat ensued as the Union attackers and Confederate defenders fought for each square foot of ground. Ultimately, as Union reinforcements rushed in to offset the casualties, the balance tipped decisively in favor of the Union, and the attackers pushed the Confederates back out of the craters and behind the defensive perimeters. The Battle of the Craters exhausted both sides, and fighting did not resume until the following morning, with the arrival of more Union reinforcements. On the 2nd, Buckner launched a counterattack against the Union forces within the walls of Vicksburg, but this was repulsed, with heavy casualties on both sides. As the Confederates licked their wounds, the reinforced Union army pressed further into Vicksburg, driving back the defenders. At 5:12 pm on July 3rd, Simon B. Buckner surrendered his army to Richard Taylor, delivering Vicksburg into Union hands. Taylor sent a letter to President Fremont, telling him: “We celebrated our glorious Union’s independence today, the Fourth, and we have also celebrated its preservation. I deliver to you the city of Vicksburg as a gift on the occasion of the National birthday.” With Vicksburg in Union hands, all Confederate trade on the Mississippi River was halted, as was communication between the Confederate forces in the western theater, under Braxton Bragg, and the armies of the Trans-Mississippi. While Taylor was brought east, to Nashville, Nathan Bedford Forrest set out from his camps in Arkansas and Missouri to wreak havoc across Kansas…”

[1] Since Bull Run has shown that the Confederacy cannot in its present state take Washington, Thomas is given much more in the way of troops, as there is not such a pressing need to garrison the capital.
[2] A direct parallel to OTL’s Peninsula Campaign, where McClellan’s reinforcements were prevented from arriving due to Stonewall Jackson’s campaigning.
[3] Fremont is persuaded to retain McClellan in some sort of Army role to prevent continued Democratic opposition. I think McClellan was an excellent organizer and will be a great help to the war effort in this role.
[4] The First Battle of Williamsburg was fought by Sumner’s Corps during the James River Campaign.
[5] Fictional
[6] The commander of troops along the Mississippi.
[7] Taylor was an avid reader of military history and spent most of his time in Harvard and Yale reading up on tactics and strategy. In his memoir, he frequently references historical battles and Generals.
[8] A Redan is an unenclosed redoubt.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!

 

[TheHedgehog]

Torch and Sword

From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert
Published 1973

“With the Mississippi River under total Union control, Richard Taylor was directed east, to Nashville. The city lay on the frontline between the Union and Confederate controlled halves of Tennessee. Pressure had increased on President Fremont, and by extension the army, to liberate the Appalachian counties with lobbying from William G. Brownlow (who had been promised the military governorship of the region by Fremont). Disappointed at the lack of focus on Tennessee, and the lack of any formal action to separate the eastern reaches from Andrew Johnson’s government, Brownlow repeatedly called upon the Administration to honor its end of the bargain. With the twin victories at Richmond and Vicksburg, Fremont felt confident enough to order Richard Taylor west to assume command of the 50,000 troops located in Tennessee, as well as over 40,000 in recently recruited reinforcements. Fremont promised Brownlow that, once the rest of Tennessee was taken, the land would be formed into a new state. As Fremont said in a letter to Brownlow: “Victory is assured, with the army in the hands of General Taylor, and once victory is had, Franklin will be created.”

… The Union army in Tennessee had languished in garrison duties after the fall of Nashville, as resources were reallocated to the fronts in Virginia and the Mississippi. However, with breakthroughs elsewhere, President Fremont believed it was time to strike into the very heart of the Confederacy. As he told Vice-President Lincoln, “we will strike into the very heart of the rebels, where their industries, railroads, and merchants are concentrated. I have no doubt that the secessionists will not last much longer in this war.” Taylor was directed to take Knoxville and Chattanooga, the last two major Tennessee cities still in Confederate hands. Chattanooga was an especially important target, given its close proximity to the rail-hub of Atlanta and its status as the site of Tennessee’s state government. Further, Chattanooga served as a transportation nexus in its own right, connecting the arsenals of Georgia to the rest of the Confederacy and facilitating the transport of raw materials vital to munitions production.

Taylor planned to focus his efforts on Chattanooga, though he detached the IV Corps (which had about 20,000 men), under George Meade, to move against, and hopefully capture, Knoxville, another important railroad hub. Taylor also routed a further 30,000 reinforcements, commanded by Daniel Sickles [1], to aid Meade at Knoxville [2]. The bulk of the Army of Tennessee, however, was directed at Chattanooga, which Taylor hoped to capture without a siege.

Chattanooga sits across a bend in the Tennessee River, between two ridges (Walden on the north bank, four miles north of the city, and Missionary, four miles south-east, on the south bank). The Nashville & Chattanooga, Western & Atlantic, and Trenton Railroads all converge in the downtown, north-east of Moccasin Point on the south bank of the Tennessee. The Confederate troops had constructed several earthwork fortifications along the waterfront, complete with redoubts and artillery batteries.

Taylor hoped to draw out Braxton Bragg and his 50,000 men from their camps in Chattanooga, and do battle north of the city, with the goal of crushing the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, which would leave the city totally undefended. As Taylor and his 70,000 men approached the Tennessee River, Braxton Bragg ordered his army north to face the Union. This was partially motivated by Bragg’s preference for constant offensive action, and partially by the fear that inaction would spell doom for the Confederate war effort. Taylor marched south from Murfreesboro, capturing several towns south of that city with little opposition. Meanwhile, Bragg had, upon learning of the Union offensive south, left his camp at Tullahoma and headed north-west to halt Taylor. The two armies met near the town of Shelbyville, though by nature of the town’s proximity to Murfreesboro, Taylor had succeeded in occupying it prior to meeting Bragg along the north bank of the Duck River on September 23rd, 1859.

Bragg, coming from the south, had crossed the river to face Taylor, and so entered the Battle of Shelbyville with his back to it. He had three corps under his command, the I Corps under Leonidas Polk, which covered the right flank, the II Corps under Alexander P. Stewart in the center, and the II Corps under Stephen D. Lee on the left. Taylor had been caught somewhat by surprise by the reports of Bragg’s march north, as he had expected his foe to intercept Taylor on the south bank of the Duck River, where it would by the Union with its back to the river. As Taylor himself wrote in his acclaimed memoirs: “Even knowing General Bragg’s preference for aggressive action in the field, I still found myself surprised at his decision to meet my army on the north bank of the Duck River. If I had been in his shoes, I would have forced the enemy to cross south, and trap them against the river. Instead, he came to me and I trapped him on the north shore.” For his part, Taylor placed his I Corps, commanded by Joseph Hooker, on the right. The II Corps, under John A. Logan, took up the center of Taylor’s lines, while the III Corps, commanded by Henry Price [3] occupied the left flank.

The battle began in earnest when Bragg advanced and his left flank exchanged fire with Taylor’s right. After about fifteen minutes of rifle volleys, Leonidas Polk attacked, moving his entire army to exploit the right side of Price’s Corps, near the Union center. The division in this section of the Union lines was a composition of equal numbers US Colored Brigades and new recruits. Polk both assumed the Colored Brigades would crumble under pressure and thought that fresh troops would do the same. Thus, he ordered the First and Second Divisions to launch a mass assault. Initially, Polk held the upper hand as the Confederate charges surprised the Union men and they fell back. However, the Confederates were halted as the Union soldiers were able to stop and hold their ground, while General Price changed his plans. He sent word to Taylor and John Logan, the commander of the center, to inform them of the situation between the left and the center. Price and Logan both shifted their corps to prevent Polk from piercing their lines, with the left and center pivoting to form a V-shape. Polk, seeing the Union flank pivoting towards his own, gave the order to fall back. This was too late, however, to prevent Price from encircling half of the Confederate divisions that charged after the Colored Troops, or to prevent him from attacking Polk’s flank. Having suffered nearly 7,000 dead and many more wounded, Polk pulled back, but remained on the field.

Furious at his subordinate’s disrespect, Bragg sent direct orders to each of Polk’s three divisional commanders to hold the line. It was too late to salvage a victory, however, for Polk’s actions had left a gap in the Confederate lines, which Henry Price exploited with ferocity. Facing the potential destruction of his army, Bragg ordered a retreat and the Confederate army withdrew from the field, bloodied and battered.

Taylor gave pursuit, chasing Bragg all the way back to his headquarters at Tullahoma. There, they did battle once more. While there were no dramatic charges, rallies, flanking maneuvers or insubordination (perhaps why the Battle of Shelbyville was turned into a blockbuster war drama, but Tullahoma was not), the Battle of Tullahoma was a resounding Confederate defeat, with Bragg suffering 11,000 casualties, on top of the 9,000 sustained at Shelbyville. Now, with his army at just 39,000 men, Bragg fled back to Chattanooga to try and defend the city. A third battle between Taylor and Bragg was fought on October 15th, at the junction of the Tennessee and Sequatchie Rivers south of Jasper, TN. The Battle of Jasper began when Taylor caught up to Bragg along the road to Chattanooga, forcing Bragg to engage him. Despite suffering heavy casualties from Union attacks, which nearly outflanked Stephen D. Lee’s Corps, Bragg was able to escape from the battle, though he left behind the bodies of 4,000 dead and 6,000 wounded.

Taylor followed Bragg all the way to Chattanooga after Shelbyville, Tullahoma, and Jasper. While Bragg’s men rushed to man the earthworks and redoubts built in and around the city, Taylor began constructing siege equipment on the high ground to the north of the city. In the Confederate army camp, Bragg convened a war council with his Generals (minus Polk, who had been quietly relieved and replaced with John Bell Hood at his headquarters, a townhouse near the train station. Bragg began the meeting by laying out his plans for the coming siege. “Taylor will besiege us, that is for certain,” the Confederate said, as recorded by Hood. “We must stand and fight and bleed the damnyankees as dry as we possibly can. I have no doubt we can repel their attacks with our earthworks and with soldiers of great caliber.” Hood eagerly supported Bragg’s plan, but the other Corps commanders were far more skeptical. Alexander P. Stewart opposed remaining in Chattanooga, instead proposing that “we burn the armories, rip up the train tracks, and destroy the docks, before withdrawing to Dalton. There, we can regroup and conserve our strength. Our defeats to the west make holding here untenable. The best we can hope for is to prevent Atlanta from suffering the same fate as Chattanooga and Knoxville.” Though Bragg initially denounced this as “defeatism of the worst sort”, he was eventually persuaded to abandon Chattanooga. That night, tents were broken down, whatever cannon couldn’t be transported spiked, whatever guns and ammunition that couldn’t be moved burned the rail depot and wharves put to the torch, and the rail tracks leading south ripped up and left in twisted piles. Once anything of military value was destroyed, Bragg and his army withdrew south to Dalton, Georgia, where he arrived on October 23rd. Chattanooga was captured by the Union shortly after, and Taylor put the engineers to work rebuilding the city’s rail infrastructure. In the meantime, there was little Taylor could do to take Atlanta without putting his supply lines in jeopardy.”

From “The Wild Wild West” by William Smith-Warburton
Published 1998

“Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brilliant raider. After making his fortune in slave trading and cotton planting, he enlisted in the cavalry as a private when the war began. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a General, all by 1858. The next year, Braxton Bragg, worried about Forrest’s ambition and rising stature within both the Army and the Confederate government, gave Forrest command of his own cavalry corps and ordered him to “raise hell in Kansas”. Forrest eagerly accepted, despite understanding that Bragg simply wanted him gone from Tennessee, and began preparing his campaign.

As Vicksburg had not yet been besieged when Forrest launched his expedition, he was able to slip across just north of the city and marched north through Arkansas. The general strategy was to gather recruits as they traveled through southern Kansas, then cut a swath through northern Kansas, looting and pillaging, then cross into northern Missouri, recruit more soldiers, and burn, loot, and pillage as Forrest went south and returned to Arkansas. It was a daring, almost dangerously bold plan, but Bragg hurriedly approved it, if only to get rid of Forrest. Forrest’s Corps, named the Army of Kansas, was more of a division and consisted of 5,000 cavalrymen. Forrest rode off west with little supplies beyond ammunition, with his goal being to feed the men and horses from the generosity of Southerners and from looting Yankee settlements.

Forrest stopped off in Little Rock to rest and feed his men and horses, before sallying forth once more and crossing into Kansas proper. He established his headquarters in Lecompton, while dispatching his men in groups of 1-200 north. While General Sherman pondered how best to deal with what was essentially an enormous, government-sanctioned bushwhacker army, Forrest arrived at the first of many ill-fated homesteads and settlements. Willistown had been founded in 1853 by a group of 32 settlers from New Hampshire, and named after their leader, a farmer named John Willis, though it was now a town of 300. On August 16th, Forrest and 400 of his horsemen rode into the settlement and, after slaughtering the livestock and stealing weapons, they killed 23 men and women and burned down the entire settlement, houses, barns, stores, the church, and fields, before riding off north to wreak even more havoc. One settler recalled that, “they rode in on their fearsome horses, and went from house to house. They came to my house and seized us. They took our pigs and chickens and set fire to our barn. They torched the fields, the house, everything. By the time they left to rampage elsewhere, there was nothing but embers and ash.”

Next, Forrest sacked and burned first Freetown and then Topeka (which was widely covered in Northern newspapers, given Topeka’s status as a major Kansan municipality), killing over sixty between the two, making off with valuables and destroying anything they couldn’t carry. As Forrest continued to press north, leaving a trail of destruction behind him, General Sherman worked to counter him. An initial attempt to defeat Forrest by conventional means failed in the Battle of Manhattan, where 1,000 Union troops succeeded in killing 200 raiders, but failed to prevent their raid or their escape. Sherman changed tactics, telling his trusted subordinate General Crandell, “If we can’t destroy them, we can deny them the ability to destroy us.” And so, General Order No. 66 was born. Built upon Sherman’s operating theory, that “we must make them feel the hard hand of war. We must drive them to disease and starvation,” Order No. 66 called for the Union to burn fields and slaughter livestock, to deny the enemy the advantage. Union troops were to requisition foodstuffs, animals, and weapons from homesteads (with compensation, as the Order mandated), and destroy anything they couldn’t use. The order was extended to not just the north, where Forrest was storming through, but the areas near Missouri where Forrest’s raiders had made their base. There were 15,000 Union soldiers in Kansas and Missouri, of which Sherman could use 8,000 to counter Forrest’s raids, while 7,000 were tied up in garrisoning forts and key settlements.

The first use of Order No. 66 was at the settlement of Pottawatomie Creek, where Union soldiers “requisitioned” livestock and weapons, before leaving. The next Union raid was conducted by Kansas Territorial militia, who lacked the restraint of the Union soldiers and instead of simply taking foodstuffs, burned the town of Brooks to the ground and killing ten men accused of being bushwhackers. In retaliation, Forrest began cooperating closely with the bushwhackers of Red Bill Quantrill in attacking Free-Stater settlements. After Kansas militia razed Osage City to the ground, Forrest’s Raiders sacked Osawatomie. However, despite escalating brutality, with Sherman authorizing Union soldiers to burn the homes of “those Settlers who resist the requisitioning of supplies for the Army” and the destruction of fields in September, the Union counter-insurgency tactics began to take their toll on Forrest’s Raiders. By mid-October, Lecompton was one of the few Vagabonder settlements that hadn’t been burnt, making it increasingly difficult to raid north in secrecy. Faced with the real possibility that the Raiders would be forced to concentrate in Lecompton, where Sherman could easily destroy them, Forrest decided to set out for greener pastures and join the guerillas in Missouri to fight the Union garrisons there. By November 4th, 1859, the last of Forrest’s Raiders had abandoned Lecompton and slipped across the border into southern Missouri. The Harrowing had left Kansas, but Missouri was about to bleed…”

“From “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate States of America” by Ralph Cairns
Published 2001

“If you were to sit in a meeting of the Confederate Cabinet in its Charlotte exile, you would see wild stacks of paper, piles of rumpled maps, and the red faces of the Cabinet members. With President John Quitman in a coma, Vice-President Howell Cobb was declared Acting President. Cobb was not, however, able to keep the cabinet from infighting like Quitman had. Of course, a some of that had been due to Quitman’s fiery speeches and monologues to his Cabinet, but Cobb was well-liked and viewed as a capable mediator. The real reason for the increasing factionalism, tensions with the Confederate Congress and Governors, and infighting was the increasingly dire situation the Confederate States of America found itself in. Virginia had fallen, the Mississippi had been wrested away, and Union armies were poised to strike through Georgia, all the way to the Atlantic.

The loss of Virginia was the worst of these three disasters by far. The loss of manpower and tax income was viewed as critical to the survival of the Confederacy, and so War Secretary Davis proposed two new policies: one, the passage of a National Conscription Act like the one passed by the Union Congress in 1858 after the James River Campaign, and two, the imposition of new taxes that would fall most heavily on yeoman farmers and that could be paid either in cash or in kind (i.e. in goods rather than Confederate Dollars). While, prior to the Battle of Seven Pines [4] in Richmond, the army had been kept up to proper strength by a steady stream of volunteers, the collapse of the Confederate position in Virginia and the fall of Vicksburg caused not only a sudden fall in the number of volunteers as Southerners succumbed to defeatism and war exhaustion, but also a flood of desertions as soldiers fled to their homes to defend their families and farms. The now-optimistically named Army of Virginia [5], rudderless with a despondent Longstreet and four commanders in three years, had shrunk from its Seven Pines size of 25,000 to 17,000 as a result of both casualties sustained in the battle and the wave of desertions that followed. The Conscription Act implemented a draft of five years on all men between the ages of 17 and 40, though with a few noticeable exceptions that helped make the Act as unpopular as it did. First, any draftee could hire a substitute, allowing wealthy planters’ sons to escape service. Second, and more overtly favoring the landed class, was the Twenty Negro Provision. The Twenty Negro Provision exempted one white man from service for every twenty slaves on a plantation. Intended to assuage mounting fears that, with the Union army’s recruitment of colored troops and the implementation of Fremont’s Emancipation Declaration, there would be mass slave uprisings in the home front.

The Conscription Act was, even before its arrival in the Confederate Congress, faced with stiff opposition within the Cabinet. Attorney General Alexander Stephens was the most vocal in criticizing Davis’s proposal, calling it “in opposition to the very ideals this nation is built upon.” Despite fierce resistance from Stephens and his allies in Congress, the Conscription Act was passed by first the House, and then the Senate, and was finally signed into law on October 24th by Acting President Cobb. The proposed tax hike was enacted three days later.

Bragg’s burning of and retreat from Chattanooga and food shortages resultant from supply problems only exacerbated the unrest brought on by the Conscription Act and new taxes. While 40,000 troops were conscripted in Mississippi and Alabama for the Army of Georgia, one-tenth of that number later deserted. 47,000 were drafted in North and South Carolina for the defense of those states, but 6,000 deserted their posts. As a warning to conscripts, Army officials were instructed to “burn the farms and homes of those who desert, to make an example of them and dissuade others from following down the path of desertion.” Rather than decrease the desertion rate, like Davis and his (increasingly few) allies had intended, it simply led to open, if minor, rebellions against the government. In Jones County, Mississippi, a deserter from the Siege of Vicksburg named Newton Knight led a rebellion of deserters that fought both army officials and tax collectors, distributing seized food among the people of the county. Knight even went so far as to declare the county’s secession from the Confederacy, resulting in the Free State of Jones becoming national news in not just the Confederacy, but across the north. Several newspapers hailed him as “the Southron Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to feed the poor”. Several other counties declared secession from the Confederacy (some led by deserters, others by Southern Unionist politicians), including the Free State of Winston in Winston County, the Republic of Nickajack in northern Alabama, and the Free Republic of Watauga in north-western North Carolina. These rebellions never posed serious threats to the Confederate government, but nevertheless served to illustrate the increasingly precarious position of the Confederate government.

… Though, before the fall of Chattanooga, Cobb had delegated increasing power to the Cabinet, especially to Attorney General Stephens and Secretary of War Davis, now he found he was sidelined by more dominant personalities. In particular, Alexander Stephens and Jefferson Davis began to feud over the new conscription laws, tax increases, and military strategy. It began when Stephens rose during a Cabinet meeting discussing the spreading Deserter’s Rebellions in the lower South and declared “we cannot hope to maintain the Confederacy, we cannot hope to maintain the support of our fellow Southerners, with these tyrannical conscription laws and taxes. They alienate those who would support us and drive them into the arms of the Negros and Yankees. These measures make us no different than our enemy.” Davis angrily countered that the laws were absolutely vital for the war effort, saying “how could you, or any of us here, jeopardize the survival of the Confederacy with such talk? In war, we must make sacrifices. Sacrifices of not just lives, but of ideals. We are in a war, a war to the death. If we are to win, we must make such sacrifices as these. Surely, Attorney General Stephens, you would not want us to lose?”

Davis’s vicious response did nothing to calm tensions in the Cabinet, despite Acting President Cobb’s support for the “emergency wartime measures”. Stephens called Davis a “traitor to the ideals of the nation” in response. He assembled an alliance of several state governors, as well as prominent Senators, to attack Davis and his reputation. Under increasing scrutiny for his handling of the increasingly moribund war effort, Jefferson Davis resigned his position on November 27th, 1859, and was promptly replaced with Judah. P. Benjamin, a Senator from Louisiana and one of Davis’s few remaining supporters. Cobb, at Secretary Benjamin’s urging and Davis’s request, gave Davis command over the re-named Army of Georgia (taking over from a sacked Bragg) and bestowed upon him the rank of General. With Richard Taylor wielding a Sword of Damocles over Atlanta, it was up to Davis to try and save the South.”

[1] TTL, Sickles is given a commission by Fremont at the urging of War Democrats, who partly want to get rid of him and partly to get a Democrat into a position of command in the army. He’s still an incompetent, arrogant moron, though.
[2] While not mentioned here, Knoxville falls to the Union, virtually without a shot. Also not mentioned, Franklin is ceded by the Tennessee Military Government to the US Federal Government, and then admitted as the State of Franklin, under Gov. Brownlow. I didn’t include these in the update itself because there wasn’t a great place to stick them.
[3] Fictional, born 1826 in Altoona PA, promoted to Corps command in June of 1859.
[4] While the North refers to the fall of Richmond as the Battle of Richmond, it is known in the South as the Battle of Seven Pines.
[5] The Union has not made any moves south of Petersburg, as Thomas is instead working to consolidate Union control of northern Virginia and the Shenandoah. Come spring, the war in the east will resume.

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all! Also, the next chapter is the final one on the civil war!

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Universal Yankee Nation

From “Soldiers of Freedom” by Gregory H. Lambert
Published 1973

“General Thomas spent the second half of 1859 securing the areas of Virginia the Army of the Potomac had not reached during the triumphant Peninsula Campaign. He was also busy meeting with President Fremont and being cajoled into granting interviews to the throngs of reporters that clogged the army camp in Petersburg. But Thomas also spent the time planning a sweeping campaign south, into the Carolinas.

The Army of Northern Virginia had been all but destroyed in the Battle of Williamsburg and the Battle of Richmond, and the careers of both Longstreet and Ewell were finished. The Confederates were forced to cobble together an ad-hoc defense of what had suddenly become undefended. However, with Gibraltar Taylor breathing down Georgia’s neck, the Confederate Cabinet was increasingly shifting their focus, and the focus of the army, from the doomed East to the threatened West. Previously, especially when Robert E. Lee was alive, the most attention was focused on Virginia, leaving Tennessee to the wolves. Now, as the Confederate states in the southeast became caught in the Union’s vast pincer, forces promised to the Army of Virginia were redirected to the Army of Georgia. This is not to say that the east became neglected by the government, but simply that Acting President Cobb and his Cabinet began paying equal attention to both fronts.

With Longstreet’s resignation and Ewell’s disgrace, a new commander had to be selected for the Army of Virginia, which was soon renamed to the Army of the Carolinas. After several names, including William J. Hardee and Jubal Early, were floated, it was eventually agreed that Joseph E. Johnston would return to the field, after his exile to recruitment duties after his wound in the James River Campaign. Johnston was given command of an army of 57,000, almost all of which was composed of raw, restless conscripts. Within weeks of Johnston’s assumption of command and the announcement that the Army of the Carolinas would soon enter combat, thousands deserted. Desertion became such a large problem for Johnston that he was forced to place more guards and scouts behind his lines to catch deserters than in front to search for the enemy’s army.

While the Confederacy rushed to establish a cohesive fighting force, George Thomas had put his grand plan into action. Thomas had his army head south from Petersburg and advance through central North Carolina, where the key objectives of Greensborough, Raleigh, and Charlotte lay. At Charlotte, the army was to split into two columns. One was to head west and take Greensborough and Charlotte lay. The other was to turn east and take Goldsborough, New Bern, and Wilmington. For his part, General Johnston wished to avoid a direct confrontation with Thomas, as any open battle would be nothing less than suicide for the Army of the Carolinas. Aside from the aforementioned desertion issue, Johnston’s army was chronically undersupplied, with many soldiers lacking proper shoes and coats, a full quarter of the army lacked their standard equipment, and there was a terrible shortage of rations that left most men hungry.

Johnston fled south from his headquarters in Halifax, his goal being to reinforce Raleigh or, failing that, Wilmington. At Raleigh, Johnston’s men aided Governor Thomas Bragg’s efforts to build fortifications and defend the relocated Confederate capital from Thomas’s southward advance. However, after receiving reports that only half of Thomas’s army was approaching, Johnston elected to march north and meet the Union army in the field. Johnston came to the conclusion that he could not hope to bleed the Union dry in Raleigh itself, as that would “bring much suffering upon the people, and utterly destroy our fighting chances”, as Johnston wrote in his memoirs. The only option that Johnston saw was to attack and try to destroy as much of the Union army as possible.

The Union and Confederate armies met in battle on June 14th, with Johnston engaging the II Corps of Philip Kearney as he arrived onto the field. Kearney, despite initial setbacks such as the routing of an entire division, held the line with determination, and allowed for Thomas to bring his army onto the field in an orderly fashion. Jubal Early recalled in a letter how “The change in the General’s mood was obvious to all once he received word that all four Corps of the Union army, a hundred thousand men in total, had entered the field.” Johnston sent word to the Confederate government that they should evacuate south, before returning to directing the battle. Thomas’s advantage in numbers allowed him to spread his corps out to threaten Johnston’s flanks, forcing the Confederates to pull back their flanks and adopt a U-shaped line. After over two hours of skirmishing, Winfield Hancock and John Sedgwick launched ferocious attacks on Johnston’s lines. Hancock directed two of his divisions to attack between Johnston’s center and left, while the other two mounted diversionary attacks on the center’s and left’s midpoints. Hancock’s attack was devastatingly successful, and he successfully encircled, with the aid of two divisions from James McPherson’s Corps, a third of Johnston’s left wing. Seeing the disaster on his left, Johnston called a retreat, and the Army of the Carolinas fled from the field, leaving a trail of abandoned equipment and deserting soldiers behind on the march back to Raleigh.

His defeat in the Battle of Durham came as no surprise to Johnston. As he wrote: “I had so few men and so few supplies that any outcome other than defeat was inconceivable.” After holding a council of war with his men in Raleigh, Johnston dispatched a messenger to the Union camp offering his unconditional surrender and requesting to hold surrender negotiations the following day. Thomas accepted, requesting to hold the negotiation in the North Carolina state capitol’s rotunda. Johnston accepted and so, at 12:00 noon on June 15th, George Thomas arrived with 300 guards at the North Carolina State House to meet with Johnston. Beneath the stately rotunda, Thomas laid out his terms: The Union army would receive duplicate rolls of all officers and soldiers in the Army of the Carolinas, all guns, ammunition, officer side-arms, and artillery were to be turned over to the Union army, and in order to receive parole, all members of the Army of the Carolinas had to swear not to take up arms against the United States “until properly exchanged [1]”. Johnston had no other options but to accept, and he signed the instrument of surrender, exactly as Thomas had offered it, on June 17th, 1860. For all intents and purposes, the Carolinas had fallen.”

“WI the Confederates conscripted Blacks into the Army?”, discussion on Counterfactual.net
Started June 2026

Gibraltar_Taylor said: After the disastrous defeat suffered by the Confederates in the Peninsular Campaign, a group, most prominently including General William Mahone, the commander of troops defending Jackson, Mississippi, from Ulysses Grant, emerged with a plan to bolster the failing recruitment efforts. Mahone put forth the idea that slaves be enlisted into the army, and then granted their freedom once their term of service was completed.

Despite the fact that the Mahone Plan would have brought in tens of thousands into the moribund Confederate armies, a coalition of rival Generals, planters, and politicians quickly squashed any discussion of emancipation-for-service, and Mahone was removed from command, replaced by Joseph Wheeler. If the plan had been implemented, what would its effects be? Even though the Union was undeniably winning at this point, could the Confederates have significantly prolonged the war? Could Longstreet and Johnston have turned the tide? If the tide had indeed turned, and Fremont loses in 1860 to a Peace Democrat, could the Confederacy have secured its independence?

TheVirginianSledgehammer said: Even if the Mahone Plan was implemented, which is itself unlikely (everyone, from Alexander Stephens and Howell Cobb to Braxton Bragg opposed it), I doubt it would have much of an effect on the course of the war. It even could have hastened the end of the Confederacy. What incentive do these Confederate Black soldiers have to fight for their former masters? I think that, had the Mahone Plan been used, there would have been mass defections of black troops to the Union. And then, of course, there is the effect such a decision would have on wealthy planters like Wade Hampton. If the government started recruiting slaves, then you could even see a civil war within the Confederacy, with states like Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi seceding to preserve slavery from the Confederacy, which itself seceded to preserve slavery.

TheOccidentalExpress [MOD] said: There’s no way this would ever happen. The Confederacy was built on white supremacy and the maintenance of slavery, and its political elite were hellbent on upholding such ideals.

TheImperial said: If the Mahone Plan was implemented, and it was accepted by the Confederate government and states, and if the soldiers didn’t immediately defect to the Union (a REALLY BIG if), then the Confederacy would definitely have held out for longer. I still don’t think they could have won, as the Union had such large advantages in manpower and industrial capacity that they would still roll over the Confederate armies.

“From “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate States of America” by Ralph Cairns
Published 2001

“Jefferson Davis had a monumental task ahead of him. Richard Taylor had taken Chattanooga, placing the mighty Union army a stone’s throw from the Confederate base of Dalton. Davis planned to simply stay put in Dalton to ward off a Union advance south, as he knew he could not hope to take offensive action given the fact that Davis had only 50,000 men, half the size of Taylor’s Army of Tennessee.

Taylor understood Davis’s position almost as well as Davis himself, and thus resolved to avoid a direct attack on Dalton [2], which Davis had fortified with earthworks and trenches. As Dalton was positioned along the road to Atlanta, Taylor decided upon a strategy that would avoid direct confrontation but would instead force Davis to fall back. If the Union army could march around Davis’s army and position itself along the road to Atlanta, Davis would either have to fall back or fight back. Departing Chattanooga in two columns of 60,000 each, Taylor sought to either encircle Dalton or force Davis to retreat.

As the Union pincer neared the road leading south from Dalton, threatening to encircle the Army of Georgia, Jefferson Davis held a war council with his Corps commanders – Leonidas Polk, who Davis had reinstated after Bragg had dismissed him post-Shelbyville, John Bell Hood, who replaced Alexander P. Stewart (who died of Pneumonia after a wound sustained at the Battle of Jasper), and Stephen D. Lee. Polk remained silent, except to agree with Davis, no matter what he said. Hood and Lee both urged a withdrawal, with Lee telling Davis, “if they surround us, it is all over. Atlanta will be left wide open for the Yankees to take. We must fall back if we want to survive.” Davis favored trying to attack the Union columns converging just south of Dalton, saying “If we can knock out one of those infernal columns, Taylor won’t be able to oppose us with such strength.”

Lee and Hood were quick to criticize this, with Lee pointing out that, “we do not want to be caught in between the twin hammers of the Union army. That would be a disaster from which there would be no coming back.” Davis ultimately relented after much deliberation, and on April 9th, he gave the order to withdraw south, to Resaca. However, Henry Price’s III Corps had, moving in advance of the rest of the army, occupied the road leading out of Dalton. Davis would have to fight his way out. The Battle of Dalton was not a real battle. There were no vicious charges or flanking maneuvers or vast fronts, but instead a series of skirmishes as Davis attempted to distract Price long enough to escape, while Price sought to inflict as many casualties as possible. Ultimately, it was a brief engagement. Price pulled back after inflicting over 2,000 casualties on the Confederates, while Davis fled south to Resaca.

While the Confederates holed up in Resaca, Taylor sought to destroy enemy forces in the surrounding towns of northern Georgia. And so, while he moved south, Joe Hooker went west to destroy Thomas Hindman’s garrison in Rome. The goal in taking Rome was not just to prevent Hindman from linking his 10,000 men with Davis’s army, but to hopefully draw the Confederates out from Resaca, as Rome lay well to the south. For his part, Davis lingered in Resaca until reports arrived that Hooker had successfully taken Rome, at which time he fled ahead of two advancing Union columns, burning any supplies his army could not take with them. Hooker brought his corps east, in the direction of Cass Station. After a brief delay to occupy Kingston, Hooker linked up with Taylor at Cassville, north of Cass Station. The army once again split into two columns, with John A. Logan commanding his Corps and Hooker’s Corps to proceed around the west side of Cass Station on April 29th, and threaten the bridge and railroad over the Etowah River, north of Allatoona. Logan’s maneuver successfully forced Davis to withdraw or be trapped above the river, and he retreated from Cass Station (after burning it). Davis left the Allatoona pass heavily guarded, while he established his headquarters within Allatoona itself. However, Taylor crossed the river at Euharlee and the bridge west of Allatoona, and the fall of Burnt Hickory threatened Davis’s supply lines once more. Davis retreated back to Acworth, but this position, too, became untenable when Taylor defeated a Confederate brigade at Pickett’s Mill and threatened the two roads leading to Atlanta. Davis had no choice but to withdraw all the way to Atlanta itself, even abandoning Marietta.

Holed up in Atlanta, Davis refused to contest the surrounding countryside with the Union army and kept all his troops holed up in Atlanta. This allowed Taylor to capture, one by one, the roads and railroads that ran in and out of Atlanta. One by one, Decatur, East Point, Jonesboro, Fairburn, and Sandtown were secured, completely isolating Atlanta and cutting off the flow of supplies.

Jefferson Davis and his army were now trapped in Atlanta. Atlanta was entirely surrounded, and all day and all night the siege guns and mortars that Taylor had brought down from the supply depots in Chattanooga roared, raining fire and shell down upon the city, leveling many buildings in the outskirts. Most Confederate soldiers spent their days clearing rubble and extinguishing the fires that sometimes began from the bombardment. With the bombardment and siege, Davis had assumed all day-to-day authority over all people in Atlanta, both soldier and civilian. On June 11th, faced with the prospect of mass starvation, Davis announced that all foodstuffs within the city would be “seized and stored in the warehouses and depots, to be distributed by the soldiers of the Army of Georgia to the people, so as to preserve our finite reserves. It is encouraged that the people of Atlanta cultivate gardens to increase our food reserves.” Despite his best efforts to maintain order, the announcement of rationing sparked a wave of unrest. Civilians, already exhausted after almost month of siege, refused to hand over food or stole from the warehouses. Soldiers, furious over the government’s failure to pay them for the last two months, began selling food to hungry Atlantans. Many officers even entered into business on the black market.

On the morning of June 27th, Richard Taylor was just finishing breakfast with the Corps commanders of his army when he was notified by a sentry that someone from the Confederates had arrived with an important letter. Soon after, a man in the grey uniform of a Confederate soldier arrived, escorted by Union guards. The out-of-breath messenger had just arrived from a meeting with three Confederate officers. The messenger had been dispatched by the officers with a letter from General Davis, and he left the Confederate camp for the Union one. The messenger had been stopped by guards on the road out of Atlanta, where a Union picket line had been set up to prevent Davis from sneaking out from Taylor’s grip. Taylor was notified of the messenger’s presence, while the man was disarmed and escorted on foot to the stately home where Taylor had established his staff’s offices.

Upon opening the letter, Taylor was shocked to read its contents – Jefferson Davis wanted to surrender, unconditionally. “I have recently come to the realization that I cannot win, and I cannot escape. My army is surrounded, and my men are beginning to starve. General Johnston has surrendered his army in Raleigh, and I cannot hope to resist alone. The only end that leaves my army with any honor, any dignity, is to humbly request you accept my offer of unconditional surrender. This war has gone on too long.” Taylor quickly dictated a response, which read in part: “General Davis – I was so very overjoyed to receive your offer. I will order a ceasefire to begin at noon, so that terms can be discussed later in the day.” Davis was excited and agreed to the proposed ceasefire. Precisely at 12:00 o’clock noon, the guns fell silent and the Union bombardment ceased at last. Two hours later, Taylor rode with fifty guards to the Trout House hotel in central Atlanta. While his men waited outside, Taylor arrived in his dress uniform to negotiate the terms of Davis’s surrender in the ballroom of the hotel, where a table had been set up in anticipation.

As Taylor recalls in his memoir, “I entered the doors to the French-style ballroom at two o’clock in the afternoon, and found Davis, in his worn and oft-mended grey uniform, seated at the dining table, near the entrance. He rose to greet me and presented his ceremonial sword, in the manner of Generals in old Europe.” Taylor offered the same conditions he had offered to the commander of Port Hudson’s garrison, and the same terms that Thomas gave to Johnston – Taylor would receive a list of all officers and soldiers, all guns, ammunition, and artillery would be turned over to the Union, all soldiers had to swear not to take up arms against the United States again in order to receive parole, and all soldiers and officers would be allowed to take home their horses back to their farms. These terms were as generous as Davis could have hoped for, and he readily accepted. He signed the official document of surrender at 3:16 in the afternoon, delivering Atlanta into Union hands.

After three long years, the Civil War was over. With the surrender of both remaining field armies, the Confederate government voted to dissolve on August 6th and were arrested by the Union army in Columbia, South Carolina. The states that had seceded to form the Confederacy were divided into Military Districts, their governments dissolved and replaced with “Reconstructionist governments”, and, with no war to fight, the tens of thousands of boys in grey trudged home in defeat to their farms and homesteads across the south, while the victorious Union army remained to occupy the defeated rebel states.

On August 11th, President John C. Fremont stood before a joint session of Congress and said: “I make this pledge – to Congress, to the states, and to the people of this Union – north and south, east and west: We must strive to finish this work, with malice nor cruelty to anyone, and with good-graces and charity for all, to begin the work of re-uniting this divided House, of building a More Perfect Union, one forged from the fires of terrible war into a more just, more righteous one.” None could have laid out the task ahead better than President Fremont.”

[1] From Grant’s OTL surrender terms to Lee at Appomattox Court House.
[2] Modeled on Rosecran’s OTL Tullahoma Campaign strategy.

END OF ACT TWO

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!

​

 

[TheHedgehog]

"It's been a hundred years and as I look around,
I see a mighty city where there once was a battle ground.
I thought when Lee surrendered we would fight no more,
But the ghost of Lee can still see us fight the civil war."
- Waylon Jennings, "The Ghost of General Lee"
-----
"Strip the proud nobility of their bloated estates, reduce them to a level with plain republicans, send forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the workshops or handle the plow, and you will thus humble proud traitors."
- Representative Thaddeus Stevens
-----
"... Douglasstown, Florida, is not only a popular resort location due to its wide, sandy beaches and Caribbean climate. It is also a city steeped in history. The Douglasstown Historical Society offers hour-long walking tours of the Historical District weekdays from 10am to 6pm, April-October. See the original homes built by Freedmen in the 1860s, the Colored Man's Savings Bank, the city's first skyscraper (completed 1893), the city chapter of the Freedmen's Aid Bureau (1863), and the historical campus of John Calvin Lodge University (originally the University of Florida). Douglasstown has a vibrant nightlife as well, with not only famous restaurants like Fremont's and Floridiana, but also bars and clubs, both Black and Cuban..."
- gsf.SeeFlorida.gov
​

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Long Road Ahead

From “The Forgotten Era”, by Jerome Louis “Jerry” Bonaparte
Published in “The Free American Tribune”, August 1963

“Three years ago, the American people celebrated the centennial of the Civil War’s end. A hundred years ago from August 1960, General Joseph E. Johnston and General Jefferson Davis signed instruments of surrender. Though the Confederate government itself did not dissolve until October of 1860, the war was, for all intents and purposes, over. Parades were held, Union soldiers marching down the main boulevards of Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Saint Louis as adulating crowds cheered. Shops closed, children sent home from school for the days, and cannons were fired in jubilation.

While the people celebrated the end of the southern rebellion, there was still real work to be done. President Fremont was elected in 1856 on promises to contain slavery and break the “slavocrats’ power”, and he did not intend to renege on said vows. He outlined in this address a radical program of reforms and Constitutional amendments. The goal of such reforms was to ensure not only the successful reintegration of the rebellious south, but also to promote equality for the emancipated black Americans. It is surprising that the Reconciliation Era is often glossed over in the curricula of our states, and when it is taught it is often incorrect. It was the Reconciliation Era that saw the formation of America’s modern political dichotomy, the beginnings of state political alignments, and the foundation of modern race relations. So, then, what happened during the Reconciliation?”

From “Redemption: The Postbellum Years” by Evan J. Kennedy
Published 1964

“The 1860 Presidential Election was very much a referendum on how the south should be re-integrated into the Union. Fremont championed a radical, more punitive approach that would focus more on the freedmen and ensuring their equality and empowerment over the wants of the defeated white planter classes.

The nature of the election gave Democrats more hope than a party would usually have when competing against a popular incumbent. The Democratic Convention, held from April 23th to May 3rd, was initially located in Baltimore, Maryland, in the recently completed Municipal Hall. Several candidates had their names entered into contention for the nomination. Two individuals represented the Hawk Democrats, who had supported the President during the war: Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, and Senator (and former Military Governor) Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Other minor Hawk candidates were Lazarus Powell and Daniel S. Dickinson, though none of them ever exceeded five delegates. The other faction of the Democrats was the Peace Democrats. The Peace Democrats had fiercely opposed President Fremont during the Civil War, and indeed had opposed the war in its entirety. It was the view of these Peace Democrats that the Union should have entered into negotiations with the Confederacy to facilitate the south’s “peaceful and equitable separation from the Union”, as Clement Vallandigham, a prominent Ohio Peace Democrat, had said in a speech during the early days of the war. Both Vallandigham and Representative George Pendleton (another prominent Peace Democrat) threw their support behind New York Governor Horatio Seymour.

On the first ballot, Douglas surged into the lead, with Seymour trailing him by twelve delegates, followed closely by Andrew Johnson. However, Douglas was fifty delegates shy of the two-thirds majority required by the Democratic Party’s convention rules. He dispatched several surrogates and aides to the Johnson camp to try and convince him to release his delegates to Douglas, giving the Illinois Senator the two-thirds majority necessary to receive the nomination. However, Senator Johnson held a grudge against Douglas that originated during negotiations over the division of Tennessee. Johnson remained furious that Douglas had supported Fremont’s plan to divide Tennessee and separate Franklin. Johnson angrily refused Douglas’s offers, even declining the offer of being Douglas’s running mate.

With the Hawk Democrats divided and thus unable to reach a majority, Seymour and his allies got to work, hoping to pry enough delegates away from Johnson and Douglas to deny the Hawks control of the party. Seymour also approached Thomas A. Hendricks, the well-respected Chair of the Convention, for his support. Hendricks, while popular with both camps within the party, had long supported the Peace Democrats in Congress. Thus, the Indiana Representative agreed to support Seymour. On the sixth deadlocked ballot, the Indiana delegation flipped from Douglas to Seymour, followed on the next ballot by Iowa’s delegation. Seymour, seeing sudden success, sent messengers to Andrew Johnson, hoping to exploit Johnson’s animosity towards Douglas. Despite his interests aligning more with Douglas than with Seymour, Johnson agreed to release his delegates to Seymour in exchange for the vice-presidential nomination. This gave Seymour the delegations of Tennessee and Kentucky.

As the war was still ongoing, the convention was dominated by the debate between support of the Administration’s policy versus seeking peace. Seymour did not believe that he could steal the nomination from Senator Douglas, but he did think he could force through his own preferred platform in the confusion.

And so, while the delegates from Ohio and Missouri voted to defect from the sinking Johnson bid to Stephen Douglas, Seymour worked to pass his preferred platform, which called for the “establishment of a conference between the Union and the Confederacy for the purpose of negotiating southern secession from the north in a peaceful manner.” An unusual dichotomy thus formed, where many delegates from Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Maryland simultaneously supported Douglas and a peace platform as a result of Seymour’s lobbying. A full third of New York’s delegation were allies of Seymour’s, and they secured the backing of a quarter of the Pennsylvania delegation. On the eleventh ballot, the bulk of Pennsylvania’s delegates, as well as Michigan, Vermont, New Jersey, and New Hampshire (at delegate Franklin Pierce’s direction), switched their allegiance from both Seymour and various favorite sons (including Pierce, James Buchanan (who did not attend the convention and was not even a candidate or delegate), and Quartermaster-General George B. McClellan). Douglas was also able to wrangle half of Kentucky’s delegates through the efforts of his allies in the state’s Democratic Party. On the fourteenth ballot, Douglas reached the necessary two-thirds threshold, and clinched the nomination.

Then, it was time to vote on the platform. Seymour’s work had paid off, and his pro-peace platform he had spent the past three days getting support for was passed by the slimmest of margins. In fact, if just three delegates had not been swayed by the Peace Democrats and had voted against the platform, it would have failed. Stephen Douglas was furious at the passage of the platform and took the podium to denounce it. “This platform demonstrates the worst elements of the Party of Jackson. It stands not for our great Union and her virtues of Liberty and Freedom, but instead for secession, treason, and rebellion. I will not run for President if the Party wishes to make this shameful choice for their platform. If this is to be what this party has elected to stand for, then I do not want to stand for this party.” Douglas had, in effect, issued an ultimatum to his own party: repeal the platform, or he would refuse the nomination. Seymour spoke next to defend his platform, and while he was not a very effective orator (and certainly could not be compared to the fiery Douglas), but his simple words were enough. Despite Douglas’s proposed revisions to the platform (namely, striking the peace plank) receiving the support of much of the convention, it fell short of the required majority and was defeated. Thus, the Illinois Senator withdrew his acceptance of the nomination and departed the convention with his staunchest supporters.

Douglas’s refusal of the nomination spelled doom for the Democratic Party. Douglas’s supporters organized a hasty convention in Cincinnati and nominated him for President and his fellow Hawk Democrat, former New York Senator John A. Dix, for Vice-President, under the banner of the National Party, with a platform supporting the continuation of the war. The Democrats, having lost a good half of their delegates, unanimously nominated Governor Seymour for President and, in accordance with his backroom deal, Senator Johnson for Vice President. The peace platform remained unchanged.

…

The Freedom Party held their convention in Philadelphia, the cradle of the American revolution. President Fremont was unanimously re-nominated, with no one even daring to challenge him for the number-one spot. Vice President Abraham Lincoln faced opposition from the radical wing of the party, with Representative Thaddeus Stephens attacking his “propensity to defend the South from attack. He would rather maintain the insidious structure of aristocratic rule in the treasonous southern states than uplift and help the loyal Negroes and freedmen of the same region.” Despite attempts to replace Lincoln with either Senator Charles Sumner or Senator Benjamin Wade, he was re-nominated by a wide margin, which was made unanimous after a motion to do so passed.

In his acceptance speech, Fremont expressed his “sincere belief that the end to this long national nightmare would soon come”, and that “the United States can be made a single, united whole once more.” He laid out his vision for the future, calling for the passage of “Amendments to our Constitution to prohibit the mistreatment and shackling of our fellow man, and to secure a free and equal south,” as well as legislation to “punish the leaders of the Rebellion and reconcile the rest to the Union”. While Fremont remained vague on what exactly this entailed, many Southern planters, even in Union states, were worried. He also took a triumphant tone in his seventeen-minute address, as he framed the war as not a Roman conquest, but the “reunification of quarreling brothers.” Lincoln also spoke briefly, reflecting on the many Union soldiers who had been killed during the three years of war, stating: “That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The unity of the Freedom Party convention was in stark contrast to the chaotic and divided Democrats, who had lost the entirety of the Hawk Democrats. Even George McClellan, a lifelong Democrat, publicly endorsed the National Party ticket, and many prominent politicians, including Senator Reverdy Johnson, New York Representative John Cochran, Ohio Representative John Brough, and Ohio Governor David Tod.

The majority of northern newspapers published editorials in the weeks after the convention, full of glowing endorsements of Fremont. One, published in the prominent New-York Tribune, called Fremont, “a great Liberator, who has unchained the slave. Give him another four years, and the South shall be broken down and forged anew in the fires of Liberty.” Posters depicted Fremont as slaying a great beast, poised as if he was about to drive home the final blow. In general, the rump Democratic ticket, disavowed by most Hawk Democrats, was relentlessly attacked for supporting seeking peace with a nearly defeated foe. Seymour was variously portrayed in satirical cartoons as a coward incapable of taking a principled stand, slouched and weak, and as a sinister agent of the south, with John Quitman standing hunched behind him, handing him money.

Douglass ran a strong campaign, traveling across the Midwest, speaking to large crowds. He denounced the Confederacy, but also called for a reconciliation with “the powers that be in the Southern states”, so as to have a “reunification of this Union that is without bloodshed or undue turmoil.” Initially, he struggled to make much headway outside of southern Illinois and Indiana, and faced an uphill battle within Illinois, as Vice President Lincoln was sent to campaign there as well. However, the news of Davis’s and Johnston’s surrenders in Atlanta and Raleigh reached the north in June, a huge blow to Seymour’s campaign. With the Confederacy utterly destroyed, many Democratic donors, bosses, and newspapermen deserted Seymour and backed Senator Douglas. With the Peace Democrats thoroughly discredited, those Democrats who still remained in the party began jumping ship to the National Party, which was associated with the Hawk Democrats and Unionists.

For his part, Fremont relied on his surrogates to campaign for him, choosing to emphasize his successful wartime leadership. While allied newspapers attacked Seymour as a stooge of the south and Douglas as too friendly to slavery, the rhetoric of Fremont and his allies became a continuation of the 1856 campaign, as they pledged to break the slave power in the south and, as one of Fremont’s supporters declared in Ohio, “ensure that the rebel states are readmitted under the sway of a new generation of free and equal Americans.” With the dissolution of the Confederate cabinet in September, Fremont and Douglas largely ignored Seymour, instead focusing their efforts on each other, especially in Illinois.

Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky emerged as major battlegrounds. Many slaveowners in Missouri and Kentucky who had sided with the Union refused to support Fremont in 1860, as they saw him as a radical who would abolish slavery altogether. Douglas sought to exploit this, accusing Fremont of supporting miscegenation of the races, and said that the Freedom Party would allow chaos to spread in the south. This race-baiting proved immensely popular in the two states, while Illinois remained sharply divided. The north was a bastion of Freedomite support, and the south firmly behind Douglas, leaving the middle of the state fiercely contested. Douglas and Lincoln spent most of their time campaigning in the state, and the two Illinoisans even held three debates in the swing counties that made up central Illinois.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates were mainly focused on the differing reconstruction policies between Douglas and Fremont. While Douglas hammered Fremont, saying “Slavery is not the only question which comes up in this controversy. There is a far more important one to you, and that is, what shall be done with the free negro?” and accused Fremont of trying to colonize the north with emancipated Blacks. For his part, Lincoln sought to downplay Fremont’s radicalism, insisting that, “I am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the White race.” While certainly intended to disguise Fremont’s true plans, many historians still debate whether or not Lincoln himself was a white supremacist. Regardless of the Vice-President’s personal views, he is widely regarded to have successfully defended Fremont from Douglas’s charges, and most agree he won the three debates.

The proliferation of Freedomite editorials in newspapers across the country provide a window into public opinion before the election in an era before national polling. While there was the odd pro-Douglas paper in Cairo, the Ohio Valley, Missouri, and New York City, Fremont received an outpouring of support from local politicians, newspaper owners, surrogates, and concerned citizens. It was obvious to all that the President would coast to a second term come November.”

From “An Electoral Encyclopedia of the United States” by J.C. Lodge University Press
Published 1967

“The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 6th, 1860. With the recent end of the Civil War, incumbent President John C. Fremont of the Freedom Party decisively defeated Stephen Douglas of the National Party and Horatio Seymour of the Democratic Party. Fremont was aided by the recent conclusion of the Civil War and the collapse of the Confederate States of America.

The Democratic Party initially nominated Stephen Douglas, but he refused the nomination after the party adopted a pro-peace platform, and he ran under the National ticket. The Democrats collapsed soon after the end of the war, and Douglas had little hope of unseating Fremont, failing even to win his home state of Illinois. Fremont’s decisive reelection, coupled with Freedomite gains in the House of Representatives and the Senate, ensured he would preside over the readmission of the southern states during the Redemption Period.”

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!

 

[TheHedgehog]

We Must Endeavor

From “The House of Freedom: A Story of America’s Oldest Party” by Leander Morris
Published 1987

“With a landslide reelection (the first reelection of any President since Andrew Jackson) and large mandate behind him, President Fremont was all set to begin the monumental task of ensuring a peaceful readmission of the south. His second inaugural address on March 4th, 1861, was the perfect opportunity for him to lay out his grand masterplan in a large, public forum. A parade began the inauguration, with Quartermaster-General George McClellan supervising one thousand Union soldiers, fresh from the frontlines, marching towards the capitol building. On the steps of the U.S. capitol, below the unfinished, yet still-magnificent Capitol Dome, with several thousand John Charles Fremont was sworn in to his second term upon his personal bible by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, followed by the playing of “Hail to the Chief” and the firing of a twenty-one gun salute. Standing behind the President were his family, his Vice President, Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln’s wife and three sons, and a host of important Freedomite leaders, namely Speaker John Sherman, Representative Thaddeus Stephens, Senators Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, and Salmon P. Chase, and two prominent Civil War generals: Richard Taylor and George Thomas [1], both personally invited by the President.

Fremont recounted the past four years of warfare, making heavy use of religious imagery, before he concluded his speech with his vision for the future: “we must endeavor, with a great combined effort, to mend the wounds of Civil Strife, to provide for the soldier’s widow and children, and bring a new birth of freedom in the United States, with liberty, equality, and justice for all Americans.” The speech was well-received by both the members of Congress and the American people, although privately figures as opposed as Thaddeus Stephens and Thomas Hendricks worried that Fremont would either be too moderate or too harsh, respectively, in treating the rebellious southern states.”

From “We Must Endeavor: The Story of Reconciliation” by Sir Andrew Dickerson
Published 1997

“… The Southern states were, in order to oversee their readmission and rebuilding, be organized into Military Districts. Authorized by the 1865 Reconstruction Acts, four districts were created. The first District consisted of the states of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the second was Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, the third was Arkansas and Tennessee, and the third and final Military District consisted of Mississippi and Louisiana. The First District was commanded by General George Thomas, who had led the ingenious Peninsula Campaign, the Second District was commanded by

… The creation of the Military Districts was not the only outcome of the Reconstruction Acts. The Wade-Davis Bill, first proposed by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio and Representative Henry Winter Davis of Maryland in 1859, was reintroduced now that the question of reconciliation was front and center in Congressional debate. The Wade-Davis Bill implemented the so-called “Ironclad Oath”, which was designed to prevent ex-Confederate veterans, supporters, and political figures from participating in the new southern state governments by requiring all voters and officials to swear that they had never fought for, supported, or served in the government of the Confederate States of America. The Wade-Davis Bill required that at least half of the population of a state swear the Ironclad Oath in order for that state to be readmitted. The Wade-Davis Bill was, upon its second introduction into Congress in May of 1861, the center of controversy. Figures like Senators Benjamin Wade and Charles Sumner, and Representative Thaddeus Stevens, wholeheartedly endorsed the bill, while Democrats and moderate Freedomites, like Stephen Douglas, Thomas Hendricks, and Lyman Trumbull, stood in opposition to what they viewed as “the burning of every last bridge of friendship left standing between us and the humbled South. We shall still be occupying the southerners a century from now if this bill is allowed to pass, for with it, all hope at Reconciliation is doomed.”

The bill was brought before the full House of Representatives on June 3rd, where it was debated. Representative Henry Winter Davis, the co-author of the bill, spoke at length about how his, and Senator Wade’s, bill, would “bring about a fully Republican government in the Southern states, which have heretofore existed either under aristocratic rule or under interim military occupation.” Thaddeus Steven, the radical firebrand of the Freedomite Congressional caucus, was somehow more supportive of the bill than its co-author. He declared that the Wade-Davis Bill would, “ensure that traitors and tyrants will be barred from having a hand in the construction of the new Union. This paves the way for a total restructuring of the South and its society. No longer will the planters grow fat and wealthy off of the backs of their slaves.” Democratic representatives argued against the bill, but their urgings of caution were continually drowned out by the louder and more emphatic speeches of the Freedomites. Confident that a majority of the House supported the bill, Speaker John Sherman brought the bill to a vote. Though almost every Democrat and National voted against the Wade-Davis Bill, it easily passed the House and went to the Senate.

The Senate presented a tougher challenge for the bill, as it was a more conservative body. Further, among its ranks were several leading Nationals and Democrats: Stephen Douglas, Thomas Hendricks, and Andrew Johnson were all present and very much opposed to the proposed legislation. Douglas spoke eloquently, and at length, in opposition to Wade-Davis, saying “We must punish not our brothers-in-Union. We must instead strive to create a new era of friendship and peace in the Union and erase the festering sores of sectional division. I fear that, should this bill be approved, such a lofty goal will be unattainable.” Johnson and Hendricks echoed Douglas’s sentiments, though in briefer and less flowery terms. Even Vice President Lincoln expressed doubts over the bill, writing: “I have no doubt that my fellow party-men who have lent their support to Mr. Wade and Mr. Davis wish for reconciliation and wish for peace and freedom. I simply doubt that this proposed bill is an effective vehicle for the accomplishment of such means.” Nevertheless, despite stiff opposition and fierce debate, the Wade-Davis Bill passed the Senate by a vote of 18-14.

Though Lincoln raised his doubts that the Wade-Davis Bill would only lead to outbursts of violence in the South, Fremont signed the Wade-Davis Act into law on June 24th, 1861. The Ironclad Oath was now law. The passage of the act was lauded by many Freedomite newspapers as, as one put it, “a great step forward in creating a More Perfect Union.” Democratic papers attacked it as, “opening the gate for full enfranchisement of the ignorant Negro, which will surely plunge the fair South into turmoil.” Many radical Freedomites, such as Henry Wilson, Thaddeus Stephens, Benjamin Wade, and President Fremont himself all privately echoed the Democratic editorials, though they put them in a more positive light. As Fremont wrote, “I do hope that with this Act, we can easily & speedily lift up the Negro in the south, provide for him and his family forty acres & a mule, an education, and a place in the political life of the Republic.”

… The Wade-Davis Act was not the only radical action undertaken by Congress. While Fremont, Lincoln, and Freedomite leadership in Congress planned to establish a “Freedmen’s Bureau” to ensure that all emancipated slaves could survive in the new south, but there remained worries that Fremont’s Emancipation Declaration was not sufficient to protect the freed slaves, and that slavery in its entirety had to be eliminated. This spawned the Thirteenth Amendment, the first of several amendments and laws passed to further guarantee the equal rights of Blacks in the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment totally abolished slavery in every state where it was legal, including loyal border states, as well as declaring that “all men are equal before the law”, which was used as a veritable club by civil rights leaders and the Justice Department during the [REDACTED] Administration.

Even as early as 1859 there had been proposals for an amendment abolishing slavery, but with the return of peace, it was Senator John B. Henderson’s [2] proposed amendment that finally brought the Senate Judiciary Committee and its chair, Henry Wilson, to begin investigating mergers of the various proposals being circulated. In theory, merging said amendment proposals would be easy – they all accomplished the same clear goal of abolishing slavery throughout the country. However, as usual, the moderates and radicals began to clash. The major debate was over how far the amendment should go – the more moderate Freedomites favored simply abolishing slavery, while the radicals pushed for an expansive amendment that declared all men equal before the law. Things came to a head when Charles Sumner introduced into the Judiciary Committee, which traditionally handles constitutional amendments, a proposed amendment that, along with abolishing slavery, established the “equality of all Americans before the law”. The Sumner Amendment caused a stir in the committee and was opposed by both more moderate Freedomites and Democrats. It was at this impasse that President Fremont stepped in. Though urged by Lincoln to press Sumner to withdraw his version, Fremont insisted that the Sumner Amendment be the one that was voted on. With the support of Senator Wilson, the amendment successfully passed the committee, but getting the two-thirds margin of both the Senate and the House of Representatives was a much more difficult task. Vice-President Lincoln, acting as the chief negotiator in his role as President of the Senate, wrote “getting everyone to agree is like herding cats.”

The first vote on the amendment failed, with the Freedom Party falling just one vote shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the amendment. As other government business ground to a halt over the amendment fight, newspapers across America weighed in on the debate. The New-York Tribune, one of the President’s fiercest supporters and staunchest defenders, printed dozens of editorials in support of the Sumner Amendment. One, authored by Horace Greeley himself, declared, “we have before us an opportunity to live up to those sacred words in the Constitution: “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Let us seize the opportunity and make America a more free and just land.” Similar sentiments were echoed by smaller newspapers across the north, with one newspaper in Indiana urging “all Senators and Congressmen in the Congress to pass this amendment and advance the noble and righteous cause of Justice, to ensure for all Americans, White and Negro, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Many Democratic presses also ran editorials, castigating the Freedomites for “promoting race-mixing, a most vile philosophy.”

Ultimately, popular pressure convinced those holdouts in the Senate to change their votes, with one Senator declaring, “the people of my state have made themselves heard. I’m only voting this way, so my office isn’t clogged with letters.” The Sumner Amendment passed the Senate with the exact minimum number of votes necessary and passed to the House. Oddly, whereas the Senate was the prime obstacle to the Wade-Davis Bill, the House was the tougher nut to crack with the Sumner Amendment. Though an initial attempt to pass the amendment through the House failed, a second attempt a week later succeeded in passing by the barest of margins, and the amendment went out to the states. It was an uphill battle to ratify the amendment, but nevertheless the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified when New York ratified it in November of 1861. Historian Bob Walgraves has described the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment as a “great leap forward” in the battle for civil rights in the United States of America.”

From “An Encyclopedia of World History” by Fletcher & Sons EduPrint Co.
Published 2008

“The War in Mexico: In July of 1861, Mexican President Benito Juarez announced a two-year freeze on debt payments to Mexico’s foreign creditors, chiefly Britain, France, and Spain. France was still struggling to contain the various political factions squabbling for power in the aftermath of Napoleon III’s assassination and the subsequent monarchist coup. In order to distract the public from the infighting and sluggish economy, the ruling French junta decided that a foreign expedition, preferably in coalition with the British, would help boost the junta’s flagging popularity and allow for a suppression of Bonapartist and Republican parties. A conference with British and Spanish diplomats was convened, but Spain quickly backed out as their interests in the Americas were much reduced since the loss of Cuba. For their part, the British simply wanted the continued payment, with interest, of the loan they and the other creditors made to Mexico of 5,000,000 pesos.

This left France and Britain, and both were eager to teach Juarez a lesson. On October 29th, the two countries signed the London Compact, a coalition to ensure that interest payments on the loans continued. An armada and army were quickly assembled, and the combined fleet sailed for Veracruz in mid-November, arriving a month later on December 11th. The coalition army quickly occupied the city, which was Mexico’s main trade hub at the time. The Europeans then advanced inland in the direction of Mexico City, while President Juarez mustered what forces he could and dispatched frantic diplomats to Washington, D.C.

What Britain and France had forgotten was that, while guerillas and militias roamed the still-unstable south, the United States maintained well over half a million men in its army, and was, while at peace, still on a war footing. And President Fremont had no intention of abandoning the Monroe Doctrine. When the Mexican ambassadors arrived with Juarez’s plea for help, Fremont summoned Secretary of State William Seward and asked him to draft a “stern warning”, as Seward recounted in his memoirs. The Seward Dispatch reflected the Fremont Administration’s desire to prevent foreign meddling in the United States’ sphere of influence. The Seward Dispatch “advised” Britain and France that Mexico was under the protection of the United States, and that the United States “strongly insisted” that it mediate the dispute over Mexico’s suspension of interest payments to its British and French creditors. To enforce his demands, General Ulysses Grant led an army of 15,000 to Brownsville, Austin, right along the border with Mexico, and Admiral Farragut brought his fleet south to where the Rio Grande flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Britain and France were both frightened at America’s strong reaction and unwilling to jeopardize their lucrative economic ties with the United States to collect on Mexico’s interest. After briefly conferring with each other, the British and French Prime Ministers agreed to American mediation. After a conference in neutral Madrid, The United States decided to support Juarez’s two-year payment moratorium, but pledged to “ensure that, at the expiration of the two years, Mexico continues its interest payments on the initial 5,000,000-peso sum.” Satisfied that they would (eventually) receive their money, the British agreed. The French government worried they would appear weak, but ultimately accepted the United States’ decision and withdrew their troops. Though no revolution occurred, the following year’s parliamentary elections saw Bonapartists and Republicans gain seats, and the humiliation of 1861 would ultimately lead to much instability in France during the decades to come…”

[1] Thomas initially wanted to decline Fremont’s invitation as he refused to enter into politics of any sort but was persuaded to accept by friends in the army.
[2] Trusten Polk is expelled, similar to OTL, from the Senate for his pro-Confederate beliefs, and is replaced by his OTL successor.

 

[TheHedgehog]

Forty Acres and a Mule

From “We Must Endeavor: The Story of Reconciliation” by Sir Andrew Dickerson
Published 1997

“Those in the Freedom Party, President Fremont chief among them, understood that the recently-ratified-Thirteenth Amendment, and the Wade-Davis Act did not, on their own, ensure economic and social equality for America’s blacks. As early as 1858, President Fremont and his closest circle of advisors, as well as everyone from radical Freedomites to Democrats (and after 1860, Nationals), had drafted plans for reconciliation. Some radical Congressmen proposed something called “state suicide”. This was a simple plan: since the states of the Confederacy had rebelled, they had forfeited their statehood and thus could only rejoin the Union as territories. This allowed the Federal government to redraw the state boundaries to give each state a Black majority, to ensure they would have political power and enjoy economic prosperity, while simultaneously destroying the political power of southern whites. The State Suicide plan was rejected by President Fremont as too radical, though a few especially radical Congressmen and abolitionists continued to advocate for the proposal.

Aside from the Peace Democrats, who favored simply allowing the Confederacy to secede, the Democratic Party’s Hawk factions (which later formed the nucleus of the National Party) also drafted a number of proposals for the post-war political order in the South. One, proposed by Andrew Johnson, simply mandated that those who served in the Confederate government would be barred from holding office. The Johnson Plan did not ban former Confederates from voting, which was decried as “opening the South to a return to the antebellum order”, as Speaker Sherman remarked to an aide. Quartermaster-General McClellan also authored a proposal, the “General Plan for Re-integrating the Southern States”, or “General-Plan South”. The General-Plan South was similar in many ways to the Johnson Plan, but went further in proposing that “in order to facilitate a speedy reconciliation, the practice of slavery must not be proscribed”. This earned it the endorsement of most members of the National Party, and the remaining Democrats. The General-Plan South was, upon its publication, widely ridiculed. President Fremont denounced it as “sacrificing everything we have fought for in the past four years”. The blowback was so intense, McClellan found himself dismissed soon after by General-in-Chief Richard Taylor, who had come around during the war to oppose slavery after seeing the ferocity and bravery of black troops on the battlefield.

One measure that the Radicals and moderates could agree upon was the establishment of an organization to aide the freedmen in establishing themselves as prosperous, educated citizens. As the planters had worked to keep their slaves from reading or writing, this was a daunting task that could not be accomplished by private charity alone. And so, General-in-Chief Richard Taylor proposed establishing a “Bureau for the Betterment and Civilization of the Negro” for this end. Taylor, who had just fired George McClellan for meddling in political matters, drafted this proposal after ruminating over his experiences with blacks during the Civil War. Taylor wrote in his memoirs that, “I came to the conclusion that there is no reason that, with the right assistance, the Negro cannot educate himself and become just as prosperous and intelligent as any White man. We must get him a roof, a farm, and an education, and the Negro can fend for himself and his family.” The “Taylor Report” was favorably received by Vice-President Lincoln, who Fremont had tasked with chairing a committee on the creation of an aid program. Using the report as their basis, Lincoln and his committee drafted legislation establishing what they termed the “Freedmen’s Aid Bureau”. The Bureau was tasked with establishing schools for freedmen and their children and providing these schools aid “in the form of books, teachers, and monetary assistance”. It also provided funds for farming equipment and lawyers (or legal advocates) to intercede, pro bono, on behalf of freedmen in legal disputes. The Freedmen’s Aid Bureau enjoyed wide support across the political spectrum, with even some Nationals backing the organization. The Freedmen’s Aid Bureau Act easily passed both chambers of Congress, with bipartisan support. The Bureau was placed under the purview of the War Department, which was the only section of government with the bureaucratic infrastructure in place to support such a massive undertaking. To oversee the new agency, Fremont appointed (on Taylor’s recommendation) Ulysses Grant. Grant relied heavily upon his friends, especially Taylor, for advice on appointments, but is remembered favorably by both the African-American community, who renamed Jackson to Grant, and among the historian community, as a fair-minded and capable administrator who dedicated his service as head of the Bureau towards ensuring equality for all.

And then, there was the Protocol for Southern Restructuring, a lengthy document authored by General William T. Sherman, with input from President Fremont and Thaddeus Stevens. The Protocol centered around the idea that, as Sherman put it, “the power of the Southern planter is tied to his land. His plantation was the center of the Southern economy, and the basis for the Southern political system. Remove the Plantation, and the Planter is no more.” In order to destroy the power of the planter, the Protocol called for the seizure of plantations by the Federal government, and the redistribution of these plantations so that the emancipated slaves each received “forty acres and a mule, with the land being appropriated from the plantations of rebellious planters”. The Protocol for Southern Restructuring was widely circulated and was favored by the radical faction of the Freedom Party. The goal, as Speaker John Sherman articulated when he introduced the Land Appropriations Act into Congress, was to “ensure that the small-holder and the yeoman farmer, in short, the common people, are the ones who hold the reigns of power.” The Freedom Party viewed the plan as the best way to ensure that “the Negro enjoys the prosperity and political activity that the White man enjoys, without necessitating a constant military occupation”.

The Sherman Protocol, as it came to be known in the newspapers, was the basis for the Land Appropriations Act, authored by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner in November of 1861. Using the legal argument that secession had led the planters to forfeit their right to compensation for the land, the LAA permitted the Federal government to seize any plantations owned by secessionists and distribute the land among freedmen and their families. Fremont planned to offer to freedmen a similar deal to the one offered to those settling the homesteads: build a home and farm the land for five years, and it was theirs. Unlike the homesteads, freedmen did not have to pay a cent, either for the filing fee or for the land itself. This was so the freedmen were not prevented from taking the deal because they could not afford to pay the requisite fees. No-one advocated the Land Appropriations Act more than Thaddeus Stevens, who declared in a speech before congress during debate that, “we shall accomplish two lofty goals in one fell swoop. The traitorous Planter will be stripped of all his power, and equality and freedom will reign supreme in the South”. Members of the National Party opposed the Appropriations Act as “a blatant, unconstitutional infringement on the sacred property rights granted to all American citizens”.

A counterproposal to the Appropriations Act was offered by moderate Freedomites, which offered free land in the western territories rather than on southern plantations. The driving idea behind the Negro Homestead Act was to accomplish two pressing goals: the settlement of the still-untamed west through the use of freedmen as a buffer population, and to provide a “fresh start” to the freedmen. This was opposed by both homesteaders and by prominent black activists. The homesteaders disliked the introduction of more competition for land and resources in the plains, while freedmen did not want to leave the places where they had lived all their lives. Radical Freedomites pointed to these criticisms as proof that the Appropriations Act was the better path forward, and so the moderates agreed to support it, though there was no small amount of grumbling.

The Land Appropriations Act was formally put up for a vote in April of 1862, with the plan being for a quick passage and signing before President Fremont left for a train tour of the north. With all debate having concluded, the House voted first, in the morning session of April 11th. With a sound Freedomite majority, the Land Appropriations Act withstood attempts to amend the bill into the Negro Homestead Act and passed the House by a margin of six votes that same morning. The Senate was, as it was to many pieces of legislation, more of an obstacle. The National Party fiercely debated the bill, with Senator Douglas calling it “a violation of our most profound rights. Though the Planter has sinned, has he forfeited his right to property and liberty? No, for he remains, despite his rebellion, an American, and he cannot be stripped of his land. That would be a grave crime indeed.” Francis Preston Blair, Jr., a Senator from Missouri, lamented in a speech “that we are giving over an entire region of our country, giving over our fertile crescent, to a race of barbarous and half-civilized beings, who will run the cradle of our economy into the ground and take our country with it.” President Fremont, long an enemy of the Blair family, arranged to have Blair expelled from the party soon afterwards. Despite the loud protestations, the Land Appropriations Act was forced through the Senate, by a margin of just one vote. President Fremont hurriedly signed the Act into law, before using the law’s authority to seize the plantations of secessionists in the states of Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida. Fremont selected those two states as a trial run to see how the seizure and redistribution of land went, with plans to seize the plantations of Georgia and Louisiana if all went smoothly.

There was some violence, especially in northern Georgia, as white militias skirmished with the Federal troops sent to confiscate the plantations. One planter refused to vacate his home, leading to the Federal troops opening fire and killing not only the planter, but several of his guards. Then, his mansion was burned down, and a notice put in the newspapers in five nearby towns warning: “Do not resist the Federal government’s lawful seizure of plantation land. It didn’t work in 1857, and it won’t work this time.” The next few seizures were relatively peaceful, but guerilla activity sharply increased in the weeks following the appropriations. Nevertheless, by early May all plantations in the two states had been seized by Union troops and transferred to the authority of the Freedmen’s Aid Bureau. Initially, the land was distributed among the slaves living on the plantations. However, there was still lots of land that had not been divided up, and so it was made free for whoever got there first. Thus began the First Great Migration, as thousands of freedmen poured into the two states, snatching up all available land within two months. A new south was in the making…”

From “The Calm Before the Storm” by J. Alan Winthrop
Published 2001

“The death of Emperor Napoleon III at the hands of a cabal of Italian anarchists soured French opinion of Italian unification. While Republicans continued to advocate supporting Sardinia-Piedmont in their goal of Risorgimento, or reunification, the monarchists and Bonapartists were united in their opposition to further alliance with Turin. For the Bonapartists, this was purely out of revenge for the death of their erstwhile standard-bearer. For the monarchists, opposition to Italian unification stemmed from the fact that, in order to totally unite Italy, Sardinia-Piedmont would have to invade the Papal States. The Catholic Church still held great sway in French politics, so supporting the destruction of the Pope’s temporal realm would make the regime quite unpopular among its chief base of support. Further, the monarchists wanted to court Austria as an ally against Prussian ambition.

Thus, when Sardinian diplomats approached King Henri V and Prime Minister de MacMahon for an alliance, they were rejected. This came as a shock to the Conte di Cavour, who had been in talks with Napoleon III for an alliance in exchange for Savoy and Nice when the Emperor was assassinated. Cavour was reportedly enraged at the perceived betrayal, and it forced Sardinia-Piedmont to suspend any plans for a war to take Lombardy, Venice, and the central provinces until the Bruderkrieg, over five years later, and it forced Sardinia-Piedmont to look for new allies in Europe. France wouldn’t do, Britain preferred to uphold the status quo, but the rising star of Prussia was eager for allies in its quest to contain Austria and France. And so, in a secret meeting in Geneva, Otto von Bismarck and the Conte di Cavour signed a treaty of alliance. Europe would never be the same.”

From “The Pathfinder: A History of the Fremont Administration”, by Jonas Gold
Published 1977

“President Fremont had arranged to make a tour of several northern states in anticipation of the House elections that November. Of course, that was the formal reason. The President wanted a month off from the hectic scene in Washington, where Fremont’s health had suffered due to stress over handling reconciliation. When Vice-President Lincoln and Speaker Sherman recommended that he make some sort of national tour, the President jumped at the chance and arranged to meet with Governors, Senators, and Congressmen, as well as plans to address numerous state houses. The grand tour was to depart Washington D.C. and go first to Baltimore, and then to Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Trenton, and New York City. Fremont then planned to go to Hartford and Providence to address the legislatures there and speak to both abolitionist groups and the Massachusetts State House in Boston before circling around to speak to the legislature in Albany, and to another abolitionist social club in Rochester. From there, the tour would proceed to Cleveland and Columbus, and turn north briefly at Detroit before moving west to Chicago and Madison. After making an address to the state legislature in Jefferson City, Fremont would return home by way of Wheeling and Manassas, where he would dedicate the planned National Memorial Cemetery for the fallen from the two battles fought there.

After the seizure of the plantations in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Florida was completed in late May, Fremont left from the Baltimore & Potomac station in Washington D.C. and headed north with his family and a company of guards. At Baltimore, Fremont spoke at a meeting for leaders in the black community, where he promised to “not rest until the planter’s chokehold on the Negro is broken and his chains are totally removed.” From there, the tour went on to Harrisburg. There, Fremont, along with Thaddeus Stevens, addressed the state legislature on the importance for a firm hand in reintegrating the south, and urged the legislators to select Freedomites in the upcoming Senate elections. In Philadelphia, Fremont was greeted by a vast crowd for his speech at Independence Hall. At Trenton, Fremont made a brief speech on civil rights, before once again heading north, to New York City.

The stop in New York was only intended to be brief, with a speech in front of city hall before departing for New England. Fremont thus arrived at the Exchange Place station across the river from New York and greeted a crowd of well-wishers at the ferry terminals. As his guard stepped away briefly to inquire about the President’s luggage, a man stepped forward from the throng, and asked to shake his hand. That man was Harry French, and he had served in the Civil War as the commander of a brigade of Georgia infantry. French harbored a deep resentment towards Fremont for seizing his family’s plantation in the Yazoo delta in Mississippi, and had resolved, as his sister recalled in a later police interview, to “shoot that black abolitionist right in the stomach.” French also left letters in his cheap hotel room in Manhattan stating his desire to “see the life drain from that wretch’s eyes. I will slay the tyrant who robbed my family of our ancestral home. He shall compensate us with his blood.”

But President Fremont had no knowledge of who Harry French was when he asked to shake his hand. And so, Fremont extended his hand, only to find a revolver, not a hand, extended in response. French fired three shots at the President, one in the lung, one in the heart, and one in the stomach. He couldn’t empty his magazine, for as soon as gunshots were heard and the crowd turned to see French, holding a smoking gun, they tackled the assassin to the ground. The guards, along with local police, came rushing in to investigate, but it was too late. President John C. Fremont had bled to death in the meantime, surrounded by horrified New Yorkers.

Abraham Lincoln was notified of the President’s death via telegram shortly thereafter.”

 

[TheHedgehog]

The Tightrope

From “A History of the State Funeral” by Elias Farnsworth
Published 1989

“John Fremont was not the first President to die in office, and he would certainly not be the last. However, while President Harrison’s death in office resulted in a quiet funeral, he was not a beloved figure. And John Fremont was. He had won a landslide reelection in 1860 and was given the popular nickname “Uncle John” for his leadership during the war. Some even likened him to such revered leaders as George Washington. His assassination at the hands of an ex-Confederate soldier, and an intensely racist and pro-secessionist one at that, came as a shock. Shops and schools were closed in mourning, while city halls, courthouses, post offices, and churches lowered their flags to half-mast and draped the windows with black bunting. For such a beloved leader, a simple funeral simply would not do, and so Abraham Lincoln met with his predecessor’s widow and children.

A vast procession was planned, befitting the commemoration of the life of such an important man. There would be a grand ceremony in Washington D.C., where political leaders and foreign dignitaries would attend, before the body of America’s slain president was to travel all the way from the capital to St. Louis, stopping at major cities so Americans could pay their respects directly. Then, the body would be transported to San Francisco, where Fremont would be interred at a private crypt.

President Fremont’s funerary service in Washington, D.C. was well-attended, with locals packing the chapel along with ambassadors and heads of state from all over Europe. His San Francisco funeral service was less crowded, owing to the small population and long distances. Nevertheless, well over a thousand people turned out to pay their respects. Finally, Fremont was laid to rest on December 20th, 1862, in his private crypt in San Francisco, Sacramento.”

From “Honest Abe” by Joseph Hammond
Published 2007

“Abraham Lincoln had never expected he would become President. At the time of the 1856 Freedomite convention, he was a former Congressman who had been fortunate enough to be made a delegate from Illinois. It was just luck that he was asked to speak, and even luckier that one of his fellow delegates nominated him for the vice-presidential nomination. And it was just his luck that he was thrust into the presidency during a chaotic time. And the question was, was Abraham Lincoln up to the task of juggling the moderates, the radicals, and the Nationals?

Lincoln was not exactly popular among the Radical members of his party, with some spearheading a movement at the 1860 convention to replace Lincoln on the ticket with Henry Winter Davis, one of the major proponents of radical reconstruction. This was defeated, as Lincoln was the preferred running mate of Fremont, who was able to prevent most of the delegates from bolting to other potential candidates. That was not the end of the Radicals’ enmity for Lincoln, with Thaddeus Stephens labeling him “a southern sympathizer no better than Stephen Douglas”, while Charles Sumner privately castigated Lincoln for being a moderate when, as Sumner wrote, “there is no moderation between freedom and slavery, or between equality and supremacy. And yet, Lincoln remains convinced of his ill-conceived plan to readmit the south. He will free the Negro and them promptly leave him under the bootheel of the planter.” Lincoln was little-known among the people, though he was beloved in Illinois, especially after his debates against Stephen Douglas.

Shortly after his impromptu inauguration in his office, Lincoln met with Freedomite leaders in Congress to discuss reconciliation. Lincoln made it clear to those at the meeting, including Charles Sumner, Benjamin Wade, Henry Wilson, John Sherman, and Thaddeus Stevens, that he favored “a method of reconciliation that seeks consensus-building, rather than the burning of bridges with these communities.” Stevens, Wade, and Sumner left the meeting with little confidence that the ‘accidental president’ shared their vision for the future. All three were worried that Lincoln’s ‘bridge-building’ plan would include a repeal-and-replace of the Wade-Davis Act, which the Radical Freedomites considered the bedrock of their reconciliation plan.

After the meeting, things continued on as normal as Lincoln was briefed by his cabinet and acquainted himself with the office of President. But, inevitably, things flared up once he was settled in. The first point of contention between the new President and his supposed allies in Congress was over the ‘Louisiana claims’. The claims stemmed from the fact that Britain had constructed for the Confederate States a number of commerce raiders. These raiders had caused tens of millions of dollars in losses to American businesses, both through the sinking of trade ships and the disruption of trade routes. The claims were named after the most famous of these commerce raiders, the CSS Louisiana. The Louisiana had crisscrossed the Atlantic on the prowl for Union merchant ships, sinking well over seventy ships before she was sunk herself off the coast of Ireland by the USS Camden in the early months of 1860. Many radicals were furious that raiders like the Louisiana had been built in British shipyards and demanded recompense for the losses sustained by American shipping, and for the families of those killed in raids.

Lincoln took a different view from his Secretary of State, William Seward. Seward wanted the United States to take total control over the Pacific northwest and suggested to Lincoln that the U.S. push for a renegotiation of the Oregon border dispute in lieu of monetary compensation from Britain. Other members of the cabinet, as well as veteran’s organizations and war widow groups pressed for a monetary payout, to be added into the government pension fund. However, making any sort of demand for compensation would almost certainly lead to friction with the United Kingdom, and Lincoln did not want to jeopardize America’s lucrative trade connections with them. When Seward presented a draft of a diplomatic communique to Britain regarding compensation, Lincoln rejected it and ordered Seward not to consider any further pressing of the Louisiana Claims. Seward was rankled by Lincoln’s directive, as he had been following President Fremont’s direction, and because he viewed Lincoln as “a country lawyer, out of his depth in the Washington atmosphere.” He was also angered by Lincoln’s decision to set regular cabinet meeting dates, and what he perceived as the President sidelining him in favor of other advisors. Seeking to reign in a President who he derided as “much too moderate”, Seward met privately with Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Benjamin Wade. In their meeting in a Washington inn, Seward suggested that Lincoln would try and destroy “all the great strides we have made for the sake of harmony.” It is said that Thaddeus Stevens responded, “harmony without equality is not harmony, but merely servitude by another name.” however, Sumner advocated a wait-and-see approach, as none of them knew what Lincoln would try to do with reconciliation. And so, William H. Seward remained in the State department, quietly stewing.

President Lincoln was aware of Seward’s dissatisfaction with the nation’s new course in diplomacy, and he was certainly aware of rumblings from the radical faction within his party. However, he still believed that the current plan for reconciliation would lead to “an endless war against ourselves”. In order to truly end the civil war, Lincoln believed, the Radical program had to be reversed in favor of a moderate plan that balanced equal rights with appeasing Southern whites. In order to accomplish this, Lincoln set up a committee of himself and several of his close allies, including James Speed, a Kentucky lawyer, and Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull. The goal of this was to draft a replacement for the Wade-Davis Act and the Ironclad Oath, both of which Lincoln viewed as “irresponsible”.

Before he could get to work on his ‘Lincoln Plan’, the President was faced with calls by Freedomite leadership to finish confiscating plantations in the other states. Before his assassination, he had, using the Land Appropriations Act, seized the plantations of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida for redistribution to freedmen. Lincoln did not halt these ongoing projects (under the guidance of Ulysses Grant), but he felt that “it would be unwise to destroy the economic fabric of the white man’s South to support the black man. That would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.” When Thaddeus Stevens met with Lincoln in November 1862, he asked Lincoln to finish the process. Lincoln refused, telling Stevens “I will not seize the land that the planters own. It is our duty to assist the freedman, not steal the land of his former master.” Lincoln’s refusal dealt a massive blow to Radical hopes for a new south and emboldened many Nationals and Democrats to push for new ‘Black Codes’ in their states. Trapped on the plantations, without a way to provide for themselves, many blacks became mired in the financial black hole of sharecropping.

Next, Lincoln jumped into his own reconstruction plan. While he and his committee drafted it, he met with moderate Freedomites and Nationals to see if he could pass his plan. Speaker Sherman informed Lincoln that, as he later recalled in an interview, “the radicals were the majority of our caucus, and I strongly doubted he could get enough of the party on board for the whole program, but he could get just enough support for the ten percent plan for that to pass.” Stephen Douglas promised National support for the 10 Percent plan but said he would not endorse Lincoln’s other plans. Encouraged by these reports, Lincoln plowed ahead with the Ten Percent Plan. The Ten Percent plan was straightforward. It was bases off of the Wade-Davis Act, but the Ten Percent plan merely required ten percent of a state’s population to swear the Ironclad Oath rather than a majority. This was intended to allow southern states to be quickly readmitted, without a lengthy and costly military occupation. The other goal was to win the “hearts and minds” of the Southern people by being magnanimous in reconciliation, rather than “seizing their land and crushing them under at bayonet’s point”, as President Lincoln wrote. And so the Fourth Reconciliation Act was drafted.

As the Fourth Reconciliation Act was being written, Lincoln was faced with another political dilemma. Howell Cobb, James Longstreet, Joseph Johnston, Braxton Bragg, and Jefferson Davis were imprisoned after the Civil War had come to an end but had not yet been tried. Many Radical Freedomites urged Lincoln to put them on trial for treason, as “they have attempted to deal this nation a mortal blow, and so we must deliver them one in return”, as Thaddeus Stevens declared. Here, Lincoln refused. Not only did trying them for treason go against his plan for a peaceful, moderate reconciliation, but he felt it would be wrong to “execute these men for fighting for their cause. All men view their cause to be worthy. I am sure King George and Parliament viewed the Revolutionaries as traitors in their time. Let defeat be their worst punishment.” Lincoln was further convinced by the lobbying of Richard Taylor, George H. Thomas, and Ulysses Grant, all of whom were friendly with one or more of the imprisoned Confederates. Grant was the most persistent, as he was particularly good friends with James Longstreet, and he implored Lincoln to “look beyond their support for the Confederacy”. Ultimately, Lincoln was swayed and issued a full pardon to Longstreet, Johnston, Davis, and Bragg. Cobb remained in prison, but was released a few months after the Generals, in early June of 1863. Lincoln’s pardon angered the Radicals, with Charles Sumner thundering “they are all traitors and ought to be dispensed with as such. They should be hanged for their treasonous support of chattel slavery.” Benjamin Wade wrote that “it saddens me that a member of my own party would pardon such criminals.” Lincoln defended his actions in a letter published in the New-York Tribune, saying “Let us not be enemies. We are one nation, north and south, and we must not treat our brothers with contempt, no matter our grievances.” He also worked to appease the Radicals, negotiating a comprehensive Western Development Act in mid-1864. The Western Development Act was an ambitious legislative package combining a greatly expanded Homestead program, designed to help Kansas recover from the devastation of the Civil War, increased funding to combat Indian raids (William T. Sherman was put in charge of those operations, as his aggressive counter-insurgent tactics made an impressive resume), and most importantly, a transcontinental railroad. The idea of a transcontinental railroad was not a new one in America – there had been a strong push for one nearly ten years ago, when a bill establishing two railroads (a northern route and a southern route) was introduced. That bill had been sunk by the debate over slavery, but with slavery abolished, Lincoln’s Western Development Act was easily passed, with only a handful of dissenting votes.

Confident that he had regained the support of his party, Lincoln forged ahead with the Fourth Reconstruction Act. However, when the Ten Percent Plan was introduced into the House, it sparked outrage among Freedomite leadership. “How can he repudiate his slain predecessor?” fumed Henry Winter Davis. “He has thrown his lot in with the traitors”, thundered a radical Wisconsin preacher. Thaddeus Stevens addressed the House during the fierce debate. “This bill must not pass. It would hand our Negro brethren over to the slavers and leave them no better off than before. The southerners cast their lot in with a treasonous alliance, and so they shall be punished until a majority of each state see fit to swear the oath. Not a single person less than that.” With such an uproar, it was easy for Speaker John Sherman to declare, on October 17th, 1863, that “there shall not be a vote on this bill. Look around – there is no support for it.” With the rebellion of his own party, debate was tabled and the Fourth Reconstruction Act, today referred to simply as the ‘Ten Percent Bill’, was killed. For the rest of his Presidency, Lincoln was held at arm’s length by his party, and he was unable to pass any more of his reconstruction agenda.”

“WI Fremont not assassinated”, discussion on Counterfactual.net
Started December 2020

Fremont_Fan56 said: Hey guys, I’m new to the site and I have a question: what if President Fremont survived his assassination in 1862? How would reconciliation turn out with the continuation of radical policies?

JEB! Shriver said: Not this question again. I swear, this is the sixth time this week, and its only Tuesday. But I’ll try and answer this one, since you’re new. Since the Great Rivalry is more my forte, I’ll let @Gibraltar_Taylor and @Mr. Fantacular correct me if I’m wrong. Now, we know a great deal of what Fremont intended to accomplish wrt Reconciliation, because he was assassinated two years into implementing them. First off, he definitely confiscates the rest of the plantations. Now, this probably won’t prevent Black Codes or Tambo Laws, but it definitely weakens the planters and the White Supremacists in those states. With a more radical President, possibly succeeded by a radical like Henry Wilson, you could see much stronger civil rights in the south, with states like Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina as Readjuster strongholds, free from National dominance and white supremacist terror. This could also lessen the Great Migration, and North Carolina and Georgia would probably be larger and more developed than IOTL.

Mr. Fantacular said: Personally, I think that the continuation of radical reconciliation could doom the Freedom Party in 1864 or 1868. It would probably breed a more violent reaction than Sherman’s reconciliation, which could increase voter dissatisfaction with the Freedom Party. You could see Stephen Douglas become Fremont’s successor, or possibly a single term for someone like Ben Wade or Charles Sumner, followed by an earlier Richard Taylor presidency.

StanTheMan said: I don’t think that a National would be elected so soon, and what’s to say Taylor is persuaded to run TTL? OTL, he only reluctantly agreed to have his name entered into contention, and even then, he didn’t expect to receive the nomination. If it’s one of the Blairs, say, as there’s a good argument to be made that they would have been nominated had Sherman not been the Freedomite candidate, then Frank Jr. loses as he was rabidly racist and I imagine that sours him to the voting public. The less likely Blair to be nominated is Montgomery, but he has a stronger chance of winning the general election.

Anon Amouse said: It would be hilarious if Fremont is succeeded by a Blair.

Spoiler: Author's Note

I'm back! Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!

 

[TheHedgehog]

The 1864 Election

From “The House of Freedom: A Story of America’s Oldest Party” by Leander Morris
Published 1987

“The 1864 Freedomite Convention was set up to be a tumultuous confrontation between the Radical and Moderate wings of the party. After two years under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, the radicals and moderates had become ever-more estranged over the most pressing issue of the day – reconciliation. Lincoln’s legislative push to replace the Wade-Davis Act with the Ten Percent Plan was defeated before it could even be voted upon, with Speaker Sherman privately deriding it as “a repeal-and-replace scheme that would destroy all progress made in the south”. Two more attempts were made to implement the Ten Percent Plan, and each time the plan was not even voted upon. In fact, Lincoln’s third attempt did not even make it out of committee. Given Lincoln’s unpopularity within his own party, there was no doubt he would face a significant challenge at the convention in Cleveland.

The moderate faction of the Freedom Party had been proven to be in the minority after the Ten Percent Plan debacle, but the Radicals were divided. Both Charles Sumner and Benjamin Wade positioned themselves as candidates, along with more minor candidates like John Sherman, Henry Wilson, and Henry Winter Davis. While it would certainly have made the convention less fraught if there had been only one or two Radical candidates, the issue with the Radical faction was that its leaders each had egos of “remarkable size”, as Jonas Friedman describes it in his seminal work on the Freedom Party’s history. Lincoln’s main hope in the convention would be to secure the support of enough bosses and leaders via prior connections, cabinet positions, and even the Vice-Presidency. And so the convention opened.

The convention was opened by its chairman, Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, on June 7th, 1864. The selection of Senator Hamlin by the Freedom Party’s leadership had been the cause of a minor controversy, even before Hamlin could gavel in the convention. Hamlin was a somewhat prominent figure among the Radical Freedomites, having helped spearhead the effort to pass the Wade-Davis Act, Land Appropriations Act, and legislation establishing the Freedmen’s Bureau. His roles in the Wade-Davis Act and the Land Appropriations Act, two pieces of legislation uniquely unpopular among moderate Freedomites, made him the subject of their opposition. President Lincoln, acting through intermediaries (including key surrogates James Speed, Joseph Holt, and Montgomery Blair), attempted to have the Freedom Party bosses select someone else for the role of Convention chairman. Lincoln put forward Speed, Holt, Blair, Lafayette S. Foster, and Lyman Trumbull as alternatives, but the President underestimated the level of dislike Party leadership harbored towards him. This disdain was compounded by William Seward, the Secretary of State. Still angered over a number of perceived and real slights, Seward, highly influential among New York’s Freedomite political machine, quietly used his influence in state politics to prevent New York’s delegates from approving a different chairman. In a surprising rebuke of a sitting President, the Freedomite leadership refused to consider selecting another Convention chairman, and Hannibal Hamlin was officially confirmed as the 1864 Freedomite National Convention’s chairman.

When the Convention delegates shuffled into the Erie Exposition Hall, along the eponymous lake, there is no doubt they were aware that a nasty, contentious battle for the nomination lay ahead of them. Hamlin gave a brief introduction speech, intended to last for no more than ten minutes, but which ultimately became a thirty-minute speech because of constant jeers and boos from Lincolnite delegates. Shortly after, the first ballot was held. Lincoln held the lead, but only narrowly, and he was well short of the majority needed. In second place was Charles Sumner, who was just eleven delegates shy of overtaking Lincoln, followed by Benjamin Wade and John Sherman, who were tied for third, owing to the splits in midwestern delegations between the two. Henry Winter Davis was a distant fourth, with only the Maryland and Delaware delegates, though he did have a handful of scattered delegates from other states, as far away as Sacramento and Brazos. Schuyler Colfax, a high-ranking congressman from Indiana, placed fifth, with his own state’s delegation, along with large minorities of the Kentucky delegation and a handful of delegates from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Colfax was hoping to position himself as a compromise candidate, but his initial poor showing meant he decided to reconsider his options after the second ballot.

The second ballot was a disaster for Lincoln. He had been hoping to secure deals with Colfax or Sherman, but he was rebuffed by their aides. On the second ballot, the President was overtaken by Charles Sumner, who now led by five delegates. However, Sumner ran into a similar problem as it turned out he was not personally well liked by many of the other candidates. Henry Winter Davis reportedly told him, “I would no sooner lend my support to the arrogance and pomposity of Charles Sumner than I would to the ineffectual and weak Abraham Lincoln.” Still, Sumner pressed on, hoping his new lead would convince enough delegates to defect that he could win the nomination. However, behind the scenes, Speaker Sherman met with Schuyler Colfax, who still commanded a sizeable portion of the convention’s delegates. It was relatively simple to convince Colfax to release his delegates to Sherman – in exchange for the Speaker promising to endorse Colfax to succeed him, the Indiana congressman agreed to lend his support.

The third ballot saw Lincoln regain a narrow lead, as Sumner and Benjamin Wade fought over the Radical delegates. However, the big winner was John Sherman, as with his prior deals, he gained the Indiana delegation and portions of the Kentucky and Michigan delegations. This propelled him into a strong third and caused a stir on the convention floor when the votes were announced. Though Benjamin Wade was far more radical than Sherman was, neither trusted that Lincoln would handle reconstruction properly, and so the two entered into negotiations. Sherman offered Wade the position of Attorney General in exchange for his delegates, which Wade accepted. This gave Sherman every single delegate from Ohio and Michigan, along with several delegates in Pennsylvania, Vandalia, and Wisconsin. Sherman also met with Congressman Henry Winter Davis, who was a leading advocate of Radical legislation, having helped write the Wade-Davis Act and the Land Appropriations Act during the Fremont Administration.

Henry Winter Davis addressed the restless delegates soon after his meeting with Sherman, telling them: “Would you see your brothers, your American brothers, shackled and bent into servitude? I would not! It would be a stain upon our great nation, so recently triumphant over the Confederate rebels, to return the south to those damned traitors. It is the duty of all true Americans to defend the rights of our fellow citizens. And Abraham Lincoln has failed in that duty!” Davis’s speech enraged the Lincoln delegates and energized the ‘anti-Lincoln’ delegates, as the tense atmosphere that had hung over the convention since it’s opening exploded. One New Jersey delegate, pledged to Sumner, punched a Lincoln delegate. Elsewhere, there were alternating pro-Lincoln and anti-Lincoln shouts and chants taken up, as the convention began to lose cohesion, and amidst this new chaos, Sherman had an important meeting.

Despite having amassed the support of most of the minor candidates, Sherman found himself far short of the nomination. As he could not look to Illinois and the west, where Lincoln reigned supreme, and he could not turn to New England, which was solidly behind Sumner, Sherman turned to New York, which meant meeting with William Seward. Though Seward was ardently opposed to renominating Lincoln, he also disliked Charles Sumner for having an “ego the size of his own head” and had entered himself into contention so he could retain control over the New York delegation, as well as friendly delegates in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maryland. Sherman was prepared to offer Seward almost anything, later writing “I was prepared to make him my running mate, if that’s what it would take”. Fortunately for Sherman, Seward only wanted an assurance that he could stay on as Secretary of State in the new administration. With much of the northeast now in his hands, Sherman and his aides felt increasingly confident as the fourth ballot loomed. For his part, President Lincoln was aware he would most likely not be renominated – he had been unable to secure the support of any of the other candidates, and he was only barely in the lead. At this point in the convention, Lincoln was simply hoping to force the nomination of either a moderate nominee or vice-presidential nominee.

The fourth ballot destroyed Lincoln’s chances of securing the nomination. John Sherman emerged into frontrunner status, leaping from third to second, just behind Sumner while Lincoln sank into a humiliating third. When Hannibal Hamlin, in his role as Chairman of the Convention, announced the full tally for the ballot, the Lincolnite delegates exploded in outrage, booing him and calling Sherman and Sumner “filthy scalawags”. The convention was not yet over, of course, as Sherman sent out feelers to Sumner for his support. Sumner refused offers of the Vice-Presidential nomination, instead asking that Sherman support him to succeed Hannibal Hamlin as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as Hamlin was resigning from the chairmanship at the end of 1864 and was retiring from the Senate in 1866. Sumner’s other demand was that Sherman select a radical Freedomite as his running mate (which the Convention was already likely to do anyway). Sumner requested that Sherman endorse his fellow Massachusetts Senator, Henry Wilson, for the nomination, which Sherman acquiesced to.

The fifth ballot was closely observed by both Sherman in his office and Lincoln in his hotel rooms, where he remained holed up. Each delegation announced the tallies. Austin: three for Lincoln, one for Sherman, one for Ulysses Grant (who was not a candidate). Brazos: five for Lincoln, one for Colfax. Colorado: three for Lincoln. Connecticut: six for Sherman. At that, the Lincoln delegates began to stir, with one exclaiming, “Sumner, that dog! He’s made a backroom deal with the Speaker.” And the balloting continued. Dakota was split evenly, while Delaware awarded all of its delegates to Sherman. Florida, its delegates mostly freedmen who felt indebted to the radicals for the Land Appropriations Act, gave all of its delegates to the Speaker. Franklin, more moderate, mostly preferred Lincoln. Illinois, as the President’s home state, awarded its delegates accordingly. By the time it came for Kansas to announce the disposition of its three delegates, the convention could see which way things were headed, and when Governor John Brown announced that all three of Kansas’s delegates were awarded to Speaker Sherman, he was booed for a full ten minutes. The New England and mid-Atlantic states all pledged the vast majority of their delegates to Sherman, dashing Lincoln’s hopes of holding even New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, as he only won a combined total of five delegates from those three states. The key states of Ohio and Pennsylvania followed soon after, with Sherman winning all but six of the delegates from those two states. Mississippi and South Carolina, similarly to Florida, awarded all of their delegates to Sherman. By this point, Sherman had secured the nomination, and padded his margin with five of Vandalia’s delegates, and even weakened Lincoln’s hold on the west by winning Sacramento and three of Wisconsin’s delegates.

The convention then turned to the vice-presidential nominee and the party platform. Henry Wilson was nominated on the second ballot, defeating Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Holt, and Lafayette S. Foster. The Lincoln delegates’ outbursts grew more frequent, and the passage of a platform officially endorsing many of the radicals’ policy proposals resulted in a walkout. Eleven of these delegates went to Lincoln’s hotel rooms and begged him to bolt the party and make an independent run for the Presidency. After hearing of the new platform, Lincoln agreed and Lafayette Foster, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, to be his running mate. Sherman was angered by Lincoln’s run, but ploughed on with his own campaign…”

From “From Taylor to Speidel: The Evolution of the National Party”, by Tom Jenkins
Published 2009

“The 1864 National Party Convention was the first one where there were a multitude of candidates. In 1860, Stephen Douglas had been unanimously nominated by a gathering of loyal delegates in a hotel adjacent the Democratic National Convention’s meeting hall. Certainly, Stephen Douglas, who had been preparing for this convention ever since he managed to reduce the Democrats to ashes in the 1860 election, hoped for a coronation similar to the hastily organized convention after his walkout. However, there were many in the National Party who harbored similar ambitions to Douglas, or who simply wanted to haggle a cabinet position in backroom dealings.

One such individual was Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. of Missouri, who was, like Douglas, an ardently pro-Union Democrat before switching parties after Horatio Seymour schemed for the Democrats to adopt a pro-peace plank at the ill-fated 1860 convention. Blair had been a member of the Freedom Party from 1855 to 1859, when he left in protest of not only the increasingly radical policies of the Administration, but also President Fremont’s blocking of Blair’s numerous attempts to rise beyond a divisional commander in the Army of Virginia.

A variety of other Nationals announced their intention to stand as candidates for the nomination, including Wisconsin Senator James Rood Doolittle, who initially entered the convention hoping to become a compromie candidate. George McClellan, the former Quartermaster-General of the United States, also declared his candidacy. McClellan had been dismissed after proposing that Fremont simply free the slaves and then allow the south to govern itself.

The National Party’s convention opened without the bitter debate that had opened the Freedomite convention, with Chairman Garrett Davis delivering a brief speech before formally opening the convention. However, the calm was disturbed when, in an upset, Stephen Douglas failed to gain a majority on the first ballot, with Francis P. Blair Jr., James R. Doolittle, and George McClellan winning the rest. Blair refused to cut any sort of deal with Douglas, while even if Doolittle and McClellan backed the Illinois Senator, he would still not have enough delegates to win the nomination.

After a similarly inconclusive second ballot, Douglas and Blair began negotiating over a potential compromise candidate. Neither wanted to play second fiddle to the other in a unity ticket, so they turned to other options, wanting to avoid a drawn-out battle like at the Freedom Party’s convention two weeks prior. Andrew Johnson was rejected because of his personal antipathy towards Douglas, and eventually the two candidates approached Senator Doolittle, who had less than thirty delegates and had been hoping for either Attorney General or Secretary of State. Nevertheless, despite feeling “out of [his] depth”, Doolittle agreed to be the compromise candidate, and was nominated unanimously by voice vote after Douglas and Blair both withdrew themselves from consideration. The Vice-Presidential nomination was relatively uncontentious, as George McClellan won with all but a few delegates.

Though with an unexpected nominee, the National Party went into the general election united and ready. The same could not necessarily be said about the Freedom Party.”

From “We Must Endeavor: The Story of Reconciliation” by Sir Andrew Dickerson
Published 1997

“The 1864 general election’s campaign was centered around the issue of Reconciliation. The radical solution was certainly favored by those within the Freedom Party, but many Americans felt they were too punitive, and many more were uncomfortable with full racial equality, as many radical Freedomites endorsed. Include into this the party’s split after an acrimonious and at times violent convention, and the road to victory became littered with obstructions. Nevertheless, the Freedomite ticket of John Sherman and Henry Wilson could count on the support of key newspapers like Horace Greeley’s New-York Tribune to convey their message to the people, while the connections between Sherman and Wilson and Fremont played well with many voters.

The Nationals should have been able to pull ahead with a divided opposition, but were weighed down by a little-known, uncharismatic candidate and a surprising party divide at the convention. Further, despite the party’s support for maintaining the Union during the civil war, their Reconciliation policies were not very popular, with the swirl of editorials across the country suggested that most Americans supported at least some punishments for the ex-Confederates, and some kind of requirements for a state to be readmitted into the Union.

New York state quickly became a focal point of both the Freedomite and National campaigns. The home of both National and Freedomite political machines, as well as the site of a series of draft riots during the civil war, it was likely to decide the election. Pamphlets and posters promoting all three parties participating in the election blanketed New York City, from calling upon New Yorkers to “save the south from the ravages of the Negro”, as a Nationalist poster declared, to appealing to the “good charity of the people of this state” to help “right the southern ship of state”, as depicted on a Freedomite campaign document.

Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Dakota all became intensely contested states, as all three parties – the Freedom Party, the Nationals, and the Reconciliationists – had a significant presence. Doolittle was from Wisconsin and Lincoln was from Illinois, while Sherman had a regional advantage, being from Ohio. The favorite orators of each party stumped extensively – Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull for the Reconciliationists, Stephen Douglas for the Nationals, and Charles Sumner and Henry Winter Davis for the Freedomites. The Freedomites attacked the Reconciliationists heavily, with Lincoln mocked and derided as a sore loser and a selfish traitor. One cartoon depicted him, Howell Cobb, and Benedict Arnold toasting “the enemies of America”. The level of invective directed against Lincoln was borne mainly out of his decision to run a third-party ticket, rather than for his conduct during Reconciliation (though that certainly played a role).

Election day saw predictions made and abandoned as the results came in via telegraph to the three campaigns’ headquarters. Illinois was rapidly called for Lincoln, with the Freedom Party proper netting a mere six percent of the vote there, and indeed Illinois was one of the few states won with an outright majority of the popular vote. Massachusetts and the rest of New England were also comfortably won by Sherman, with the Reconciliationists in a very minor third. Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, extensively targeted by the Freedomites, were called shortly after New England for Sherman, while Lincoln narrowly won Iowa and Dakota. Kentucky and Missouri were very narrowly won by Senator Doolittle, who also carried his home state of Wisconsin by a margin of less than a hundred votes. Kansas, similarly, to how their delegates voted at the Freedomite convention, overwhelmingly voted for Sherman. The south was a curious case, with all three candidates winning at least one state. In Mississippi, Florida, and South Carolina, many whites had fled, while those who remained were either unionists, southern abolitionists, or intimidated by freedmen ‘citizen’s defense councils’ into either voting for Sherman or not voting at all. Franklin, though led by radical Freedomite William Brownlow, voted for Lincoln, with Sherman netting a scant three percent of the vote in the state. Vandalia was won by Sherman in a three-way contest, while Doolittle predictably carried Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, Austin, Brazos, Maryland, Delaware, and Kentucky. It thus came down to New York and New Jersey, two states that had been heavily contested. New Jersey was decided at 5am the day after election day for the Doolittle campaign, with the National ticket having won just over 37 percent of the popular vote in the state. New York was thus the state that all Freedomite hopes hinged, for if they won the state, a contingent election, which had the potential to further divide the party, would be avoided. Unfortunately, New York was soon after called for Doolittle by a margin of just 173 votes. The President of the United States would be decided by the House of Representatives in a February contingent election, and the whole country looked anxiously to the result.

Though the Freedom Party controlled a majority of state delegations, a large minority of the Freedomite congressmen had supported Lincoln in the Presidential election and could not be expected to return to the fold immediately, or without concessions. Sherman met with his designated successor, Schuyler Colfax, to determine the best strategy for wrangling the necessary votes to win the requisite majority of state delegations. Though New York had narrowly voted for Doolittle, a majority of the state’s congressional delegation were Freedomites, and the same went for New Jersey and Wisconsin. Doolittle was at a large disadvantage, as his party was in the minority and he did not even have the distinction of a popular vote majority to confer legitimacy. However, he still worked to sway undecided Congressmen with promises of patronage appointments and cabinet positions.

Abraham Lincoln had the unusual distinction of, despite placing last in the electoral and popular votes, being the kingmaker of the election. Though Lincoln had been upset enough by Sherman’s nomination to run a third-party bid, he most certainly preferred him to a Doolittle administration, and shortly before the House was set to vote, met with Speaker Sherman to offer his endorsement. Sherman recalled of the meeting, “President Lincoln told me he would be glad to offer his endorsement, and he preferred a ‘different reconstruction to his vision, rather than none at all’. I thanked him and he left quickly to meet with his allies.” With Lincoln’s official endorsement of Sherman, most anti-Sherman Freedomites dropped their plans of backing Lincoln, and indeed, the result was quite anticlimactic. Though Lincoln still won Missouri (mainly due to the machinations of the state Freedom Party, who remained steadfast in their opposition to Sherman) and received several votes in Illinois, Sherman won all but four states, even carrying the congressional delegation from Doolittle’s home state of Wisconsin.

The Senate was a different story. With Lafayette S. Foster excluded from consideration because the Reconciliationists placed third, several of his supporters refused to endorse Henry Wilson, who was viewed as too radical. At the same time, they also declined to support McClellan, who they denounced as too conservative. On the first ballot, the Senate deadlocked, with Wilson holding a plurality of votes, while enough of the Lincolnite Senators abstained to prevent Wilson from winning an outright majority. On the fifth ballot, Lyman Trumbull and Benjamin G. Brown switched from Foster to Wilson, giving him a bare majority, and therefore finally selecting a Vice President.

The nation as a whole breathed a sigh of relief, as the contingent elections had been almost as uncontentious as they could have hoped for. In his inauguration speech on March 4th, President John Sherman pledged to unite the nation after such a divisive election and announced his plans to “finish what Fremont started eight years ago.”

Spoiler: Author's Note

Comments, questions, predictions welcome. I love hearing from you all!