Union and Liberty: An American TL

[wilcoxchar]

Another breather update for you all.

Part Thirty-Eight: Meanwhile in Southeast Asia

Britain:
By the mid-19th century, the United Kingdom already had a strong presence in Southeast Asia. In the years after the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain established control over the Johor Straits and much of the southern end of the Malay Peninsula. In the Anglo-Burmese War in the 1820s, the British took the Tenasserim region from Burma. These possessions satisfied the United Kingdom for the next half century and the British established peaceful relations with the kingdoms of Burma and Siam. However, in the 1850s, the British East India Company began to support a local insurgency in the Pattani kingdom which London had recognized as under the influence of the king of Siam. The Siamese discovered this and sent a letter of protest to the East India Company and cracked down on the insurgents. By the time the dispute reached Parliament, the East India Company officials had turned the Siamese protest into a casus belli for the United Kingdom and Parliament declared war on Siam in 1854.

The Anglo-Siamese War lasted for just over one year. While Bangkok was repeatedly blockaded by Great Britain, the capture of smaller towns in southern Siam was difficult due to the lack of infrastructure and the lush forested terrain. Finally, in autumn of 1855, king Rama IV signed a ceasefire with representatives from the British crown and a peace was signed. In the peace treaty, Siam lost much territory to the United Kingdom. Rama IV ceded much of the Siamese land on the Malay Peninsula including the Kra Isthmus. The loss of this land would influence the development of Siam over the next few decades. With the frequent shelling of Bangkok over the course of the war, Rama IV moved the Siamese court back to the inland city of Ayutthaya in 1859, almost one hundred years after it had been moved to Bangkok. It also turned Siam's focus north rather than south when the country began to industrialize.

The Anglo-Siamese War also influenced the British colonial administration in the region. The newly gained land was incorporated into British Malaya, along with the Tenasserim region and the peninsula was unified under one colonial government after the British East India Company gave control of the region to the crown. British Malaya quickly began to develop along several port towns on both sides of the peninsula including Phuket, Singapore and Banton[1]. A railroad built in the 1910s connecting Phuket and Banton on either side of the Malay Peninsula would greatly reduce the time needed for goods to go from British India to east Asia and siphoned some of the development from Singapore and the Johor region to the Phuket region further north.

Belgium, and the Netherlands:
Besides the United Kingdom, the other two countries most involved in colonialism in the East Indies in the 19th century were Belgium and the Netherlands. The Dutch had already created a presence in the larger islands of Sumatra and Java, and in the 1840s they began to extend their control over the Moluccas islands of Sulawesi and New Guinea. Dutch trading ports were founded on the coasts of the islands and treaties were created with the local communities establishing protectorates in the region. In 1857, the Second Anglo-Dutch Naval Treaty between the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that granted the Dutch full rights over all territory on the island of New Guinea. However, the Dutch would not extend their holdings in New Guinea beyond a few colonial forts and towns until the 1880s. Similarly, the Aceh tribes and a few islands east of Java would remain independent well into the 19th century.

Belgium, on the other hand, was a latecomer in the colonial game. The country's first colonial possession in Borneo came from a treaty with the Netherlands in 1839. From this small series of outposts on the southern end of the island of Borneo, Belgium fostered relations with the local kingdoms over the next twenty years. These efforts culminated in the Sabah War in the late 1850s during which Belgium brought the Sultanate of Brunei under its jurisdiction as a protectorate and gained a base of operations on the island of Labuan. In the 1860s under King Ludwig I[2], Belgium expanded their colonial base in the East Indies from Borneo to Indochina. Ludwig's colonial policy led to the country's conquest of much of the lands south of China and east of the Mekong River. In the 1870s, Belgian Indochina was divided into six colonial administrative units led by a local chief and a representative from Brussels.

The Other Colonizers:
Along with these three major players, there were a number of minor colonial players in southeast Asia during the 19th century. The Portuguese kept their small holding on the eastern half of the island of Timor. In 1864, the Portuguese settled the border between Portuguese and Dutch Timor and exchanged a post that was a Portuguese exclave for a couple minor islands north of Timor. The Danish, with economic assistance from Great Britain after the cession of Tranquebar to the British East India Company, expanded their colonial control of the Frederiksoerne[3].

France, with their minor possessions in Pondicherry and Korea, attempted to obtain further small bases in the East Indies and the Pacific to secure their trade with Korea. After failing to establish a lasting presence in New Guinea and Formosa, France finally had success in taking the island of Palau. France's presence in the East Indies grew as the century ended when France took the island of Hainan from China as part of their assistance in the Sino-Korean War. Also during the latter half of the 19th century, Spain consolidated her holdings in the Pacific under the administration of Manila as part of the reforms of King Alfonso XII.

[1] OTL Surat Thani.
[2] Sort of Leopold II, probably a different personality though.
[3] Nicobar Islands.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Time for another update, and we're back to the War Between the States!

Part Thirty-Nine: Finding the Path to the White House

Election Analysis:
The United States 1864 presidential election displayed an important change in the attitudes and political views of the national population. After the death of president Houston put Johnson into office, he was extremely popular among the states that remained in the Union, and his popularity remained fairly high over the first year of his presidency. However, by 1863 it was clear that the war was not going to be a quick affair and this fact polarized the nation. With many of the slave states gone from the Union, support for abolitionism spread and more people turned to the Republican Party. The offensive that Johnson led after the Greeneville Massacre bolstered his popularity initially, as the war dragged on public opinion turned against Johnson taking personal command of a Union army. All these combined to have Johnson ousted by Fremont after only three years in office. Today, however, Andrew Johnson is viewed relatively positively in the United States for his handling of the war and has often been dubbed 'the dictator president'[1] by historians for his decisive actions during the emergency following the assassination of Houston.

In contrast to the increasingly hawkish opinion of the Union, the Confederacy was turning its eye toward a peace gambit. The war had already cost the lives of tens of thousands of young Confederate soldiers and the Confederacy had failed to score any large hits against the Union. Meanwhile, it was becoming clear that the more industrialized Union economy was outclassing the Confederacy's. The Union was also generating far more trade with Europe as British trade for Confederate cotton declined after the war began[2]. Successful Union offensives in Virginia and Arkansaw did not help matters and the Calhoun legislature was almost unable to send in its vote due to the Union occupation of Little Rock. Judah P. Benjamin gained support with his plan to attempt a peaceful negotiation in the war, especially among the states that were being affected by ongoing combat and where armies were being stationed. Cobb had support from the more committed and pro-slavery states in the south such as Georgia and South Carolina. Legislators dismissed questions on Benjamin's Jewish ancestry with an overwhelming response that he had proved himself as Secretary of State and in March of 1864, Benjamin won almost three quarter of the Confederate electoral votes.


Fremont's First Days:
After the election of John C. Fremont to the presidency in November of 1864, a peaceful resolution to the War Between the States seemed to slip away. Unprecedented attempts by Andrew Johnson in his final days in office to arrange a diplomatic meeting with Confederate President Judah P. Benjamin were blocked by Congress, which had turned sharply Republican in 1864. As Johnson left the White House in March of 1865, his farewell address warned the nation of going too radical too quickly and reminded Congress that the citizens of the Confederacy were still Americans at heart and that they should be treated as such.

Fremont began his term in office by strengthening the United States navy. He commissioned two ironclad ships to be built in New England and with the support of a newly Republican Congress, purchased another two ships from France. Outfitted with steel plating and the ability to plant torpedoes[3], these ships gave the Union a clear naval superiority over the Confederacy on the Atlantic coast and not just in the Mississippi-Ohio river system. Later in the year, torpedoes were planted at points along the mouth of Chesapeake Bay while Union soldiers pursued Longstreet and took back much of Kentucky.

Fremont's election also caused some setbacks for the Union. Upon hearing of his inauguration, the population of Chickasaw formally seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. His election also created unrest across northern Tejas that March, much larger than the one uprising in Dallas a year before. Seguin had to diver a corps to quell the revolt. In April, Fremont created the new Colorado Territory out of the northern half of New Mexico Territory. Ferroplano became the territorial capital and Colorado abolished slavery.

[1] In TTL, dictator does not gain the negative connotation that it has in OTL. ITTL a dictator is someone who takes charge in an emergency, and usually is positive and commenting on a person's quick thinking and leadership.
[2] This is due to British protectionist policies and the growing of cotton in India
[3] Torpedoes are OTL naval mines. Also, a little tidbit that I couldn't fit into the update: The major manufacturer of torpedoes in the Union is Nobel Torpedo Works, founded by Alfred and Ludwig Nobel in Castleton, Staten Island, New Jersey.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Another special Turtledove Award season update!


Part Forty: The Ozark Offensive

Ozark Offensive: The Ozark Offensive began early in 1865 when the Union sent the Army of the Missouri moved south to recapture Cape Girardeau after the majority of the Ozark Corps had surrendered. The Army of the Missouri entered Cape Girardeau on April 14th. While the Union River Squadron kept the Confederate navy busy, the Army of the Missouri under Winfield Scott Hancock skirted the southern edge of the Ozark Plateau as they swerved away from the Mississippi River. Hancock moved his men slowly along the edge of the plateau and took the city of Poplar Bluff, Missouri on April 26th. After following the south edge of the Ozarks for another thirty miles, Hancock turned south. By the time word of Hancock's move into Arkansaw reached Memphis, the Union forces had already taken the city of Jonesboro and secured a rail link between Saint Louis and Little Rock.

Bragg began moving most of the Army of the Mississippi south from Paducah in early May, but left a small garrison in northern Chickasaw to stall a Union advance. Because of the movement of the Army of Mississippi, the Union River Squadron was able to win the Second Battle of the Confluence and a corps took back Cairo. Bragg's men reached Memphis and crossed the Mississippi on May 17th. By then, Hancock had reached Clarendon Arkansaw and turned east toward the Mississippi. After a few days of skirmishing and maneuvering, Bragg and Hancock met at the river approximately ten miles north of the town of Helena on May 22nd. Hancock had the initial advantage as Union forces occupied the town and the outlying Saint Francis Hills[1] while Bragg advanced from the north.

On the first day of fighting Hancock made the first move in an attempt to gain an early victory and push Bragg back to the Mississippi River. The artillery of the Army of the Missouri were positioned on the southern edge of the hills by the river while a cavalry corps circled around from the northwest. Bragg had put most of his infantry at the Army of Mississippi's right flank and was able to push back the cavalry charge. The next day saw the advantage flip to the Confederates. The Army of Mississippi was able to advance on the right flank and capture the town of Marianna on the north end of the Saint Francis Hills. However, this push by the Confederates did not ensure them a victory in the battle. On the fourth day of fighting, Hancock's men achieved a large breakthrough in the center of the Bragg's forces. Hancock was able to isolate the bulk of the Army of Mississippi in Marianna from the smaller force by the river. The southern force was routed on May 27th, and Bragg ordered a general retreat a day later. Bragg's men retreated across the Mississippi River to regroup while Hancock sent the Army of the Missouri south toward Vicksburg.

Five days before the Battle of Helena, Seguín had finished mopping up the Northern Tejas Rebellion and moved the First Texas Corps back into Arkansaw. With help from a corps form the Army of the Missouri, Seguín capture Little Rock once again on June 12th. The fall of Little Rock to the Union meant that all of Calhoun and the majority of Arkansaw were now cut off from the Confederacy. The area held out for another two months while Seguín gradually moved up the Arkansaw River, but on August 4th, Calhoun surrendered to the Union at Harlem. Calhoun and the portion of Arkansaw that the Union controlled were set up like Virginia as military districts.

[1] Not sure what to call these hills but they are in the Saint Francis National Forest according to Google Maps.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Time for another update.

Part Forty-One: Gaining Ground, the 1865 Campaigns

June Movements: While Seguin and Hancock chased after the Army of the Mississippi, the Union gained a slew of major successes in the east. Carlos Buell leading the Army of the Ohio and Joseph Hooker leading the Army of the Wabash recovered the remaining land in Kentucky that had been lost to the Confederacy in the previous years and quickly crossed into Tennessee. On the 11th of June, Buell entered into Greeneville and was accompanied by former president Andrew Johnson. Johnson's entrance into Greeneville was similar to a military parade and he received a warm welcome. They stayed in Greeneville for four days while the army rested and let Hooker's men catch up to them. Hooker and the Army of the Ohio[1] entered Tennessee on June 12th and defeated the Confederate Army of Georgia at Oneida just south of the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. As the Army of Georgia retreated east, it combined efforts with the Army of the Carolinas and in the Third Siege of Knoxville, finally had success in taking the city. The Confederates held Knoxville for only two weeks as the Army of the Wabash and the Army of the Ohio advanced from the north and southwest. From the 18th to the 26th the four armies fought around the city until the Confederates had been routed. The Final Battle of Knoxville is considered the decisive battle in the eastern theatre and Buell achieved great success for this and later campaigns in the war.

While Buell and Hooker were gaining ground in Tennessee, McClellan was mopping up the resistance in Virginia. McClellan and the Army of the Potomac went to Charlottesville on June 14th and Lynchburg on the 20th. While McClellan was handling a minor Confederate encampment in the Appalachians, the Confederate Atlantic squadron under James D. Bulloch[2] launched an attack on Fort Monroe and tried to break into Chesapeake Bay. The Union flotilla stationed at Norfolk, Virginia sallied out into the mouth of the bay but stayed back enough so that the Confederate ships would have to get in range of Fort Monroe as well as Fort Charles on the tip of the Delmarva Peninsula. Bulloch brought the Confederate squadron into the bay where the Union forces fired on the ships from both land and sea. After hours of bombardment, Bulloch retreated his now battered squadron back down the coast. Using this opportunity, the Army of the Potomac crossed into North Carolina.


July Movements: From Knoxville, Buell and Hooker split up as they drove further into Confederate territory. Buell was set to go east from Knoxville and his Army of the Wabash entered North Carolina on July 5th and marched into Asheville four days later after a battle with the Army of the Carolinas in the outskirts of the town. The Army of the Wabash continued east into North Carolina for two weeks chasing the Army of the Carolinas and fighting two more battles with them in July. With the string of losses, the Army of the Carolinas was greatly demoralized and retreated east and north to Charlotte. Meanwhile, Joseph Hooker and the Army of the Ohio marched south from Knoxville toward Chattanooga. Hooker was set back at Sweetwater, Tennessee when the Army of Georgia briefly rallied against the Union but Hooker soon swung the Army of the Ohio south past Forrest, now commanding the Army of Georgia.

McClellan, meanwhile, continued into North Carolina. McClellan had learned that the Army of the Carolinas was headed northeast toward him, but he did not receive accurate information on the army's current location and its haggard condition. The Army of the Potomac set up fortifications on the north bank of the Roanoke River and waited for two weeks while no Confederate army showed up. Finally on July 19th, McClellan moved south and crossed the Roanoke River at Scotland Neck. The Army of the Potomac continued west toward the state capital of Raleigh.


August Movements: After the battle of Sweetwater, Joseph Hooker swung the Army of the Ohio around the Army of Georgia as Forrest led a cavalry corps ahead to warn the garrison in Chattanooga. Forrest readied the forts outside of the city in preparation for the attack. Hooker's army set up a camp a few miles east of Chattanooga on August 10th. As the siege drew on, the rest of the Army of Georgia reached Chattanooga and joined Forrest's defenses. After a drawn out battle, Forrest retreated beyond the Tennessee border and Hooker tooker Chattanooga where he remained for the rest of the month, fending off a counterattack by Forrest.

North Carolina was now only defended by Longstreet and the Army of the Carolinas, while both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Wabash were invading. On August 6th, McClellan at last realized that the Army of the Carolinas was nowhere in sight and crossed the Roanoke River. The army reached just east of Raleigh on the 18th of August when the Army of the Carolinas intercepted the Army of the Potomac. McClellan retreated somewhat to set up a defensive row of artillery, and as a result Longstreet gained a minor terrain advantage. However, when the fighting actually started, Longstreet made a major tactical mistake. He ordered a direct cavalry charge and his men were decimated by the Union cannons. The following attacks by the Army of the Carolinas and they were soon routed. In anger, Longstreet order his men to plunder Raleigh as they were retreating through the city. His men refused and were close to instigating a mutiny and were only stopped when Longstreet backed down. The Army of the Potomac entered Raleigh and Longstreet escorted the legislature out of the city. Buell, meanwhile took Charlotte and the Union Atlantic Squadron blockaded much of the coast, effectively neutralizing North Carolina's effectiveness for the Confederacy.

[1] General Grant is now Commanding General of the United States Army.
[2] James D. Bulloch, uncle of one Theodore Roosevelt.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Well, didn't get as much in this update as I thought I would, but yay naval battle stuff!

Part Forty-Two: Taking the Mississippi

After Vicksburg:
With Calhoun and Arkansaw part of the Union once again, Seguín and Hancock were able to focus on the rest of the Mississippi River and gaining ground in what was considered the heart of the Confederacy. The thee prime ports on the lower Mississippi that remained in Confederate control were Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans. Hancock and the Army of the Missouri focused on sieging Vicksburg first. Once Seguín and the First Texas Corps were free, Seguín joined in in the siege. Hancock had set up on the east bank of the Mississippi blocking the major rail and road routes to the east, while he First Texas Corps took up camp on the west bank of the river. Amazingly, the city lasted for almost another month after the arrival of Seguín before it fell. However, because it held out so long, the city took extensive damage from artillery during the siege and after the end of the war lost much of its economic and strategic importance.

From Vicksburg, Hancock went south along the Mississippi while Seguín want north. Seguín and the First Texas Corps marched upriver on the left bank for the next month and crossed the river once they neared Memphis. Memphis with its meager garrison was captured on September 27th. Seguín spent most of October securing the fortresses built along the east bank of the Mississippi in Tennessee and defending Memphis from raids by what was left of Bragg's army. As Hancock was moving south, the Union Gulf Squadron began a blockade off the coast of Louisiana, specifically focusing on the mouth of the Mississippi. Hancock reached Baton Rouge in early October and fought the remaining forces being led by Forrest that had not been sent north to garrison Chickasaw. Forrest's men quickly lost the battle and the remains of the Army of Mississippi ran to New Orleans to warn the city of Hancock's imminent arrival. Federal officials stopped production at the New Orleans Mint and moved all the processed gold and silver coinage into Mississippi via rail. Forrest and the Army of the Mississippi were determined to hold up Hancock as long as possible before he reached New Orleans, but he didn't foresee the move made by the Gulf Squadron on October 5th.

The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain:
By October, with the success of the Jackson Rebellion, the only major Gulf ports that had not fallen to the Union were New Orleans and Mobile, and the members of the Jackson Rebellion were soon to take the latter. Admiral David Farragut, who was in charge of the Union Gulf Squadron for the majority of the war, decided to force the squadron into Lake Pontchartrain and speed up the taking of the city after Forrest's plans became known. Farragut ordered the squadron past Smugglers' Cove and entered Lake Borgne. The two natural waterways into Lake Pontchartrain, Chef Menteur Pass and the Rigolets. Farragut opted for the Gulf Squadron to go through the Rigolets because, while better protected, the strait was also deeper on average. The squadron sailed into Lake Pontchartrain despite being bombarded by cannons at Fort Pike, and encountered Gustavus T. Beauregard and the Confederate Mississippi Squadron.

The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain began on the 5th of October. Beauregard had positioned the Mississippi Squadron in a position ideal to intercept Farragut's ships as they entered from the Rigolets and had also set a field of torpedos on the north side of the lake. Beauregard's squadron had been deeply hurt since the Confluence Campaign and in the Battle of Lake Pontchartrain contained only one ironclad, the CSS Chickasaw. Farragut, meanwhile, had three ironclads; the USS Tecumseh, the USS Manhattan, and the USS Tennessee. The USS Tecumseh led the way into the lake with the USS Brooklyn, the flagship of the squadron and the sihp that Farragut was on during the battle. As the Tecumseh entered the lake, it was forced to run close to the right edge of the lake by the Mississippi Squadron, and while turning left toward the Chickasaw, struck one of the torpedos and soon sank. At this, the Brooklyn slowed as its captain had been given orders to avoid the torpedos. The captain went to consult Farragut, who responded with his now famous utterance, "Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!"[1]. Miraculously, the Brooklyn did not strike any torpedos as the Tecumseh had. The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain lasted for two weeks and ended with a decisive victory for Farragut, and the capture of New Orleans with the arrival of the Army of Missouri.

[1]The incident leading to Farragut's famous quote is taken from the incident that occurred during the Battle of Mobile Bay in OTL that made Farragut say it.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Time for a new update. No accompanying map with this one since it just explains more of what was going on in the last map.

Part Forty-Three: A Crumbling Confederacy

Jackson Revolts:
With the Union army steadily moving south and President Fremont refusing to enter into peace negotiations with Confederate President Benjamin, the individual southern states started to lose their loyalty to the Confederate government. In the state of Jackson, which had not originally declared itself part of the Confederate States of America but was invaded very early in the war, a popular uprising in support of the United States began in September of 1865. The uprising started in Pensacola as the citizens occupied several government buildings. With aid from the Union Gulf Squadron, the state capitol building in Pensacola fell to the rebels on September 17th. From Pensacola the rebels spread out along the roads around the city using guerrilla tactics.

By the end of September, the uprising had spread to other cities in Jackson. In the first month, the fight against the Confederacy was concentrated in the major population centers where slavery was least popular. A separate group of rebels captured the city of Marianna on September 30th. With more assistance from the Gulf Squadron after the fall of New Orleans, the newly created Jackson militia overran the garrison in the harbor at San Andrés[1] on October 8th. An attempt by rebels to overthrow the Confederates stationed at Tallahassee was put down by the Confederates and the participants in that uprising were hanged. The Jackson militia in San Andrés met up with the Marianna rebels on the 15th as the Second Texas Corps was brought into Pensacola to secure the remainder of western Jackson. Some members of the Second Texas Corps assisted the rebels with setting up defenses along the west side of the Seguin River and by the end of October much of the state west of the river had fallen under Union control. After the remainder of the Gulf Coast was captured by the Union over the next month, Francis Richard Lubbock and the Second Texas Corps would head east toward Tallahassee and the remainder of Jackson.

Veracruz Quits:
After the capture of New Orleans, Jefferson Davis realized that the Confederacy was going to fall and that its reabsorption in to the Union was only a matter of time. Having no desire to give up his power and let the Union capture Veracruz, Davis and Veracruz declared independence from the Confederate States of America. After sending a diplomatic letter to Washington, the independence of Veracruz was recognized by the United States government in exchange for being able to use the port as a naval base.[2]

As the Confederacy continued losing land to the Union forces, Jefferson Davis invited Confederates to leave their homes in the CSA and migrate to Veracruz. Davis encouraged mostly former dockworkers from New Orleans, Mobile, and Havana to enter Veracruz. Over twenty thousand people with an equal distribution in Cuba and the mainland came to Veracruz in the years after the fall of the Confederacy. These immigrants greatly contributed to the economic prosperity of Veracruz around the turn of the 20th century. Through the next thirty years, the city-state became a busy entry port for goods entering the unstable Mexican states as it was one of the only continuously stable countries in the region.

[1] OTL Panama City, Florida. It was originally called Saint Andrew, which I have Hispanicized
[2] The reasoning for Davis' secession from the CSA comes from Jefferson Davis's memoirs in TTL.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Time for a new update. Another update-as-I-go.

Part Forty-Four: Ending Slavery in the United States

Let These People Go:
Confident of a Union victory in the National War, President Fremont and the Republican Congress began implementing their policies in the United States. Along with the goal of winning the war, the Republcans began pushing for the abolition of slavery across the nation. Some states had already enacted laws to abolish slavery locally. As part of the reaction to the assassination of Samuel Houston and the secession of the states forming the Confederacy, Tejas had emancipated its slaves in 1862. Likewise, Maryland had emancipated its slaves during in early 1865 after Fremont was elected. In the new military districts that were created as more Confederate states fell to the Union, many slaves took the advantage of the Union occupation to run away to free states further north or free territories in the west. As suport for the Republican Party grew, the impetus for the United States to abolish slavery altogether was formed.

The issue of slavery was brought to the forefront of United States policy after the capture of New Orleans. In mid-October of 1865, President Fremont gave a speech in Louisville, Kentucky aimed at slaveholders in the Union, as well as the Confederate government. In the speech, Fremont called for support for the emancipation of all slaves in the United States, evoking the passage in the Declaration of Independence that 'all men are created equal' and the passage in the preamble to the Constitution that refers to securing the blessings of liberty in the United States. Fremont also appealed to Confederate President Judah P. Benjamin's Jewish heritage. In the speech, Fremont related the history of the Jews as slaves in Egypt and suggested that Benjamin do as Moses did and free the slaves in the Confederacy. One of the memorable quotes by Fremont during this speech is his statement to Benjamin to "let these people go". That statement is now one of the quotes most widely associated with the fight for emancipation. After Fremont returned to Washington in November, he and Congress passed legislation to outlaw slavery in the United States by 1870. Over the next five years, all states would free their slaves.

Defection of Cuba:
With Union troops advancing toward Mobile and Jackson rising up in revolt, similar pro-Union movements began welling up in Cuba. Some plantation owners began freeing their slaves in a protest to the continuation of the war by the Confederacy. By late November, several of the more liberal Cuban plantation owners rose up against the Confederacy with the support of the middle classes. The plantation owners all met in secret and selected Carlos Manuel de Céspedes[1] as the overall commander of the small band of rebelsm known as the Demajagueros[2]. Céspedes had been a prominent landowner in eastern Cuba prior to the National War and became disillusioned with the Confederacy after the state legislature in Havana appropriated his sugar mill to fund the war effort. During the weeks of guerrilla warfare against the Confederate forces on the island, the rebels gathered strength as other Cubans tired of the perceived neglect of Cuba by the Confederate government joined with the plantation owners. By December, the rebels had captured many major towns and ports in eastern Cuba including Camaguey, Manzanillo, and Santiago de Cuba.

In late November as news of the rebellion arrived at Augusta and Washington, the United Staes started planning an invasion of Cuba in order to hasten the fall of the Confederacy. The Union coordinated with Céspedes and the Demajagueros in where the invading forces would land, and the army was soon sent to land in the Bahia de Cárdenas. The three corps sent by the Union under the command of Major General George Lucas[3] landed on December 9th while Céspedes and his men were attacking the city of Santa Clara. While the Union soliders moved over land to capture the port city of Matanzas, the Demajagueros pushed the Confederate loyalists out of Santa Clara. Matanzas fell to the Union corps on December 12th, and the Union soldiers began moving inland and west through the valley. In Matanzas the Union gained the assistance of many free and slave Africans, which sped up the Union advance. The Union corps quickly moved west through the mountains, routing a Confederate corps at Aguacate, and arrived at the town of Nazareno on the 16th of December to plan the final assault on Habana. Céspedes and some of the Demajagueros were sent to Nazareno to coordinate the attack with Lucas.

Céspedes arrived in Nazareno on the 19th of December and a plan of attack on Habana was hammered out. Three Union ships from the Gulf Squadron, including the USS Pensacola, blockaded the port in Habana so no Confederate supplies or reinforcements would be able to enter the state capital. Céspedes and the Demajagueros he had brought with him moved north with Lucas and his soldiers toward Habana. After a four day long siege and assault, the capital was taken in the early hours of Christmas day. While the siege was a success, George Lucas did not live through it. During an attack on one of the forts in Habana, a Confederate explosive shell struck Lucas in the face and exploded. With Habana in Union hands, the state of Cuba had officially fallen, but fighting continued throughout the island for weeks later.

[1] Céspedes is an OTL figure considered the father of Cuba. He wrote the Cuban declaration of independence that began the Ten Years' War
[2] Named after La Demajagua, Céspedes's estate
[3] OTL George Lucas Hartsuff

 

[wilcoxchar]

The update is finished. It turned out to be much longer than I expected.


Part Forty-Five: The Bell Tolls for Benjamin

The Walls Close In:
The turn of the new year brought a new vigor into the offensives by the Union against the remnants of the Confederacy. Joseph Hooker led the Army of the Wabash out of Chattanooga and into Georgia on January 10th. Almost constantly fighting roadside raids by local militias, the Army of the Wabash was only able to move ten miles a day in the march. Several bands of untrained militiamen loyal to the Confederacy had set up camps in the mountains on both sides of the path the army was traveling on. On the 22nd of January, the Army of the Wabash neared Atlanta. Not wanting to allow the Union to capture Atlanta, Forrest and the Army of Georgia stood their ground in the hill near Cartersville northwest of Atlanta. Luring the army in between two sets of hills just east of Cartersville, Forrest and his men fought for five days in a last stand agaubst the Union army, using the hills to support artillery positions and the area in between to block Hooker from advancing. While Forrest ultimately lost the Battle of Cartersville, the battle took a large toll on the Army of the Wabash and forced Hooker to delay in the final capture of Atlanta.

Seguin and Hancock advancing from the Mississippi River had much better luck in their movements in the autumn of 1865 than Hooker did. Seguin and the First Texas Corps began marching east from Memphis along the border of Chickasaw and Mississippi in mid-December. Seguin reached Corinth, Mississippi on December 30th and stayed in the town for a week while sending out scouting parties to search for bands of Confederate militiamen. Having cleared much of the surrounding area by January 9th, the First Texas Corps headed north to Savannah on the Tennessee River. Reaching the river on the 14th of January, the First Texas Corps split into smaller divisions and patrolled the line Seguin had carved for the next month to cut Chickasaw off from the rest of the Confederacy.

Hancock, meanwhile, began to move in on southern Mississippi. One by one during the remainder of December and the beginning days of January, Hancock and the Army of Missouri captured the Confederate forts along the east bank of the Mississippi River. Notable among these was the capture of the fort and city of Natchez, Mississippi. The Roman Catholic bishop of Natchez, George Aloysius Carrell[1], convinced the citizens of Natchez as well as the soldiers at the fort to lay down their arms and surrender to Hancock. The town of Natchez was spared from fighting and the fort commander was not imprisoned by the Union. Hancock continued on in Mississippi and entered the capital of Jackson on January 20th, 1866.

"Last Chance" Jackson and the Miracle of Montgomery:
Further east along the Gulf of Mexico, Francis Lubbock and the Second Texas Corps went on an offensive in Alabama. Satisfied with the ability of the Jackson militia to defend itself on the eastern border of the state, Lubbock struck northward into Alabama in early January. Lubbock had not received any information on the whereabouts of the Confederate Army of Mississippi in a month, and assumed that it had been disbanded or that many of the soldiers had deserted after the loss at New Orleans. Charging the army north, Lubbock and the Second Texas Corps reached Fort Deposit in two weeks. After setting up camp in Fort Deposit for three days to ensure the capture of the fort, the Second Texas Corps resumed its path north toward Montgomery.

Shortly after leaving the fort, the Second Texas Corps found the Army of Mississippi, now led by Thomas "Last Chance" Jackson[2], who was quick to assume leadership of the Army of Mississippi after Forrest left for the Army of Georgia. Jackson turned out to be a very gifted commander and under his lead, the Army of Mississippi managed to continually hold off the Second Texas Corps in the hills near Fort Deposit for the remainder of the war. At one point, Jackson was even able to coordinate a sneak attack around the Corps and captured Fort Deposit for a few days. Because of "Last Chance" Jackson, the city of Montgomery was never captured during the war and remained one of the few cities in the former Confederacy untouched by fighting.

The March on Augusta:
Buell and McClellan remained in North Carolina for the remainder of 1865, cleaning up the rebel fighters in the rural areas of the state. The Union navy blockaded further down the Atlantic coast making patrols all the way to Charleston and Savannah. After the new year, the Union armies in North Carolina began preparations to move south further into Confederate territory. McClellan and the Army of the Potomac went to Fayetteville and down to the coast at which point they entered South Carolina. McClellan reached Myrtle Beach on January 16th, 1866. As McClellan kept pushing toward Charleston, the Union Atlantic Squadron attempted to enter the port. They were rebuffed by the cannons at Fort Sumter, but the Army of the Potomac set up camp at Mount Pleasant across the harbor from Charleston on the 27th of January. McClellan set up a patrol and a palisade to try and cut the peninsula of Charleston off from supplies.

While McClellan was driving down the South Carolina coast, Buell was advancing further inland toward the Confederate capital. After leaving Charlotte, North Carolina in early January, the Army of the Ohio crossed the border into South Carolina near the eastern bank of Wylie Lake. On January 7th, the Army of the Ohio encountered the demoralized remnants of the Army of the Carolinas at the small town of Lancaster, South Carolina. The battle began in the valley to the north of the town with scattered Confederates in the hills causing minor casualties to the Union army. Over the next few days, the fighting moved south through the town and west toward the Catawba River. As Buell continued to drive back the Army of the Carolinas, Longstreet organized a silent retreat to the hills in the north on the night of January 8th, and inflicted more damage on the Army of the Ohio through raids and ambushes. By the 11th, Longstreet snuck the Army of the Carolinas across the Catawba and retreated as fast as they could toward Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.

Buell chased after the Army of the Carolinas as it crossed the Catawba River and advanced south. With Longstreet's forces diminished and able to move at a faster pace, the Confederate force made it to Columbia while the Army of the Ohio was two days away. Buell's army continued south after Longstreet and after a week of skirmishing around Columbia, the capital of South Carolina fell to the Union on January 24th. Up until now, the Confederate legislature had been obstructing any attempts by Benjamin to organize a peaceful surrender to the Union. As the Army of the Carolinas fled Columbia, Longstreet sent a messenger to ride to Augusta and warn the Confederate government that the Union army was closing in.

[1] OTL Bishop of Covington, Kentucky
[2] Ole' Stonewall's got a new nickname

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time!


Part Forty-Six: The End of the Confederacy

End of the National War: The last gasp of the Confederacy in the National War came as Buell continued marching southwest toward the Confederate capital. While the message was being rushed to President Benjamin, McClellan continued blockading and shelling Charleston and Atlanta fell to Hooker. The message reached Augusta and Benjamin on January 27th and Benjamin called for an emergency meeting of the present members of the Confederate legislature. The legislature members held a heated debate over the next two days while Buell inched closer to Augusta and Forrest did as much as he could to delay the final attack on the capital. On the last day of January, the legislature finally voted after much urging from Benjamin to send a plea for an armistice to Fremont and Buell. After pushing the Army of Georgia back to the Savannah River just across the bridge from Augusta, Buell agreed to a ceasefire while the letter reached Fremont.

The letter reached the end of the Union telegraph lines in Columbia and was telegraphed to Washington, DC where Fremont received the message. After deliberation with his cabinet and both houses of Congress, an armistice was arranged between the United States and the Confederacy. Two weeks later om February 18th, 1866, Fremont and Benjamin met in Augusta and Benjamin officially signed the surrender of the Confederate States of America. A meeting later that day with the Confederate legislature officially dissolved the country and surrendered all territories within to the United States[1]. All the Confederate armies that had not yet submitted to the Union did so in the next few weeks.


Old States and New States: After the final surrender of the Confederacy, the states that had been part of the former Confederacy were turned into Union military districts until a plan for reincorporating them as states could be determined by Congress. Each district was given one observing member in Congress but what not allowed to vote on any bills. The discussion of how to handle the former Confederate states dominated much of Congress's proceedings in 1866. The more radical members of the Republican party including President Fremont wanted a strict policy to ensure the loyalty of the states and to punish them for seceding in the first place. Democrats and more moderate Republicans, taking a pragmatic approach, desired more leniency in order to readmit the states into the Union as soon as possible.

One thing that both sides could agree on was that the abolition of slavery was required for a state to be readmitted into the United States. For these former Confederate states, this meant drafting new state constitutions. The method of having Congress approve a new state constitution for each military district was eventually adopted by the United States government as the official policy for the Reconstruction era in mid-1866. In this way, the former states were treated like territories but with expedited rules for admission. New state constitutions were drafted in a few states as early as that year, with the states of Jackson, Cuba, and Calhoun being readmitted later in 1866.

Two exceptions to the territorial rule were the Confederate states of Chickasaw and Virginia. The area of the state of Chickasaw was assigned as military districts of Kentucky and Tennessee, the states that Chickasaw had seceded from when it joined the Confederacy. The two states attempted to police the area and destroy any lingering rebel groups in the rural areas, but the local support for these groups was just too strong for Kentucky and Tennessee to want to deal with. While most of the guerrilla organizations were based in the hills in central Chickasaw, rebel sentiment was especially strong in cities on the Mississippi River such as Paducah and Memphis which had a large presence of the state militias. The groups and rebel sympathizers raided towns and wreaked havoc in the larger cities with guerrilla tactics. The occupation of Chickasaw took a big drain on the post-war economies of Kentucky and Tennessee, and with the Great Fire of Memphis breaking out in 1868 the two states finally petitioned Congress to take control over the area. Congress passed the Chickasaw District Act in early 1869 and the area became the state of Chickasaw in the spring of 1870.

The events that occurred in the Virginia military district were very much different from what happened in Chickasaw following the National War. Robert E. Lee, the man behind the secession of Vandalia during the war, encouraged ardent freesoilers to move into the area of Virginia to expedite the state's readmission to the Union[2]. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvania Representative and one of the more radical members of the Republican party at the time, called for the punishment of the former Confederate states and proposed that the state of Virginia be divided into two states upon admission. Stevens was successful in attaining support for his bill in Congress and within northern Virginia where most settlers in Virginia from New England and the Mid-Atlantic states ended up. In 1868, a majority of citizens in the region voted on a constitution separate from that which was established in the southern part of the state. Later that year, the state of Winfield was carved out of northern Virginia and admitted to the United States while the rest of Virginia took until 1869 to be readmitted.

[1] The Confederate Constitution and the official surrender now form the principal documents of the Confederate History Museum in Augusta, Georgia.
[2] Lee later becomes a representative for Winfield. Lee went along with the division because he was bitter about not being selected as Virginia's territorial observer in Congress.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Oh my goodness! Could this be? It is! Two updates in one week!


Part Forty-Seven: The Aftermath of the National War

Economic Effects of National War: The National War had a great impact on both the economies of the northern and southern United States in the years following it. In the southern states, the largest impact by far was the conversion of former slaves working on plantations into free American citizens. Many newly freed blacks concentrated in cities such as New Orleans and Montgomery. Some fled north with their new found freedom to try and find a job there. Most freed blacks stayed on the plantations that they had lived on prior to the National War, but were now paid by their former owners. Railroad construction in the south helped stimulate its recovery, but overall the economy in the former Confederacy was still slow due to a reliance on single cash crops such as cotton. Cotton production and exports in the southern states especially declined due to foreign markets such as Britain and France turning to cotton from India and Egypt.

The slump in agricultural production in the southern United States also led to the first development of major urban and industrial centers in the region. Fueled by the influx of black laborers and the switch of production on some plantations from cash crops like cotton to food crops such as rice in the Lower Mississippi, cities such as New Orleans and Montgomery flourished in the late nineteenth century. With the development of textile industries in those two cities, railroads from the Carolinas and Georgia soon wound their way westward to support the movement of cotton. Other gulf port cities developed as well to support the growing economy in Cuba. Pensacola continued to grow and a new harbor sprung up in Tampa Bay[1], which soon had a railroad link to Jacksonville. But aside from the Mississippi valley, the Gulf coast, and exceptional areas such as Montgomery, the southern United States experienced a rather slow recovery in the decades following the National War.

The development of the northern states after the National War was rather different from that of the southern states. The fighting that Cincinnati endured during the war drove many factories and producers away from the city and to cities away from the Ohio River. The river lost much of its steamship traffic as railroads were built through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Indianapolis became a major rail hub in the Old Northwest as rail lines replaced the old steamer routes toward the Mississippi River. The states in the Old Northwest were further assisted by Fremont's push to begin construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Three major cities, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Saint Louis quickly expanded as steel mills and other industries flocked to the cities and as people passed thorugh on their way to the plains states and the Pacific or up north to Minneapolis or Duluth. These three cities became what was known as the Northern Industrial Triangle for much of the later nineteenth century and into the twentieth. This development helped the northern states recover faster from the National War than their southern brethren and only increased the economic disparity between the two regions.


Demographic Effects of National War: The shift in the economic centers of the United States in the 1860s was brought about by major shifts in population, and also brought about some population movements of its own. At the end of the National War, several freed blacks from the southern states moved to the cities or migrated north. Some even headed out west to work on the railroads that began crisscrossing the Great Plains in the 1870s and 1880s. The settling of freed slaves in cities such as New Orleans and Memphis helped the cities and their states flourish in the latter half of the 19th century.

The urbanization of the area along the Mississippi brought about some special challenges to city planners. A couple cities brought in Ildefons Cerda to plan the growth of the cities, who inspired the style of urban planning known as Cerdismo[2]. Cerda gained fame for designing a grand plan for the expansion of Barcelona in 1859[3], and was commissioned by several American cities including Ferroplano, Memphis, and Chicago to design plans for the cities in the aftermath of the National War. Cerda would return to Spain under the reign of Alfonso XII, but his mark on these American cities was permanent. After the Great Fire of 1871, Memphis took advantage of Cerda's planning expertise and redesigned itself as a premiere modern city.

The plantation owners of the former Confederate states did not fare well in the years following the National War. Many who wanted to maintain their life as slaveowners or simply could not keep financing their plantations left the United States, going to Veracruz, Costa Rica, Colombia, or Brazil, which still permitted slavery. Those plantation owners who stayed faced several economic problems with the transfer to wage labor. Some had to switch production from cotton to a less profitable crop. Others sold their plantations and moved to the major cities to try and get a better life in the economic downturn of the late 1870s.

The northern population also experienced a change following the economic shift. As mentioned previously, Saint Louis, Chicago, and Indianapolis flourished along with Cairo, Illinois due to transportation links and a general shift west in the population and economic centers of the country. Saint Louis and Chicago each recorded over 300,000 people in the 1870s census whereas they had just over 100,000 in 1860, and Indianapolis jumped to over 100,000 people from just 20,000 a decade before, replacing Cincinnati on the top ten most populous cities in the United States[4]. Meanwhile, the populations of the east coast cities began to shift as more immigrants from southern Europe came to the United States during the turmoil brought on by the Six Years' War and the Grand Unification War. The shift in population toward the Mississippi helped encourage westward expansion in the next few decades and fueled a number of new businesses and technological advancements.

[1] It needs a name. I was thinking Gadsden, or something more Spanish. Suggestions would be welcome.
[2] Cerdismo incorporates a mostly grid system with wide boulevards optimized for pedestrian and urban railway traffic and includes large green areas.
[3] Cerda published his Eixample or Enlargement in 1859 in OTL as well, which effectively planned Barcelona's growth for the next century. ITTL he gains more fame and work than he did in OTL.
[4] I'm planning on making a list of top ten US cities at each census.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Time for the next update! This is apparently much longer than the first episode, and I am seriously considering making this into a series.

By the way, the previous episode's title is Volcanic Corruption


The Undisclosed Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt, Episode 2: Young Victoria

President Theodore Roosevelt and the Secretary of the Navy walked along the docks at the Habana shipyard. A light breeze blew in from the bay creating a slight mist of salty sea spray. They strolled past several newly built vessels, their steel hulls gleaming in the early sunlight. At the end of the marina they stopped by the CSS Pensacola. Retired after the National War, the CSS Pensacola had been docked in Habana and served as a military museum dedicated to the war.

"Ah, what a beautiful day." Roosevelt said, cleaning his pince-nez with a handkerchief. "And such a historic vessel."

"Yes, Mister President. It was an excellent idea to convert this ship into a national memorial." the Secretary replied.

The two stood admiring the Pensacola bobbing up and down in the water for a few minutes until Roosevelt heard footsteps coming up behind him. Roosevelt turned around to see Secretary of the Interior Muir walking along the concrete toward them.

"Mister President, Secretary." Muir said calmly. The three politicians nodded their greetings. Muir pulled the President aside. "We have a situation," he said.

Roosevelt nodded and they turned back to the Navy Secretary. "Excuse me Secretary, but I must attend to some urgent business." Roosevelt doffed his campaign hat and walked with Muir back along the dock.

"Theodore," Muir said, "we have been getting reports that the British have located the Fountain of Youth."

"The Fountain of Youth? I always thought that was just a myth."

"Apparently not," Muir replied. They walked across the waterfront boulevard to the hotel where the dignitaries in Habana were staying. Sitting down in a table, they began discussing the Fountain.

"So, do we have any idea where the Fountain is?" Roosevelt asked.

"We only have the cryptic clue that the British found during an expedition in Jamaica." Muir pulled out and unrolled a luzograph[1] of a worn page from a notebook. "It is from Ponce de Leon's ship log. It reads 'The key to eternal youth is found, in the deepest depths of waters round, with Pascua west and Antilles east, the Wild Lion tames the beast'. We have determined that we are looking for the point on the Caribbean with the lowest elevation, but it seems obvious that it should be sea level."

Roosevelt pored over the luzograph, taking out some maps and stroking his moustache in thought. After a while, he brightened and looked up. "There," he pointed. "The Fountain is in Lake Enrqiuillo, on Saint Domingue. The Wild Lion is a translation of salva leon and refers to the city of Salvaleon de Higuey on the eastern side of the island."

"Remarkable!" Muir exclaimed. "How did you know that?"

Roosevelt adjusted the pince-nez on his nose. "I did a lot of research for A Century of the American Navy[2]. Now then, we should be going. We have a state visit to pay in Saint Domingue." The President picked up his machete and tucked it in the sheath on his belt.

"Er, Mister President? Must you carry your machete everywhere?" Roosevelt smiled and nodded before leading the way out of the room.


Roosevelt and the rest of the expedition cut through the jungle on Saint Domingue. In the afternoon, they finally broke through and arrived at a vast lake with three islands in the middle.

"There it is, Lake Enriquillo. The lowest point in all of the Caribbean, just like in the description." Roosevelt said in awe. The water was almost clear and the biggest of the three islands was teeming with lush forests. Looking to his right along the beach, Roosevelt scowled. The tents on the beach meant that the British had already arrived. A tall lanky man in a pith helmet was sitting at a table, alone. The President walked up to the man who looked up at him casually.

"Where is Victoria!" Roosevelt demanded. The man broke into a smile.

"Oh, Teddy." The man's voice was condescending. "You're so young and naive for a world leader. You can't just barge in on a British expedition and throw your weight around willy-nilly. That's why you'll never win. You lack the finesse requi-"

The man was cut off as Roosevelt picked him up and threw him into the sand. As the man looked up and began to scramble for his pith helmet, he froze on his elbows as his nose almost met with the end of Roosevelt's machete.

"I can do whatever I damn well please. Now tell me, where is your Queen!"

"She - the expedition went to the island," the man said pointing across the water. "There is a pyramid of the Mesoamerican style that was covered by the forest."

"Thank you," Teddy smiled and began walking away. The man struggled to his knees.

"Oh," Roosevelt said turning around, "and don't call me Teddy." Suddenly there was a glint of the sun off metal and the man found a coattail pierced by Roosevelt's machete. The President lightly tipped his campaign hat to the man, picked up his machete, and walked back to the waiting expedition.


The expedition began embarking on boats toward the largest island. Muir got in a boat and waited for Roosevelt to get in.

"Are you coming, Theodore?" Muir called.

"I will be there soon. You go ahead without me." Roosevelt replied as he doffed his hat, coat, and boots and deposited them in the boat.

"Um, Theodore, why are you-" Muir did not finish his sentence before Roosevelt jumped into the water and started swimming across the lake toward the island.

"Bet you I will make it to the island before you!" Roosevelt called back. Muir sighed as he began rowing his boat across the lake.


Roosevelt and Muir arrived at the island minutes after the rest of the expedition. Roosevelt walked up out of the water and grabbed his clothes and pince-nez out of Muir's boat. Putting on his clothes, spectacles, and hat, he strutted boldly into the brush with the expedition in tow. The expedition cut a path through the brush and arrived at a clearing ten minutes later. In the center of the clearing stood a tall stepped pyramid.

"You all wait here. I'm going in there to stop Victoria." Roosevelt turned and said to the expedition. Before Muir could respond, Roosevelt disappeared into the dark void of the pyramid entrance.

"Damnit! There he goes again thundering off alone." Muir looked stunned. "Does he not remember he is the president and needs to keep himself from getting killed? We need to go in there and protect him!"

"Calm down, Secretary," one of the members of the expedition put his hand on Muir's shoulder. "You and a few men can go in there after him in case he needs help. But I highly doubt that." The man scoffed and told three expedition members to go with Muir. They went into the pyramid after the President.


Roosevelt walked slowly down a downward sloping hallway with his torch providing the only light. After twnety more steps the hallway emptied out into a large room. The room was lined with pillars on the left and right sides and had smouldering torches along the walls. Roosevelt carefully moved toward the center of the room. As he reached the center and looked around, his foot sliiped. A stone on the floor gave way slightly under the weight of his foot and a circular passageway opened up on the far side of the room. Roosevelt walked toward the passageway, but stopped when he heard a rumbling. As the rumbling grew louder, Roosevelt dropped his torch and it went out.

In the tunnel behind Roosevelt, Muir and the men with him felt the rumble as well. Muir put his hand on the wall to steady himself. "What the devil is going on down there?" Muir wondered.

Roosevelt grabbed another torch and forged on into the circular passage. The passage was sloped slightly upward, and the rumbling grew louder as Roosevelt continued onward. As the President rounded a curve in the passage, he saw a large boulder rolling down the passage toward him.

"Oh, bully!" Roosevelt yelled as he ran back down the passageway with the boulder right behind him. As he reentered the large room, he dove to the side as the boulder rolled across the room and smashed into the opposite wall, blocking the doorway. Roosevelt stood up and looked at the smooth, round boulder now lodged in the wall. "Well, that is a peculiar trap. Why on earth would someone go through create something that elaborate that is only going to be used once?"

Roosevelt went back into the circular passage. Going further than he had before, he found the bodies of two men in scarlet tunics on the floor of the passageway. "Ha. Just like Victoria to waste a couple of redcoats on a venture like this," Roosevelt mused. He continued on a few more paces and found a smaller side passage leading downward and to the left. The President moved down the passage.


Meanwhile, Muir's group finally arrived at the entrance to the first room, only to find it blocked by the boulder. "Well, what do we do now?" on of the expedition members asked.

Muir thought. "Usually when we explore these sorts of temples, there are all kinds of hidden hallways and secret passages." He began feeling the stones on the wall with his hand. As his hand came across one particular stone, Muir could feel that it was a bit loose.

"There it is!" Muir pushed the stone in. The wall near the boulder slid back slightly and sideways revealing a descending staircase. Muir led the others as they walked down into the depths of the temple.


The President continued down the passageway, feeling the slick, damp walls. "I must be getting close", he thought. Sure enough, he was. As Roosevelt felt along the wall, he found a strangely circular shaped stone. He spoke to noone in particular, "So, what is it this time? Flames perhaps? Or one of those gradually descending ceilings?" Roosevelt's keen ears picked up a sharp click and whirring sounds. "Ah, the old volley of arrows coming out of the wall." Roosevelt ran down the passage, leaping and performing acrobatics in order to dodge the arrows as they flew into the walls behind him.

Rounding another bend he was blinded by a sharp light. Continuing onto the light, Roosevelt found that the passage opened up into a grand room. Gaining his focus, he saw dozens of redcoats guarding the area and in the center, the Fountain of Youth. It was a tall marvelous structure gleaming of white stone, possibly marble, and had pools and miniature waterfalls all along it splashing into one large pool in the middle of the floor. Standing beside the Fountain was her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Roosevelt lunged forward but was held back by two well-built guards as Victoria stepped into the Fountain and appeared to descend a set of stairs under the water. Moments after completely submerging herself, Victoria reemerged from the depths. Roosevelt's eyes widened. "My God, your Majesty. You look as youthful and radiant as you did on the day of your Coronation!"

Roosevelt pushed the guards away and ran toward the now younger Queen. Victoria was shocked at her new appearance and at Roosevelt's advance. However, that did not mean she did not like either of them. "Well, Mister President, it looks like you failed to stop me." Roosevelt ceased moving toward her. He frowned. "But maybe," Victoria continued, "there is a was for you to salvage something fruitful from your efforts." She smiled and winked at him. "After all, you did come all the way out to the Caribbean just to find me."

"When you put it that way, your Majesty," Roosevelt doffed his hat and winked back.

"Guards! Leave the room at once!" Victoria turned to her redcoats. "The President and I are going to conduct a little, ah, international diplomacy." She turned back to Roosevelt as he fiddled with her corset.


Muir's men continued down the staircase. The staircase ended and led to a short hallway before which was a small door. Two redcoats were standing on either side of it. "Shhh! Stay in the shadows," Muir whispered to the other men in the expedition. "You. Hand me your pistol." The man he was addressing gave him the pistol. Muir stepped out of the shadow.

"Halt! Who go-" one of the redcoats began to yell, but before he could finish Muir shot the redcoat and his accomplice straight in the heart. Muir handed the pistol back. "Heh, going on safari with the president has really helped my aim." They moved closer to the door.

"Stand back, let me survey the situation first," Muir advised them as they approached the door. Muir slowly creaked the door open and peered into the room. His eyes adjusting to the brightness of the open chamber, Muir stared as his jaw dropped. At the side of the Fountain, Roosevelt had the Young Victoria in a heartfelt embrace.

Roosevelt noticed Muir out of the corner of his eye and almost let go of the Queen. "Ahem," he flustered as he helped Victoria onto her feet.

"Mister President..." Muir cocked his head and gave a suspicious glance toward the two.

"Um, nothing to see here, John." Roosevelt mumbled trying to make his voice sound as official as possible. Roosevelt began walking toward Muir while adjusting his hat. "As you can see we were unfortunately unable to reach the Fountain before the Queen could make use of it."

"The Fountain among other things," Muir mumbled under his breath.

Roosevelt clapped his hand on Muir's shoulder. "Well, John, let's go. We have finished our business here and I believe I have some bills that need signing back in Washington." Muir, still trying to shake the image of Roosevelt and the Queen out of his head, nodded and turned back toward the doorway. Roosevelt turned back toward Victoria. "Good day, your Majesty." Roosevelt winked again at the Queen and put his index finger to his lips. She blushed and finished donning her dress.


The expedition came out of the pyramid and got back on the boats to cross the lake. This time, Roosevelt chose to row with Muir instead of swim across.

"So, did you and the Queen-" Muir ventured.

Roosevelt nodded once sharply and continued rowing. "Nobody but you and I must know of this," the President looked the Secretary of the Interior in the eyes. His face was the essence of austerity.

"But what about the other men who were with me in the passage. Surely they saw something." Muir objected.

Roosevelt thought for a moment. "Hmmm." Suddenly he hit on an idea. "Arrange for each of them to acquire a nice villa in Cuba." Muir had no idea in the slightest about how this might be accomplished, but he nodded anyway as they came to the waiting airship. "Yes, mister President."

[1] Photograph
[2] This replaces Roosevelt's OTL The Naval War of 1812

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time! I should probably say that the end result for California is still fairly tentative, but that is the likely possibility I'm considering for its future.

Part Forty-Eight: California Dreaming

Immigration Policy: The Republic of California enjoyed a prosperous history during the late nineteenth century. Or at least, the Iberos living in the coastal provinces and San Isidro did. With the Gold Rush and the National War bringing in many immigrants from the United States, native Californios became ever more protective of their identity as descendants of Mexicans and Spaniards. By the 1870s, Espejo was established as an officially English district by the government in Monterey. The San Xavier Purchase which gave a portion of eastern Espejo and the encouragement of American immigrants to live in the district angered the Mormon population that had already been living in Espejo. Between 1878 and 1882, the Mormons launched an uprising against Monterey and threatening to proclaim an independent state. Fearing the Mormons in Espejo might join the United States, Californio President Alonso Rivera sent a large portion of the country's army into Espejo and after a grueling four-year campaign, destroyed the Mormon uprising. In the late 1880s, restriction of American and English immigration was relaxed as the Mormon Rebellion sent the country deeply into debt.

In the late nineteenth century, the Republic of California also experienced a large amount of immigration from eastern Asia. With the development of San Diego and Yerba Buena as the major port cities in the country, many migrants primarily from China, Korea, and the Philippines arrived in the country during the 1860s and 1870s. While most Filipinos were welcomed as fellow Iberos, the Californio government initially put restrictive laws on the movement of other Asian peoples. Zhenbao Island[1] in San Francisco Bay was turned into an immigration facility where new migrants were processed before entering the country. The island also had a special town only for Asian immigrants, while the rest of Yerba Buena was off limits to most Asians. Similar neighborhoods were created in other cities. These policies persisted until the mid-1870s, when some of the restrictions were lifted for those immigrants who were employed by railroad companies.


A Political Pendulum: The late nineteenth century was a period of expansion for California in all areas, including the military. Part of the reason for this is because it received a large amount of competing aid from both Great Britain and the United States. This was part of a larger overall economic war in the petty North American states in the late 1800s between the two countries. Britain aided several nations in their ambitions, such as assisting Rio Bravo in annexing Chihuahua and developing the port of Victoria in Rio Bravo.

California was caught between the two nations, and received aid from both countries. California enlisted military advisors from Great Britain in the 1870s when Alonso Rivera launched a war against the sparsely populated Sonora. As the Mexican region was still in relative chaos, the war was bloody and the Road to Hermosillo cost several thousand Californio lives. The monetary and human cost of Rivera's military campaigns in Sonora and Espejo cast him out of favor in the populace, and in 1884 he was ousted from the Presidency and Joaquin Murrieta[2] was elected president. In the 1880s and early 1890s, California swung away from Great Britain and toward the United States.

California's relationship with the United States during this period was primarily focused around the waters surrounding the country. In exchange for once again granting the United States unlimited access to San Francisco Bay, a policy which Rivera had discontinued, the United States assisted California with building up its fleet as well as providing loans for the construction of ships. During these years, the prosperity of California boomed and the country even participated in colonial ventures in the Pacific. In 1888 several members of a California small arms company laid claim to Clipperton Island, which had remained nominally unclaimed since its discovery. Four years later, California, in a move supported by the United States, sent an expedition to the Hawaiian islands and established a fort on Hilo Bay to protect the rights of Californio sugar planters who had come to the islands. By 1900, California had acquired the entirety of the island of Hawaii and several other islands in the archipelago[3].


Ups and Downs: California prospered immensely from the gold rush in the early 1860s. Capital and investors from all over the Americas and parts of Europe came flowing in to mine and profit from the extraction of gold and silver in the Sierra Nevada, which made many new business spring up and cities grow. In the 1870s, railroads began expanding in the country and several areas experienced a massive railroad boom. The first major railroad in California connected Monterey and Yerba Buena, with and extension running down the San Fernando Valley to San Deigo. After the conquest of Sonora and Rio Bravo's annexation of Chihuahua, Great Britain financed a railroad across the continent from Tampico and Ciudad Victoria through Chihuahua and Hermosillo where it connected to the existing Californian railroads at Yuma.

However, California's prosperity was short-lived. It's numerous military adventures required many loans from both Great Britain and the United States. In the 1890s the Californio economy slumped during the general global recession and by the turn of the century the Republic of California found that it could not pay its debts to either the United States or Great Britain. The fear of war from debt collection was mitigated somewhat as Great Britain offered California debt forgiveness in exchange for a military alliance. However, this would prove to be the country's undoing as it brought war with the United States during the Great War. Juan Francisco Sepulveda, the final president of California and a nationalist blowhard, enthusiastically joined the war on the side of Great Britain against the United States. Sepulveda claimed that the San Xavier Purchase was illegally obtained by the United States and sent an army to claim the area of Colorado west of the Continental Divide. The Californio army was easily pushed back and at the end of the war, Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the annexation of all of California in exchange for outstanding debts, including the Californio possessions in the Hawaiian islands.

[1] Yerba Buena Island, translated into English roughly means Treasure Island IIRC.
[2] The only real figure in this section, and in OTL a bandit who became the basis for Zorro.
[3] The Hawaiian archipelago is being split between California, Japan, and possibly Britain. I'm not sure whether a war between California and Japan will be involved, but it might be.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Here's the next update. Sorry it jumps around a lot, there was just so much to cover and I couldn't figure out a very efficient way to organize it. Lots of footnotes though, although I've left some things for you to figure out on your own.


Science and Technology #1: The 1860s: A Decade at War

The National War in the United States and the two European wars that engulfed much of that continent in the 1860s brought about a relative revolution in military doctrine and saw the popularization of several new forms of technology. The three conflicts that gave the 1860s its nickname of the "Warring Sixties" exhibited many changes in military thinking that had taken place since the First Napoleonic Wars half a century earlier. In North America, the National War introduced new forms of communication and weaponry to military practice. The Spencer-Colt repeating rifle was one of the first lever-action repeating rifles and was the first of its kind to be adopted by any country's military. The Union Army began using the Spencer-Colt in 1863 during the beginning of the National War, and in 1865 also licensed production of the more updated Houston rifle[1]. The Union also used more innovations in the war.

The National War was the first to be luzographed. Famous images taken with early luceptors from the war include President Andrew Johnson at camp during his charge and the final surrender of the Confederacy in 1866[2]. Along with new inventions in recording images, transmitting communications also advanced. Telegraph systems developed by Samuel Morse and others were strung all around the country in the 1850s and proved vital for transmitting messages during the progress of the National War. Further advances were also made in medicine during the National War. New York Senator and vice presidential candidate Walt Whitman pushed in Congress for the foundation of permanent military hospitals in major conflict areas and the establishment of a permanent doctoral staff to serve in the field. Along with these advances, the National War saw the first use of anaesthetic treatment of wounded soldiers in a battlefield operation.

In Europe, the Grand Unification War and the Second Napoleonic War ravaged the continent in the years after the conclusion of the National War in the United States. The wars in Europe also brought advances in military fields, although these were more in the theoretical and logistical areas of warfare. After the First Napoleonic Wars, Austrian veteran Joseph Radetzky von Radetz retired from leading battles and began penning treatises on the conduct of war. Looking at the wars of Napoleon in hindsight, Radetzky wrote a series of works and formed the basis on the new style of warfare that bears his name. Radetzkian war theory espoused the more mobile warfare that was pioneered in the First Napoleonic Wars with the strength of cavalry and lighter field artillery. Radetzky combined these tactical innovations with strategic views of war and the interconnection of war with politics and economics[3]. Recently, some historians have discovered that Radetzky may have based his broader theories on an unpublished manuscript by a contemporary Prussian officer[4]. This discovery shows that the developments of warfare in the first half of the nineteenth century and the wars of the 1860s would change the way strategists planned for conflict in the next century.

The 1860s did not just produce advances in military oriented technology. The decade was also host to a number of new inventions and developments in more constructive and scientific disciplines. Austrian physicist Johann Mendel first produced a color luzograph using various translucent colored filters in 1863. However, Italy at this time was producing more technological breakthroughs than Vienna. After first synthesizing and stabilizing the compound pyroglycerin[5] in the late 1840s, Ascanio Sobrero first applied its explosive properties twenty years later. Pyroglycerin was used to construct the first tunnel under the Alps, enabling a connection from France to Italy by rail in 1868. Meanwhile in Florence, Garibaldi supported a man named Antonio Meucci whom he had become acquainted to in Havana in the 1840s[6]. With the Italian government's assistance, Meucci developed the world's first telephone in 1866 and by the end of the Grand Unification War, the private telephone was widespread in Europe and would soon spread to North America, prompting further innovations.

[1] The Spencer-Colt is the OTL Spencer repeating rifle; the Houston is the OTL Henry rifle.
[2] Luzography/luzograph = photography/photograph; luceptor = camera, meaning 'light capturing device'.
[3] Basically Clausewitzian theory with a bit more emphasis on maneuver warfare.
[4] Carl von Clausewitz's wife did not publish his unfinished manuscript ITTL.
[5] Nitroglycerin
[6] In OTL Meucci moved to Staten Island in 1850 where Garibaldi stayed in his apartment. I have them meeting in Havana and Garibaldi as head of a revolutionary Italy helps Meucci commercially. Meucci was probably the inventor of the first telephone, but he was unable to pay the $10 for a patent before Alexander Graham Bell did in 1876 in OTL.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time!


Culture #1: The Advent of Realism and the Warring Sixties

The Warring Sixties: The 'Warring Sixties', as the decade of the 1860s has become known, was a time of a great shift in the culture of the United States. The National War brought an end to the optimistic views of Romanticism that had dominated the early nineteenth century and gave rise to the darker and more empirical artistic style of Realism. The bright colors and Classical themes that had pervaded Romanticist art and literature gave way to more utilitarian and commonplace subjects and a truer depiction of what life was like. The development of luzography also allowed for a more realistic vision of everyday life as luzographs were not affected by the artist's interpretation. The Warring Sixties had produced numerous luzographs and paintings of the ongoing wars at the time in both North America and Europe. One of the most famous military paintings during the war is Edgar Degas' "Aerial Shelling of Barcelona", depicting the French bombing of Barcelona in 1868. This was one of the first uses of aerial craft in a direct combat role and shows soldiers dropping small explosive shells from hot air balloons.

Along with painting, Realism became prominent in literature as well. The wars created many potential topics for stories of war and its aftermath, and many authors and playwrights used the realist style to depict every perspective of conflict situations. In the United States, hundred of novels were published during the decade about the National War and the events surrounding it. Two prime examples of realist war literature in the United States during the 1860s are the play "Death of a President" by actor and playwright John Wilkes Booth, and the memoirs of Samuel Clemens before he took over Cornelius Vanderbilt's steamship operations as the industrialist focused on building a railroad empire. Death of a President is a play concerning the events surrounding the death of President Houston and the leadup to the National War. Samuel Clemens' memoirs told stories of his time as the captain of the steamship Proud Mary which ran between Memphis and New Orleans during the years following the National War. Clemens' memoirs gave a jarring look at the state of the southern states after the National War as well as the recovery experienced by the states and cities along the Lower Mississippi River.

The growing popularity and publishing of literary works in the United States also led to further standardization of the English language in the country. While several languages were becoming prominent in different regions, English was pervasive throughout the United States. As more people went to school and became literate in the Untied States, it was felt that at least one language needed to be universal across the country in order to better integrate the nation. In 1886, Columbia University in New York began publication of the Columbiad dictionary, which listed and categorized every single word in use in the English language. It soon gained popularity among all regions of the country and by the twentieth century had surpassed the Webster publication as the standard for all words in use in the United States. Reasons for this include that the Columbiad was much more extensive and inclusive on loanwords from other languages used in different parts of the United States and so was more useful to a traveler or a businessman. By the mid-twentieth century, the Columbiad had become the authoritative dictionary on the English language in the United States, rivaling that of the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's dictionary in Great Britain.

Along with the finer arts, realism also lent its name to a movement in the newly developed field of study of international relations. While the interactions and trends of various forces within and between countries had been studied before the nineteenth century by figures such as Machiavelli, the study of international relations was always in the realm of politicians and leaders, deciding on where to guide their state. In the nineteenth century, this field entered the realm of academics as universities in the major political centers of the great powers sought statesmen and diplomats after the Warring Sixties.

Realism as a school of international relations had its influences in philosophers and political theorists such as Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes, but it was German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and English economist and political theorist John Stuart Mill who pioneered the realist theory of international relations. From their examinations of the Napoleonic Wars, the 1860s European wars, and for Mill the diplomatic maneuvering of the great powers in the 1870s and 1880s, Schopenhauer and Mill theorized the basic tenets of international realism. The first was that the state is the main actor in international politics. Their definition of 'state' comes from the Westphalian concept that each state is entitled to its own sovereignty and will strive to protect that sovereignty. The second tenet is derived from this desire to protect itself; in an anarchic international system, the state will always act in its self-interest and in a way that it perceives will best protect its sovereignty. The third tenet of international realism is that the system of state interactions is inherently anarchic, and that there is no central authority that governs the actions of states. Following from this, international realists surmise, war and conflict are constants and will always be present in politics and war will always lead to more war as states seek to build upon or regain assets from previous conflicts. This theory held true for the end of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth, when even greater communications advances and the founding of the Weltkongress started to breakdown the idea of a state-oriented system only operating on self-interest.

 

[wilcoxchar]

It's been about a week, so time for another update.


Part Forty-Nine: The Road to Recovery

Lingering Rebels:
Despite the end of the war and the surrender of most of the Confederate governments and armies, some pockets of resistance remained in the former Confederacy for years after the National War was over. The most ardent resistance rose up in the state of Chickasaw as previously mentioned. However, there were several other areas in the southern United States which faced organized partisans and guerrillas in the years following the National War. Most of the guerrilla activity in the latter half of the 1860s consisted of bushwhackers and was centered in the more rural parts of the former Confederacy.

The area of the southern Appalachians northeast of Birmingham, Alabama faced a number of attacks and violent occurrences after the National War after a small remnant of the Confederate army refused to surrender and managed to hole up in the hills. After the spirited defense by "Last Chance" Jackson in Montgomery, several soldiers in the Army of Mississippi refused to surrender to the Union and fled northward across Alabama. Settling in the hills near Birmingham, this rebel group went on a crime spree in Birmingham and the surrounding area for three years. Periodic attacks continued until 1870 when the last of the rebels led by former Confederate Brigadier General Herbert Fletcher[1] was found and rounded up by the Alabama military district.

Further remnants of the rebellion fled to the loosely settled marshes and forests of southern Florida. These bushwhacker forces were smaller and did not last as long in the dense tropical region of the Ever Glades[2]. Some small towns were founded on the coasts, but the majority of the former Confederates were killed fighting with the Seminole people who still inhabited southern Florida at the time. While the Confederate rebels managed to annoy the forts on the Florida Keys and pull off a minor shooting spree in Tampa, they mostly petered out by the middle of 1867.

While some of the most intense fighting between the army and guerrillas was in northeastern Alabama, the most notorious and longest lasting outlaws that emerged from Confederate rebels in the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri. While the actual rebel force broke up in 1869, brothers Frank and Jesse James formed a gang and for the next eight years, terrorized the Great Plains and even sometimes crossed over into eastern California when pulling off their crimes. The James gang robbed trains and banks and kidnapped people all along the Rockies and even hired themselves out at mercenaries to the Mormons in Espejo during their war with California. Eventually after Frank James was killed in a shootout in Coffeyville, Pembina in 1885, his younger brother Jesse decided to end the gang and fled northward across the border where he was given protection by Great Britain. A few of the other members traveled with Jesse, but the others were arrested in the following months.


Election of 1868:
In the first election after the National War, the top issue was getting the southern states integrated into the Union once again. The Republicans kept Fremont and Wilmot as their candidates in the election and ran on a platform of both admitting the southern states as soon as possible while still promoting radical policies including giving constitutional rights to all blacks. The Democratic Party struggled to find a suitable candidate as Andrew Johnson declined to run for the presidency. The Democrats seemed more sympathetic to the southern states and wanted to readmit the states even if it meant sacrificing some of the freedoms that would be granted to the freed slaves. After a bitter convention in Saint Louis, the Democrats chose John Henninger Reagan of Houston[3] for president and Maryland governor William Pinkney Whyte for vice president.

In foreign policy, the wars in Europe was also a looming issue as the wars had been raging for two years. Like Russia and the Ottoman Empire, both parties in the United States advocated staying neutral in both conflicts as the Union clearly needed time to recover its economic and military situation before embarking on any foreign exploits. However, this did not stop the two parties from presenting different platforms. Reagan and the Democrats desired absolutely no part of the wars, while the Republicans wanted to provide some assistance to the French, primarily out of hatred for the British. This had a mixed reaction in the Ibero-dominated states in Cuba, Jackson, and Tejas as France was also at war with Spain. In the end, however, the Republicans won a large victory over the Democrats, continuing the Republican dominance of United States politics that would last the remainder of the century.

Fremont/Wilmot: 228
Reagan/Whyte: 48


[1] Another fictional person.
[2] The Everglades was two words for a lot of the 19th century as it was a corruption of the original 'River Glades'. ITTL it never gets condensed.
[3] A fine Texas Democrat who served as Postmaster General for the Confederacy. No relation to Ronald Reagan that I could find.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Got another update finished. Rounding out the decade in the US before we take a look abroad and at the European Wars.


Part Fifty: Land of Liberty

Look to the West:
After the National War, a second wave of western movement and settlement occurred in the United States as people tired of the slumping economy and the wartorn regions of the country looked toward the Rocky Mountains and the Oregon Trail for hope at a new start and a better life. However, this migration was different. First, most of the people who moved west most often settled in already existing towns instead of founding new ones. Because of this, town and territory populations in the Rockies and on the Pacific coast exploded, resulting in the Northwest Territories being divided further in the early 1870s. The population boom also brought new states with Champoeg becoming a state in 1871 and Colorado being admitted in 1876. The second difference from the first wave of migration, was that this time, the people moving west were followed by railroads.

There were three main railroads that wove their way across the United States in the late nineteenth century. The longest of these was the first ever transcontinental railway in the Americas. Begun by the Union Pacific Railroad in the east, the railroad started by connecting three branches of the railway to Decatur, Demoine. These branches met in Decatur from Minneapolis and Duluth in the north, Chicago and Waterloo in the center, and Saint Louis in the south. Following roughly the route that had been planned out by Robert E. Lee, the transcontinental railway took over four years to complete and eventually made its first connection with the Pacific Ocean at Astoria. However, the main Pacific terminus of the railway soon shifted to the more northerly city of Tacoma after the completion of the Olympic Canal in 1903[2].

The lesser two of these railways did not stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean, but instead stopped at the Rocky Mountains or along the border with California. The Missouri and South Platte Railway snaked west from Saint Louis along the Missouri and Platte rivers before reaching its western terminus at Ferroplano at the foothills of the Rockies. The more southerly Red River Western connected New Orleans and Galveston in the east with Santa Fe in the west. These railroads prompted a secondary boom in the southern Rockies during the 1880s as more deposits of precious metals were discovered in Colorado and New Mexico.


The Rule of Law:
The remainder of the 1860s also produced a number of developments in the way law was conducted in the country. In 1870, the Republican Congress and the states ratified the 13th amendment of the United States. This amendment achieved the goal that President Fremont had set out in the later years of the National War and officially banned slavery in all states in the United States. Several states which had joined the Confederacy or had not abolished slavery by the beginning of the National War had done so in the years following, but now it was ingrained in the nation's governing document. The first section of the amendment reads that "No person who is a citizen of these United States shall be subjected to any form of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.[1]" The following sections outline the United States government's ability to enforce the abolition of slavery.

Following the banning of slavery, several states in the former Confederacy tried to get around the amendment and cheat former slaves out of their freedom. One common method many plantation owners used during the 1870s was claiming that former slaves were not citizens of the United States and were thus eligible for slavery under the amendment. This rose to a national issue when a case was brought against the Supreme Court in 1873. The Lincoln court ruled that all former slaves are citizens of the United States as they were born in the country and are protected by the Constitution. Since then, this ruling has been expanded through interpretation to include all people born in the United States as citizens[3].

Elsewhere in the country, the territories had a rather different type of law. With the extent of the government involvement in the western territories being mostly limited to military outposts in many areas, the local and territorial governments became much more prominent in legal decisions. Local sheriffs like future Supreme Court justice Wyatt Earp attempted to maintain civility in the smaller towns while several gangs traveled around the western territories robbing and fighting with the local law enforcement as they went. Raids by native Americans were also troublesome, especially in the loosely settled Dakhota Territory. This status quo remained for the next few decades as the open range fostered cattle or bison drives similar to ones in the Pampas in Argentina and the Vaqueros in the Mexican countries. However, more western migration at the end of the century and parceling of the land in the territories caused the end of the frontier lifestyle[4].

[1] The part following the comma is copied from OTL's Thirteenth Amendment, the rest is my own.
[2] Is this too early for a canal across the Olympic Peninsula? I'm not sure.
[3] This was the sentiment of the Fourteenth Amendment in OTL, but here it's handled through a Supreme Court ruling.
[4] An update on the Wild West in TTL will be posted later, but for now here's a taste.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Just wrote up another update. Will do editing and footnotes tomorrow.


Part Fifty-One: The Start of the European Wars

In order to understand the causes of the 1860s European Wars, it is necessary to examine them simultaneously rather than looking at each one separately. The reasons the Second Napoleonic War and the Grand Unification War came about and how they ended are so intertwined with each other in the general European politics of the era that some historians choose to combine them into one single war.

The French Resurgence:
The Second Napoleonic War arose as a result of French resurgence under president Louis Napoleon and the continuing rivalry between France and the British Empire. In the early 19th century, the French people possessed a desire to retaliate against the United Kingdom for the victories in the First Napoleonic War. The rebuilding of France after the First Napoleonic Wars was shaky at the start, because of the instability in the country. The July Revolution that brought Louis Philippe to the throne in 1830 saw some improvement in the economy and industry, but it took until the Midcentury Revolutions and the rise of Louis Napoleon to see a true resurgence in France.

Under Louis Napoleon, political power in France was gradually concentrated in the president rather than the National Assembly and while the new Bonaparte did not declare himself emperor like his uncle, he eventually gained almost as much power. During the 1850s, the French economy was at a local peak and Louis Napoleon used the economic boom to rapidly build up the country's army and navy, investing in several ironclads, shipyards, and armaments factories. In the late 1850s, France unveiled its new navy in the conquest of the cities in the Bab el Mendeb and forcing Egypt to grant them some trade concessions[1].

In the early 1860s, Louis Napoleon's colonial ambitions made France turn against Belgium. In a series or letters and meetings with Prussian chancellor Bismarck, an agreement was formed where Prussia guaranteed neutrality in the event France invaded either the Netherlands or Belgium. In exchange, France would support future Prussian colonial acquisitions in Africa. In April of 1865, France declared war on Belgium, violating the Treaty of London in 1839. Aside from Prussia, the Netherlands and Austria declined to join in the war against France. Britain and Spain, however, did come to Belgium's aid and declared war on France three days later.


German and Italian Nationalism:
In central Europe, the first half of the nineteenth century fostered a unifying force in both the German states and the Italian Peninsula. After the Midcentury Revolutions swept through Europe, Giuseppe Garibaldi took advantage of the nationalist feeling in many of the smaller central Italian states. Through several successful wars on the peninsula, Garibaldi united all the Italian countries except for the Papal States under the republican government he had established in the Midcentury Revolutions. In Germany, the Zollverein and the meetings of the German Confederation created stronger ties between the countries that succeeded the Holy Roman Empire. Leading the German Confederation were two rival powers; Austria and Prussia.

Since the Renaissance, Austria had been the leading German state in all aspects. However, Prussia was a rising great power in the early nineteenth century and its efforts to unseat Austria as leader of the German Confederation showed the tensions between the two. Prussia's initial attempts to gain a hold over the other German states had been through reforms of the Confederation. In 1840, Prussia attempted to bring the Dutch province of Liege into the Confederation, as it had already included the Dutch provinces of Limburg and Luxemburg. Austria and the states supporting it denied the inception of Liege as it would increase the power of the northern German states which supported Prussia. In the 1840s, Prussia also made attempts to have the executive position alternate between Austria and Prussia or implement a bicameral system with each power holding sway over a house, but both of these measured failed to pass.

The Midcentury Revolutions brought a great change in the Prussian vision of how to gain power over the German states. During the upheaval in Germany, an assembly in the Free City of Frankfurt made up of leaders from all the free cities in the German Confederation and some of the more reform-minded states wrote up a constitutional document that would have created a true parliamentary system of government in Germany with a hereditary king as figurehead[2]. The Frankfurt Convention offered the kingship to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia but he refused as he did not want to give up any power over Prussia, even for a united Germany.

After the failure of the Frankfurt Convention, Prussia became more direct and forceful with its imperial machinations. A change in governance took place in the late 1850s when Friedrich Wilhelm IV was succeeded by his brother Wilhelm I who appointed Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister. Soon, Bismarck began looking for ways to sway the smaller German states to Prussia's side and weaken the influence of Austria. To this aim, Bismarck began building support within Germany by supporting a revanchist and expansionist element in Bavaria that had brought king Maximilian II to power in a coup in 1850. Outside Germany, Bismarck also gave aid to Garibaldi as a counterweight to Austria's power elsewhere and sought an agreement with Russia for the latter to not intervene in affairs of the German Confederation. In 1865 with France and Britain distracted by war and Russian neutrality guaranteed, Prussia attacked Austria using debate over the succession of the Danish possessions of Schleswig and Holstein as excuse. Bavaria and Italy became the main supporters of Bismarck and Prussia, while Austria and Denmark had several of the smaller southern German states on their side against the Prussian onslaught.

[1] I'll do an update on Egypt sometime, but briefly France is building the Suez Canal and getting various tariff breaks and preference for investors.
[2] Basically the Frankfurt Assembly

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time!

Part Fifty-Two: Mountains and Trenches

French Victories:
The Second Napoleonic War started with several French offensives against its neighbors. The initial French invasion of Belgium was very successful. Within weeks, border towns in Belgium were captured and by July, French armies were only fifteen miles from Brussels and had occupied much of the French-speaking regions of Belgium. However, the French marshal Cannobert was hesitant in attacking the Belgian capital, and began preparing for an assault and siege of the city. Meanwhile, the British sent a large force into Belgium that landed at Oostende and pushed south toward the French city of Lille. The threat to the country's main textile manufacturing center and the main rail link between Paris and Belgium caused France to cease plans for an attack on Brussels and pull the front in that area back to the main divide between the Flemish and French speaking regions in Belgium. France was able to stop the British force from capturing Lille, but they could not push back into western Belgium. As the front settled for the winter months, both sides began to create trenches all along the front, from Nieuwpoort to Roubaix[1] to Waterloo.

In the Spanish front, France performed much better than in Belgium during the first year of the war. With only a few major accessible passes along the line of the Pyrenees, the fighting was much more concentrated than in Belgium. Here, France had a clear edge over Spain as the tight engagements favored France's use of field artillery. The French also had a greater advantage over Spain due to Louis Napoleon's reinstitution of conscription in the French armed forces. France managed to capture several border towns including San Sebastian on the Basque coast and Baztan further inland within a week of the start of the war. In a large basin in the Pyrenees near the city of Puigcerda, the Spanish launched a cavalry assault on the French forces moving through the basin, but the use of the French artillery rendered the cavalry useless and the Spanish army had to retreat out of the Pyrenees. By the end of 1865, France had reached as far as Girona in the east and Pamplona in the west.

France also scored many surprising initial victories at sea as well as on land. The French Navy had been strengthened with ironclads and oceangoing steamer ships while the British had been lagging behind. Despite the British taking to industrialization in their economy, the ruling Parliament had neglected the navy after the First Napoleonic Wars out of complacence and only began improving it after the National War in the United States showed the effects a modern navy could have. While the British still held sway over the Channel, the French succeeded elsewhere. The French Navy landed a force on the Belaeric Isle of Minorca which soon secured the whole island. Victories for France in the Red Sea and the Ionian Islands displayed the superiority of a navy driven by metal and steam.

Battle of the Po Valley:
While the French were achieving great success in the beginning of the Second Napoleonic War, the Grand Unification War got off to a slow and sluggish start. The Prussian invasion of Denmark was halted by the wetlands and marshes that made up most of the Schleswig region. A combined army of Hanoverians and Danes defeated a Prussian attack at Eckemforde as the Prussians got stuck in the muddy terrain. While it was not much of a tactical victory for the Danes, it was a great national victory. The Dannevirke, used as a southern defensive position by Denmark since the age of the Vikings, had proven successful once again.

Prussia also had major difficulties crossing into Austria over the Sudeten Mountains. The traditional defensive position for Bohemia and then the Austrian Empire, the Habsburgs had set up a series of fortifications all along the mountain range. Prussian and Bavarian attempts to break through were thwarted by the Austrians in most places, but Prussia did manage to occupy Liberec and Ostrava before the winter set in. German general Steffen Osisek[2] led the attack through the Sudeten that captured Liberec in September of 1865. Bavarian attempts were less successful in the mountains and very little progress was made in the Alps or along the Sudeten range. The Austrians even launched an offensive into Bavaria following the Danube that took Passau and reached over fifty miles into the country before being defeated at Straubing.

By far, Italy had the most successful beginning campaign of any country in the Grand Unification War. Coming off of recent subjugation of the Two Sicilies, Garibaldi and the Italian army in Naples simply began moving up the coast into the Papal States. The Papal army had to retreat continuously in the face of the Italian cavalry but stopped the Italian advance in the pass at Ferentino. The Italians had more victories in the Po Valley as nationalist revolts in Milan and other cities aided Garibaldi's cause. While an army advanced on Milan from the west, Italian general Enrico Cialdini led an army up from Parma to capture Piacenza and then turned northeast. Cialdini pushed north and reached Lodi on the Adda River before being stopped by an Austrian army. The Second Battle of Lodi resulted in an Austrian victory that halted the Italian advance, but Milan had been captured and Italy had taken the Austrian lands west of the Adda.

[1] A town just north of Lille but still in France.
[2] Fictional general, the surname originates from Silesia.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time! I might post some closer up views of the fronts, but a general picture will have to wait until the next update on the Grand Unification War gets done.

Part Fifty-Three: The French Advances Stalls

Pommers in the Trenches[1]:
The Second Napoleonic War entered 1866 with both fronts largely stalled. The network of trenches that the French, British, and Belgians set up blocked any side from gaining ground very quickly. Assaults and gained ground were measured in yards as the rifles used in the war had become extremely accurate. The wide use of field artillery in the trenches also made any attacks slow. This was especially the case for the French as Charles Babbage's new analytical engine[2] allowed artillery positions and firing angles to be calculated to an increased degree of precision.

Along with an increased involvement of British strategists, The British commitment of soldiers in Belgium was intensified in 1866 as well. In the 1860s, Parliament was faced with the issue of the Great Famine in Ireland as almost all of the island's potato crop failed between 1864 and 1869. Many Irishmen moved across the Atlantic to British North America, but at the outset of the war, the British government offered young Irish men a place in the army as a way to alleviate the pressure of the famine[3]. Staunch nationalists in Ireland refused, but many were desperate and joined up, or sent their children off to enlist. By the summer of 1866, over 100,000 Irishmen had joined the British ranks either voluntarily or through conscription of the lower classes and were being shipped across the Channel.

This surge of men into the trenches allowed the Eighth Coalition forces, as the British and Belgians had taken to calling themselves, to gain at least some notable ground against the French. In the west of the front, the Eighth Coalition was able over most of 1866 to gradually push the French back into France up to the Aa River, where the front eventually stabilized. This included the capture of Dunkerque, where both sides lost over 20,000 men each in the battle for the city. While both sides had an approximately equal number of soldiers and field artillery during the battle, the support from the Royal Navy pushed the Coalition to capture the city. Further east, the front was moved miles south in some places, but the French were not budged from Waterloo and continued to threaten Brussels.


Raiding the Marches:
Throughout 1866, France continued a steady advance into Spain. However, the speed at which the French troops gained ground greatly slowed after they were out of the Pyrenees. The Spanish cavalry tactics were of greater effectiveness in the flatter plains and plateaus of Catalonia and Aragon, while the Spanish were able to set up defenses in the mountains of the Basque Country. Eventually the fighting in Catalonia fell back to the trench warfare already in place in Belgium.

French forces in the Basque Country moved west from Pamplona in June in a campaign to take the remaining cities in the region. The French army moved northwest from Pamplona through a valley and near the town of Iturmendi, the Spanish forced the French south over the Sierra de Urbasa onto a forested plateau. In the ensuing battle in the heat of summer, Spanish forces had to eventually retreat across the plateau, managed to stop the French from reaching Vitoria. The French forces went north along the mountains and by September reached the Bay of Biscay across the river from the town of Guernica. As the Spanish set up defensive fortifications in Guernica, French forces determined that they could not take the town for a while. That winter, the French commander of the troops in the Basque country came up with the idea of dropping grenades from the reconnaissance balloons manned by the French Aerostatic Corps. While the attack was not very effective, the bombing of Guernica marks the first use of aerial bombing in modern warfare.

In the other areas of Spain, the French tried to go on a fast attack with the objective of capturing the cities of Zaragoza and Barcelona as quickly as possible. The French offensive was largely slowed, however, by the slow progress of the supply trains over the Pyrenees and as a result, the attack in 1866 did not get very far into Spain. In Catalonia, the French were able to secure the coast up to Sant Feilu de Guixois but did not reach far out of Girona in the land movement. A French attack on the town of Vidreres failed when a small Spanish cavalry force cut the telegraph lines behind the French and robbed a supply train. After the retreat from Vidreres, a smaller system of trenches was constructed in the area and the fighting slowed to a crawl. The Corps du Midi in the center of Spain doubled back when a Spanish detachment used the principality to liberate occupied Puigcerda. While the local authorities in Andorra claimed no knowledge of the Spanish incursion, Louis-Napoleon declared war on Andorra and the country was annexed into France after kicking the Spanish detachment out of the principality.

On the Mediterranean, the French navy defeated the Spanish ships that were in the harbor in La Palma on Mallorca in March and captured Mallorca and Ibiza by August. The Caribbean theatre brought further defeats for the French outside of Europe, however, as the Royal Navy landed men on Guadeloupe. In the Red Sea, the French shelled Aden repeatedly, but the landing force from Mocha was turned back before it reached the port city. France did have a few lucky engagements in the Channel and the Irish Sea, but these small victories did not break the Royal Navy's dominance over the Channel.

[1] "Pommers" ITTL is the colloquial term for Irishmen, coming from 'pomme' meaning potato.
[2] This analytical engine is much less extensive than what Babbage envisioned. It mostly does trigonometry for calculating firing angles.
[3] But also a way to get rid of Irishmen.

 

[wilcoxchar]

Update time! It's a long 'un. Will proofread and add footnotes tomorrow.

Part Fifty-Four: A Swelling Tide

The Modern Papal Schism: As the Italian Army of Naples was stalled in Ferentino, it instead moved north into the heart of the Appenines as a way to get around the Papal force. After passing through Alatri and Fiuggi, the Army of Naples arrived at the town of Subiaco, the source of the Aniene River which flows into the Tiber and thus to Rome. The Army of Naples reached Subiaco in May of 1866. After a month of camping in the town, the Army of Naples began its trek down the course of the Aniene.

The Army of Naples began their slow descent down the Appenines toward Rome without the help of a rail supply line. The nearest Italian rail depot to their position was in L'Aquila, approximately 50 miles away. Following the Aniene, the Army of Naples took a staggering two weeks to get to the opening of the mountains at Tivoli with small groups of Papal soldiers and combatants loyal to the Catholic Church harassing the army the entire way down the river. Even worse for the Army of Naples, when the Italian army finally arrived at Tivoli, the Papal forces were waiting for them. The Battle of Tivoli was a struggle for the Army of Naples as the Papal forces held the beleaguered Italians back for two months until another Italian detachment arrived from the north. The Papal army eventually succumbed to the Italian forces and Rome fell in September of 1866.

During the months that the Papal army held of the Italians in the Battle of Tivoli, the College of Cardinals held a meeting about what to do if the Italians were to succeed in capturing Rome. The main point of contention was Garibaldi's insistence that he would not grant the Pope any temporal authority as Bishop of Rome. Through much debate in the College, it was decided that Pope Pius IX was to go into exile in an accepting Catholic country and wait until Garibaldi or a future Italian leader accepted maintaining the Pope's temporal authority. However, a large number of the cardinals including Pope Pius himself dissented and wanted to remain in Rome at the expense of any secular power the Pope had.

Thus began what would eventually be known as the Modern Papal Schism. As the Italians occpuied Rome, Pope Pius and the College of Cardinals fled to Spain in exile. After a few years, Garibaldi made concessions and let Pope Pius back into Rome if the Papacy agreed to give up its temporal authority, which the Pope and some of the cardinals did. However, the more conservative cardinals refused Garibaldi's demands and elected Archbishop of Toledo Cirilo de Alameda y Brea[1] as their own Pope Alexander IX.


Mountains Above: Throughout 1866, the Alps and Sudeten mountains remained a difficult battleground in the fight between Prussia and Austria over supremacy in the German Confederation. Prussia made many advances in the Sudeten in 1866, but all of them were rather minimal. The remainder of Saxony was occupied by Prussia and that army entered Austria-Hungary and reached as far Lubenec in July. The army was countered by the Austrians there, however, and was forced to retreat back to Karlovy Vary. Steffen Osisek led his Prussian force south from Liberec ten miles south to Turnov before turning southeast in order to catch any Austrian defensive fortifications on the Silesian border from behind. Osisek surrounded an Austrian fortress facing Waldenburg[2] and secured the lower hills there before moving back south to Hradec Karlove.

The Alps remained a much tougher obstacle to the Bavarian advance than the Sudeten Mountains had been to the Prussians. With only narrow passes into the Alps, the Austrians were able to put up a far more effective defense with a smaller number of soldiers than in the Sudeten or the Po Valley. In addition, the Bavarians had to spend much of the year repulsing the Austrian incursion up the Danube as well as completing the occupation of Wurttemberg to the west. Despite these drawbacks, Bavaria did manage a few significant border crossings in 1866. Maximilian II was able to occupy Salzburg after leading the army that captured the city himself, and triumphantly entered the city on August 9th, which is now celebrated in Salzburg as Reclamation Day. Bavaria also occupied the low-lying area surrounding Bergenz on the border with Switzerland.


Valleys Below: While the advances of Prussia and Bavaria in the mountains were going rather slowly, the progression of the fronts in the Po Valley and in northwestern Germany and Denmark were progressing quite well for the Unification powers. Prussia fended off a joint Hanoverian-Danish attack on Hamburg in May of 1866 and moved west and reached Brunsbuttel in late June splitting the two countries off from each other. A Prussian naval squadron took the island of Bornholm and landed an army at Store Heddinge after defeating the Danish navy in the Fakse Bay. The Prussians reached Copenhagen in August and with the help of the navy, took the city in a week. With Copenhagen captured, the remainder of Denmark fell quickly and the Danish government agreed to cede the portions of Denmark within the German Confederation.

The Kingdom of Hanover was equally quick to fall to Prussia. Osnabrück and Göttingen had already fallen the previous year, and after the Prussian army split the Danes off, Prussia could fully focus on Hanover in the north. Emsland was separated from the main portion of Hanover early in the summer and the city of Hanover itself was captured in late June. Prussia made further gains in July with the occupation of the city of Cuxhaven and Emsland, and in August the Prussians reached Bremen. After Bremen was captured, the Hanoverian government surrendered and the Kingdom of Hanover bowed out of the war allowing Prussia to focus all her attention on Austria.

South of the Alps, the Italians were advancing slower than the Germans but they were making steady progress. Starting in April, pro-Italian uprisings began scattered around cities in Lombardy and Venetia. The most significant of these were in Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, and Padua. While the uprisings in Brescia and Padua were put down by the Austrian military, Italian armies were able to support and advance up to Bergamo and Padua by late June and keep the cities in Italian hands. The remainder of the summer and fall was spent shoring up the defenses on both sides according to the new front line. While Austria was showing great resolve in the war thus far, its cracks began to appear. A Croatian nationalist group destroyed two Austrian naval vessels in an attack in Dubrovnik in November of 1866, a sign of the weakening control of Vienna over the country.

[1] A real life archbishop of Toledo and member of the College of Cardinals in OTL. Thank you Wikipedia for having a list of Spanish cardinals.
[2] Now the city of Wałbrzych in southwestern Poland.