…The surrender of Texas was the capstone to an apocalyptic August for the Whites. Most of the Army of the Mississippi was now trapped on the west bank of the River. General Drum tried to organize an evacuation effort, but it quickly dissolved into chaos. What little field artillery he possessed was no match for the Red gunboats, not with ammunition in such short supply. Most of the non-Klan soldiers deserted or surrendered to the Reds, with only a few troops making it across. Drum surrendered his command at Pine Bluff on September 8. Many of his Klan troops tried to hide in the bayou, with some talking about forming partisan groups. Unfortunately for them, they soon fell victim to Red partisans…
…With the Whites close to collapse, the GDC began to consider how to end the war, ideally without having to fight for every inch of ground across the South or becoming an international pariah. The only thing keeping the Whites going was their legitimacy. Woodrow Wilson was still the elected President of the United States. Despite many Congressmen having either fled, been imprisoned, or in a few cases killed, Congress still had a quorum. Furthermore, both President Wilson and Congress were still in the nation’s capital…
…One proposal came from Hiram Johnson, who pointed out that the 1918 midterm elections were coming up. The Reds now controlled the vast majority of the country. In most states, they had reestablished civilian government. While it would be on short notice, the GDC could organize its own elections and deny Congress its legitimacy. If they could assemble supermajorities of both houses, they could even impeach Wilson and his administration and establish themselves as the legitimate government of the United States…
…Johnson certainly had ulterior motives. He had reconciled himself to the Socialists holding power for some time but hoped to avoid a complete overhaul. He hoped that this new Congress could replace the GDC as the governing body of Red America, preserving the current Constitution. Unfortunately, his plan ran into a critical problem: the Senate. Even though all Red states would certainly deliver pro-Red senators, only one third of Senate seats were up for reelection – and several of those were from states that were mostly under White control. There was no legal precedent for states to recall their senators, and without a Red Senate, there was no hope of actually removing Wilson from office. Ultimately, the plan was shelved. Once the war was over, the states would vote to hold a constitutional convention as proscribed in the Constitution, thus granting their government legitimacy…
…That left the military option. It had always been assumed that eventually, the Red Army would take Washington, D.C., but now it became critical. If Washington fell, and Wilson’s government was captured, the Whites would have no leadership and no legitimacy. It probably wouldn’t end the war, but it would accelerate their collapse. Accordingly, Bronstein was ordered to make the capture of both Washington itself and Wilson’s government his top priority. No one in the line of succession could be allowed to escape and form a government in exile…
…Bronstein’s previous plans had emphasized the capture of Baltimore as a prerequisite for the assault on Washington. Now, those plans were discarded. Baltimore would be encircled but left alone until after Washington was taken, at which point Baltimore might well surrender. He also needed to ensure that if anyone in the government tried to escape, they were captured. Red intelligence suggested that several Congressmen had already fled the capital, which was confirmed by Sam Rayburn. A few had even made it abroad. Fortunately, the only member of the line of succession to do so, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, had died at the Basel Conference, but the fact that he had made it there at all was troubling. King’s fleet was currently blockading the coast, but he wasn’t catching everything, judging by the steady stream of news articles in foreign papers about wealthy Americans fleeing the country in small boats…
…Bronstein and Strauss concluded that the best way to tighten the net was, naturally, to shrink it. If the Reds could take control of southern Virginia, then the only way to sneak out would be via the Chesapeake, which was heavily patrolled by Red ships. Accordingly, reinforcements were sent to the Army of Knoxville and the Army of Boston (the latter currently holding Norfolk and Hampton Roads). However, nature would wreak havoc on Bronstein’s plans. The second wave had arrived…
- From Red Star Rising: A History of the Second American Revolution by Tom Clancy