TL-191: Filling the Gaps

I'd say Gallipoli did happen in this timeline, but maybe on a smaller scale, or rather than devolving into a stalemate over a few days, the invasion was thrown back into the sea within a week.
 
Also do we think Gallipoli even happened in TL 191? If it was all an ANZAC force then maybe. Under Craigo's articles and the Books it doesn't British seem the British sent too many reinforcments to Canada. In my article i was suggesting the Labrador port handled a few reinforcements no new British divisions were sent to the Canadians. Then some time in 1916 the ports was generally only used for sending munitions.

I'd say Gallipoli did happen in this timeline, but maybe on a smaller scale, or rather than devolving into a stalemate over a few days, the invasion was thrown back into the sea within a week.

I suppose its a long shot to somehow expect the Confederates to send out a force as well.:p:p:p

Who was CiC Canada?
 
Who was CiC Canada?

In OTL the Canadian Chief of Staff was its was Lieutenant-General Sir Willoughby Garnons Gwatkin. So thats who it probably was in TL 191.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willoughby_Gwatkin

General Sir Arthur William Currie would probably be Comander of Canadian Army in Ontario.

Carigo has the Commanders of the BEFC as first Lieutenant-General Sir James Grierson then Sir Edmund Allenby.

I'd say Gallipoli did happen in this timeline, but maybe on a smaller scale, or rather than devolving into a stalemate over a few days, the invasion was thrown back into the sea within a week.

Yeah I think you are right.

I suppose its a long shot to somehow expect the Confederates to send out a force as well.
probably not troops but definitely observers. An article on Gallipoli and the CS Observors present at the battle would be interesting.
 
Meriam C. Cooper (1893-19??)
Cooper was born in 1893 into a genteel family in Jacksonville, Fla. His father John C. Cooper, an American of English descent, and his mother the Jacksonville socialite Mary Caldwell. When he was 6 he was given a copy of "Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa," by the 19th-century explorer Paul Du Chaillu, which recounted native tales about gorillas possessed by spirits who carried off hapless women.

Like many other members of the wealthy Confederate aristocracy, he was educated in the United States at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. In 1911 He won an appointment to the Confederate Naval Academy at Mobile. Much to the chagrin of the Cooper family, he was expelled in his junior year 1913 for hell raising and a dispute over the role of air power.

Service in the Great War
When the Great War broke out a year later he enrolled in the nascent Confederate Army Air Corp. Despite the CSA being dwarfed by the United States economy, the CSA was able to punch above its weight when it came to its Air Corp. The CSA had more automobile workers per capita, than any other economy of its size. The large automobile industry meant that they had the factories to build aircraft engines, and the high degree of technology sharing with France gave the CSA early access to superior European designs.

By 1916 the CSA would be the fifth largest producer of Aircraft. In 1916 alone it produced 5,004 aircraft and 3,020 engines. Behind France 7,549 aircraft and 16,875 engines, Germany 8,182 aircraft and 7,823 engines, the United States 8, 003 aircraft and 8,950 engines, and Britain’s 6,040 aircraft and 4,050 engines. Luckily for the CSA France also traded thousands of engines for access to Confederate coal supplies.

Lieutenant Cooper flew hundreds of missions through out the war. Despite its large aircraft industry, CS fighter squadrons were often transferred between fronts to make up for over all deficiency in aircraft. This meant Cooper like others CSA Aces wound up flying over multiple fronts like Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Maryland. Cooper’s career mirrored the rise and fall of the Confederate Army Air Corp. He began by flying scout planes over Western Virginia, in the Roanoke River Valley. He flew fighter-scout over the Pennsylvania front, engaging in dogfights over the Philadelphia Remembrance day parades of 1915. By spring of 1917, Major Cooper was leading a squadron of a DH-4 bombers over the Maryland Front helping to disrupt the build up of the Remembrance day offensives. It was in April of that year that he was shot down over Maryland and suffered serious burns. He spent the next three months recuperating in a hospital outside Baltimore.

Inter-War
After the war he was retained in the CS Army as part of the Air Corp logistic branch. Where he over saw the dismantling of aircraft to surrender to the US in compliance with the Treaty of Arlington. In this position he authored several reports on how best to retain military aircraft without violating the Arlington Treaty. A natural businessman he and a group of air officers exploited a loop whole in the treaty that would allow the use of aircraft for non-military purposes. With this and the war department’s desire to retain some military aircraft, they purchased hundreds of military grade aircraft at drastically reduced prices. They then sold them on the cheap to confederate companies, like Confederate Parcel Service and the Confederate Fruit Company. These were often shell companies for the Confederate War Department.

By 1919 the Mexican Civil War was in full swing. With the support of his superiors Cooper left the war department to volunteer his service with the Mexican Imperial government. There he was quickly made a Colonel in the Mexican Imperial Airforce. There he trained crews and flew bombing missions against rebel strong hold all over the country. By 1921 Roosevelt’s electoral defeat meant that aide to Republicans would be coming to an end. In a desperate gamble the Republicans launched an all out assault on Mexico City. Rebels launched a two prong attack with an infantry assault from the south and a cavalry attack from the north. Cooper personally led a squadron CS built DH-4 bombers that broke up the Cavalry attack and helped save Mexico City.

Again, his plane was shot down, and he was captured by a Mexican cavalry patrol. He managed to escape. In one of many harrowing adventures, he was briefly captured by a lone insurgent while making his way back to Government held territory. Cooper in his biography describes how he escaped by slitting the rebels throat. After returning to Mexico City and with the war winding down. He decided to leave Mexico. With the shrunken Confederate army no longer hiring and the Confederate economy still in shambles, he moved to New York. There he worked the night shift at The New York Times, writing autobiographical pieces for the paper, signed "A Fortunate Soldier." But he hated what he called "the dingy horror" of the news trade and decided to become an explorer.

In 1923 Cooper decided to travel to Africa with Ernest Schoedsack, a cameraman from Iowa who also flew in the war in as observation aircraft photographer. Both being shot down, in the last months of the war , they had met while recovering in a hospital outside Baltimore. On an expedition to Abyssinia, the two visited the glittering court of the Golden Prince Tafari, the future emperor Haile Selassie, which motivated them to make documentary films. In the Andaman Islands, off the east coast of India, they encountered gigantic lizards, 14 feet long, Cooper wrote, with flashing red tongues. The island inspired the lost world of Skull Island, a place which time forgot and where dinosaurs still roamed.

Out of these explorations, the two agreed to partner on three films. Their first film was Grass (1925), about the seasonal migrations of the Bakhtiari tribe, featuring 50,000 tribesmen driving a half million animals over the mountains of southern Persia (now Iran) to the fertile valley beneath. Cooper and Schoedsack would go one to make I Chang (1927) and Four Feathers (1929).

Throughout his career, Cooper was a proponent of technical innovation. Grass and I Chang, which combined real footage with staged sequences. In Chang, he used this technique to create a memorable finale, featuring an elephant stampede. His movie The Four Feathers was filmed among the fighting tribes of the Sudan.

His films garnered financial support from both the US film industry in Hollywood California and its CS counterpart Orlando, Florida. They were generally popular in both the North and the South. However Four Feathers which was the story of British soldiers fighting in the Sudan, was more popular in the Confederacy and Canada.

Despite much of the decade spent abroad as a filmmaker and explore, the aircraft industry and aviation remained a passion. In between films he became a founder of Pan American Airways. Founded in 1927 as a scheduled air mail and passenger service operating between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba. It quickly became a front for the Confederate government’s attempt to design aircraft capable of long range transport and bombing missions. The most famous aircraft to come out of this program was the three engine Alligator transport and the two engine Buzzard medium bomber.

In 1929 Cooper became a member of Pan Am’s board of directors and moved to New York in charge of soliciting New York investors. It was in New York that he began his treatment for Kong of Skull Island. In his biography he recanted how “one day I stepped out of his Midtown office and heard a plane overhead. Without any conscious effort of thought I immediately saw in my mind's eye a giant gorilla on top of the building." The building would personify civilization and the gorilla nature brought down by "the most modern of weapons, the airplane."

The Confederate film industry was hit especially hard by the Collapse. Cooper tried to sell the film to the Confederacies leading filmmaker D.W. Griffith, but he was turned down. So Cooper took his idea to the head of RKO films. David O. Selznick, who was then head of production at RKO, made Cooper an executive assistant, and Selznick became executive producer on Kong of Skull Island. The final script was by James Creelman and Schoedsack's wife, Ruth Rose, a naturalist he met on an expedition.

Cooper and Schoedsack crafted the final scenes in which the planes shoot down Kong, Cooper told Schoedsack, "We should kill the son of a bitch ourselves." Cooper and Schoedsack are the two men seen in the plane firing at the monster. Kong of Skull Island was a world wide hit and the biggest box office yet to date. Being filmed in Los Angelos, New York and Orlando and having a cast from both the North and South, it is considered the high mark of the inter-war US-CS film industry cooperation.

Though a Confederate patriot, Cooper was a die hard Whig and anti-Freedomite. When Featherston came to power he chose to remain in LA. Selznick made him head of production for RKO Radio Pictures from 1933 to 1935. He frequently collaborated with Ernest B. Schoedsack. Cooper was vice president in charge of production for Pioneer Pictures from 1934 to 1936, and vice president of Selznick International Pictures in 1936–1937, before moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Second Great War
Despite his hatred of the Featherston regime, he remained a loyal Confederate Citizen. When war clouds gathered in the Spring of 1941, he returned to his home in Florida. When the war broke out he volunteered his services to the Confederate Army Air Corp and was quickly commissioned a Colonel. He was assigned to the CS long Range Bomber Division.

As an operations officer he planned raids on Philadelphia munitions plants, Detroit Barrel factories and the Brooklyn Naval Yard. In On October 13th 1942, on a bombing mission of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Cooper planned, a Buzzard bomber became lost in a fog and crashed into the Empire State build. The same building Kong climbed in his most famous movie. Luckily it had already dropped its bomb load load over Brooklyn, so the building was not destroyed.

Owing to its roots in the cavalry, The Confederate Army Air Corp remained one of the least reformed elements of the army. Despite attempts by the Featherston regime to root out the aristocratic tendencies of the Army. Cooper remained an outspoken critic of President Featherston. He was normally shielded by the other Air Officers, however after the disaster at Pittsburgh the national mood turned ugly. To prevent his arrest as a defeatist, his superior had him re-assigned as an exchange officer to the R.A.F. There he was transferred to the Africa division. Planning bombing and flying in raids over German controlled Central Africa and the Ottoman Oil Facilities at Mosul. After Japan turned on Britain and began attacking British colonies in Asia, a significant air group was stationed in Singapore. Cooper served in Singapore from December 1943 to the British and Confederate surrender. There he was apart of the R.A.F.’s successful defense against a Japanese sea born invasion.

With the war over he was repatriated to North America. After being cleared of war crimes by a tribunal of US officer, he was released. He returned to his family home outside Jacksonville, Florida for several years. With his adventure days behind him and the Confederacy and its Film Industry no more, Cooper returned to Los Angelos. Inspired by his service in Africa he had already developed a treatment for a new movie, a Biopic of the Great War German War Hero Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Though not made until 1949, Cooper secured the funding for an on location in German East Africa, with Cooper serving as executive Producer. Safari, filmed by John Ford and starring Clark Gable would go on to win an Academy Award for best picture in 1949. Since then he has partnered with John Ford on more then a dozen films.
 
Last edited:
what does everyone think of Mr. Cooper.? The next Lodge article is taking a while i found a bunch of Lodge Bios and I am trying to plow through them.

What does peveryone think of the first 1 and 1/2 years of a TR presidency look like. TR definitely passes a Civil Service reform bill and a anti-child labor bill. Does anyone have any other ideas?. I think TR still passes an antiquities bill. the books lay out a world wear the progressive movement doesnt start until Upton Sinclair. That's why he wins, but TR must past some pro working man bills.
 
I've been re-reading How Few Remain in the vain hope of discovering more details about the armies of the Second Mexican War (though unfortunately, none appeared). What's really confusing me is how emphatic he is about Willcox being a Brigadier General.

General Willcox was supposed to know he was coming. When he strode up to the tent with the general's one-star flag flying in front of it, he discovered the sentries had not been informed.

Brigadier General Willcox or one of his officers had managed to make a hash of things.

Willcox takes 17,409 casualties in "the past several days", so the Army of the Ohio must be a reasonably-sized force. I know that the point is that the Union army didn't appoint lieutenant generals, but as an army commander I would have expected him to be a major-general. I can't get my head round how the whole situation works. Did he not appoint any corps commanders, and request the most junior divisional commanders to serve with him? And what was the point of Turtledove making him a brigadier rather than a major-general in the first place? Is it a nod to the difficulty Lincoln had in getting his nomination as brigadier-general confirmed by the Senate?

Don't even get me started on the size of the Battle of Winchester.

Jackson rapidly read through it. "A brigade of volunteer infantry on its way up here, eh?" he said. That would better than double his force.
 
I've been re-reading How Few Remain in the vain hope of discovering more details about the armies of the Second Mexican War (though unfortunately, none appeared). What's really confusing me is how emphatic he is about Willcox being a Brigadier General.

General Willcox was supposed to know he was coming. When he strode up to the tent with the general's one-star flag flying in front of it, he discovered the sentries had not been informed.

Brigadier General Willcox or one of his officers had managed to make a hash of things.

Willcox takes 17,409 casualties in "the past several days", so the Army of the Ohio must be a reasonably-sized force. I know that the point is that the Union army didn't appoint lieutenant generals, but as an army commander I would have expected him to be a major-general. I can't get my head round how the whole situation works. Did he not appoint any corps commanders, and request the most junior divisional commanders to serve with him? And what was the point of Turtledove making him a brigadier rather than a major-general in the first place? Is it a nod to the difficulty Lincoln had in getting his nomination as brigadier-general confirmed by the Senate?

Don't even get me started on the size of the Battle of Winchester.

Jackson rapidly read through it. "A brigade of volunteer infantry on its way up here, eh?" he said. That would better than double his force.
I did find it odd a simple Brigadier General would be commander of an "Army" sized formation, but I think that has more to do with a nod to the Civil War more then anything. At that time "Corps" and "Armies" were not along the size of levels as we know Corps and Armies today. Until the German reforms were applied to the Union Army in force, I think the entire force of the Union Army was still divided amongst peacetime "Departments" and "Divisions" with the Brigade and Regiment being the only units capable of independent operations.

During the Civil War, until later in it, I saw a great number of B. Gens, commanding Army formations and many more only Brevet Brigadier Generals, only being Colonels or light Colonels otherwise... so its not unheard of a Brigadier General commanding a Department, like the Department of the Ohio which was reorganized into a War when it finally broke out.


When the Army was initially created, and Schlieffen arrived to observe its very likely Wilcox was still in the midst of setting up his command. I feel the Army of the Ohio was rushed into service as fast as possible to show the Confederacy the Union meant business and desperately wanted a victory. As well, its more then possible he did in fact have a few Corps Commanders, Turtledove simply didn't mention them. As for the fact his rank remained a Brigadier General, the Senate may not have confirmed him AS a Major General at this point as I believe the only Major General at any given time for the Army was reserved for its General in Chief, though anyone is more then free to correct me on that.

The biggest issue about ANYTHING within the Turtledove verse, is purely the fact we are rarely given hard numbers to figure out the size of battles or formations. What that means to me is that the Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded by a Colonel actually, was still only a Brigade sized formation, which made its command by a Colonel along Confederate standards made sense, and they were still waiting for additional forces at the time. When your entire military is based on the thought process of volunteer brigades with only a very small number of full time Officers that make up the regular Army, in its own sad sense, it makes sense.
 
Would anyone mind if I tried my hand at a touch up of Craigo's Canada piece to try and fit it in with Zoidberg12s list of Canadian Prime Ministers and internal events inside Canada from 1862-1944?
 
I did find it odd a simple Brigadier General would be commander of an "Army" sized formation... At that time "Corps" and "Armies" were not along the size of levels as we know Corps and Armies today.
I think we can infer the size of the army from the number of losses and their reception by the public, as it happens: I'd put it the Army of the Ohio at c.80,000 strong. At Third Plevna, the Russian army of c.100,000 took c.20,000 casualties in a couple of days: at Second Petersburg, the Union army of c.62,000 take c. 11,000 casualties over four days.

During the Civil War, until later in it, I saw a great number of B. Gens, commanding Army formations
Only very early in the war, though: McDowell is a brigadier general at First Bull Run, commanding five divisions with no intermediate corps, but that practice is more or less over by spring 1862. When Grant was appointed to the Army of the Tennessee in February 1862, he's made a major-general two days later: Buell, who has commanded the Army of the Ohio since November 1861, is made a major-general in March 1862. That's why I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't immediately adopt the policy of major-generals commanding corps and armies and brigadier-generals commanding divisions and below. It just seems like such an easily-avoided mistake that I find myself searching for some deeper meaning in it, like an M.C. Escher painting.

As well, its more then possible he did in fact have a few Corps Commanders, Turtledove simply didn't mention them.
I'm fine with him not mentioning them: I just don't understand how it would work. Willcox being a brigadier-general implies that he has several corps commanders who are also brigadier-generals, divisional commanders who are brigadier generals or colonels, and brigade commanders who are also brigadier generals or colonels. All of these officers have to be assigned in a precise sequence of seniority by the War Department, because a brigadier-general with 91 days seniority outranks one with 90 days seniority, and none of them can be more senior than Willcox. I find it hard to believe that someone spent hours poring over the seniority lists to get the sequences exactly right, rather than just promote Willcox to major-general or appoint someone else over his head.

I believe the only Major General at any given time for the Army was reserved for its General in Chief, though anyone is more then free to correct me on that.
George McClellan was promoted major-general in the regular army at the same time that Winfield Scott was major-general; furthermore, there could be as many major-generals of volunteers as they wanted.

What that means to me is that the Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded by a Colonel actually, was still only a Brigade sized formation, which made its command by a Colonel along Confederate standards made sense
My problem isn't that, though the repeated use of "army" does wind me up a bit. One of Jackson's most legendary campaigns is the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson is now controlling the entire Confederate army. Therefore, the Union decide that the best move to open the war is to send a force of troops barely outnumbering the existing defenders to occupy Winchester, apparently before either army is ready to follow up on the move. When this token force gets beaten, despite Jackson's pulling up short of the border, the Union decide to completely abandon any attempt to make progress in the eastern theatre and to go after Louisville instead.

Would anyone mind if I tried my hand at a touch up of Craigo's Canada piece
I think the unwritten rule in this thread is that you can't be too touchy about people tweaking your contributions later on, as things get thrashed out. I need to get some things straight about weapons of the Second Mexican War, but I might post something if it comes together.
 
I think the unwritten rule in this thread is that you can't be too touchy about people tweaking your contributions later on, as things get thrashed out. I need to get some things straight about weapons of the Second Mexican War, but I might post something if it comes together.

Alright then. I'm going to whip up a part one over the next couple days for a few posts on Canada then and see what people think.
 
Union weapons of the Second Mexican War

When the defeated armies of the Union returned to their homes in 1863 they brought their weapons with them, handing them into to state and federal armouries where they languished, almost untouched, for a decade. It took George Washington Woodward’s incoming Secretary of War, Theodore Fitz Randolph, and the aftermath of Prussian victories over Austria and France to shake up this torpor. As Governor of New Jersey, Randolph had been shocked to discover the miscellaneous dross held in the state arsenal, the result of hasty purchasing decisions at the start of the Civil War. Though the weapons stored were immaculately preserved, they ranged from first-rate Springfield and Enfield rifles, through Austrian and French rifles, to smoothbore muskets converted from flintlocks and designed half a century before. Now, along with his newly-appointed Commanding General Rufus Ingalls, Randolph brought his experience from the world of business to the challenge of re-equipping the Union’s armed forces for the modern era.

In 1868, then-Commanding General George Stoneman had authorised the development of a breech-loading conversion for the Springfield rifle. Deployed against the Kiowa, Lakota and Sioux, the Springfield Model 1868 proved an efficient and effective workhorse of a weapon. However, it languished in the troop trials phase until Randolph’s arrival at the War Office, when he authorised its production on a massive scale. Though the new weapon was designated the Springfield Model 1873, in fact 120,000 of the 300,000 rifles produced were converted from Enfield muzzle-loaders bought from European workshops at the start of the Civil War. A short carbine was also issued to the cavalry, with a 22-inch barrel compared to the 33 of the infantry rifle: these guns were either converted from Pattern 1860 Enfields or freshly manufactured at the Springfield armoury.

The ‘trapdoor’ Springfield’s initial popularity with the troops as a robust and workmanlike weapon fell after intense combat revealed underlying reliability issues. Its .45-70 cartridges, cased in copper, had a distressing tendency to expand and jam in the breech; a problem which was only resolved after the war by substituting brass for copper. Even before these issues were identified, many state volunteer units preferred to use their own breech-loaders or repeaters, often domestically produced. This wide variety of weapons compounded the problems of supply faced by the army, with the pistol ammunition used in Winchester repeaters, in particular, becoming increasingly difficult to obtain during the war.

Towards the end of his term, Randolph also approved the conversion of the Union’s wrought-iron 3in Ordnance rifles from muzzle-loading to breech-loading. The first gun was completed in time for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876: the catalogue described its mechanism, originally designed by Elisha Sutcliffe for heavy artillery, as a:
Disk shaped breech-block, supported by a pin attached to the front end of hollow breech-screw, by the half revolution of which the block is lowered into a mortise in the body of the gun, and the chamber exposed. On closing, the screw sets up firmly against the block and transmits the strain to the walls of the breech.

A total of 450 guns were converted before the Second Mexican War, but although the breech mechanism proved reliable their 10lb shells were underpowered and the guns lacked range when compared to the Confederate artillery. Superior numbers prevented the Union artillery from being completely overwhelmed, but the disappointing Sutcliffe was replaced shortly after the end of the war.

The Union also deployed a number of primitive machine guns, invented by Richard Gatling of Indianapolis, Indiana. Gatling had begun to develop his gun on the outbreak of war, but it ended shortly after he patented the weapon. In 1870 he persuaded the British government to buy fifty of the weapons, manufactured under license by the Armstrong company. However, the Union army remained sceptical about its merits and, in any case, were prevented from investing in the weapon by budget limitations. With both an eye for popularity and the instincts of a shrewd businessman, however, Gatling offered the War Department his entire stock of twenty weapons without charge on the declaration of war. Two weapons were initially attached to the Fifth Cavalry for trials, subsequently joined by six more which were assigned to Utah on the outbreak of the Mormon Rebellion. The rest of the guns were despatched to the Louisville front, where four were put out of commission by artillery fire or mechanical failures, two were sunk or lost in the Ohio River and one was captured by a Confederate bayonet charge. However, though they achieved some notable tactical successes, these once-innovative weapons were insufficient to turn the tide of the war in the Union’s favour.

=========
This ended up both being and taking longer than I'd expected (partly because I had my eye on John Logan for secretary of war but couldn't explain him holding the post twice). I'll do a follow up post with the Confederate information, but feel free to flag up any logical inconsistencies in the meantime. Do bear in mind, though, that I've slightly handicapped the Union in the interest of making their defeat make sense.
 
Great Article. It makes sense that the Confederates be better armed considering their Post War of Secession President's had been soldiers and the US were mostly Democrat appeasers.

As for Army ranks, Turtledoves rank structures in all his books don't make sense. Morrell led the counter offensive around Pittsburgh as a Brigadier General. I agree with vesica's interpretation, Turtledove was probably copying the early civil war ranks. He just never bothered to change them as the war grew. Craigo does a pretty good job of reconciling it.

Lodge is about three quarters of the way done, its a beast. I'm trying to trim it down.
 
Great Article. It makes sense that the Confederates be better armed considering their Post War of Secession President's had been soldiers and the US were mostly Democrat appeasers.

As for Army ranks, Turtledoves rank structures in all his books don't make sense. Morrell led the counter offensive around Pittsburgh as a Brigadier General. I agree with vesica's interpretation, Turtledove was probably copying the early civil war ranks. He just never bothered to change them as the war grew. Craigo does a pretty good job of reconciling it.

Lodge is about three quarters of the way done, its a beast. I'm trying to trim it down.
Oh Craigo... secretly Harry Turtledove come to repent for his sins.


I also noticed through the Second Great War, Morrell got promoted to Major General at some point without it ever being mentioned. It also looks like Morrell commanded larger formations that both Dowling and MacArthur... both of whom were highest rank. MacArthur's rank IIRC was never specified beyond "General"
 
Loved the post on Union weaponry for the SMW and would be interested in seeing a more detailed version of material on the subject for the interwar years and through the first and second world wars..
 
Theodore Roosevelt’s Inaugural Addresses:

First Inaugural

“My fellow-citizens, no people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us as a people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent. We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay a great price. From our outset the empires of the world have worked to destroy our great experiment in Republican government. Three generations ago selfish slave owners allied with feudalists and foreign aristocrats joined together to roll back the progress of our ancestors. These traitors chose to throw away all that we had built to protect their ill gotten wealth from the righteous voice of the people and popular government. The empires of England and France were all to eager to strangle liberty in its cradle. When the people chose to contain the spread of feudalism and chattel slavery they again bombarded our cities and stole more of our sacred soil.

Now thirty years since our last great national shame, we are a nation reborn. Through discipline and sacrifice we have built a military that ranks against any other. We have an economy that makes all other nations wicked with envy. Thanks to our sacrifices, our children and their descendants will never need to know the humiliation we have suffered. We have earned the admiration and the cooperation of our own European allies and together we stand shoulder-shoulder daring any nation to take away our new found place in the sun. We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not out of fear. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.

Our relations with the other powers of the world are important; but still more important are our relations among ourselves. Such growth in wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during the century and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied by a like growth in the problems, which are ever before every nation that rises to greatness. Power invariably means both responsibility and danger. Our forefathers faced certain perils, which we have outgrown. We now face other perils, the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee. Modem life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial development of the last half-century are felt in every fiber of our social and political being. Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administering the affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic. The conditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, which have developed to a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individual initiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright.

We know that self-government is difficult. We know that no people needs such high traits of character as that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen who compose it. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage un-wasted and enlarged to our children and our children’s children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Hamilton, Franklin, Washington and Adams.”

Second Inaugural
“Without the fighting edge, no man and no nation can be really great, for in the really great man, as in the really great nation, there must be both the heart of gold and the temper of steel. In 1862 England and France said it was the duty of those two nations to mediate between the United States and the Confederate States, and they asserted that any Americans who in such event refused to accept their mediation and to stop the war would thereby show themselves the enemies of peace.

Even Abraham Lincoln regarded this as an unfriendly act to the United States, but he had not the strength to withstand it. And in so regarding it, as in few other things, Lincoln was right. Looking back from a distance of more than fifty years, we can clearly see as much. Such mediation was a hostile act, not only to the United States but to humanity. The nations that forced that unrighteous peace upon us more than fifty years ago were the enemies of mankind.

Very many of the men and women who are at times misled into demanding peace, as if it were itself an end instead of being a means of righteousness, are folk of good will and sound intelligence who need only seriously to consider the facts, and who can then be trusted to think aright and act aright. Well-meaning folk who always clamor for peace without regard as to whether peace brings justice or injustice should ponder such facts, and then should still their clamor.

England and France and the cuckoo’s egg they planted in the American nest of freedom humiliated our great nation again a generation later, and have sought to encircle us on our own continent ever since, just as they and the Russian tyrants have sought to encircle our partner, friend, and ally, the German Empire, on the European continent. They have tried. And they have failed!

I promise you this: my second term will show us the victory we have longed for since those now old were young. The debt we owe is old, too, and has accumulated much interest through the years. We shall repay it in full, and more besides.” We must stand absolutely for the righteousness of revenge, and we must remember that to do so would have been utterly without avail if we had not possessed the strength and tenacity of spirit which back righteousness with deeds and not mere words. Until we complete our vengeance, we must keep ourselves ready, high of heart and undaunted of soul, to back our rights with our strength.”
 
Here is more than half the post its a beast coming in at more than 15 pages on word. Obviously everything has been leading to the war, so i am paying special attention to it. It will be focusing more on Diplomatic and domestic events during of the war. The Actual War should be up within the week enjoy.
 
Last edited:
Henry Cabot Lodge Part VII(A) (1913-1917)

1913
Lodge returned to Philadelphia on New Years Day. His task was to lay the foundation for Theodore Roosevelt’s first few months in Office. Roosevelt could not arrive until after his successor Wallace MacFarlane was sworn in. Roosevelt wound need time to prepare his family and affects for their move to Philadelphia. Lodge arraigned an office for Roosevelt while he prepared to move into the Powell House. In the mean time Roosevelt and his family moved into his sister Anna “Bamie” Roosevelt Cowles’ Townhouse in the Fashionable Rittenhouse Square. Anna Roosevelt Cowles was married to William Cowles a Naval Rear Admiral, assigned to the Navy General Staff. [1]

While awaiting his inauguration Roosevelt went about the business of selecting a cabinet and paving the way for his aggressive reform agenda. Lodge was an integral part of his plans. Lodge had been a member of the Liberal Republicans when he began his career and continued to champion moderate social reform. While he had grown more conservative with age, he still supported most of Roosevelt’s reform agenda.

Lodge would be useful in working with Speaker of the House Henry Adams. Adams was a fellow reformer and a critic of the runaway capitalism of the age, but he was not the biggest fan of Roosevelt. The three were often social companions, but Adams often complained that Roosevelt was too quick to act without reflection. While Adams could be counted to corral the necessary votes in the House, the Senate would be more difficult. The Senate did not have nearly as many reform democrats. Instead Lodge and the other democrat reformers would have to coble together a coalition of socialists and republicans.

Even before Roosevelt’s inauguration Roosevelt made his presence felt on the National and International scene. First was the House of Lord’s rejection of the Third Irish Home Bill. Though passed by Parliament in 1912 the House of Lords ultimately rejected in early February. The Irish American community immediate held protest rally’s. Roosevelt, Lodge and Vice-President elect McKenna were quick to attend. Roosevelt praised the loyalty of the Irish American community and the success they had achieved in the United States. Noting the many Irish American Patriots including the soon to be sworn in first catholic Vice President. Lodge always mindful of Massachusetts’ powerful Irish catholic vote was quick to denounce Britain’s continued rejection of popular government. In a speech before a protest before the Ancient Order of Hibernians Lodge declared, had all Irishmen the right to vote Britain, could not afford to stop their independence. Lodge warned that like in its colonies across the Atlantic that only revolution may solve the issue. President Aldrich said nothing, watching all the progress he had made Britain evaporate.

On the domestic front, when suffragettes held rallies and parades in Philadelphia and later DC for women suffrage Roosevelt was in attendance. Roosevelt also visited the coalminers of Pennsylvania and West Virginia promising relief. Roosevelt promised to do more to protect the nations wilderness, as he had done as governor of New York when he created the Catskill and Adirondack State Parks. Roosevelt also gave a lectures at Valley Forge Staff College and the Naval Academy at Annapolis outlining his vision for further Army and Navy reform. Through out all this Lodge’s job was to assure party leadership that Roosevelt was not a revolutionary, but only meant to stave off revolution.

The Inauguration
In March of 1913 the U.S. government made its Quadrennial pilgrimage to the city of Washington DC. Along with the government were thousand of Roosevelt’s supporters; these included New York reformers, old members of the remembrance faction, veterans of the War of Secession, veteran of the Second Mexican War and especially members of the Un-Authorized Regiment. The sea of supporters added a jovial atmosphere compared to the last eight years. Further unlike Aldrich’s frozen second inaugural, March 4 1913 the temperature was a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

After eight years of out of the circle of executive power, Lodge had retuned to the first row of dignitaries behind the President. Aldrich stood on the platform in a winter coat dower and tired. Roosevelt despite his 54 years seems to leap to the podium in nothing but a suit. After Vice-President McKenna was swore in by his father Supreme Court Justice Joseph McKenna, Roosevelt took the oath of office. When the oath was complete the ceremonial field howitzers were fired and Roosevelt began a speech 30 years in the making. Roosevelt’s inauguration was brief and he seemed to bite each word tearing it from the air. He reminded the many blessings the American people had and the great price they paid them. The importance of maintaining our overseas alliances and the need to stand firm against Entente jealousy. More than any other presidential candidate he reminded the American people that the industrial age created new challenges the founders had not foreseen, which required new solutions. That most of all the American working man deserved a “Square Deal.”

With Roosevelt’s speech concluded the crowd erupted into applause. From there the days activities took on the air of a national celebration. Tens of thousands of westerners made the trip, despite being a native New Yorker, Roosevelt’s time and the west and his continued investment in the cattle industry made many feel like a westerner. Roosevelt was often seen as the first cowboy President. After much fanfare and the largest inaugural parade in the nations history, Congressmen and woman retired to the many Presidential Balls and galas. After a day of celebration Roosevelt and the rest of the government returned to Philadelphia to return to running the government.

Roosevelt's First Cabinet
• Secretary of State Robert Lansing
• Attorney General Charles Bonaparte
• Secretary of War Elihu Root
• Secretary of the Treasury George B. Cortelyou
• Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels
• Post Master General George von L. Myer
• Secretary of Industry Charles Nagel
• Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane

Roosevelt’s first agenda was securing the ratification of the members of his Cabinet. Unlike Aldrich, Roosevelt chose to balance his Cabinet with Conservative and Reform Democrats. However it was clear from his choices that he would be pursuing a more progressive agenda then Aldrich. Roosevelt chose Reformers for important federal enforcement positions. For Attorney General Roosevelt chose Charles Bonaparte, a tenacious Maryland Attorney General and chairman of the Civil Reform League. For Secretary of the Treasury he chose George B. Cortelyou a defender of Aldrich’s Federal Reserve board and a critic of predatory monopolies except for important utilities. Frank Lane was selected as Secretary of the Interior Frank Lane a California politician, who was friendly to business, conservationist and was a westerner.

Roosevelt also added conservative members to his Cabinet. First was Charles Nagel, originally born in Texas before the war he immigrated to St. Louis after the War of Secession. There he attended George Washington University Law School and became corporate counsel for Adolphus Busch. Nagel supported the expansion of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to make it more accessible to the needs of businessmen. He also supported strong tariffs with the CSA, but making it easier for Confederate citizens to immigrate to the US. To appeal to Reed Democrats Roosevelt chose the conciliatory Robert Lansing. A prominent corporate and international Lawyer, he like Roosevelt believed in international arbitration. He represented the US as counsel for the North Atlantic Fisheries in the Arbitration at The Hague in 1909-1910. Lansing was a part of a growing school of international relations theorist that believed the US was best served by re-aligning closer to Great Britain.

For Secretary of War and the Navy, Roosevelt chose two Militarists and reformers Josephus Daniels and Elihu Root. Daniels got the position for supporting Roosevelt’s campaign, however he had been from a family of Shipbuilders. He supported adding more destroyers and cruisers to the force to attack Entente shipping incase of war. For Secretary of War Roosevelt, recruited his long time ally in New York politics and Remembrance Democrat Senator Elihu Root. Roosevelt wanted Root to spearhead a series of reforms that would complete Upton’s program. Roosevelt wanted Root to draft a new army bill that would clear house of many of the older conservative officers that were unfit for service and standing in the way of reform.

First Three Months
First item on Roosevelt’s plan for a "Square Deal" for all Americans was the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act. Civil Service Act had been the dream of good government reformers since the Railroad Scandals of the 1870’s. Though some measures had been passed by congress for test’s safe guarding new federal departments. Party bosses had blocked any significant comprehensive reform measures. Now with Aldrich gone and Henry Adams as speaker of House Civil Service passed on its first ballot of the House. The Senate was more difficult, Lodge was partnered with William Finn the 1912 Democratic Convention Chairman and Senator from Pennsylvania the two reformers cobbled the votes from the 20 odd reform democrats, three socialists and liberal republicans. In a ceremony, which included many of the surviving good government reformers from the 19th century, Roosevelt signed "for my father and the great reformers of the 19th century." [2]

Next Roosevelt turned to promises he made to give the working man a square deal. His first act was to pardon all labor leaders imprisoned by the Aldrich administration as a part of the Stevenson Anti-Trust Act. Next came the issue of child labor. Roosevelt had been instrumental in the banning of child labor in New York. Like Civil Service Reform, banning child labor had been a cause celebre of reformers for decades. The proposed statute before Congress sought to prohibit the sale in interstate commerce of goods produced by factories that employed children under fourteen, mines that employed children younger than sixteen, and any facility where children under sixteen worked at night or more than eight hours daily. The basis for the action was the constitutional clause giving Congress the task of regulating interstate commerce. Child Labor was already banned in many states, now under the police powers of the Police Powers of the 16th Amendment it was further likely to survive any constitutional challenges. Just as in the Civil Service Reform Bill, the reform coalition in the House and Senate held.

After the twin success of the Civil Service and Child Labor Bills the administration and it’s congressional allies turned toward defense matters. For years Great Britain and Germany had out paced the US in dreadnought production and nearly bankrupted themselves in the process. Growing demands of Liberal Parliamentarians for domestic spending meant plateauing and even shrinking defense budgets in both nations. As the US economy continued to grow faster than its European counterparts the US could afford to increase both military and domestic spending. Lodge and secretly Mahan behind the scenes had long been advocating for a new 4-4 naval bill, to pull past the European naval powers.

The new Naval Bill would include allocations for four new dreadnoughts each year , two of them to be the new Idaho class super dreadnoughts. It also included funding for an expanded force of destroyers and commerce raiders to attack Entente shipping. Adams a strident Anglophobe quickly locked down the votes in the House. Lodge had a more difficult task, the spending for the new bill would be a major increase to the national budget. if the Senate members were still nominated by the State legislatures it would not have be passed. However now that Senators were popularly elected few Democratic Senators could be seen challenging Roosevelt’s overwhelming popularity even far away from the coast in the western states.

To fund these new programs Roosevelt was going to have to find new sources of funding for the Federal government. The Balance Budget Amendment passed in 1870 after the Panic of 1863, required the federal government to balance its budget each year. Republican’s Liberal Democrats and Socialists refused any increases to the income tax. Secretary of Treasury Cortelyou instead proposed an increase in Corporate Taxes. The first federal income tax was enacted in 1861, and expired after the end of the war. A corporate income tax was enacted in 1887 to pay for conscription, but a key aspect of it was shortly held unconstitutional by the Garfield court. After ratification of the Sixteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, this became the corporate provisions of the federal income tax. In 1899, Congress enacted an excise tax on corporations based on income to pay for Mahan’s naval expansion. Under Aldrich collection of the tax was lax to say the least. Roosevelt proposed new round of corporate taxes to pay for his increases in defense and domestic spending. Thanks to the 13th amendment most budget hawks felt required to pass it, the socialist and republicans were naturally quick to pass it.

Next the Congress turned to more benign legislation, which included the Newland Act that was a new round of anti- Asian immigration laws. The Kern Resolution, which was an investigation into the Paint Creek Cabin Strike in West Virginia. The Antiquates Act, which allowed the President to declare natural and ancient sites nationally, protected monuments. Finally was the Federal Trade Commission Bill, this was an expansion of the Wage- Price Control Bill. Roosevelt and other anti-trust politicians hoped the Federal Trade Commission would eventually be the organization that regulated trusts.

Army Reform Bill
Roosevelt’s last bill would be dearest to his heart, a new army allocation bill that would complete the reforms begun by Upton in the 1880’s. Since Upton’s dismissal there had been a struggle between reformers known as Uptonians and conservative officers. The Uptonians wanted to spend more on training, focusing on small units tactics and the quality of the individual American soldier. They also wanted to refocus War Plan Blue , the operative plan for war with the entente based on Upton’s original strategy. Conservative members of the war department lead by Chief of Staff Charles Adams continued to block these reforms, instead focusing on a bread butter strategy of overwhelming the enemy with superior numbers and economic resources.

Roosevelt’s plan spearheaded by Secretary of War Elihu Root called for a number of radical of changes, that would increase army spending. Lodge and Roosevelt had been reading the work of a radical Germany Army Colonel Eric Ludendorff. He argued that the Quadruple Alliance powers should increase their spending and conscription rates to that approaching France and the CSA. Despite Entente claims of US and German militarism, US and German military spending was both only 3.9% of their national product. This was only slightly larger than Britain at 3.4% and much smaller than France and the Confederacy at 4.8%. Both Germany and the US never conscripted more then 50% of their eligible population and no where near the 80% of the population CSA and the France conscripted. An increase in the conscription ratewould add another 300,000 to their active peacetime Army. The increases would make the United States and Germany equal in peacetime strength to the Quadruple Entente and prevent them from waging an aggressive war on Quadruple Alliance members. The bill also included the purchases of new Skoda made super howitzers, more funding for advanced infantry training, a dramatic increase in the number of Machine Guns per unit, research and development in motor cars, an expansion of the aviation section within the Signal Corp, more trucks for US logistics Corp and most controversial of all a new fitness test and mandatory retirement age of 65 for senior officers. The last provision would essentially cause the forced retirement of many of the nations +60 field commanders and Chief of Staff Adam’s.

After months of cooperation between Speaker Henry Adams and President Roosevelt, the new Army Bill was the breaking point. Adams knew the point of the bill was to remove his brother Charles Adams from his position as Chief of Staff. Here Lodge became the go between the two men. Adams made it clear he would squash the bill if it included the fitness requirement. Adams would also agree to the increases in army expansion, but it would have to be slow and not complete for another four years.

At first Roosevelt was apoplectic, he knew many senior commanders were not physically fit to command in the field.[3] For the last decade older officers like Charles Adams, George Custer, Nelson Miles and Hugh Scott, many in their mid sixties, blocked any tactical innovation. Growing up in the small volunteer army these men believed that it would take at least five years to train a proper soldier. As a result conscripts who were only in the service for two years could only be trusted with limited tactical training. New younger officers like John Pershing, Leonard Wood and Seymour du Pont believed conscripts could be given advanced infantry training. The kind of tactics being taught in many Confederate infantry basic training. At this point conscripts were taught merely to rush targets on mass with NCOs behind them to prevent stragglers, new training would teach fire and maneuver techniques.

Lodge and Root were able to calm down Roosevelt and in the end Roosevelt got everything he wanted except, that the army expansion would take five years to complete and their would be no fitness requirement or mandatory retirement age. Both the House and Senate passed the Bill, but only after a bitter fight which did not end until Congress retired for summer recess. [4]

Foreign Affairs
Roosevelt was ready to make waves not only in the US but abroad. After wrapping up his first three months Roosevelt to the outrage of President Wilson, he canceled their planned summit and instead became the first US or CS President to travel abroad while in office by visiting the Island nation of Haiti. His mission was to re-affirm the US treaty of friendship with the island and discuss a U.S. Navy base on the island. To add insult to injury he then secretly allowed members of what was known as the Red Council made up of black socialist revolutionaries to return to the United States.

In Asian affairs, Lodge convinced Roosevelt to officially recognize the Republic of China. Chinese nationalist and modernizers led by Sun Yat-Sen had recently over threw the decrepit Qing dynasty and declared China a Republic. Not knowing whether the new government would recognize European enclaves most European powers refused to recognize the state. With no Chinese enclaves the US had little to lose in recognizing the new government. Lodge also counseled that a China with close ties to the US could act as a counter weight to Japan. As a result the US and Republic of China signed a treaty of friendship and the US was the first nation to open lines of credit to the new government.

Most troubling on the international scene was the outbreak of a second war in the Balkans. By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large elements of their ethnic populations remained under Ottoman rule. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War broke out when the League attacked the Ottoman Empire on 8 October 1912 and was ended seven months later by the Treaty of London.

The Second Balkan War broke out on 16 June 1913. Both Serbia and Greece utilizing the argument that the war had been prolonged repudiated important particulars of the pre-war treaty and retained occupation of all the conquered districts in their possession. Seeing the treaty as trampled, Bulgaria and Romania soon became involved and by July the Ottoman empire was pushed out of Europe except for its small enclave around Istanbul. Lodge and Roosevelt watched uneasily fearing the war may draw in Austria-Hungary and Russia. Fortunately it did not involve any of the great powers, however both Lodge and Roosevelt saw that a Balkan crises would be the event most likely to trigger a general European war.

Fall session
With Congress returning to for its fall session Roosevelt was convinced to push through more infrastructure projects. The first was the Hancock Highway. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the highway was to run coast to coast. Roosevelt believed that infrastructure was one of the ways the US was superior to its southern neighbors, he believed that as a nation surrounded by enemies the US must be able to move men and supplies rapidly between the east and the west. Congress easily passed the measure as it meant thousands of jobs across the country and the and it was formally dedicated October 31, 1913. The Hancock Highway would run 3,389 mile coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Hancock Park in San Francisco, through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California.

Roosevelt administration was also quick to push for emergency relief funds for the Great Lakes Region after a terrible winter storm ground the mid west to a halt. This was a major test for the relatively new National Guard system, their skillful handling of the situation was a testament to Upton’s Reserve system put in place more then two decades before. Despite all the successes of the first year, their was still push back to Roosevelt’s domestic reforms. The first constitutional challenges to Roosevelt’s child labor bill had already been filed.

1914
Domestic Affairs

Across the nation the impact of Roosevelt’s reforms could be felt. Roads were under construction, new exams were being administered for federal jobs, new army training ground were being constructed and tens of thousands of children were no longer employed and going to school. In January Roosevelt visited Michigan to tour the worlds first assembly line and praise Henry Ford for giving his workers a forty hour work week. Outside Mr. Ford’s plant Roosevelt promised even more reforms. Including an end to predatory trusts that stifle competition and raise the price of goods, a minimum wage law for women, an eight hour work day and Limited injunctions against strikes.

By and large most people had supported the end to child labor and Civil Service reform, however Roosevelt’s new proposals would directly affect business owners profits. After an increase in the Corporate Taxes the nations business owners were organized, threatening to unseat those Senators newly up for election in 1914. Led by Conservative Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania and Frank B. Brandegee of Connecticut. As a result opposition to Roosevelt’s programs hardened. His first Bill the Rivers and Harbors Act, which increased spending to improve the nations water born transportation, easily passed. But His next proposal for an eight hour work day, Roosevelt ran into his first true defeat. Old Guard Democrat as they were now being called were able to block a vote on the issue for months. A vote was stalled well into the summer. Roosevelt’s call for a national medical association to provide adequate health care for the nations poor also was moving slowly in the Senate. Roosevelt toured the country on behalf of both issues, but he could not even convince Lodge who called them a “radical intrusion into the affairs of private business." Lodge did not agree with Roosevelt with the extent of the need of the government to intervene in the economy on non-defense related matters. Roosevelt tried touting the Health care association as a defense issue, to ensure the American man was healthy enough to resist its enemy but to little avail. Not giving up Roosevelt proposed a Farm Relief Act, which would help extend credit to farmers and buy unsold grain incase of war time necessity. Again powerful forces in Congress attempted to block the President.

Frustrated with Congress’s inertia Roosevelt chose to use executive powers to offer relief. His first Act was to use the power of the Strategic Wage Price Control board to set railroad rates for farmers hoping to ship crops across the country. Railroad magnates protested, but there was little they could do. He then used the Wage Price Control bill to mandate an eight-hour work day in all munitions factories, armament factories, navy shipyards and other defense related industries. Next Roosevelt declared hundreds of the Nations natural wonders as landmarks, as a part of his powers under the Antiquities Act. This included hundreds of miles of the Grand Canyon, Old Faithful, the Devils Tower and more than fifty other natural wonders.

Constitutional challenges were immediately brought against the Presidents new executive orders. Roosevelt took his case to American people, he began a whistle stop tour of the country drawing huge crowds. A further victory came in late April when the Supreme Court upheld his Child Labor Law as a part of the Federal government’s police powers issue.

Opposition to Roosevelt’s Agenda
Not every American worker was happy with the Roosevelt reforms. Many socialist workers still considered Roosevelt a class enemy. Labor agitation also continued in both 1913 and 1914. These included a major Copper strike in Michigan, a silk workers strike in Paterson New jersey, Street Car workers strike in Indianapolis, an automobile worker strike in Detroit. Roosevelt tried his best to support mediation efforts, which led to some successes. Not all strikes were resolved peacefully. 1914 would see one of the worst incidents in labor history. A seemingly benign strike among Colorado miners resulted in what came to be called the Ludlow Massacre. The massacre was the culmination of a bloody widespread strike against Colorado coal mines, resulting in the violent deaths of between 19 and 26 people; reported death tolls vary but include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between State National Guardsmen, Pinkerton camp guards and striking workers. In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard. Roosevelt relying on assessment of the conservative democrat governor of Colorado chose not to intervene. This decision would come back to haunt Roosevelt in the post-war period of labor unrest.

Roosevelt’s appeal threatened many orthodox Socialists. Roosevelt offer of reform with nationalist and militarist overtones, undermined the Socialist message of revolution and international workers solidarity. The fact that Roosevelt’s message was so popular was double threatening. To counter Roosevelt's New Nationalism, Socialists candidates and Republican isolationist joined forces to protest Americas continued drift into Prussian militarism. The Anti-Militarist League and Socialist Party staged rallies across the country. The largest was held in Union Square, Manhattan, which was attended by 5,000 to protest Roosevelt’s increase military spending. Several violent incidents that's day foreshadowed the Remembrance Day Riots the next year.

Roosevelt and the Remembrance movement responded decisively. Members of the Soldier’s Circle and the US armed forces threw the largest Remembrance Day parades in history. From Boston to San Francisco millions turned out for the parade. In Philadelphia Roosevelt ordered fly bies from dozens of the US reconnaissance planes, a parade of the newest artillery and armored cars. In Boston Lodge was “Commander” of the parade, which included a full review of the North Atlantic Squadron. Across the country soldiers had to be called in to protect Confederate, French and British Consulates and embassies from being destroyed by angry mobs. Confederate newspaperman William English Walling gave a vivid description of the rally in newspapers throughout the south. Most disturbing were the ominous chants of the Philadelphia crowd chanting for Roosevelt and Revenge. He never forgot Roosevelt’s Mechanical like face behind spectacles which did not show his eyes” and “Roosevelt’s which he bore in a predatory grinn.”

Third Balkans Crises

After a significantly more contentious spring then the year before both the President and Congress looked forward to summer recess. In late June Congress left for their home districts and Roosevelt joined his family on Long Island. Lodge was preparing to join his family vacationing in Maine when newd broke on June 28th that Heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalists. Fearing the volatility of the Balkan’s situation Lodge immediately reached out to his contacts in the German and Austrian Foreign Offices. At first there were no indications that this matter seriously jeopardized peace in the region and Lodge left for Maine, but remained in close contact with the Senate.

However by July 4th intelligence from Berlin indicated that the Kaiser was pushing the Austrians toward war. Roosevelt and Lodge immediately returned to Philadelphia. Roosevelt made an emergency recall of Congress. It was becoming increasingly clear that Germany and Austria- Hungary were preparing demands for the Serbian government that were designed to be rejected. On July19th Secretary of State Lansing asked the Austrian ambassador whether they intended to make war on the Serbians. Ambassador Dumba replied to the Secretary of State: “If the Austro-Hungarian government is not going to abdicate forever as a great power, she has no choice but to enforce acceptance by the Serbian government of her demands by strong pressure and, if necessary, by resort to military measures.” He further stated that the an ultimatum to Serbia would come within the week.

Roosevelt immediately called a cabinet meeting, inviting also the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Navy and Senator Lodge. Its purpose to discuss what options were available should Austria Hungary declare war on Serbia. The meeting began with Secretary of State Lansing presenting what he felt was most likely to happen. Lansing believed that the prospect of war was unlikely. Despite Austria’s blustering, the Europeans would reach some sort of deal that would punish the Serbs, but allow Austria-Hungary to save face. Lansing suggested that the US support Britain’s attempt to mediate the great powers.

Lodge disagreed. Lodge believed that the Serbia was a destabilizing element in the Balkans. Lodge warned that the Serbs acted like an anarchist in the international system. The Serbs wanted to dominate the Balkans in a United Slavic State. They would continue to push the Austrians through terrorist attacks until Austria’s Balkan subjects revolted or war broke out between Serbia its Russian ally and Austria- Hungary. It was coming to a point for Austria-Hungary that war would be more preferable than slow disintegration, provided they have Germany's backing.

Lansing countered that if Germany backed Austria- Hungary and war broke out in the Balkans, this could be construed an aggressive war and the US would not be bound to declare war. After speaking to the Italian ambassador this would be Italy’s most likely course of action. Further that if war with Austria Hungary and Serbia broke out Russia would declare war on Austria Hungary, Germany on Russia and France would join as well. Lansing argued that by the terms of the Entente Cordial Britain would also not be bound to declare war as it has no treaty with Serbia.

One of the eventualities the Cabinet debated was if Britain remained out of the war, which Lansing believed they would. If the war remained only between the continental powers, should the U.S. Intervene? Roosevelt believed that in a purely continental matter the Quadruple Alliance powers would be the likely victors. However if Britain entered the war and threw behind the Entente the weight of the entire British Empire there was a good chance Germany would be defeated. However if Britain remained neutral and the Confederate States remained neutral, the US could act as a guarantee that Britain remained out of the fighting. Lodge pointed out that The U.S. would better be able to send aide to Germany with food and supplies, if the U.S. And Britain remained neutral. After hours of debate it was agreed that everything hung on Britain. If Britain declared war the Confederacy would be compelled to declare war or risk losing its allies forever. The US would then have to declare or risk losing its allies as well.

It was at this point that Navy Chief of Staff Sampson reminded Roosevelt that according to the Navy’s War Plan (which was classified to everyone except the President and Secretary of the Navy), the Navy required 6 days notice to be in place when war was declared. Chief of Staff Adams also reminded the President that full mobilization would take one week to be capable of beginning offensive action under the Modified Plan Blue.

At this point Roosevelt asked each of his senior service chiefs whether the nation was ready for war. Each responded that despite abhorring war the US was as ready as it ever was. Though the Navy was inferior in size to both the British and the German, neither could rival the US’s power in the West Atlantic or Pacific. The Army would like to have grown to a million men, but the US was still more powerful than the combined Armies of the CSA and Canada. Roosevelt adjourned the meeting until further developments.

On July 22nd the Austrian ambassador visited Secretary of State Lansing with a copy of the ultimatum to be delivered to Serbia the next day. Lansing immediately sent this to Roosevelt, who called an informal council of his closest advisors made up of Lodge, ex-President Mahan, Secretary Root and Major General Leonard Wood. From the text of the ultimatum it was clear that the Austro Hungarian government meant to force a war. Like the Cabinet the group agreed that US involvement in a purely continental affair was to no ones benefit. Better the US allow Germany to smash France and Russia, and act as a counter wait to Britain preventing its involvement. Lodge in the meantime would contact his friends in the German Foreign Office to determine how they would feel about the US remaining out of the war.

On July 23rd the Austrian Ultimatum was sent to Serbia to expire on the 25th. and President Roosevelt summoned the German and Austro-Hungarian Ambassadors. At this point President Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador Count von Bernsdorf that the US intended at the moment not declare war on Russia or France, however the US would act as planned as a threat to force Britain’s neutrality. However this was not to be revealed to the British lest they think the US was unprepared for war. Through friends in the Foreign Office and in Berlin, Lodge learned that Kaiser at first acted with shock believing the US had abandoned the alliance. It took several hours for the Chancellor to calm him down and remind him that the US’s influence on Britain’s calculations on whether to declare war was the point of the alliance. The Kaiser quickly telegraphed the President as if it had been the Kaisers plan all along.

After this events moved rapidly British Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey telegraphed Secretary Lansing and Confederate Secretary of State Thomas Watt Gregory to ask if they would join in offering mediation in a neutral location such as Sweden, Switzerland or Holland. Grey and Wilson hoped this would help to prevent the US from declaring war and possibly remaining neutral. Both American Secretaries of State agreed. It was at this point that intelligence from with the Kaiser's government reported that the Kaiser was frantically trying to convince the Czar not to intervene. Together Lodge and Roosevelt drafted a personal letter from Roosevelt, encouraging the Kaiser "to face this crises with the same coolness and confidence he has shown in the many previous crises. His majesty must resolve to pursue peace or war. It cannot pursue both. Either way your American allies will support you."

On July 25th with the expiration of the Ultimatum Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia and began bombarding border fortifications. In quick procession Russia declared war on Austrian, Germany on Russia, France began a General Mobilization, and Italy and Belgium declared their neutrality. The US secretly orders its navy to mobilize, the US Army was placed on high alert.

At this point the British begin a last minute effort to prevent the war on the continent from becoming a global war, Britain threatened Germany that it will block the entrance of the High Seas Fleet into the channel. Germany in the meantime demanded the Belgians allow free passage of German Armies through their territory, which must be answered the next day. Lodge who was watching events unfold with President Roosevelt at the War Department told Roosevelt that this meant Britain will declare war. Britain will not allow Germany to seize channel ports. Roosevelt agreeing that war with the Entente was inevitable ordered the Pacific Fleet to set sail for the Sandwich Islands.

On August 3rd After failing to cease their mobilization and for their violation of German air space, Germany declared war on France. Britain ordered a General Mobilization, including the disembarkation of one division of marines headed towards Canada. Having failed to answer Germany, German troops invaded Belgium. Wilson quickly ordered his ambassador to personally deliver Roosevelt a note that proposed a mutual declaration of neutrality. Roosevelt refused to answer the question. On August 4th Britain declared war on Germany. The US responded by ordering a General Mobilization. On August 5th the Confederate States declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, despite not naming the US in the declaration of war. The CSA immediately ordered a General Mobilization.

On August 6th Roosevelt called an emergency session of Congress. Because of the enormity of the situation, Roosevelt broke tradition and personally addressed the combined assembly directly. Until then Presidents had delivered their messages to Congress and President’s did not address the Congress in person. In his speech Roosevelt told Congress:

“The World is engulfed in war! For the past month the nations of Europe have slouched further and further towards war. We have worked to mediate the struggle and offer peaceful solutions, but Serbia a nation of anarchist have wanted nothing but war. Our brave Austrian allies were forced to fight or suffer under continuous attack by black hearted, bomb throwing anarchists. It is clear that Russia and France would use this as a pretext to crush the German Empire as well. Our brave Germans and Austrian Allies did not ask for our help defeating the decrepit Russians and indolent French. However now Britain the source of so much misery for our great nation for since we were still its servants, has decided to crush our continental allies as well. Beckoning their lap dogs Canada and the Confederacy, the morally coward Wilson was all to willing to beckon his master's call and declare war on Germany.

The choice for us now is simple war or neutrality! Do we allow Britain, France, Russia and the Confederacy to crush our allies when it took us so long to earn their respect? Do we remain neutral or do we throw ourselves into the struggle and save our future. With a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not make righteousness, for to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong. Now our great enemy to the south asks us to remain neutral, a neutrality as complete as that of Pontius Pilate. Shall we have peace or shall we have righteousness!

Further do we risk our future on a bargain of peace? Do we believe our foes that after Germany they will not turn on us? I cannot put the fate of our republic in the hands of European Empires and slave masters! I ask you today for a declaration of War! A declaration of war against the Entente nations of Britain, France, and Russia fighting our Teutonic allies. I further ask you for a declaration of war against the our great foe, who has sought to humiliate us at every turn! I ask you for the right to repay our great enemy, who has sown a great Debt of vengeance. Let them reap our great revenge! I ask for a declaration of War against the Confederate States of America!

The response was thunderous applause, Congress voted overwhelmingly for war. Only a handful of Socialist and isolationist Republicans Congressmen and Senators dissented. The vote was followed by a cry of joy and excitement not heard in that august body, since the days before the War of Secession. Congressmen and Senators openly wept for joy, Lodge admitted that he could not contain himself in the moment either. Eighty six year old Congressmen James A. McPherson of Ohio declared “now we have our vengeance on the world!” He then led the body in singing "Sword of Remembrance." [5] It is said that Senator Debs also cried but for other reasons.

WAR!​


[1] Later a North Atlantic Squadron Commander in the Great War, He replaced Admiral Henry T. Mayo after his disaster pus attack on Halifax.
[2] Roosevelt’s father Theodore Roosevelt senior had long fought for civil service reform. Unlike his son he clung to the dying Republican party. He had been in the running for to be the New York Port Custom Inspector, as a neutral party but Tammany hall democrats and Spoilsman republicans conspired against him. Roosevelt senior died shortly after that.
[3] In fact at the outbreak of war two field commanders Frederic Funston and Ambrose Bierce suffered heart attacks and strokes requiring their removal. Adams became completely overwhelmed by the CS Army Attack through Maryland and Pennsylvania.
[4] Ludendorff’s proposal would not be enacted in Germany out of fear that it would lead to an over-democratization of the German Army. Some older US commanders felt the same way but were not enough to overcome opposition.
[5] A song set to john brown’s body written and made popular by Julia Ward Howe and made popular after the Second Mexican War.
 
Last edited:
BRAVO!!!!!! BRAVO!!!!!!! BRAVO!!!!!!

I NEED MORE!!!!!

In other news I would love to see the clusterf^ck that was the invasion of Halifax... as its my home town I always feel nostalgic when we make it into stuff :p
 

bguy

Donor
Great update! I especially liked everything on the diplomatic maneuvering prior to the outbreak of the war. (Roosevelt's attempt to enact legislation that would have the side-benefit of getting rid of Custer was also a real nice touch.)
 
Top