Under the Eagle Flag: My First Timeline

Good job with this Desmond. I like the POD. Will be following

Thanks! :)

Desmond

Thanks for the map. Helps see things better. Just to check did you realise that while you have a pinkish tint for British occupied US territory on the mainland you have the occupied islands in red. Presume you don't mean that Britain/Canada is going to annexe them.;)

Oops, that's a mistake :eek:. I'll fix it in the next version.

A bit surprised how many locations Britain has been raiding but the pressure is definitely beginning to bite on the NE region. Also that you remembered the importance of losing access to the Grand Banks for much of New England. Can see the basis for at least one civil war in the period after this conflict. Although sounds like it could be the frustrated north seceding.;) Looking forward to seeing more.

Steve

On reflection, I might have gotten a bit carried away with the spray-can tool. However, I think I have the RN hitting every major port in New England--Portland, Portsmouth, the Boston area, New Bedford, New London, and New Haven, which I think is justifiable. And in my mind "raided/bombarded" doesn't have to mean much more than the RN fired on the marked city from their ships once; the cities aren't under a sustained assault.

As I think about where I want to go with this, I'm thinking more and more that a lot of people in the North won't be very interested in saving the union ITTL. That will cause some bitter factionalism in the North itself, almost as bad as the bitterness between North and South. Add internal factionalism to the old North/South divide over slavery and state's rights and I think there's probably fuel for at least two civil wars.
 
Thanks! :)

As I think about where I want to go with this, I'm thinking more and more that a lot of people in the North won't be very interested in saving the union ITTL. That will cause some bitter factionalism in the North itself, almost as bad as the bitterness between North and South. Add internal factionalism to the old North/South divide over slavery and state's rights and I think there's probably fuel for at least two civil wars.

Yes more than one civil war awesome!!! I think you have a war of secession (in the south) and an actual civil war to rewrite the constitution/government in the north afterwards. Thus you get the second Union.

I am really looking forward to see where you take this. And to see what happens with Mexico as well. The US just bought large chunks of empty land that it might loose (if Britain wants it to). This should be interesting.
 
Yes more than one civil war awesome!!! I think you have a war of secession (in the south) and an actual civil war to rewrite the constitution/government in the north afterwards. Thus you get the second Union.

Sounds quite possible with the degree of internal tension it seems like there will be occurring. Not to mention what Desmond said in the early post about the only reason why Polk wasn't considered the worst President was because of some of those who followed him.:eek:

I am really looking forward to see where you take this. And to see what happens with Mexico as well. The US just bought large chunks of empty land that it might loose (if Britain wants it to). This should be interesting.

Would definitely be a possibility. If America takes a real kicking and loses Oregon, as seems likely, then Mexico may well feel in a position to reclaim California. Especially given the hint about Santa Anna making a return to power in Mexico. Could well be partly on the basis of resentment of the republic's giving up so much land. With America in turmoil then Britain wouldn't need to do anything other than possibly make clear it wouldn't oppose the Mexican government reclaiming the provinces. Also, since I don't think gold's been discovered there yet I suspect that an American descending into a civil war may not value the distant territory that highly. [I think Desmond hinted in the OP that America, at least for a while, ceases to reach from sea to sea].

Whether they could hold the region indefinitely would depend on how well Mexico developed by the time a stable and reasonably powerful US successor state re-emerged. It would have to be a good bit more stable and successful than Mexico OTL and/or have a powerful ally unless for some reason America didn't wish to press its claim. Not to mention have a real solution to the problem of resentment in distant provinces about central control. [Unless the US is very fed up of conflict I could see a lot of resentment of Mexico seizing back land they had sold and the geographical economic value of California especially would make it a major prize].

Anyway, lets see what Desmond is planning.;)

Steve
 
New update, covering the first half of 1848. It was an eventful year. Also, I haven't forgotten about Oregon itself, but it'll be covered in a separate update once the main stuff about the war is finished.


Chronology of the Oregon War: 1848

Jan.-Mar.: Dundas takes advantage of a warm winter to attempt outflanking Kearny at London. On 30 January the armies meet in the Battle of the Ausable, which results in a British victory. Surrounded on three sides in London, Kearny is forced to choose between surrender and retreat. He decides to retreat back to Detroit; however, during the march a snowstorm moves in, making the paths nearly impassable and bringing severe cold. The ~50-mile march to the border takes nearly two weeks, and kills over 2,000 of the 10,000 soldiers remaining with Kearny. The tattered army finally arrives in Detroit on St. Valentine’s Day. For decades thereafter, the so-called “Bloody Valentine” is observed as a day of mourning in Michigan and northern Ohio.

Kearny himself does not long survive the march. He falls ill with pneumonia, and dies a month after the arrival in Detroit. General William O. Butler, formerly the commander of the garrison in the Niagara region, is appointed to the command of the western army.

The disaster in the west has major political consequences as well. Since most of the army’s members were volunteers from the western states, its decimation prompts an increase in anti-war feeling in states like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois that had previously solidly supported the war. Moreover, the once-unthinkable possibility of a foreign invasion of the American heartland now seems likely. The only silver lining from an American perspective is that the weather prevents the British from advancing much beyond London until spring. However, Polk’s support in Congress is clearly collapsing as more Westerners begin giving a sympathetic hearing to the New England doves.

Meanwhile, the continuing suffering in New England drives its congressional representatives to take ever-stronger anti-war positions. Webster and others begin demanding the resignation of Secretary of State Calhoun, who Northerners blamed for the diplomatic mistakes that caused the war. Former president John Quincy Adams, now a representative from Massachusetts, collapsed from a stroke on the House floor while giving a vehement speech denouncing Calhoun on 21 February (he died two days later). Northerners increasingly feel that the war is being continued solely for the purposes of Southern economic gain and the expansion of slavery. Although Polk initially pushed the claim to Oregon precisely to gain territory to make into new free states to balance the hoped-for new slave states in the lower west, now the Northern press begins to claim that Polk and Calhoun acted in bad faith from the beginning; wild rumors circulate that secret plans exist to open Oregon to slavery, and reports grossly inflate the number of slaves taken to California Territory.

“This war has existed for one reason alone—the extension of the Slave Power to every corner of the New World! The Slave-Holders are not content to exercise their execrable dominion in the South alone: they will have dominion in California, they will have dominion in Oregon, truly they will have dominion in the North itself soon enough!”

William Lloyd Garrison, editorial in “The Liberator,” March 1848

Mar.-May: The British resume offensive operations in Vermont and New York. They advance slowly but surely, and by the beginning of summer they are threatening Albany. A smaller British force enters northern Maine and advances virtually unopposed.

The most alarming incident of the spring, though, occurs on 17 May when 2,500 British soldiers and marines based out of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard land on Cape Cod in a plan to capture Boston. However, this threat turns into the last major American victory of the war as General Scott, now commanding the forces charged with defending the New England coast against such landings, leads his mostly volunteer forces to victory in the Battle of Cape Cod on the 25th. The victory cheers American—especially New English—spirits, but has little impact on the war’s outcome other than discouraging any further attempts at a coastal invasion. The forces threatening Albany, though, remain a much more serious threat.

However, the British are growing tired of the war which has cost millions of pounds, and preoccupied British diplomacy and military power for nearly two years even while the country is facing colonial wars in India, struggling to deal with the Irish famine, and facing domestic civil unrest. The situation is further complicated beginning in February 1848 by the wave of revolutions beginning in France and soon affecting nearly every other country in Europe. The British government begins sending out signals, largely through their embassy in Mexico, that they would respond favorably to an American request for peace terms.

Although Calhoun continues to resist calls for peace, believing that the Americans can outlast their opponents, Polk is finding it increasingly difficult to justify the war’s continuance. It was clear that he would be facing a stiff antiwar challenge in the election in the fall, especially once the Whigs nominated Senator Daniel Webster—the leading war opponent. In this context, Polk finally turned against his Secretary of State. On 1 June, Polk requested and received Calhoun’s resignation. He nominated Pennsylvania Senator James Buchanan, a man respected by all sides, as Calhoun’s replacement. Once Buchanan was confirmed, Polk dispatched him to Belgium to discuss peace with British diplomats. In the meantime, though, the war continued…
 
Time for a new update: the conclusion of 1848!


“Ruin Upon Ruin, Rout On Rout”: 1848, Part 2

“I saw and heard, for such a numerous host
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded…”—John Milton, Paradise Lost

June-July: Dundas’ western army, now reinforced, begins moving towards Detroit. Although Butler’s army has been rebuilt to a strength of over 20,000, the vast majority of his men are raw recruits newly arrived from Michigan and the surrounding states. Butler anticipates a direct attack on Detroit and assumes a defensive posture. However, Dundas chooses to cross the river both north and south of Lake St. Clair. While Butler manages to hold on the southern line, north of the city the British attack throws the inexperienced volunteers into chaos and causes Detroit to be nearly encircled. Butler is forced to withdraw to Toledo on 21 June. Defeat in the Battle of Detroit is devastating for the United States both strategically and psychically.

In the east, the British army in New York renews its offensive against Albany. Taylor offers stiff resistance in the Adirondacks, but ultimately he is pushed back to the Saratoga region. Between 21-25 July, the armies fight the Battle of Saratoga, resulting in a decisive British victory (often called Burgoyne’s Revenge in the more jingoistic sectors of the British press). Scott arrives with reinforcements pulled from the reticent New England governors in time to prevent Albany from falling. However, it is clear that the New England states and New York are no longer willing to tolerate the war’s continuance. Rumors fly that Polk is faking negotiations to end the war, since it is not harming his southern base. Some even suggest that the northern states should seek to negotiate their own peace with Britain, although this leads nowhere.

Meanwhile in Antwerp, negotiations between Buchanan and Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston proceed slowly. Buchanan tries to win some kind of face-saving compromise over Oregon, suggesting a combination of the old Forty-nine Compromise and the Columbia River as the boundary. Palmerston counters by demanding that Britain receive the entire Oregon Country in exchange for agreeing to status quo ante borders everywhere else. Even though by this point the royal family and Prime Minister Lord Russell want to bring the war to a conclusion, Palmerston stalls to obtain the maximum concessions.

Events back in North America push the United States towards accepting Palmerston’s terms. The British begin another offensive aimed at capturing Albany, while Dundas moves south from occupied Detroit. He chooses to go southwest, into Ohio, hoping to encircle Toledo and force the surrender of Butler’s army. The crucial encounter occurs at Fort Defiance on 17 August, when Butler attempts to prevent the British from crossing the Maumee River. The Battle of Defiance proves to be the last major engagement of the war. It ends in a decisive American defeat, and following the battle Butler surrenders to Dundas, writing in a letter to Polk that his forces have been ravaged by disease and hunger, they lack supplies, desertions are increasing, and he is therefore unable to offer effective resistance any longer.

News of Butler’s surrender breaks the morale of the American people. Even the most fervent hawks must admit that the war is lost. On 28 August, Polk sends orders to Scott and Taylor to request an armistice from the British commanders besieging Albany. Polk also dispatches messengers to the west to get word to stand down to General Fremont in the Oregon Country. Finally, a ship is sent to Antwerp to inform Secretary Buchanan that he should accept the British terms for peace.

The Oregon War comes to a formal conclusion on 2 October 1848, two years and four months after it began. Considering the severity of America’s military defeat, the terms of the Peace of Antwerp are relatively generous. The main points are:

· That Britain will have full sovereignty over the Oregon Country;
· That all other borders will remain unchanged;
· That British soldiers will initiate an immediate withdrawal from United States territory upon receiving word of the treaty’s signing;
· And that the British government in Oregon shall not hinder American immigration into the colony.

Thanks to the war’s conclusion, the U. S. presidential election of 1848 proceeds more or less as planned, although some areas occupied by the British are unable to organize elections until late November. Polk probably would have preferred the election not to have happened; he carries only a handful of Southern and Western states and loses in an Electoral College landslide, 248-42. In March 1849, Daniel Webster takes the oath as President of the United States.

“The Oregon War demonstrated, beyond any doubt, the inadequacy of a decentralized federal constitution to govern effectively a territory as large as that at the time held by the United States. Only a centralized State holding clearly superior jurisdiction over the provincial states could successfully confront challenges like war with a foreign Power. The old constitution, permitting each state to maintain broad legislative powers, tended towards constantly increasing disunity. While the United States of America was not yet as farcical an idea as Voltaire’s Holy Roman Empire, the most important measure of a State’s health—its unity—was shown to be severely deficient by the war with England.”—Johann Schmidt, “On the Governments of America,” in Essays on Constitutional Theory (Berlin, 1952).
 
Desmond,

Wow. This is really starting to take shape, and in a very interesting way, too. I love what you've done with America - sort of an anti-wank (although I'll bet that changes eventually). Can't wait to see how the new constitution is formed, and also the effects it will have.

Waiting now excitedly for the next update! Keep up the good work, I'm definitely subscribed!


Kind regards,

Kineticbots
 
President Webster is going to be very interesting. :)

Interesting in that the initial posts referred to the Presidents following Polk being even worse. Working on the assumption that following the defeat the arguments presented by "Johann Schmidt" are likely to be the way Webster is thinking. Suspect America will end with a stronger, more centralised government but sounds like there are going to be a number more rumptions before that comes to pass.

Steve
 
Interesting in that the initial posts referred to the Presidents following Polk being even worse. Working on the assumption that following the defeat the arguments presented by "Johann Schmidt" are likely to be the way Webster is thinking. Suspect America will end with a stronger, more centralised government but sounds like there are going to be a number more rumptions before that comes to pass.

Steve

Well we still haven't seen the souther states secede and Desmond has hinted strongly towards the existence of several "Cotton Republics". The creation of a new constitution will have to involve several screw ups past loosing an unpopular war.
So there will be a President that will loose a war of secession (Or multiple ones).
And you also need a President that is bad enough to create a conflict large enough to have a new constitution. Even after the loss of this war and the loss of a war of secession or two.

Anyway great update Desmond!! Really looking forward to the Second Union.
 
Thanks for the positive feedback everybody!

Now, this update basically concludes everything having to do with the Oregon War. It probably seems like a non-sequitur since it's about someone who hasn't been in the story yet and it takes us backward chronologically, but trust me--around 1863 or so you'll want to remember this stuff! :D


The Pathfinder’s War

“While it played little role in the overall war, the invasion of the Oregon Country has always enjoyed a prominent place in Yankee histories of the war. The expedition, commanded by the famed Western explorer Col. John C. Fremont, took over a year to get off the ground. Initial plans for General Kearny of the regular army to lead an invasion of Oregon were scuttled when Kearny was chosen to command the invasion of western Canada. His second-in-command Fremont, who had been in charge of recruiting volunteers from among the prospective western emigrants at Fort Laramie, was then promoted. At the beginning of spring 1847 Fremont marched with 2,500 soldiers to the desolate valley of the Great Salt Lake and set up a forward base at an outpost he named Fort Liberty.

Leaving five hundred men behind at Fort Liberty, Fremont marched north into the little-explored Snake River valley. After crossing the border he met a few unfriendly natives but encountered no British soldiers. Fremont established several forts along the way, and arrived in the Willamette valley with 1,600 soldiers (who had taken to calling themselves the Pathfinders after their leader’s nickname). Upon reaching the valley, Fremont received the surrender of the tiny British garrison posted there. Fremont persuaded the Oregon Provisional Government to draw up a petition requesting annexation to the United States (which was not transmitted to Congress until the spring of 1848 and never acted upon).

Fremont’s army wintered on the Columbia in a settlement known as The Clearing, near the site of present-day Newcastle. In the spring of 1848 he led the bulk of his army north to Puget Sound, hoping to take Vancouver Island. Some of the Pathfinders managed to cross the channel in canoes, chasing off the British garrison and briefly claiming the island for the United States. However, the arrival of a British warship cut off the detachment of the island from the main body still on the mainland—Fremont himself was obliged to make a nighttime escape in a canoe using muffled oars. With 350 of his men having surrendered, he was forced to return to The Clearing. He was still there, hoping for reinforcements, when news of the Peace of Antwerp arrived via an American ship just after New Year 1849.

The British allowed the Pathfinders to keep their weapons and stay in Oregon until spring 1849, at which time they withdrew towards Fort Liberty. Upon crossing the border, Fremont founded the critical military outpost known as Fort Benton (named for his father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton) in a valley with a plentiful supply of fresh water.

Fremont eventually made his way to California, in time to play a crucial part in the Gold Rush of 1850 and in the Free Soil controversy. Although he did not return to the East for many years, particularly in the North he became one of the most popular heroes of the Oregon War. Fremont was the one American military commander who never suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the British; even when his plans went awry, as in the Vancouver Island campaign, he personally avoid submission (and of course, the story of his canoe escape from a Royal Navy warship—especially as embellished by himself and his wife, a talented writer—made a cracking good tale).

…Fremont’s establishment of fortifications in the Great Salt Lake Valley had an additional consequence that would later prove significant. In 1847 a group of Christian utopians known as the Mormons, led by their prophet Brigham Young, was crossing the continent seeking a refuge from persecution. Young had originally had designs on settling in the Great Salt Lake Valley; however, when he and his people arrived to find the area full of U. S. soldiers, he chose to continue southwards to the valley of a freshwater lake which his followers named Lake Galilee.”—from A Brief History of Western North America
 
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Desmond Hume

Interesting. Sounds like Fremont is going to have a significant role in the future. Probably as a future president. Also makes clear that America doesn't have problems holding California.

So the Mormons go further south. Not sure of where they end up as I think the only body of water in that area I know of is the Salton Sea? But not sure whether that's fresh water or even there yet?

I am also a little concerned about the bit "critical military outpost known as Fort Benton". Could just refer to its role in diverting the Mormons or possibly some role in the forthcoming civil war(s) but wondering if we end up with a war of revenge against Canada.

Steve
 
Good update!!! the prophet for Mormonism was not Brigham Young. He was the prophet's successor (something Taylor, IIRC). I don't know if that is a butterfly or what. but god update, I see the pieces are beginning to fall into place.
 
Desmond Hume

Interesting. Sounds like Fremont is going to have a significant role in the future. Probably as a future president. Also makes clear that America doesn't have problems holding California.

So the Mormons go further south. Not sure of where they end up as I think the only body of water in that area I know of is the Salton Sea? But not sure whether that's fresh water or even there yet?

I am also a little concerned about the bit "critical military outpost known as Fort Benton". Could just refer to its role in diverting the Mormons or possibly some role in the forthcoming civil war(s) but wondering if we end up with a war of revenge against Canada.


Steve

Yes, Fremont is going to be a big deal later on.

Lake Galilee ITTL is OTL's Utah Lake, not too far south of the GSL. Basically, the Mormons settle around OTL Provo and leave the Salt Lake and Cache valleys to the gentiles (first the Army, civilians later). So they live in roungly the same area, but Utah Territory (or whatever I end up calling it) is much less dominated by them.

Fort Benton is critical simply because it's the only US fort on the border east of California at this point. It will also be significant because American settlement in *Utah will be centered around it, and it will have some role to play in the civil wars.
 
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