1: A Victorious Revolution
Hello everyone! Long time lurker here, I just got an account going and I hope to get a timeline going based on some ideas I've been kicking around. As always, criticism and advice are quite welcome.
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A Victorious Revolution
John Adams, the first Conductor of the State of Massachusetts, lay on his deathbed. He had held his title for near forty years and it left the nonagenarian a worn, tired man. Finally it had been the death of him, although at ninety Adams had seen more years than most of his compatriots and by far he had done more than almost any. The names of those now long gone fluttered through his mind, the General Washington who died of tuberculosis on a British prison ship, Washington’s fellow Benedict Arnold who won Canada only to die being thrown from his horse a year later, Benjamin Franklin, that great fellow who died from illness, the Virginian Jefferson who died at the hands of an agrarian uprising. Images marched on through his mind of men long past. His wife was with them, now twelve years gone into the arms of the Lord.
Conductor Adams opened his eyes slowly, his eyesight had well faded before he became bedridden but now as he lay halfway into his final sleep it had diminished to the point he was nearly blind. Few of the figures surrounding him were anything more than mere shades, although he knew who they all were. The doctor held his arm, counting his pulse and the only other figure he could make out sat in the chair by the end of his bed; his son John Quincy. The other figures were of course a rabble of the ministers and other high men of the state. Close to his bed was the Conductor’s Lieutenant Marcus Morton, the fifth man to hold the position, and no doubt eager to assume agency in his own right when Adams’ heart finally stilled. Near the window, silhouetted by the morning sun was the young President of the State Assembly, Edward Everett, a proud and excellent speaker who had only assumed his position two weeks prior after his predecessor Luther Lawrence fell into the machinery in one of Lawrence’s mills. The others were the miscellaneous rabble that such men attracted; a clowder of cats lapping from the cream of the state.
No, that was wrong. All these men, perhaps even to some degree his son, were not cats but a wake of vultures hunched over him. All eager to feast on the carrion he would leave behind. The Conductorship was not as powerful as the kleptocrat President of Rhode Island or the King of long-degenerated North Carolina but it held actual power unlike the President of Pennsylvania or Union-Governor of Savannah. Whoever took the position after he died would hold the rudder of Massachusetts for the rest of their life; it was a lofty prize. Not that it would be Adams’ worry of course. Limply he gestured and the doctor leaned in, “Yes, your Excellency?”
“My son” Adams rasped. The doctor sat back and John Quincy leaned forward “has it ended well? Have I done all I could?” John Quincy’s face crunched in slightly but if he responded his Excellency, the Conductor John Adams never heard. His eyes closed for the final time, as he drifted off thinking of more optimistic times five decades hence.
A Brief History of Anglo-America
by Thomas D. Estrada,
published in Oregon, 2025
The opening days of the American Revolution or the British-American War of Independence saw immediate successes for the forces of the fledgling American rebels. Forces under the command of Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold would launch a swift campaign to seize Canada from British control. The fall of Quebec City on New Years Eve of 1775 through a narrow victory snatched from the grasping claws of defeat as several times the rebel forces nearly came to defeat. However with the fall of Quebec City, the whole of the Province of Quebec fell under de facto rebel control and while General David Wooster’s governance of the Province would be disastrous, it would ultimately go largely unchallenged until the collapse of the United States.
1776 would see a formal Declaration of Independence by the American rebels, with the now fifteen colonies of the United States, Quebec via occupation and New Scotland joined in revolt with the fall of Quebec City, joining forces in the form of the United States. The debate whether the United States should truly be considered a country or as an alliance according to the “firm league of friendship,” as the Articles of Confederation puts it, is a matter for another time however – two hundred years of debate have not produced a singular answer. Regardless, nominally the fifteen states had successfully gained independence in the short term with remarkably little challenge. A final triumph before the British-American War of Independence began in earnest was the capture of St. Augustine by rebel militia, nominally adding a sixteenth colony to the United States. Only New Scotland would ever properly see representation in the Continental Congress of the United States, with the occupation government of Quebec that was represented in the Continental Congress not being truly representative of the Quebec provincials.
In late summer, the British made the first counterattack against the United States’ rebellion with the invasion of Long Island. Aiming for New York City, the British army quickly seized Long Island and a month later crossed the East River onto Manhattan Island. It was here that the British army achieved a swift victory, rapidly smashing through the forces of the United States and marching into New York City triumphant. Loyalists, with few locations to otherwise flee to, would begin flocking to New York City in droves, ultimately paving the way for the city’s final fate. More destructive to the United States than the fall of New York City was the capture of the popular general, George Washington, which proved to a significant blow to the moral throughout the United States. With their plummeting moral, the armed forces of the United States put up a weak fight against the British as they invaded New Jersey following the capture of New York City.
1777 would be the lowest point in the United States’ rebellion as the British pressed more into New Jersey, crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and menacing the headquarters of the United States’ Continental Congress. A second invasion of the United States would occur in the spring of 1777, with the British army invading Georgia. Small-scale loyalist uprisings would spark during the British “southern campaign,” although the main goal of the southern campaign – to provoke a general loyalist uprising – failed to bring results and would become the longest campaign off the British-American War of Independence. The campaign for Philadelphia on the other hand would finally be stalled in the Battle of Coryell's Ferry, where the United States’ General Horatio Gates held off the advancing British Army.
The Battle of Coryell’s Ferry would not only be successful in preventing the fall off Philadelphia to the British, the successes of the United States’ Continental Army against what was a numerically superior British Army convinced France to join the war against Britain. France had before this point already supplied the United States with three-fourths of its supply of gunpowder, and several French figures such as the Marquis de Lafayette had already fought for the United States but with joining the War, the fight accelerated quite quickly. France launched assaults upon the British Caribbean as the first French troops were brought over to America.
Ever increasing numbers of professional French troops in 1778 eventually let the Franco-American forces challenge the British still occupying New Jersey. General William Howe, commander of the British Army in the northern United States quickly found his forces pressed hard backwards towards New York. Following a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Van Nest’s Mill, Howe would withdraw all the way back to Manhattan Island, preparing for a siege that ultimately never came.
In the southern United States, General Charles Cornwallis was seeing far greater success. The British forces under his command stormed up from their initial conquests in Georgia into South Carolina. Charleston found itself under a brutal siege that finally ended after a fire swept through the city in August. General Cornwallis’ advance finished 1778 less than ten miles from the North Carolinian border, sparking panic in both North Carolina and Virginia about the “unstoppable” advance of Cornwallis’ forces. The commander of the United States’ forces in the south, General Benjamin Lincoln would be recalled after the fall of Charleston and the United States’ premier general, Horatio Gates, would replace him.
As the winter faded into spring of 1779, the British marched north once more. The fears of Cornwallis’ “unstoppable” advance seemed near justified as General Gates too proved unable to halt the British Army’s advance as it converged on North Carolina’s capital, New Bern. With the government of North Carolina fleeing the city only three days ahead of General Cornwallis, the fall of North Carolina seemed inevitable. However after capturing New Bern without a fight, the arrival of French reinforcements allowed the joint French-United States forces to stop Cornwallis’ march north, trapping the British in New Bern between the Neuse River and the United States’ lines. The Siege of New Bern would not have a definitive ending, as events overseas brought the conflict to an abrupt and unexpected end.
The entry of Spain into the British-American War of Independence signaled the downfall of the British war effort. Spanish power had long faded from its heyday, however the Spanish fleet joining forces with the French fleet was critical to French war planning. Having engaged the British in 1778, French Admiral Louis Guillouet, the Comte d'Orvilliers, was convinced that with a larger naval force the British could be defeated even in their home waters. With the Spanish fleet joining, d’Orvilliers hoped to successfully defeat the British and land an actual invasion force on Britain proper. This invasion force was never intended to be a full out attempt to conquer Britain, as is often claimed, but instead a diversionary tactic to draw the British fleet from the rest of the British Empire back to the home waters.
On August 17th, 1779, the joint Franco-Spanish Armada reached its original target, the Isle of Wight. Thirty-thousand French soldiers swiftly seizes the Isle, making it the first time French troops had invaded England since the 1690 attack on Teignmouth. The capture of Wight was, however, of little strategic importance and had the French tried to launch a serious invasion of England it nearly certainly would have failed. It did not need to succeed for the subsequent events. While the British government received relatively accurate reports of the ongoing events, the British papers did not. A thirty-thousand man army invading Wight became a three hundred thousand strong army sacking Portsmouth. Where the French holed up on Wight, taking time to plan out the next offensive, the papers reported an army that was only days away from besieging London. And where the British Army and local militias were swiftly preparing to defend and repel a French invasion from the mainland, the papers reported that the French had already smashed up the local defenders.
Even if what was reported was bunk, it was, unfortunately for the British government, highly convincing bunk. Riots rocked London for two days as demands for peace were made by the opposition to Lord North’s government. It was finally enough to bring the peace party to power in London, toppling the government of Lord North and bringing an end to the British-American War of Independence. Peace had come to North America at last – at least in the short term as the collapse of the United States would begin before the Treaty of Paris would even be signed.
~~~~~(+)~~~~~
A Victorious Revolution
Conductor Adams opened his eyes slowly, his eyesight had well faded before he became bedridden but now as he lay halfway into his final sleep it had diminished to the point he was nearly blind. Few of the figures surrounding him were anything more than mere shades, although he knew who they all were. The doctor held his arm, counting his pulse and the only other figure he could make out sat in the chair by the end of his bed; his son John Quincy. The other figures were of course a rabble of the ministers and other high men of the state. Close to his bed was the Conductor’s Lieutenant Marcus Morton, the fifth man to hold the position, and no doubt eager to assume agency in his own right when Adams’ heart finally stilled. Near the window, silhouetted by the morning sun was the young President of the State Assembly, Edward Everett, a proud and excellent speaker who had only assumed his position two weeks prior after his predecessor Luther Lawrence fell into the machinery in one of Lawrence’s mills. The others were the miscellaneous rabble that such men attracted; a clowder of cats lapping from the cream of the state.
No, that was wrong. All these men, perhaps even to some degree his son, were not cats but a wake of vultures hunched over him. All eager to feast on the carrion he would leave behind. The Conductorship was not as powerful as the kleptocrat President of Rhode Island or the King of long-degenerated North Carolina but it held actual power unlike the President of Pennsylvania or Union-Governor of Savannah. Whoever took the position after he died would hold the rudder of Massachusetts for the rest of their life; it was a lofty prize. Not that it would be Adams’ worry of course. Limply he gestured and the doctor leaned in, “Yes, your Excellency?”
“My son” Adams rasped. The doctor sat back and John Quincy leaned forward “has it ended well? Have I done all I could?” John Quincy’s face crunched in slightly but if he responded his Excellency, the Conductor John Adams never heard. His eyes closed for the final time, as he drifted off thinking of more optimistic times five decades hence.
~~~~~(+)~~~~~
A Brief History of Anglo-America
by Thomas D. Estrada,
published in Oregon, 2025
The opening days of the American Revolution or the British-American War of Independence saw immediate successes for the forces of the fledgling American rebels. Forces under the command of Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold would launch a swift campaign to seize Canada from British control. The fall of Quebec City on New Years Eve of 1775 through a narrow victory snatched from the grasping claws of defeat as several times the rebel forces nearly came to defeat. However with the fall of Quebec City, the whole of the Province of Quebec fell under de facto rebel control and while General David Wooster’s governance of the Province would be disastrous, it would ultimately go largely unchallenged until the collapse of the United States.
1776 would see a formal Declaration of Independence by the American rebels, with the now fifteen colonies of the United States, Quebec via occupation and New Scotland joined in revolt with the fall of Quebec City, joining forces in the form of the United States. The debate whether the United States should truly be considered a country or as an alliance according to the “firm league of friendship,” as the Articles of Confederation puts it, is a matter for another time however – two hundred years of debate have not produced a singular answer. Regardless, nominally the fifteen states had successfully gained independence in the short term with remarkably little challenge. A final triumph before the British-American War of Independence began in earnest was the capture of St. Augustine by rebel militia, nominally adding a sixteenth colony to the United States. Only New Scotland would ever properly see representation in the Continental Congress of the United States, with the occupation government of Quebec that was represented in the Continental Congress not being truly representative of the Quebec provincials.
In late summer, the British made the first counterattack against the United States’ rebellion with the invasion of Long Island. Aiming for New York City, the British army quickly seized Long Island and a month later crossed the East River onto Manhattan Island. It was here that the British army achieved a swift victory, rapidly smashing through the forces of the United States and marching into New York City triumphant. Loyalists, with few locations to otherwise flee to, would begin flocking to New York City in droves, ultimately paving the way for the city’s final fate. More destructive to the United States than the fall of New York City was the capture of the popular general, George Washington, which proved to a significant blow to the moral throughout the United States. With their plummeting moral, the armed forces of the United States put up a weak fight against the British as they invaded New Jersey following the capture of New York City.
1777 would be the lowest point in the United States’ rebellion as the British pressed more into New Jersey, crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and menacing the headquarters of the United States’ Continental Congress. A second invasion of the United States would occur in the spring of 1777, with the British army invading Georgia. Small-scale loyalist uprisings would spark during the British “southern campaign,” although the main goal of the southern campaign – to provoke a general loyalist uprising – failed to bring results and would become the longest campaign off the British-American War of Independence. The campaign for Philadelphia on the other hand would finally be stalled in the Battle of Coryell's Ferry, where the United States’ General Horatio Gates held off the advancing British Army.
The Battle of Coryell’s Ferry would not only be successful in preventing the fall off Philadelphia to the British, the successes of the United States’ Continental Army against what was a numerically superior British Army convinced France to join the war against Britain. France had before this point already supplied the United States with three-fourths of its supply of gunpowder, and several French figures such as the Marquis de Lafayette had already fought for the United States but with joining the War, the fight accelerated quite quickly. France launched assaults upon the British Caribbean as the first French troops were brought over to America.
Ever increasing numbers of professional French troops in 1778 eventually let the Franco-American forces challenge the British still occupying New Jersey. General William Howe, commander of the British Army in the northern United States quickly found his forces pressed hard backwards towards New York. Following a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Van Nest’s Mill, Howe would withdraw all the way back to Manhattan Island, preparing for a siege that ultimately never came.
In the southern United States, General Charles Cornwallis was seeing far greater success. The British forces under his command stormed up from their initial conquests in Georgia into South Carolina. Charleston found itself under a brutal siege that finally ended after a fire swept through the city in August. General Cornwallis’ advance finished 1778 less than ten miles from the North Carolinian border, sparking panic in both North Carolina and Virginia about the “unstoppable” advance of Cornwallis’ forces. The commander of the United States’ forces in the south, General Benjamin Lincoln would be recalled after the fall of Charleston and the United States’ premier general, Horatio Gates, would replace him.
As the winter faded into spring of 1779, the British marched north once more. The fears of Cornwallis’ “unstoppable” advance seemed near justified as General Gates too proved unable to halt the British Army’s advance as it converged on North Carolina’s capital, New Bern. With the government of North Carolina fleeing the city only three days ahead of General Cornwallis, the fall of North Carolina seemed inevitable. However after capturing New Bern without a fight, the arrival of French reinforcements allowed the joint French-United States forces to stop Cornwallis’ march north, trapping the British in New Bern between the Neuse River and the United States’ lines. The Siege of New Bern would not have a definitive ending, as events overseas brought the conflict to an abrupt and unexpected end.
The entry of Spain into the British-American War of Independence signaled the downfall of the British war effort. Spanish power had long faded from its heyday, however the Spanish fleet joining forces with the French fleet was critical to French war planning. Having engaged the British in 1778, French Admiral Louis Guillouet, the Comte d'Orvilliers, was convinced that with a larger naval force the British could be defeated even in their home waters. With the Spanish fleet joining, d’Orvilliers hoped to successfully defeat the British and land an actual invasion force on Britain proper. This invasion force was never intended to be a full out attempt to conquer Britain, as is often claimed, but instead a diversionary tactic to draw the British fleet from the rest of the British Empire back to the home waters.
On August 17th, 1779, the joint Franco-Spanish Armada reached its original target, the Isle of Wight. Thirty-thousand French soldiers swiftly seizes the Isle, making it the first time French troops had invaded England since the 1690 attack on Teignmouth. The capture of Wight was, however, of little strategic importance and had the French tried to launch a serious invasion of England it nearly certainly would have failed. It did not need to succeed for the subsequent events. While the British government received relatively accurate reports of the ongoing events, the British papers did not. A thirty-thousand man army invading Wight became a three hundred thousand strong army sacking Portsmouth. Where the French holed up on Wight, taking time to plan out the next offensive, the papers reported an army that was only days away from besieging London. And where the British Army and local militias were swiftly preparing to defend and repel a French invasion from the mainland, the papers reported that the French had already smashed up the local defenders.
Even if what was reported was bunk, it was, unfortunately for the British government, highly convincing bunk. Riots rocked London for two days as demands for peace were made by the opposition to Lord North’s government. It was finally enough to bring the peace party to power in London, toppling the government of Lord North and bringing an end to the British-American War of Independence. Peace had come to North America at last – at least in the short term as the collapse of the United States would begin before the Treaty of Paris would even be signed.