Chapter 14: The Starting Moves. Let Us Fight!
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“Initially, both sides were caught off-guard on how they would approach the war in the first place. Nonetheless, both sides immediately started to prepare for war in the manner that they could. The North was at this time, at a severe disadvantage. The Federal States of America had a total population of 2.7 million and the south, the remnants of the United States of America had a total population of 4.2 million people. However what the Federals could not make up in quantity, they would make up in quality.
During the War of 1812, the vast majority of the troops had been taken from the Northern states, and as such the northern states still had veteran troops in their armies and militias, and they were all brought into service. One commander, Zebulon Pike was recalled from his homestead in New Jersey. Pike had returned to America in 1815 after his house arrest in Canada, after he had been captured by Brock. He had been dishonored by his defeat in battle, however he was still a respected commander, and he held a titular command, even though he had resigned from the army. Clinton called him to take command of the 1st Federal Army.
Pike accepted the offer. The man too disliked slavery with a passion, and the man was an experienced general. Pike may have lost against the British forces, however he would prove himself adept at warfare with the south. Pike was made the Commander of the Federal Army of Maryland. He commanded the 1st Division, 2nd Division and the 3rd Division of the Federal Americans. The 1st Division consisted of the 1st Federal Infantry, 2nd Federal Infantry, 3rd Federal Infantry and the 4th Federal Infantry. The 2nd Division consisted of the 5th Federal Infantry, 6th Federal Infantry, 1st Federal Dragoons, and the 2nd Federal Dragoons. The 3rd Division consisted of the 1st Artillery, 2nd Artillery, 4th Artillery and the 7th Artillery. In total the Federal Army of Maryland had 9,000 men under arms, with more than half of them being veterans of the War of 1812.
In the south, the US Army of Virginia was being assembled under Major General Edmund P. Gaines. The US Army of Virginia consisted of the 1st Division, 2nd Division and the Dragoon Brigade.
The 1st Division was divided into the 1st Brigade and 2nd Brigade. The 1st Brigade had under itself the 2nd Artillery, 3rd Artillery and the Duncan’s Artillery under its command. The 2nd Brigade had the 4th US Infantry, 5th US Infantry, 6th US Infantry and the 8th US Infantry under arms. The 2nd Division as well had two brigades. The 1st Brigade of the 2nd Division had the Mounted Rifles, 3rd US Infantry and Taylor’s Battery under arms, and the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division had the 2nd US Infantry, 7th US Infantry, and the 3rd US Infantry under arms. The Dragoon Brigade had the 1st US Dragoons, 2nd US Dragoons and the 3rd US Dragoons under arms as well. In total the US Army of Virginia had 12,500 men under arms. Gaines wasn’t a pushover general either, and was a formidable opponent.
The first battle of the American Civil War would take place in the town of Leesburg. The Battle of Leesburg took place on May 2nd, 1825. Pike’s men crossed the Potomac River on the morning of the 2nd, with Pike taking the offensive. His general plan was to capture Leesburg, create a proper bridgehead, and then invade Virginia and capture Richmond with the aid of the superior Federal Navy, which was far better than the normal US Navy, as most of its warships fell to the Federates when they declared secession.
Gaines on the other hand had strict orders to defend the south from the base at the Potomac river, and once enough forces could be marshalled, he would have to invade and liberate Washington DC which was under Federal occupation at the moment. Gaines was a little overambitious and a little overconfident. He had the numbers sure, but he didn’t have the quality that he would face. From across the Potomac Pike’s 3rd Division opened total artillery fire at Gaines’s positions in Leesburg. Taken by surprise, the artillery bombardment paved the way for the 1st Division and the 2nd Division under Pike to cross the river relatively unopposed.
And that they did, and by 8 a.m, the 1st Division and the 2nd Division had managed to connect with one another through Harrison Island and Murray Hill and had consolidated their own positions. At Murray Hill, the 1st Division and 2nd Division took a defensive stance against Gaines, as they were now over the range of the artillery guns of the 3rd Division. Pike ordered them to stand until the entirety of the guns could be transported over.
The 1st and 2nd US Dragoons and the Mounted Rifles were ordered by Gaines to retake Murray Hill, and in consequence, the 1st US Dragoons galloped across the field and hills to attack the positions of the 1st and 2nd Divisions, and were consequently mowed down. Pike and his subordinates had used their vantage point in the hill to monitor the movements of Gaines’s men, and this made them acutely aware of what they were doing. As such when the 1st and 2nd US Dragoons led the charge uphill, they were met with a countercharge from the Federals with bayonets ready. Taken by surprise, and unable to properly resist close range shots and bayonet attacks, the Dragoons had to flee backwards downhill. The Mounted Rifles fared a little better than their Dragoon counterparts, however as the Dragoons melted way from Murray hill, they found their positions incredibly untenable to hold, and they soon retreated back downhill, with nothing to show for it. By 10 a.m. around half of the 3rd Division had been transported over the Potomac River.
At this time, Pike decided to go on the offensive. He had learned from his mistakes against Sir Isaac Brock, the 1st Duke of Auckland, and had even adapted to his strategies and made it his own. One of those included Brock’s astonishing offensive spirit. The 2nd Division was ordered to take Red Rock whilst the 1st Division faced the US Army of Virginia and pinned them down. Using the hill to his advantage, Pike managed to make it look like the entire army was moving forward to pin Gaines and his men down. The 1st Division was successful in pinning the Army of Virginia when the 2nd Division reported that they had secured Red Rock.
With this clear in mind, Pike ordered the 2nd Division to fall on the flanks of Gaines’s men. Gaines’s was caught completely off-guard as Pike’s 2nd Division came forward from the wilderness and the creeks and crashed on his flanks. With his entire position exposed like an underbelly he decided prudently to withdraw from Leesburg as he could not hold the flanking action properly unless he wished to lose a massive amount of men. Therefore at 2 p.m. he ordered the US Army of Virginia to withdraw and retreat back to Fredericksburg. By 3 p.m the retreat had ended and the Battle of Leesburg was over.
The Battle of Leesburg saw the US Army of Virginia take 120 killed, 320 wounded and some missing in total amount of casualties. In stark contrast the Federal Army of Maryland had taken casualties of 64 killed, 178 wounded and few missing. It was a small but great victory for the Federals and a good start for what the federals and President DeWitt Clinton hoped would be a new independence war.” A Military History of the American Civil War, University of Baltimore, 1997.
“Whilst war broke out in America between themselves the situation was looked at keenly by the neighboring powers. New England even offered to intervene in the American Civil War sending a missive to Clinton stating that the formidable New English Army and the extremely formidable Commonwealth Navy would be at their disposal. However the New York senators and representatives in the Federal government, who still seethed over the loss of the Saranac vetoed this option. Nonetheless, the New English government under Prime Minister Thorndike continued to look at the American Civil War with unveiled interest.
The New English Navy was a powerful one.
In Mishigama, the American Civil War was looked on with agitation. The war would disrupt the animal and herd migratory cycles and behavior which would not be good for the annual yield of the nation, and the small nation had no wish to see Whites pouring across the border as refugees of war. High Chief John Norton immediately ordered the closure of the borders and stated that anyone crossing the border without clearance of the governments would be liable to be ‘shot’ by a musket or rifle, or ‘cut to pieces’ by a tomahawk. Norton had more issues on the table, like his running of the Mishigaman economy, than to look at this silly civil war going on between the powers of the America. Nonetheless, the small 8,000 strong and professional Royal Mishigaman Army was mobilized by the government to make sure that the war would not spill over into their territory and if Britain intervened.
In Britain itself the war was seen with unveiled curiosity. The Duke of Wellington had managed to make the British Kingdom of one that of prosperity and industrialization, and the British Economy was more powerful than ever. The people in Ireland prospered and the reform acts had made the British economy extremely powerful. Economist John Maynard Keynes in his book the History of the British Economy write in Chapter 18…..
The British Economy was in the Napoleonic Wars said to be extremely powerful. They basically funded the entire war for the Portuguese, Spanish, Swedes, Prussians, Russians and Austrians. However if the British Economy was powerful then, then the British Economy at the onset of the American Civil War was even more powerful. Under Wellington, industrialization had been equally divided between the Irish, Scots, Welsh and English, and the industrialization process had been exported to every single colony of the British Crown. From 1819 to 1825, the premiership of Wellington, the economy experienced a growth rate of at minimum 6.5% per annum with the economy growing by over 40% during the 6 years that Wellington ruled over Britain. When Wellington stepped down over political controversy he had left a kingdom that had the capability to outspend the entire world. – John Maynard Keynes, History of the British Economy, Chapter 18, Paragraph 29.
The Duke of Wellington also saw America as a rival to contend with in British North America, and for the security of the British claims and holdings in the New World. Nonetheless, Wellington whilst he may have wanted to intervene couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to get Britain to intervene and for one major problem. The Duke of Wellington after the Catholic Emancipation had lobbied extremely hard with every sector of the British Parliament and the British Gentry to get the Corn Laws implemented in 1815 to be repealed. It would be the last thing that could be a stopper to the current massive economic growth that Britain was experiencing. Wellington somewhat ironically found that his own Tories were not receptive of the idea whilst his opponents, the Whigs were in favor. On June 17th, after multiple years of lobbying Wellington managed to get enough prerogative to call a Parliamentary session to decide the repeal of the Corn Laws. Wellington put forward his plan for the repeal of the Corn Laws. He said that the Corn Laws would be repealed and abolished by 1st January 1828 after years of gradual reductions of tariff, leaving only a shilling duty per quarter.
This opened a massive economic debate in Parliament. The Pro-Repeal MPs argued on a free trade platform and the Anti-Repeal MPs argued on a protectionist platform. Till now the British government had been doing a mix of the two however it now seemed that it would be impossible. Nonetheless, this issue divided the tories, and Wellington managed to use his side of the Tories and the vast majority of the Whigs to pass the Repeal of the Corn Laws through Parliament and eventually through the House of Lords. However despite this, the parliament also passed a small protectionist policy under pressure from the economists of the parliament called the ‘British Agricultural Protection Act’ which gave the internal British agriculture more incentives to grow, and encouraged ‘internal exports’ to keep the British agricultural market running. This would make the British non-reliant on foreign imports of food.
An Anti-Corn Law Cartoon in Ireland.
Politically whilst the repeal of the Corn Laws and the advent of the Protection Act did make the economy of Britain much better the divided Tories made it impossible for Wellington to continue his premiership as many in his cabinet resigned in protest. As such Wellington resigned from his post as Prime Minister. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, the leader of the Whigs. Despite the fierce Whigs and Tories rivalry Fitzmaurice praised the Duke of Wellington for his dedication to his work and stated,
It takes a different kind of man who would go against his own party to pass a law that would be for the greater good of the nation. For that I praise him. – 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne on the Duke of Wellington’s resignation.
The 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne
Nonetheless this economic and political turmoil would make it impossible for the United Kingdom to intervene in the American Civil War.” The Foreign Actors of the American Civil War, University of Havana, 1888.
“Completely opposite to what was happening in the North Americas, or perhaps mirroring it in some manners, Argentina was in turmoil. Carlos I continued to demand more and more executive powers and the loss in the New Ireland War with New England which had seen the Argentine Navy sink into the depths of the seas, the pride of Argentina, had induced massive unrest. It also didn’t help that the Federalists and the Unitarists openly fought in the streets with their respective militias flouting Royal Rule like it was nothing.
Aggravated with all of this, and the perceived weakness and failures of Prime Minister San Martin, Carlos I gathered his supporters in Buenos Aires and launched the Royal Coup in Buenos Aires. The Royal Coup took place on May 23rd, 1825 and saw the Rio De La Plata region fall to the Royalists. In Buenos Aires, Carlos I decreed that the Argentine Constitution was repealed, and abolished, and he took personal command of the nation as an absolutist monarch.
This saw widespread mixed reactions. In the Rio region, where the government’s instability had made the economy go absolutely to the drain, the people supported the royalist and absolutist coup, however in the other regions, the people did not support it and reacted violently. San Martin himself had not managed to flee and he was tried in court in the capital of Argentina where he was found guilty of ‘treason to the state’ and ‘gross miscalculations against the state’ and was banished to Spain where he would sit in house arrest in Seville.
A Depiction of the Argentine Civil War.
The rest of the nation seemed to be taking the coup sitting down until one Carlos Maria de Alvear declared the royalist coup in the Rio De La Plata region to be ‘insincere’ and ‘illegal’. He invited republicans of Argentina to the city of Cordoba where The Congress of Cordoba declared that:-
In the light of the coup, which goes against all that Argentina has fought for, this nation shall not recognize the new government in Buenos Aires. We declare the monarchy to be over, and that the Republic of Argentina to be the sole and legitimate government of the Argentine Peoples.
The Congress of Cordoba declared the Republic of Argentina. As such both sides started to herald their forces to fight for war. As such as the American Civil War continued in the Northern continent, the Argentinian Civil War erupted in the southern continent.” Half Century of Absolutism, Osprey Publishing, 1965.
“In 1824, the Mexican Government held their second General Elections. Under Muzquiz, a new party named the Liberal Party had emerged. To challenge the Liberals, a new political party named the Conservatives was formed by young and charismatic Pedro Velez. The 1824 Mexican General Elections saw both sides campaign heavily to gain more seats in the Mexican Congress. The results of the Elections were:-
- Liberals (Muzquiz): 33% of the popular vote, or 165 seats won in the Chamber of Deputies and 33 seats won in the Senate.
- Conservatives (Velez): 35% of the popular vote, or 175 seats won in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 seats won in the Senate.
- Independents: 32% of the popular vote, or 160 seats won in the Chamber of Deputies and 32 seats won in the Senate.
Senate of the Mexican Empire, Yellow – Liberals, Blue – Conservatives, Grey – Independents.
Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Empire, Yellow – Liberals, Blue – Conservatives, Grey – Independents.
Muzquiz accepted his defeat handily, as the non-assuming man that he was and the transition of power to Velez happened smoothly. Symbolically Jose I invited Velez to form a new Mexican government and the new cabinet was given symbolic royal prerogative.
To make the Mexican people to have something to laugh and celebrate as well, Jose I announced that the heiress to the Empire of Mexico, Zenaide Bonaparte would be marrying her cousin, Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Jose I also signed the ‘Pragmatic Sanction’ which made the Mexican Monarchy would remain in the House of Bonaparte with the eldest would take the throne, and should females take the throne, then the King-Spouse would have to take a matrimonial marriage taking on the surname of the Queen. This was accepted unanimously by the Chamber of Deputies and the marriage happened in Mexico City with more than 50,000 spectators from across the capital city looking on and celebrating.
Pedro Velez, Second Prime Minister of Mexico.
Velez also had other problems on his hand as he acceded to the premiership. Russia owned Fort Ross in California and what to do with them seemed to be a constant problem that came up in Mexican politics. Nonetheless, a deal was reached between Velez and the company of Russians in Fort Ross. Fort Ross was bought by the Russian Amerika Company was a private land ownership under the name of the company, not Russia, and the issue was solved when the ink on the purchase dried up on December 17th, 1824.
Whilst this was going on, the Mexican government had been following the American crisis with acute eyes. The Mexican military numbered around a mixed professional and unprofessional force that was 40,000 strong. And even though a good amount of the army was unprofessional in their training and discipline, all of them were well-equipped. Under Muzquiz and continued under Velez, the government continued to import the British industrial revolution to the Americas, and the industries concentrated around Mexico City and Veracruz were potent in their output.
When the American Civil War erupted in the United States, the Imperial Mexican Army was mobilized by the Mexican government and was sent to Tejas where they would be stationed just in case the war and fighting spilled over into Mexico, which knowing the American administration, many thought would not be out of the possibility.” A Political History of the Mexican Empire, Imperial University of Mexico City, 1978.
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A Levels Exam – 2nd Year.
Course – North American History.
Name – John MacDonald.
School – High School of Ottawa, Ottawa, Kingdom of Canada, Commonwealth Realm.
Question: Write a brief synopsis worth at least 600 words on the political and diplomatic as well as economical developments in Mishigama from 1816 to the start of the American Civil War.
Answer: The History of Mishigama is very muddled during this period. When John Norton came to power as High Chief he found himself looking at a country that was divided. Divided along the lines of tribes. To alleviate this problem, the man quickly turned his attention to look at the examples of Europe. Despite internal divides in Britain of being Irish (tenuously), Scottish, English and Welsh, the recent Napoleonic Wars had made a solid British identity crop up whilst keeping their individual identities. In Spain, Catalans, Basques, Andalusians, Castilians etc all fought together as Spanish. In France, the Normans, Burgundians, Breton (tenuously), all fought in the name of France. Therefore, Norton started to encourage a pan-Indian identity going above petty tribal identities. Granted he kept the tribal lands system, he still worked with his pan beliefs. He introduced English as the lingua franca of Mishigama, which eventually led to the nation becoming a bilingual nation between English and their respective languages.
When Henry Clay ascended to power, Norton also negotiated treaties with the man to see the southern tribes of the United States to migrate into Mishigama. Seeing their condition which was pitiful after the War of 1812, many natives did migrate into Mishigama, where each tribe was given their allocated land. The Fox clan would be a prominent clan and tribe that would migrate. Some Natives also agitated for a true democratic system with political parties, however this was pushed back by Norton. Whilst he did have pan-Indian beliefs he did not wish to undo the very system that was keeping the tribes together.
Norton was also an avid economist that was peculiar in his own way. He made the Mishigaman economy strong by making a strong case of ecological conservation, like all Natives, and instead sought to reap the benefits of nature in sustainable ways which led to the Norton Laws of Nature Economics to crop up in 1819 which saw the herb industry in Mishigama becoming set up, one day to become the most lucrative herb industry in all of the New World. He also encouraged new fishing stations to crop up all over the Michigan Peninsula and the tribes settled there, which led to the Mishigaman economy having a sizeable portion of their economy become derived from the hunting and game that occurred in the Great Lakes.
Norton was also a great proponent of free trade, and under him mercantilist policies were downgraded whilst free trade policies were encouraged, and the government started to trade extensively with British North America and New England. The Mishigaman government however under Norton did not participate in much economic activity with America, as they were still extremely distrustful of the nation.
As chaos seeped into America in the backdrop that would one day become the American Civil War, the military reforms made in 1816 were sped up as well. The Mishigaman government also recognized that their numbers were just too small to resist properly, and the government as such emphasized their medicinal capacity, one of the major factors that led to the inauguration of the herb industry. In 1823 Norton would manage to convince both Houses of the Mishigaman Government to pass the ‘Mishigaman Medicinal and Health Act’. This act basically made Mishigama the very first welfare state in the modern world. It was a government sponsored program to make sure the population of Mishigama grew at a stable rate, and so that the people of Mishigama were healthy and fit.
By the time the American Civil War began, the Mishigaman nation also saw some industrialization start as the government started to open small scale textile and pottery industries which were good for the nation overall.
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