"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever

[Napoleon53]

A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND IRON:
THE GREAT AMERICAN WAR BEGINS

Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins leads American troops into battle (the Sacred Banner of Manifest Destiny, the Flag of the Old Republic, was flown from the beginning of the war as the Battle Flag of the Union to remind the troops of what the Union was fighting for)

The Sinking of the O.K. Sultan, August 22, 1858​

The moment had finally arrived. After almost 60 years of living side-by-side in hatred, everything was coming to a head. The Great American War, which many had predicted for half a century, was likely inevitable, but interestingly, it was not Lincoln or Colfax's plots or schemes to antagonize Virginia that launched the war, but rather it was genuinely Georgian aggression that resulted in the outbreak of hostilities.

It was late in the evening on August 22, 1858, when the Old Kinderhook company trading steamship Sultan was chugging along the banks of the Mississippi, just some five miles outside of New Orleans. It was supposed to be on a mission to New Orleans to pick up a privately sold lot of tobacco from a Georgian tobacco company. The captain of the vessel was a Lewis City-born man named John Burr Hughes, and he was frustrated at having been stopped three times already on the way down the Mississippi to pick up a simple tobacco purchase. The ship was also carrying Union tourists, some 150 of them, who wished to see the Gulf of Mexico and the the site of the Battle of Boggy Swamp. These tourists were wealthy and were grumbling about the frequent stops and boardings by rude Georgian Navy sailors. Now, as Hughes was steering the Sultan out of New Orleans, a small squadron of Georgian ships closed in flashing flags to demand the Sultan drop anchor and prepare for inspection. Hughes had had enough. He grabbed a megaphone and headed to the top deck to speak his mind. What follows are based on eyewitness testimonies.

Hughes stood atop the top deck, a dapper gentleman in his blue captain's uniform and a grimace on his face. He was growing steadily tired of these obnoxious Georgian demands and searches and had just been cleared by the New Orleans port authorities not even a half hour before. This was the straw that would break the camel's back. He hollered at the pursuing Georgian sloops, "I am Captain John Burr Hughes of the Old Kinderhook Company trading ship Sultan, and this ship has been cleared by the Port Authority of New Orleans and it has been inspected five times since we raised anchor in Lewis City. This is an outrageous waste of both of our time and is infuriating to my passengers, who are simply tourists who wanted to see the Main and some sites. We now wish to continue on our way uninterrupted. Thank you, gentlemen of Georgia!"

The Georgian officers on the Athens, the chief sloop of the squadron, took to their own megaphones, yelling back, "You Yankees will immediately drop anchor and accept a search of your vessel for illegal goods and escaped slaves. A local farm has had ten slaves run off and there are suspicions you may be harboring these fugitives."

Captain Hughes couldn't believe they could be so rude and bold when he actually had nothing to hide. "I assure you, you pack of river-pirates, that there is nothing but 150 Union souls and three lots of tobacco aboard, and you can go ask your damnable Port Authority about this matter. Now, if it so pleases you, my lords, this free ship of the Union is in free waters and is going to steam its way back to Lewis City, in our beautiful state of Osage. You are quite welcome to follow us all the way there and take this matter up with the Union Navy!"

The tourists now were all coming out on the observation decks, joining Hughes in his outrage about this illegal search. Chanting, "Down with Georgian tyranny!" the Yankee aristocrats made their voices heard.

Growing more and more impatient by the second, the Georgians again demanded, "This is your final warning! Drop anchor and prepare to be searched for contraband! Again, this is your final warning!"

Hughes was aghast and in shock, "What are you talking about? You mean to fire on a civilian transport vessel in open water? I will not stand for this insult! This ship is steaming on to Lewis City, and you can all burn in hell!"

At that, the first gun went off, ordered to be a warning shot in the water, but the 6 pound explosive hit the underside of the Sultan, smashing through the main steam engine in a complete fluke and quickly detonating in the engine bay, sending the ship listing off to the left as dozens of people and bits and pieces of steamship went flying into the green water of the Mississippi.

"My God, what have we done."
- William Gray, Captain of the Athens
​

Confused and startled, the sailors on the other sloops followed the lead of the Athens and opened fire on the Sultan, destroying the rear end and rudder and sending all the passengers screaming to the front. The ship's dried tobacco shipment began to burn bright as a Remembrance Day bonfire, as the screams of innocent passengers and cries of children came forth over the sound of the guns. Before the Georgian officers could get the firing to cease, it was too late. The Sultan was grounded and taking on water fast, heavily tilting to the right as the left side of the hull smashed into the rocks. Men, women, and children vanished beneath the water as Captain Hughes, injured from shrapnel in his left arm, tried to lead everyone through the water and onto the safety of the bank. He saved some 30 people before collapsing and bleeding out on the ground. Alligators also came in for the kill, menacing the civilians desperately trying to keep their heads above the water. Around 100 people would die before the day was over, and the Sultan was completely destroyed and burned up.

When news of the sinking reached Savannah by telegraph, Prime Minister George Bonaparte Towns couldn't believe the atrocity his ships had just committed. He immediately had the the officers in charge of the sinking stripped of rank and dishonorably discharged, but it was too little too late and he knew it. Speaking before the Georgian Parliament, he brought the news to its attention.

"Yesterday, at approximately 7:30 in the evening, the Yankee Old Kinderhook trading ship Sultan was destroyed by a rogue squadron of our sloops policing the Mississippi. Over 100 lives were lost, and the officers responsible have been punished severely, but I fear this is the breaking point of our relations with the Union. I fear, deep in my bones, that we are about to enter a period of bloodshed and violence unseen in modern times since 1812. I do not ask for forgiveness for the loss of life and the sinking of the Sultan, but I do ask the Union and President Lincoln exercise caution in this dangerous period, as Georgia will fight back if a retaliatory action is taken. I ask President Lincoln to meet with me in New Orleans two months from now to discuss a fitting and proper reparation to the sinking of the Sultan, and I extend my most heartfelt apologies to the families of those lost innocents. The surviving crew and passengers have been rescued and are currently being transported up river to Lewis City. I ask for everyone to pray over this grave matter. I also ask everyone able man to enlist in the Georgian Army in case this situation spirals out of control. Thank you, and may God bless Georgia and the Deep South forever."

-Georgian Prime Minister George Bonaparte Towns
​

Lincoln wasn't about to sit down to a conference between himself and Towns. The people of the Union were shook to their very core by the attack and demanded action. Not in decades had there been such an outcry for war. This was what Lincoln had waited for. He went before the National Assembly in Philadelphia and gave his response to Towns two days later.

"The people of this glorious Republican Union have been insulted by Southron aggressors for the last time. We always knew that, deep down, the slave-whipping scoundrels in Savannah and Richmond and Baltimore were bad folk, but we didn't realize they would resort to privateering and wholesale massacres on open and free waters of our beloved fellow citizens. This cannot and will not stand, not while I breathe or while any other God-fearing red-blooded American patriot breathes. Now and again, the tree of our liberty must be watered with the blood of the Union's enemies, a libation to the God of War. I say to the Republic of Georgia, here we stand! Strong and proud, our loins girded for battle and revenge. Though war may be an unfortunate reality in this life, we fight for a brighter and more glorious future. We will not stand idly by as Northern blood flows through the Mississippi. As the bloated corpses of innocent passengers float down that majestic waterway. A waterway guaranteed by the Louisiana Accords to be free and open to all nations! The attack on the O.K. Sultan was an attack on the very concept of this nation and to all it stands for. These dogs in the swamps pretend to be chivalrous and operate under their own code of respect, but they are actually fiends who delight in the murder of innocent men, women, and children. I do have one bright moment from this atrocity to share with you, a shining example of American chivalry. Captain John Burr Hughes, a 45 year-old native Lewis City, is now America's favorite son. He gave his life rescuing countless shipmates and passengers as the Sultan sank beneath the murky waters. Mortally wounded and bleeding profusely, he saved the lives of everyone he could. He is a true Patriot-Saint, and we should all remember his family in our prayers. And our soldiers will remember the pain and anguish we all feel as we go marching through Georgia. As of now, Maryland and Virginia are quiet on this disaster, but we feel little doubt Potentate Early will come to the support of Georgia and we shall have a great war upon our hands. The Republican Union and Georgia are now at war. I know in my heart of hearts that the Good Lord is with us, and that we shall win this trial of blood and iron. All hail the Republican Union! All hail the fallen Patriot-Saints! All hail our Holy Vengeance!"

- President Abraham Aaron Lincoln​

The outpouring of support for war was mindblowing. Tens of thousands of eager young Yankees flocked to the colors. Wives and sweethearts wept as the "boys in blue" took off to fight the Southron dogs. Every city and town in the Union felt an immediate impact from the war as half the workforce took up arms overnight. This began to immediately run the Inferior workforce ragged to produce enough supplies and gear for all of the new soldiers.

New enlistees drill near Philadelphia, September, 1858​

One thing was certain, though, and it was that Army Group I and its six legions, Lincoln's Hammer, were already on the march toward Virginia and Maryland. Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins was to punch through as rapidly as possible into Virginian soil to take Jubal Early off-guard before an actual declaration of war would be announced. The Chesapeake Republic of Maryland was considered a less priority, as Baltimore was largely the only large city in the nation. Jenkins also did not want to lay siege to Baltimore as that would consume to much time and too many men, so he had riders dispatched to demand a vow of neutrality or expect a certain slaughter within Baltimore. The Union Navy steamed into the port of Baltimore and created a blockade. The Maryland government mustered its forces up and prepared them for war, but ended up going into defensive positions and agreeing to the Union's demands. This severely hampered Virginia-Maryland relations. Francis Thomas, President of Maryland and part of the Christian Democrat Party, was terrified that Maryland would be erased from the map, and so became known as "Lincoln's Lapdog." This vow of neutrality did not stop Maryland volunteers from harassing the incoming Union columns and then fleeing south to enlist in the Virginia armed forces.

Out west, the momentum was even more swift as Navy Group III pushed hard and fast down the Mississippi, eviscerating the first packs of Georgian ships they found there. Army Group II, under Field Marshal Percy Monroe, marched south in a multi-pronged assault on Kentucky, Boone, and Mississippi. Their first objective was to secure Louisville, Kentucky and Fort Davis, Mississippi. Legions VII and VIII, under Legate Generals William Sherman and Abner Doubleday immediately took Louisville in the opening days of the war, absolutely destroying the Virginian Army there. Sherman was a vicious commander, who wanted to keep pressing on, deeper into Kentucky, whilst Doubleday, grandson of George Washington's messenger and hardline Second Son, wanted to follow invasion plans and remain in Louisville to occupy the city and firmly entrench it beneath America's jackboot. Sherman would reveal his mastery of ad-hoc tactics by taking Legion VIII with him anyway and laying quickly laying siege to Kentucky's capital of Lexington at the heart of the state. It was only less than two months after the opening of hostilities, however, and his troops were already becoming exhausted. The Siege of Lexington would last two more months until the Chersonesus Volunteer Legion, along with several brigades of AFC Volunteers, would come down from the north and begin to reinforce Sherman's position.

Meanwhile, back in Virginia, a small force of Union troops under Henry Ezekiel Walker were to contain Virginian troops in the Appalachian hills of Westsylvania while Field Marshal Jenkins pressed through neutral Maryland and into the top crest of Columbiana. There, the Union would face the first true "European style" battle of the war. The Battle of Front Royal on September 27 was actually a surprising setback for the Union and it halted Jenkins advance for a while. Eventually, however, the Virginian forces were ordered to withdraw to Manassas, which was deemed more strategically important. As Jenkins and his 100,000 men pressed forward, Potentate Early was know determined to repeat the initial success of Front Royal. Instead, however, the battle, taking place on the first entire week of October, was a bloody atrocity on both sides. Over 15,000 Union soldiers were killed and over 12,000 Virginians and Maryland volunteers also were lost. Jenkins was enraged at the slaughter and kept trying to press forward, only to be beaten back by Virginian general Robert E. Lee, son of a Revolutionary War legend.

The Battle of Manassas​

On the morning of October 7, Jenkins had no choice but to launch an all-out assault or be forced to withdraw back to Front Royal and likely wait out the winter there. Over 50,000 men pushed forward following a massive artillery barrage by both sides and assaulted the Virginian troops. After two hours of intense bayonet battles and hand-to-hand combat, the Virginians were forced to retreat. A grueling march to Fredericksburg further crushed the Virginian morale and the Union was now effectively in control of the entirety of northern Columbiana. Westsylvania was still solidly in Virginian hands, but the other section of Army Group I under Legate General Winston Schofield Hancock did manage to take control of the panhandle, held the line and kept the Virginian forces there under Thomas Jackson bottled up.

The ordinary people of these areas were effected the most. Doubleday commenced massive waves of roundups of Irish and Catholic citizens and imprisoned them in the "Doubleday Hotel," a bleak and antiquated local fortress he had taken over as his headquarters. Sherman was busy bringing untold amounts of devastation in his trail to Lexington and was unhesitating in his actions that were causing mass starvation to bring the Kentucky capital to its knees. All along the Mississippi, farmers and fishermen fled in terror as the war swept north. In Maryland, entire towns were deserted as citizens fled for Baltimore and away from the Union Army. In northern Columbiana, rape and looting was widespread as Army Group I settled in for the winter. Interestingly, the slaves in Columbiana immediately greeted the Yankees as saviors and formed "Negro Volunteer Regiments." Many of these slaves were secretly believers in American Fundamentalism and saw the invasion as the fulfilling of prophecy.

Things were about to get interesting in the spring of 1859, when both Texas and the Confederation of the Carolinas would enter the Great American War....

Field Marshal Jenkins rides through the ranks during the final push at the Battle of Manassas (October 1 - 7, 1858)

The 4th Massachusetts Regiment of Foot advances against Virginian forces in Westsylvania during the Battle of New Cumberland (October 1, 1858)

Jubal Early, Potentate of the Republic of Virginia

Georgian troops pose for a photograph before shipping out

Legate General Winston Schofield Hancock poses for a photo with his officers sometime in the fall of 1858

Legate General William Sherman

General Robert E. Lee of Virginia

Inside the POW and Inferior prison known as the "Doubleday Hotel"​

Marylander troops in a fort outside "neutral" Baltimore​

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 34
FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT

Nordreicher Brigades fought for the Union to gain valuable combat experience ​

The Great American War was in full swing in the spring of 1859. Men and boys from all over the continent were rallying to fight for their nations. But it was not only the citizens of North America who were interested in this epic conflict. Rather, all the major powers had some degree of involvement with the war, and many thousands of foreigners came to American soil to fight in volunteer brigades. They had many different reasons and spoke many different languages, but they all answered the call to arms.

One of the largest groups of foreigners who saw direct involvement in the conflict were the thousands of Irishmen who sailed across the seas during the Great Harvest Blight of 1855 to 1865. This Blight, a combination of brutal winters, early frosts, and a massive explosion of insect populations, decimated the crops of Europe, but it was Ireland who saw the worst of it, losing an estimated 800,000 citizens to starvation and disease brought on by the Blight. Despite an attempt by Caesar to deal with the massive food shortages, the conquest of the Middle East had his hands tied. Egypt, however, did come to the rescue a bit, providing excellent crops to help stopper the problem.

At any rate, huge ships loaded with eager and hungry souls landed in Georgia, Virginia, and Texas to fight the anti-Catholic Yankee armies. Many saw it as a holy war and the Republican Union as antichrists, a view which the Yankees ironically held about them in turn. One of the most famous Irish commanders of the war was Thomas Cleburne, a mercenary of wide renown who had seen action in the French Foreign Legion during the Conquest of Egypt. With a small personal fortune, he gathered some of his old chums in starving Ireland and left to win blood and glory in the Great American War. He formed the 1st Florida Irish Brigade in the Republic of Georgia. It would go on to become one of the most infamous units of the entire war. During the slave revolts that swept the south in the summer of 1859, it was the 1st Florida that was called up to crush the revolt behind the lines. Utterly ruthless, Cleburne became known as "General Bloodbeard" due to his red hair and his penchant for the wholesale massacre of rebelling slaves. When his men would finally fight the true enemy firsthand, during the South Carolina Campaign of the summer of 1859, they were known for their almost barbaric ferocity in combat, becoming known as "Bloodbeard's Barbarians." Flying a green flag with an Irish Harp emblazoned on it, the mere rumor of the 1st Florida being in the area was enough to unsettle the bravest Carolinian.

General Cleburne leads the 1st Florida Irish Brigade into battle against rebelling slaves in Peachtree, Georgia​

Cleburne and the 1st Florida were hardly the only Irish units of the war, however, with several dozen more brigades in on the action. Patrick O'Rourke, a wealthy minor Irish noble seeking fame and a respite from the horrors of the Blight and the failure of his crops, mustered up the Columbiana Irish Miltia, which saw action at almost all the most brutal battles of the East Coast. They had lost 60 percent of their original members just by the spring of 1859, but also were responsible for holding the line against Lincoln's Hammer and were mowed down like grass at Port Royal and Manassas. Heroes to Virginians everywhere, these Catholic warriors could expect little mercy from the anti-Papal American fascists, with many simply being executed to save room in the prison camps.

The Columbiana Irish Militia taking heavy fire from Union troops during the Battle of Manassas

Oh, not now for songs of a nation’s wrongs,
not the groans of starving labor;
Let the rifle ring and the bullet sing
to the clash of the flashing sabre!
There are Irish ranks on the tented banks
of Columbiana’s guarded ocean;
And an iron clank from flank to flank
tells of armed men in motion.


And frank souls there clear true and bare
To all, as the steel beside them,
Can love or hate withe the strength of Fate,
Till the grave of the valiant hide them.
Each seems to be mailed Ard Righ,
whose sword’s avenging glory
Must light the fight and smite for Right,
Like Brian’s in olden story!


With pale affright and panic flight
Shall dastard Yankees base and hollow,
Hear a Celtic race, from their battle place,
Charge to the shout of “Faugh-a-ballaugh!”
By the sould above, by the land we love
Her tears bleeding patience
The sledge is wrought that shall smash to naught
The brazen liar of nations.


The Irish green shall again be seen
as our Irish fathers bore it,
A burning wind from the South behind,
and the Yankee rout before it!
O'Rourke's red hand shall purge the land-
Rain a fire on men and cattle,
Till the Lincoln snakes in their own cold lakes
Plunge from the blaze of battle.

-Song of the Columbiana Irish Militia
​

When the war went hot again in the spring of 1859, Abner Doubleday, Legate General of Legion VII, was relieved of command of Legion VII in occupied Louisville and was replaced by Legate General William Selkirk, a Scottish native who had seen heavy action against Native Americans and was known for his much more aggressive outlook. This supposedly was because of Legate General Sherman, still laying siege to a starving but thawing Richmond, Kentucky, had accused Doubleday of showing too much timidity and a lack of "daring do" to Lincoln. Lincoln did, however, admire Doubleday's performance running his prison camps, and as such placed him in command of prison camps in the nation, thereby becoming the first Union Secretary of Order and also thereby becoming head of RUMP. RUMP during the war was mostly old men too aged to fight on the front lines or young underage boys with quick tempers. There was roughly a 50/50 chance of being executed in the "Doubleday Hotels" and these camps saw some of the greatest atrocities of the war.

These stories may make the Union, hellbent for revenge and decimation, sound like the true villains of the war, and that may be. However, there were many atrocities committed by both sides and the South was by no means an alliance built on human dignity and respect for others. To the contrary, one of the only units that would give Shicagwa's Legion X a run for its money was the Bourbon Brigade of Georgia, stationed out of New Orleans. This unit was founded and led by the former aristocracy of Bourbon Spain that Napoleon I had overthrown so many years before. It was led by Alfonso XII, son of Isabella II, the current head of the outlawed House of Bourbon and pretender to the throne of independent Spain, and he was thereby grandson of Ferdinand VII, last King of Spain. Since the banning of the slave trade on the world stage by Caesar, the Bourbons had seen their personal finances drain, as their large personal fleet of slavers stationed out of New Orleans had kept the South supplied for years. It is thought by some historians that in return for his services and money, Georgia promised to back a campaign by the Bourbons to seize Mexico and create "The Kingdom of Spain-in-Exile." Thus, through the long winter of 1858-59, Alfonso was marshaling "every brigand and reprobate he could find in the gutters and overflowing prisons of New Orleans." Some called his forces the "Pirate Army," because many of the troops were in fact former pirates and sea rovers. These buccaneers immediately were called upon in the spring, 15,000 strong, to crush a slave revolt along the Mississippi. This they did with startling efficiency. They rounded up and executed the leadership of the rebellion. Then they whipped the surviving supporters senseless while marching them back to New Orleans and throwing them in "Hotel Bourbon," the oldest and largest prison in the city, formerly known as "St. Laurens Penitentiary" before Alfonso was put in charge. Even after the fall of New Orleans, Alfonso would reliably helm the efforts of Georgia to handle prisoners of war and escaped slaves.

Prince Alfonso XII​

This in turn outraged a group of religious exiles from the Union, the Quakers, who had emigrated en masse from the Union to avoid the perils of the British Invasion during the War of 1812. The Quakers now owned some very profitable farms and businesses in Georgia and Virginia, and the treatment of the slaves at the hand of a government that supposedly stood for respect and freedom outraged many. Now they announced they were forming their own neutral community and that they would no longer produce grains and crops for the government. This, needless to say, did not sit well with the Georgian government and the Bourbon Brigade deployed and arrested the Quakers in droves. They were sent to prison camps in Florida, where many of them were starved and worked to death. The Bourbon Family was then granted ownership of their property in exchange for total production for the war effort. This whole matter became known as the "Trail of Tears," as the Quakers, already maligned in their old home country, were forced to march by the thousands to Florida and their deaths. Even though the Union did not exactly love Quakers and had urged them to leave, they had in actuality long-respected them for their pacifism, while finding it also incompatible with American life. This genocide of the Quakers fed the Union propaganda campaign that Georgia was a "pack of vicious and feral ogres, lapping up the pools of blood from harmless farmers." It also cemented the House of Bourbon as a staple of the Old South.

Another man who wind find infamy under the Georgian flag was Swiss-born mercenary Heinrich Wirz, known as the "Beast of New Orleans." Formerly a soldier under many different European flags and frustrated he could not find action, he quickly sailed to America upon the outbreak of war and signed up for service in the Bourbon Brigade. He attained the rank of captain before long, leading several expeditions against advancing Union scouts and rebelling slaves, and then he was placed in charge of Hotel Bourbon in New Orleans, effectively becoming Alfonso's right hand and the true perpetrator of the war crimes that took place there. When the fall of New Orleans came in late 1859, he was captured for a time by the Yankees before making a daring escape during a nighttime raid by Georgian guerrillas. He then fled the city and formed Wirz's Raiders, a group of terrorists and brigands roaming the countryside killing blacks in their beds and hanging Union sympathizers and Quakers. Wirz was well known for his quote, "Give me your enemies, and I will destroy them. If I run out of enemies, I'll kill Quakers. If I run out of Quakers to kill, I kill a nigger. If I run out of niggers, I'll kill your damn dog. I am a bad man. I'm just lucky I'm really quite good at being bad." While this quote may be spurious, if it is real it shows Wirz to be an absolute psychopath and hardened murderer. His infamy would spread far and wide, and he would become one of the most famous terrorists of all time.

Heinrich Wirz
​

Meanwhile, on the Union side there were also thousands of expatriates flocking to the colors. Most of them were Nordreichers and Scotch and English, with some Norwegians as well coming to pay their dues for the Union's assistance in the Norwegian War for Independence. Some of these groups fought for religious regions, being staunch Protestants or AFC converts, but still others were sent over for valuable combat experience. The Nordreich in particular sent some 25,000 troops in to fight or observe over the course of the war, collecting intelligence and tactics. These Nordreicher units also sometimes were sent to the Confederation of the Carolinas to assist in their war effort. The Kaiser saw the war as a chance to screw over friends (or at least former friends) of the Empire, and thus sided with the genetically related Yankees. Though it was not an official alliance, the Nordreich Navy did in fact sell numerous ships to the Union Navy at extremely low cost. Three Prussian-made ironclad warships were present in the final assault on New Orleans in September.

But before that final assault on New Orleans could be made in the fall, the spring and summer bloodshed would rage on, bringing unparalleled destruction and devastation. Texas and the Carolinas entered the fray and opened up entire new battlefields. Little did Georgia realize that the entire time they thought they were fending off the Union thrust down the Mississippi River they actually had been encircling them by sea, invading Cuba during the winter and early spring of 1859 and using it as a launch pad from which to cut off Georgia from its Caribbean colonies. Jamaica would fall next, and then the final push for New Orleans could be made...

 

[Napoleon53]

The next chapter will be a revised Custer Origins and the other will be decanonized. I was so excited to write about him that I wanted to describe him up until before he entered politics, but the war has taken a different path from my initial ideas in that chapter. The new one will be mostly the same but will include a modified history of his battles during the Great North American War.

CHAPTER 35
BLOODY, BLOODY '59

Union troops emerge from their trench under heavy fire along the Blue Ridge Front
​

When the snows cleared, Texas entered the war on behalf of Georgia. The backwater Democratic Republic was still dominantly Hispanic, but the upper class had become increasingly white and Georgian born, so it was so no surprise that they came to Georgia's aid. The tiny Texas Navy sailed to the New Orleans to bolster defenses there, unloading some 20,000 troops and several hundred tons of ammunition and supplies to hopefully outlast a Yankee siege. Try as they might, Georgia could not gain the offensive, instead faithfully holding their lines but failing at every advance. Slowly, steadily, the ironclad ships of the Republican Union Navy came down the mighty Mississippi, and with them came hordes of troops on each bank. The Georgian general staff was surprised at the slow pace of the assault and determined that the Yankees might be more bluster than they let on and assured Prime Minister Towns that New Orleans was prepared for any eventuality. This was a sore mistake, as they would soon find out.

During the brutal, ferocious winter of 1858-59, the opposing sides seemed to follow an old-school European style winter truce as a gentleman's agreement. Navy Group I, out of Port Halifax, harassed the coast of Virginia and Georgia, but that was about the extent. This was actually a ruse, however, allowing the Union Navy Group II out of Boston to sweep into the Caribbean as silently as possible and shock the independent Republic of Cuba with a huge overnight invasion on January 18, 1859, assaulting Havana within the day and cutting all communications off from the island. The Republic of Cuba was caught so off guard that almost half the Cuban Army was captured or executed in their sleep. The anti-Catholic Union Army was under orders to not desecrate or burn Catholic institutions while the war was on, and the occupation was very polite and businesslike. Slavery was finally abolished forever in Cuba. However, resistance fighters were promptly executed, no quarter given. By late February, running on a strict timetable, an invasion of Jamaica was also underway, with no small help from the black revolutionaries there who were paid off to open their ports and gates to the Union Navy. Now, Georgians woke up in March with Cuba and Jamaica under Union occupation and looming just off their coast. Lincoln's Anvil was revealed, and he was determined to batter the South senseless between the Hammer and Anvil.

The Confederation of the Carolinas, meanwhile, were coming to fulfill the terms of the Union-Confederation Non-Aggression Pact. Overnight on March 28, the Confederation lashed out at both Virginia and the Carolinas. Declaring a "separate" war on Virginia and Georgia so as to not be seen as direct Union allies, the Great Southron War (as Chancellor James Polk was calling it) was underway. Polk had several very clear objectives to achieve victory: retake West Carolina ("Boone"), hold of Georgia until the Union could beat them into a corner, and humiliate Virginia in any way possible. Later, as the first offensives were going great, Polk would start grand plans of a potential "Confederacy of the South," with a post-War Georgia and Virginia in ruins and gladly accepting Carolinian occupation rather than Yankee.

Virginian militiamen flee before advancing Carolinian troops near Norfolk
​

The first thing the Confederation did in their stunning surprise attack on Virginia was to immediately slug their way toward Norfolk and Newport News, the Virginian industrial heartland. In a shocking repeat of the Cuba War, Norfolk was burned to the ground as quickly as possible and Newport News constantly bombarded with Union supplied heavy artillery. As Potentate Early raged over "Carolinian backstabbery" and struggled to get his forces into position to fight in both North and South, another Carolinian army, under Wade Hampton III, was on the offensive into Boone. The Virginians had built fortifications after the Cuba War, but these were know decrepit and many were unmanned, their garrisons fighting against Legate Generals Sherman and Selkirk in Kentucky. This provided a virtual field day for the Confederation troops, as they quickly overran everything in sight with minimal casualties. Almost all the enemies they faced were just simple militia, some of whom were of dubious loyalty to Virginia. For decades, many Boone citizens had still considered themselves West Carolinians and adored Andrew Jackson and the "Ol' Moon and Stars," and this heritage ran deep. Thousands of Boonesians rallied around Hampton III's invading army and called for the restoration of Confederation rule. A civil war broke out, with neighbor turning against neighbor and father against son. But by mid-Summer, most of Boone had been captured, restoring West Carolina and bringing meaning back to the Western Star on the Carolinian flag. This was the breakthrough the Union had been waiting for. Now they steamrolled over the Mississippi coastline of West Carolina before handing it over to the Confederation, restoring their port on the river. Polk was elated.

This breakthrough in early August crushed both Virginian and Carolinian morale, with the Georgian defenders along the Mississippi breaking and falling back to Fort Davis, Mississippi, and New Orleans. This worried Georgia, who feared Fort Davis would crumble and New Orleans would be lost. Georgian General Manfred Abbey Jones was basing his plans off captured intelligence and rallied all the forces he could to defend Fort Davis from a coming assault by Legion IX, out of Lewis City, Osage. Legate General Thomas McCray was in command of Legion IX and desperately wanted to launch a full assault on Fort Davis, one of the most defensible locations in the South. However, he dug in smartly to wait it out. If he launched an assault on the city and it failed, then it could open up the Union rear to a massive attack from behind, potentially jeopardizing the attack on New Orleans. So instead, he simply dug in and was determined to keep General Jones busy.

This was bad, very very bad for Georgia. Meanwhile, in the north, Sherman took complete control of Kentucky. The South was crumbling. Sherman announced a plan of "Barrage and Burn" and decreed that any cities which did not submit to Union rule would receive brutal retaliation and the burning of everything they held dear. He was very serious, too, and he lit several Kentucky locales ablaze for attempted insurrection and so thoroughly destroyed the towns that no one ever even attempted to rebuild them. They were forever lost to history.

Next, Legion X, shortly to become one of the most infamous units of the Union Army, arrived on the outskirts of the greater New Orleans region and found themselves facing unbelievable opposition from not just the Georgian and Texan troops there but also from local citizens determined to not let the control of the Mississippi pass entirely into Yankee hands. In response, Legion X, under Legate General George McClellan, began bloody assaults on nearby villages, burning Catholic churches and torching plantation houses. The local slaves, beat bloody by the Bourbon Brigade, stood up once more and welcomed the Union army in jubilation. McClellan announced that all the slaves were now free and could stand up to their former masters and take up arms. Thousands joined "McClellan's Volunteer Brigade" and eagerly looked forward to the final destruction of New Orleans. This in short time became the Free Negro Army of the Union.

As could be imagined, this did not sit well with the rest of the South, or the Confederation of the Carolinas. The war-torn nations were now just barely containing a full black revolution. The Confederation had just barely recaptured West Carolina in time before rioting and slave insurrections had begun. This frustrated Polk immensely, who desired to unify Athens, Georgia and possibly southern Columbiana under his country's rule. Newport News and Norfolk flew the Moon and Stars, but back home slaves were flying the flag of the AFC Church and taking up arms "in the name of Jehovah and President Lincoln." The Union assured the Confederation that they were by no means backing this rebellion, but suspicions remained high.

It was at this time, around early September that a freed slave from Maryland known as the Reverend Aaron Burr Douglass had descended from the north with an AFC Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other. Riding a fast black horse, he galloped across the countryside of Virginia proclaiming "The Emancipation has come! Negro men of Virginia stand up, stand up you free men!" As he went from town to town, he became known as the black Paul Revere. Following in his wake was Lincoln's Hammer, having finally broken through Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and now steamrolling toward Richmond at a steady pace, ravaging the countryside as they went. This breakthrough had been achieved by Field Marshal Jenkins meeting up with Legate General Sherman. Sherman had left some men behind to guard what was left of Kentucky and then crossed into Columbiana to hit Lee from behind, breaking the stalemate there. An initial successful hold at Charlottesville made Lee confident he could withstand the sneak attack, but soon his men were just growing too exhausted to fight facing both north and south. Making matters worth, Virginian General Tad Wilson and his entire force of some 10,000 reinforcements were slaughtered in the east at Tappahanock. With Potentate Early fearing a total sacking of Richmond was nigh, Lee received orders to fall back and regroup in Richmond.

Reverend Aaron Burr Douglass​

When Lee arrived in Richmond he found a total scene of mayhem and disorder. The slaves there had been told that the Union was coming to free them and they had revolted against the government, taking up arms and overthrowing the Virginian House of Burgesses. The Second Slave Insurrection was underway. President Early was nowhere to be found. This stunning turn of events forced Lee to make a decision. He had to decide whether to crush this black insurrection, which would almost certainly stall him enough for Jenkins and Sherman to hit from the rear, or he could take what forces and supplies were left in the city and retreat to Petersburg to make a last stand. If he could hold out till winter and after the fall of New Orleans (which would consume a massive amount of Union resources), he might be able to sue for peace and maybe retain Columbiana and perhaps Westsylvania. He could assume power as Potentate and abolish slavery once and for all (Lee was a lifelong anti-slavery figure anyway, though he mostly kept his thoughts to himself out of respect for his nation). This might be enough for the Union to agree to terms. He also had to worry about the Confederation coming up from the south, although he was unaware the slave revolt had spread to their nation as well. He decided to fall back to Petersburg. His army, now about 150,000 strong still, might be able to make a go of it, and for once Lee found himself praying profusely for a harsh winter.

The Army of Northern Virginia on the retreat to Petersburg

Sherman's men charge the rear of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia​

At last, September 20, 1859, arrived. It was a sunny morning when the Sack of New Orleans began. Yankee ships fresh from the Caribbean slammed into the port, finally eliminating the Georgian and Texan ships there once and for all. The Union Marines came storming into town, slaughtering every Southron soldier they could find. Up north, General McClellan was coming with Legion X. After the most intense artillery shelling of the war, the Battle of New Orleans was truly underway. The defenders of the city knew within an hour that defeat was certain. As Prince Alfonso fled the city through the last available escape route to the east, Heinrich Wirz was fearful that the rebellious slave prisoners in his prison would take terrible revenge if released, so he systematically went through and killed every single prisoner in his cells. Over 4,000 black men and women were massacred, shot down from behind iron doors. As Wirz was fleeing the city himself that night, he was captured by a Union platoon and thrown into a pen with other Georgian officers. All around him, he saw New Orleans falling apart. Houses lay smoldering. Bodies, both soldier and civilian, charred and bloody, strewn as far as the eye could see. It was like the Apocalypse had come to New Orleans. In the distance he heard a Union band play "We Are Coming Father Abraham." Union troops were blasting down statues of great Georgian citizens and burning the green-white-red flag of the Republic as they grew drunk of pilfered beer and whiskey. He knew, at last, the jig was up. It was at that moment when a massive Georgian counterattack began. It was midnight, September 21. The Georgian Army, now personally led by Prince Alfonso, was attacking from the east, while a surprisingly large force of Texans rode in from the southwest, sabers shining in the moonlight, hollering like demons. In the ensuing chaos, the drunk Union army was sent reeling, the Georgian prisoners were set free, and Wirz vanished into the night. The worst war criminal of the entire conflict was now free as a bird. He stole civilian clothes, shaved his beard, and blended in with the thousands of refugees fleeing the city.

The Texans assault Union-held New Orleans
​

By morning, the counterattack had ground to a halt as McClellan regained control of his drunken troops. He personally led a flanking cavalry assault that slammed into Alfonso's men, who were forced to retreat. He also was now aware of Wirz's war crime at the Hotel Bourbon. The Legate General then gathered 4,000 prisoners of war at the docks of the city and ordered his men to press upon them with bayonets. The helpless prisoners, their hands tied, could not swim properly. Those who could managed to keep afloat were shot. Some were taken by the alligators for food. He announced that any further butchering of slaves would be met with an equal number of dead Southron POWs. The city watched with horror as the waters of New Orleans turned red with Georgian blood. Legion X had reached the next level of infamy. From now on, the names of McClellan and the Tenth Legion struck fear wherever they went. This horrific punishment for the massacre at the Hotel Bourbon emboldened slaves across Georgia to take up arms. The Second Slave Insurrection was now also well and truly underway there. Prime Minister Towns declared that any and every slave who rebelled would be killed on sight. He also ordered the executions of 20 captured Union officers, most notably Milo Miles II, son of the famous Reverend.

Execution of the 20 outside Savannah, Georgia​

This entire debacle was unheard of in modern history in its pure evil and genocidal frenzy since the bloodiest days of the Reign of Terror in France. The world was mortified by the horrors taking place in North America. But Robert E. Lee would find his prayers answered, and devastating early winter set in October. Richmond and New Orleans had fallen, but Petersburg held strong and Georgia was regrouping. The war would last another year, and 1860 would be no better than 1859. Heinrich Wirz would helm his "Riders of the Storm" terrorist brigade and strike fear into the heart of the Union, Robert E. Lee would lead a daring defense of Petersburg and attempt to sue for peace, Burnin' Sherman would strike again, a fallen Potentate Early would find himself asking for safe passage into the Confederation, and the world at large would be introduced to the legendary George Armstrong Custer....

 

[Napoleon53]

"There is no greater beauty than the American people. A people united by hardship, an unbreakable Union forged in blood and iron. A beautiful nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I have seen the fields of grain. The cities of the East Coast. I have witnessed massive cattle drives in the West as steamships chug down their way down the Mississippi. When I think of what America means to me, what it means to you, and what it shall mean to our grandchildren... I can think of no greater or truer beauty. America is not just a nation. It is not just a political entity or union of regions. America is a breathing, living creature. She is the queen of realms, built on the blood of a million martyrs, and master of a destiny made manifest by our Creator."

- George Armstrong Custer, the Father of American Fascism

"As the Texan zouaves fired at us from behind their lines in the outskirts of Trinity City, we heard the screams of our men as our casualties mounted. We were breaking. We could not hold. And there stood General Custer like a stone wall. Gallant and strong, the flag in his strong hand whipping in the smoke-filled breeze. As we saw the Union standard being held up by that brave young yellow-haired Anglo-Saxon, we rallied. We reloaded our rifles and took aim, decimating the Georgians. As we pushed forward across that bloody, shell-pocked field, we cheered behind Custer and his flag. He led the charge with no weapon of war, only that beautiful banner. We won that day and Texas was put to ruin."

- Private William McKinley, 5th Ohio Infantry​

George Armstrong Custer was born in the Ohio capital of Cincinnati on December 5, 1839, to Emmanuel Henry Custer and his second wife Marie Kirkpatrick. His brother Thomas would be born in 1845 and his brother Boston in 1848, with his sister Margaret being born in 1852. It was a large family, and he had several other half-siblings. Emmanuel was a blacksmith who had been a child during the War of 1812 and had grown up in the shell of post-War America poor and hungry. He later served in the Subjugation of Vermont. Shortly before George's birth, he abandoned his blacksmithing career, packed up his family from their home in the countryside, and moved to Cincinnati to work as a foreman on Colonel Goodyear Rail's new railway lines running out west.

George was a notoriously tough child and had an incredible tolerance for pain. While getting a tooth removed as a child, the dentist accidentally crushed the tooth with his pliers and had to drill deep into the stump to pull it out. He didn't complain at all, or even flinch. As he walked home with his dad, his mouth swollen and bloody, Emmanuel told him, "Son, you are going to make a hell of a man." Young George looked up at him and said, "Pa, you and me are gonna whip every Papist from here to Iowai."

This religious fervor was drilled into him by his deeply religious mother, who named him after famed Ohio preacher George Armstrong (who later served on the Council of Jehovah with Jesse Appleton). She had a strong desire to see the boy join the clergy, hence the name. George would go on to other things, however, and forever place himself in the annals of time.

With Emmanuel now working for Goodyear, his children could now afford to go to school (which was not free in Ohio at the time) and George quickly became an avid reader, enjoying Shakespeare, John Bunyan, and of course the writings of the Prophet Burr. In 1847, the Custer family was officially baptized into the American Fundamentalist Christian Church at a revival hosted by Reverend-Colonel Edward Everett himself. George was personally baptized by Everett, a moment that seemed insignificant to Everett at the time, no doubt, but which made a lasting impression upon 8 year-old George.

"It was as if a fire shot through me. I realized that Christ died for me and all men, and that by believing in him I would be eternally protected and under his care. I believed! When I held that snake over my head as I stood waist-deep in the sweet water of Manifest Destiny, and the Holy Spirit moved my soul, I knew, even as a child, that I would spend the rest of my life in service to my God and my Country."

-George Armstrong Custer​

In 1853, at the tender age of 14, George was built like a brick wall and could beat up children twice his size, even grown men. A mishap at a snake-handling revival in 1852 left him with a left index finger that he could never straighten out fully, but he made up for his disfigurement with flowing blonde hair and eyes that stood out in any crowd. It was in 1854 that Custer left home for work on the railroad. Goodyear Rail was expanding their trains out west into the Dakotas and the ultra-capitalist tycoon hoped to create the first transcontinental railroad ever, linking Philadelphia with Oregon. As Commander A. A. Lincoln swept into power in the East with the Second Sons of Liberty and as Napoleon II declared war on the Ottoman Empire, Custer was headed west into Indian country. As he crossed the Mississippi, a young man from Ohio looked off the side of the ferry carrying him across the river.

Things were going well for Custer until he was accused of murdering another railroad worker after a game of dice gone wrong in late 1854. For his alleged crime, he was fired and exiled out to the Redemption Territory, where he got a job for Old Kinderhook running telegraph wires and fighting local Indian tribes. Custer, at the young age of 18 in 1857, had already become known as the one of the bloodiest and most successful Indian-killers in the West. In 1858, Custer redeemed himself and became the town sheriff of Goldwater, Redemption and was soon one of the most influential young men in the territory. Next, he lived through the statehood of Redemption in late 1859. As Lincoln battled Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, Custer became the youngest ever State Marshal in Union history.

A young Marshal Custer​

Killing outlaws was not enough for the young upstart, however. Despite his youth, Custer managed to drum up volunteers to fight from all across the state with General William Wheeler and found himself as second in command of the Volunteer Forces of Redemption. Wheeler and Custer led some 12,000 men on a voluntary basis across the plains to assault northern Texas. He proved himself time and again in vicious hand-to-hand combat. As word spread of his victories, the Union government elected to have the 3rd Ohio Battalion, under General Mitch Miles (third cousin of Reverend Milo Miles) join forces with the Redemption Volunteers and try to assault Trinity City, Texas's capital located along the Trinity River. There, Custer and Miles laid siege to the city, which would go on for several months. This was one of the worst campaigns for the Union during the war, judging by loss of high-ranking officers. Both Wheeler and Miles were killed in action by ambush on October 1, 1860. Custer, only a young man barely past his teens, somehow rallied his men and they made a final assault in just a couple weeks. On October 19, 1860, the capital of Texas fell. Custer, now acting general, was among the first men to charge through a gap made in the city's walls. Some called him the American Napoleon, but others called him Stonewall Custer for his complete lack of self-protection and tendency to jump into the deadliest thick of the battle. This nickname likely arose from a quote attributed to William McKinley of the 5th Ohio Infantry. As Texas reeled from the assault, its government fled to the recently booming city of Atlanta. General Miles assumed military control of Texas, but it was the young Custer and his "Rascals from Redemption" that won the praise of a thankful nation. President Lincoln personally summoned Custer to Philadelphia. There, he made Custer the youngest-ever Legate General of the Republican Legions and put him in charge of Legion XII out of Toledo and an all-out assault into Westsylvania, the last bastion of Virginian holdouts under their famed General Thomas Jackson following Robert E. Lee's surrender in the east at Petersburg Courthouse.

The Westslyvania Campaign saw the "Yellow Fox" clash again and again with Jackson and the "Free Army of Westsylvania." The rugged terrain and mountains made the war a tough one, but finally Jackson's luck ran out at the Battle of Beckley, when he was fatally and accidentally struck by his own men. Most of the Free Army surrendered following his death and Custer was proclaimed military dictator of the region. This all occurred before he had reached the age of 22. The man was proclaimed the "God of War" by Legate General Sherman, who said "This young pup from Redemption has more pluck and vigor in him than the entirety of the government back in Philadelphia."

Custer leads his men against Virginian forces in Westsylvania
​

Custer continuously found himself making history at every turn. After the war, as the fragmenting Second Sons of Liberty Party experienced massive tumult from the constant infighting between the leadership, Custer found himself pondering a future in politics. The war hero was intrigued by the idea driving the Second Sons and was an ardent supporter, but found their infighting to be troublesome and embarrassing after having achieved, in his eyes, such great things. As all these matters raced through his head, he was also hard at work founding Custer's Company, a private mercenary army. This mercenary army would hire itself out to whatever region was experiencing "lawless Inferior subversion or anarchy," usually operating in Texas, Mississippi, and Lewisiana, battling Southron guerrilla fighters, such as the Riders of the Storm, the White League, and Indians who refused to submit and who the Union Army was too overwhelmed to deal with. Custer's Company was eventually contracted by the Union government to round up all Native American tribes and send them across the border into the Kingdom of California or into the massive Wounded Knee Reservation in Dakota. Several hundred thousand Indians would eventually live in squalor and filthy conditions at Wounded Knee, their women used as sex toys and the men and children worked like animals in factories so foul they could hardly breathe. Whenever revolt would sweep the region, Custer would put it out in a flash through massive reprisals and waves of arrests. He considered McClellan a personal idol, and his fear tactics were quite inspired by McClellan's reprisals during the Sack of New Orleans.

Custer returned to Redemption in 1875 as newly-appointed Grand Marshal of the Union Army of the West to stamp out one last Indian revolt. The government now had some freed up funds to end the Indian wars once and for all. This final campaign was marked by his last devastating victory at Little Bighorn against the "United Confederacy of Free Tribes." The Free Tribes were considered too powerful for just Custer's Company alone, which was stretched thin by a recent insurrection at Wounded Knee, and so the Union Army of the West was sent in to break the Natives once and for all. The battle was largely decided by Custer's use of new Colonel Pierce Munitions "coffee grinder" machine guns, which mowed down the Native warriors like wheat under a scythe. This was the last time Custer was brought up into active service by the US Military. This battle was followed by the Rape of Redemption, an infamous event where the villages of the Free Tribes involved in the war were burned to the ground and thousands of innocents murdered by Custer's order. The Age of the Indian was over. The Anglo-Saxon-Teutonic marched on.

Custer crushing the United Confederacy of Free Tribes at Little Bighorn, Redemption​

This became known as the War of the West and saw Custer decimate whole populations as he forced them to bend to his iron will as he worked his way to the Pacific. After Little Big Horn, there was simply no stopping his bloody progress. Slowly but surely, by 1878, his mission was complete, and the Native population in the Union dwindled to almost nothing. By 1879, he was leisurely using coffee grinders mounted on wagons to wipe out entire herds of buffalo, meeting the demand for their hides back east. By 1880, most all tribes had been relocated at the point of a bayonet, and many Indian treasures and artifacts were taken as spoils of war by the Company. They became coveted trophies collected by the Union upper-class and earned Custer an absolute fortune. By the 1880s, he was was ready to use his ill-gotten fortune to build his own new version of the Second Sons. Once again, a path was being laid through history for the creation of the Manifest Destiny Party...

Custer and his brothers pose for a photo circa 1885​

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 36
THE RESTORATION

The winter of 1859-60 was even worse than that of 1858, with a massive amount of snow and ice all across North America. This was exactly what Robert E. Lee, General of the Army of Northern Virginia and acting Potentate desired. His men were now well dug in at Petersburg, just south of Richmond. He had narrowly escaped being squeezed between Jenkins and Sherman and had no desire to let his position be compromised again. He had a decent trench system running around and through the city by the time the worst of winter came and the Union Army ground to a halt. Richmond was in shambles, and even the Union was reluctant to endorse some of the savagery the revolting blacks had committed to their former masters. Reverend Douglass showed up to try to contain the situation, but it was too late. Most of the Virginian government had been captured by the slaves and murdered, some having their throats slit by their servants in their sleep. This ghastly affair was simply a horror show all around. Now, the local whites had struck back, massacring several hundred black revolutionaries. At last, Sherman and Jenkins arrived in early November and restored order to Richmond. They had none of it, and immediately declared military rule and disarmed many of the black mobs. Reverend Douglass begged his people to instead actually join the Union Army rather than butcher innocents in the streets. This many of the former slaves did. There were still some radicals who desired to create a Beutelist "Commune of Richmond." This would not do. In order to maintain the black race's good graces, Sherman ordered his negro soldiers to hunt down and destroy the leadership of the Commune, declaring, "I won't have no damned Beutelist leftists in the midst of America butchering at random and seeking to establish general anarchy."

Following the destruction of the Commune, Jenkins and Sherman took up residence in the old Virginian House of Burgesses for the winter, as the freezing cold set in. Meanwhile, just a few miles South Lee was drafting his first proposals for his surrender terms. His formerly thick, jet black hair and mustache was now giving way to baldness and a gray beard. The brutality of the war was really taking a tole on him, and it showed quite visibly. He was a kind man by nature, and only was serving out of duty to his fatherland. As he sat there pondering, 1860 had dawned, and with it a new year of bloodshed and slaughter.

To the immediate south, Jubal Early appeared once more. Long thought dead, Early was captured near Williamsburg by Carolinian patrols. He was attempting to escape by boat to Europe, and had supposedly been offered asylum in Greenland. He now begged the Confederation for mercy. According to him, his family had been killed by revolting slaves during the outbreak of revolution in Richmond and he had been hunted like a wounded bear since then, black riders and hounds chasing him for months. He had spent the last few months at an isolated cabin, but the blacks had located him once more. That was when he had attempted to flee to Greenland. The Confederation, hateful toward anything Virginian but also going through their own slave revolt took him in, in a sort of gentle house arrest in Raleigh. However, in a shocking turn of events, a mob of angry citizens found out where he was being held, stormed through the guards and killed him with knives and sticks, screaming "Justice for Ol' Hickory!" Revenge was complete, and the death of Andrew Jackson was avenged. Lee couldn't believe the news when he heard it and it outraged him that the Confederation didn't do more to protect him from their own citizens. Many whispered that the Confederation had actually let the attack happen and wanted him to die, they just didn't have the guts to hang him for no reason other than being Potentate of Virginia. At any rate, any soldiers who were questioning Lee's legitimacy as Potentate were now placated, and Lee officially assumed absolute power over what little remained of the Republic of Virginia.

The war was about to take another fateful turn and "Burnin' Sherman" was about to be unleashed in February, 1860, despite the cold. A large force of Maryland volunteer militias had attempted to board civilian ships and run the Union blockade of the Virginian coast to assist Lee. Lincoln had had enough. Maryland, for so long a "neutral power" despite constantly running supplies and "volunteers" to Virginia, had to go. On January 24, 1860, President Lincoln declared war on the Chesapeake Republic of Maryland. Sherman took a sizable force from Richmond and marched north through the bitter weather and invaded Maryland. Sherman said of the invasion, "We shall warm ourselves on Maryland's funeral pyre." He was not lying. The entirety of the first Marylander town they came across, Germantown, was burned to the ground, its residents sent fleeing and its defenders butchered or taken prisoner. Maryland without Virginia was simply an easy target to steamroll, and their defeat was certain for the duration of the conflict. By early spring, Baltimore was under siege. Despite certain defeat, the scarlet-coated defenders held out valiantly until July. On July 3, Sherman stormed the city and captured the government. Then he burned down their government buildings and declared that the Chesapeake Republic was no more. After consulting with President Lincoln, a desire to "de-papify" the former nation led to the creation of the Union "State of Burrland," removing the "despotic namesake of the French papist wife of that ancient villain Charles I whom Cromwell did so righteously behead." This triggered a massive wave of new resistance in Maryland, which was exactly what Sherman had wanted. The renaming was simply a mindgame "to get the treacherous subversives to come out of the woodwork." Sherman then gleefully set about burning down 15 cities and towns which rejected Union rule. Finally, in September, Annapolis surrendered, ending the Union-Maryland War and beginning Sherman's occupation of the region.

Throughout the spring, Lee managed to just barely keep his men going and held off several advances by Jenkins. At last, on July 4, 1860, Robert E. Lee and his officer corps rode to the Union lines under a white flag of truce. He asked for the Union leadership to meet him at the Petersburg Courthouse to accept his terms of surrender. Elated, Jenkins gladly accepted and rode with his men to the place of meeting to hopefully start wrapping up the war. Lee was surprisingly demanding for a fellow in his position, asking that Virginia retain Columbiana and Westsylvania and admit fault for the war and pay reparations. This was simply not going to happen. Despite Lee's best attempt, the Union would stop at nothing short of total domination and manifest destiny.

"General Lee, I actually have a world of respect for you, as I am sure you are aware, but these terms will not be found satisfactory back in Philadelphia by neither President Lincoln or the National Assembly, and so I ask you to reconsider. Maybe there is some other universe or world out there where things are different, and there is still an independent Virginia, but in our real life, this... is simply untenable. I am sorry for all you sacrificed to be in vain, but the Republic of Virginia must join the Union for there to be real peace. We won't tolerate such an adversary building up once more to attack us twenty or thirty years from now. The cycle of violence on this continent must be ended. The Restoration is upon us. A Republican Union united as one from sea to shining sea, under our worthy President. I ask you to join us. In exchange for your total surrender, President Lincoln had instructed me to tell you that you, your staff, and every single one of the men in the Army of Virginia will be granted a full peace and be allowed to return to your farms and homes and families. No homes or farms will be burned and no hangings will be allowed for anyone except those convicted of the foulest war crime. This is a very generous offer, and we ask you to consider it seriously."

- Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins, Petersburg Courthouse, July 4, 1860

After several hours of consultation with his staff, Lee signed the Treaty of Petersburg Courthouse, surrendering Virginian sovereignty to the Republican Union and officially bringing Columbiana and Westsylvania into the Union as the State of Virginia and the State of Westsylvania. However, General Thomas Jackson, commander of Virginian forces in Westsylvania, refused to acknowledge the surrender and created the "Free Army of Westsylvania to continue the war. Styling himself as "Potentate-in-Exile," Jackson would hold out for a while in the mountains, squirreling away supplies and fending off Union patrols.

Potentate Lee surrenders the Republic of Virginian sovereignty to Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins at Petersburg Courthouse​

On the other side of the country just three months later, a young acting-general George Custer had just conquered Trinity City, capital of the Democratic Republic of Texas. On October 30, 1860, Texas formally surrendered to the Union, with Lincoln and the National Assembly quickly passing legislation to make it a state (albeit under martial law). Now, he was shipped to the east coast to receive the acclaim of President Lincoln in Philadelphia and to take command of Legion XII, based out of Toledo, Ohio, in an effort to capture or kill Jackson in Westsylvania.

Georgia, meanwhile, was all sorts of a disaster. Prime Minister Towns was barely holding the country together while Prince Alfonso, now his chief of staff, struggled to restrain the negro population while still fending off incursions from McClellan. Mississippi and Fort Davis had fallen in the spring, with the Bahamas shortly after in the early summer, leaving just the Departments of Bulloch, West Florida, Peachtree, Savannah, and Florida as the last remnants of a once fledgling empire. All through 1860, Georgia made a good go of things, trying their hardest to strike back in nighttime raids and utilizing guerrilla tactics to make the most of their now quickly-depleting manpower. With AFC spreading through the black population, however, it seemed just a matter of time before the final fall. That final collapse would come that winter, when McClellan and Legion X would utilize that year's more tolerable weather to strike hard and fast through Georgia, taking Elyton and Mobile as Marines from the Caribbean overwhelmed southern Florida. With the hostile Confederation to the north and surrounded by Yankees and seawater, Towns had to start making some very tough decisions.

Towns was firmly aware that he was held responsible for the sinking of the O.K. Sultan and was considered a war criminal by Philadelphia. As such, he held out until news came in early November of Texas' fall. This was the last bridge to burn. Towns stealthily left the capital with Prince Alfonso and his staff on a sloop and managed to dodge Union patrols, eventually landing in Central America. The abdication of Prime Minister Towns and his staff left Georgia to General Henry DeLamar Clayton to run. For two more months, Georgia fought on, but eventually Clayton surrendered to McClellan on January 10, 1861. With the exception of Westsylvania, the continent was now at peace.

In March, 1861, a series of deadly skirmishes with Custer left Jackson on the run. His luck finally ran out near Beckley, where a nighttime ride left him victim to his own troops' bullets. Jackson was dead, and with him died independent Virginia and the Free Army. One week after his death, Virginians all over Westsylvania started laying down their arms. March 12, 1861, was from that point on remembered as the "Day of the Great Peace."

Celebrations erupted across the Union, from Boston to Oregon, with millions of citizens thankful the war was finally over and the Old Republic's borders had been restored. The Carolinas had to pledge to eradicate slavery by 1870 or Lincoln "could not guarantee their continued existence." This left the Confederation little more than a satellite of the Union. Lincoln was practically deified, as he doubled the size of the Union and fulfilled every single campaign promise he had ever made, plus he had seized the entire Caribbean. It was with great joy and jubilation on July 4, 1861, that the President announced that the Old Republic Stars and Stripes, the battle flag of the Union during the war, was now replacing the banner of the Republican Union as the national flag.

"Words cannot express how grateful and thankful this nation is to the Armed Forces of the Union. This nation, now united in brotherhood and loyalty to the same God-ordained government for the first time in almost four score years. Four score and five years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in the idea that unity brings strength and that we are all subject to God's laws and standards. United, our forefathers cast out the Mad King. However, when the dark days came and the fall of the Old Republic, our forefathers showed that treason and subversion can fracture a nation and disintegrate it from the inside out. Though we hanged the traitors Adams and Hamilton, the damage was done. Some years later our great people would experience the Great Betrayal, as our Southron and French 'allies' left us high and dry during the War of 1812. From that day onward, we all swore an oath to Jehovah we would one day right these wrongs and bring God's righteous fury upon these traitors. Then came the Prophet Burr to show us the Way, the Truth, and the Light. Then came the titans of industry. We rebuilt our pitiful nation. We showed the world that America can never be destroyed. And today, as we celebrate the Restoration, we show the world that the Union shall stand 10,000 years, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all who respect our values upon which we build our country. This eternal Union is the New Jerusalem that the Prophet did speak of in the Holy Books of Manifest Destiny. We have walked one giant step closer to building this New Jerusalem. One day, maybe soon or maybe after decades or even a century, we will see our destiny realized and the New United States shall be born. But let us rejoice today! For we have earned a great victory, and the traitor states of the Old Republic, for over six decades in the hands of criminals, slavers, and liars, have been restored to the fold! Hallelujah!"

- President A. A. Lincoln, July 4, 1861​

The 20th Chersonesus parades through Philadelphia on Restoration Day, 1861

Men of the 10th Pennsylvania Light Dragoons trot past jubilant crowds shortly after

Negro soldiers pose for a photo in Richmond, Restoration Day, 1861

Field Marshal Jenkins parades the new National Flag before his men on Restoration Day, 1861, deep in occupied Virginia​

A painting of Restoration Day, 1861, on Philadelphia's main thoroughfare

Postcard commemorating the Restoration

Cartoon depicting Jenkins bringing peace between whites and blacks in Virginia

Celebration of Emancipation

Soldiers of the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment of Foot display a battle flag they carried through the entire war
​

Unfortunately, the celebrations couldn't mask the deep sorrow felt by millions of families as their sons' bodies came home in boxes. The final real death toll of the war might never be truly known, but the estimate is somewhere around two million. Many of the deaths were civilian, and countless cities were utterly destroyed by both sides. The fighting had scared thousands of men deep in their souls, forever linking memories of the Great American War with nightmarish thoughts of severed limbs and fallen comrades.

The Southrons were not finished yet, however. Instead, some would say they actually had the last laugh of the war. On September 5, 1861, while visiting occupied Savannah, President Lincoln's carriage was hit by a bomb, killing him instantly and wounding his wife. Immediately, the "Riders of the Storm," a terrorist outlaw group led by Heinrich Wirz, proclaimed responsibility for the attack. The nation was shook to its core as the one man who put it all together suddenly was gone. One day he was President of a victorious reunited America, and the next he was a patriot-saint and martyr. The Strong Man was dead. Vice President Hamilton Fish was sworn into office immediately, but he was stepping into some very big shoes. And now he had to deal with a terrorist insurrection, rebuilding and de-Inferiorizing the South, and a new movement that would sweep the country known as Spiritual Marxism....

Assassination of President Lincoln by Southron terrorists​

President Hamilton Fish​

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 37
STRUGGLE, RECONSTRUCTION, AND THE RISE OF CUSTER

A destroyed railyard belonging to the Bank of Georgia. Union troops pose on the wreckage.​

The death of Abraham Aaron Lincoln sent shockwaves through the nation and the world. The Goliath of the Union was gone, not given the chance to rest on his laurels and rebuild the now-united Republican Union in his own image. His last acts had been to allow the Confederation of the Carolinas to annex the greater Newport News region and Bermuda, unite Kentucky and Westsylvania into the new state of Appalachia, and create Revere, a new state from the old Georgian department of Bulloch along the eastern shores of the Mississippi. Then came that fateful carriage ride and the assassination at the hands of Wirz's Riders of the Storm.

President Hamilton Fish was overwhelmed. On one side of the National Assembly he had the hawks of the Second Sons demanding that every single soul in the South be punished for their "treason, murder and backstabbing." On the other side were the moderates (usually not members of the AFC Church) who argued that the war was a travesty for both sides and that the South should now be welcomed into the Union and be given a chance to mend the huge culture divide. Some members of the Second Sons began to drift away from the party now that Lincoln was dead, and Fish's rule was becoming increasingly overshadowed by the Assembly slowly taking power into their own hands.

Following the Lincoln Assassination, Fish had been immediately sworn in and he immediately proved to be... a moderate and affable man who was actually one of the kinder souls of the party. He believed in his heart of hearts that Lincoln was the Strong Man destined to restore the Republic, but many said Lincoln chose him simply to have a less heavy-handed name on his ticket to win non-AFC believers over. Then members of the Christian Democrat Party revealed in late December, 1861, that Lincoln had actually planned on replacing the timid but personally loyal Fish with Legate General McClellan, hero of the Sack of New Orleans and the Siege of Savannah. Shuyler Colfax, Grand Master of the Fraternal Order of Minutemen, allegedly leaked this to the Christian Democrats to destroy Fish. Labelled "His Accidency" and "Smelly Old Fish," the American dictator started to become a joke as the real power started shifting to the National Assembly.

It may seem odd that Colfax, Lincoln's Hand, would try to make the President and leader of his own party look bad, but rumors had it that Colfax himself planned on running for President in 1862, and would ask McClellan to be his running mate. This backfired tremendously, however, when McClellan stepped in and announced he would indeed like to be President. Colfax was furious, and this essentially tore the Second Sons of Liberty apart. There were still Fish loyalists, but the infighting between Colfax and McClellan was absolutely brutal. Now, faced with a Southron guerrilla war and terrorist attacks and a party falling apart, the Union was not looking even close to as strong as it had just months earlier. McClellan asked a famed Assemblyman from New York named Jericho Roberts to be his VP, and off McClellan and Colfax went to the races.

Meanwhile, it was discovered that the Bank of Georgia, which financed most of the Southron machine during the war, had escaped with most of Georgia's gold through Texas and into Mexico. This was a problem, and the public demanded the gold be seized as reparations for the war and the nationalization of the Bank of Georgia. The Bank of the Republican Union, the formerly private entity which managed Union currency and finances as the Union Reserve, had been nationalized as well during the war by Lincoln and now they were going through Southron assets with a fine-tooth comb. This escape of Georgian gold infuriated the Bank of the Republican Union and the general Northern public. Fish demanded that Mexico hand over the "Southron war criminals," to which Mexico, knowing the Union was fragile and weak and not ready for another war, refused. Fish stammered a few times, but then gave up. This made Fish look ridiculously weak to the general public who were so caught up in wartime fervor still that they didn't realize a war with Mexico would likely extend everything to far and implode the country all over again. Mexico had also been guaranteed independence and neutrality in 1840 by Caesar and wanted nothing to do with the Union.

More problems would arise when it was discovered that the Bank of Georgia also was storing the funds of the entire Bourbon dynasty and that Prince Alfonso, one of the biggest criminals of the war, was currently busy in Central America trying to ignite a monarchist revolution. The Mexican Republic had long been close economic allies with the South, and with their collapse the Republic itself was experiencing huge economic turmoil. In 1865, armed internal conflict would break out between Republicans, Beutelists, and monarchists. Even though it had been Spanish Royal rule that had been overthrown in 1827, the House of Bourbon positively paled in comparison to the years of the Mad Emperor Iturbide. This new Mexican Civil War saw the monarchists gain the upper hand simply through the use of Southron gold and some of the South's former commanders, such Louisiana's Pierre Beauregard, fighting for Prince Alfonso. In April of 1866, Prince Alfonso would take Mexico City and declare the Kingdom of Mexico, with himself as Alfonso I, King of the Mexicans. An initial impulse to declare himself "King of True Spain" as well was rightfully advised against, as it would likely trigger a house-call from Caesar to take him down a peg or three. This new nation was funded by the Bank of Georgia, which now became the Bank of Mexico. The Southron aristocrats now made sure their money was untouchable. If the Union came calling for reparations, the government could simply deny the existence of the Bank of Georgia. Many of the richest former slavers of the South fled to Mexico after Alfonso rose to power, making it an even richer country. But the problem was that only the rich were doing well, while the poor suffered greatly, laying the groundwork for many future problems.

Flag of the Kingdom of Mexico​

By the time the 1862 election rolled around in America, McClellan and Roberts had formed the Lincolnite Party, officially denouncing Fish, Colfax, and the Second Sons of Liberty. Slimy and sly, Colfax the snake read the writing on the wall and slithered away to found the Freedom and Union Party. When the election came, the Second Sons were no longer even close to being victorious. McClellan ended up winning with 67 percent of the vote in a landslide against both Colfax and Fish. McClellan had campaigned on rebuilding the South into a breadbasket and fully taking control of the Caribbean, but the first thing he actually did was go on a bloody hunt for Wirz's Riders and a new force in the South named the White League.

The White League was very similar to the Riders of the Storm and was made up of masked veterans of the Georgian, Texan, and Virginian Army and sought to slaughter and terrorize the emancipated blacks, ally with Mexico, and restore slavery. For a while, the White League adopted long white shrouds to represent the "ghosts of Southron soldiers," but this was abandoned in favor of typical masks as it was said the shrouds bore too close a resemblance to the uniforms of the Council of Jehovah. The White League was responsible for the Henrysburg Massacre in Florida right before the presidential election, where over 100 black political activists were slaughtered inside the Lincolnite Party Headquarters of the riverside town by masked gunmen. When McClellan became President he demanded RUMP, now greatly expanded since the end of the war, arrest every single known sympathizer of the White League and instituted a harsh 10 year prison term for anyone caught proliferating pamphlets or messages from the League.

Speaking of prisons, President McClellan was responsible for turning Cuba into an Inferior penal colony the likes of which had never been imagined before. Those Southron veterans and officers deemed too hardline to ever be redeemed, as well as war criminals, rapists, and many Irish, Slavic, and Latino former Southron citizens, were all sent to Cuba to join the Inferiors already there to work on massive plantations under 24 hour guard. The Union Navy was constantly on guard around the Cuban coastline and the Marine Corps were ready to deploy at any time if RUMP found themselves overwhelmed by an Inferior insurrection. Jamaica received a better fate, with the black former slaves there voting whether to become an independent (albeit satellite) nation or a part of the Republican Union. The AFC Church had really swept through there and converted throngs of citizens, and so Jamaica elected to join the Union as the State of Jamaica in mid-1863. The other Caribbean holdings taken from the South were mostly left alone to function as territories, with free blacks and poor whites working on farms and plantations, as well as a few alcohol distilleries and gun companies.

McClellan tried very hard to be a good president, however he was quite unsuccessful in crushing the Southron guerrilla movement. In late 1863, Heinrich Wirz and his men robbed a train carrying over a million dollars in Yankee gold near New Orleans and slaughtered all 158 passengers. On the outside of the train, written in blood, was the message: "Where is your God now?" This became known as the Great Train Massacre and really made Wirz the most hated man in America, which he relished. He supposedly considered retiring at this point, as the Bourbon government of Mexico had offered him asylum, but he finally decided he would rather live and die terrorizing the Republican Union. RUMP began the largest manhunt ever seen, as it had been Wirz who had been behind the Lincoln Assassination. Now that he had revealed himself to be near New Orleans, the entirety of the Mississippi was put on lockdown and he was forced to flee west to northern Texas. After a shootout in Trinity City, the Riders made their escape into the desert, not to be seen for several years. Over 100 men vanished into the dusty plains.

Despite his flaws, McClellan was doing his best and many of the people saw this, and he was re-elected in 1866. He would retire in 1870, with the Lincolnite Party once again clinging to power with McClellan's VP Jericho Roberts running with Winston Schofield Hancock. Roberts would help calm disagreements between the Carolinas and the Union and was an overall decent man. He was also notably the last American leader to not be a member of the AFC Church, as he was a Lutheran. Many have pointed to his presidency as the point in history at which the AFC Church became the majority faith in the Union (the addition of loyal black citizens and the stripping of Southron Irish and Slavs of their citizenship balanced out the addition of the South to the Union).

But Roberts would die of tuberculosis in 1872, unfortunately, and Hancock would briefly assume the mantle before George Sherman took power with his own Solid State Party in 1874. Hancock was very awkward as a leader and was ridiculed as the "Second Coming of Hamilton Fish." This was not very fair as Hancock had been a very good general but was simply just not tremendous at public speaking and inspired little in his countrymen. He did secure several trade deals that were quite lucrative, but he was most well known for a growing debacle in Lincolnia, the Union's African holding where former slaves were provided free transport to start a new life there. Former slaves there were getting massacred by native tribes and Hancock seemed to busy to care. When Sherman came to power, he would aggressively seek out and destroy the Native American tribes out West and would further fortify the border with Imperial Canada, which had seen rapid industrialization and militarization since the end of the Great American War. He would also open up a war in Lincolnia, pushing the hostile tribes back into the inner continent and finally supplying the former slaves with adequate resources to begin building the colony (or "Free Territory") of Lincolnia. Sherman was also a struggling alcoholic and his war with liquor usually made more headlines than the actual successful policies which were implemented through most of his administration. He would lose re-election in 1878 to Gideon Claywell. Claywell had been Lincoln's Secretary of the Labor during the war, and a radically devout AFC believer his entire life. Claywell was a moderately successful President, but didn't turn out to be a strong man like many thought was needed to govern such a large and growing "empire of freedom." He would become the last civilian to ever lead the Union. The "Strong Man Theory" was still there, always on the outskirts, its fulfillment just out of reach. The people of America fell into a malaise. Now resting on their laurels but also dealing with one problem after another, including growing threats of Inferior revolt and growing tensions with Mexico, America would need a new Lincoln. A new Julius Caesar to guide the ship of state with a strong hand. And George Armstrong Custer was waiting in the wings....

President Winston S. Hancock

President William Thomas Sherman

President Gideon Claywell

It was in November of 1865 that George Custer resigned from his position as occupying dictator of Appalachia, weary of inaction and winding frozen mountain paths, in favor of George Sherman. Custer then placed himself in the Army Reserve and made his way westward to Shicagwa, founding Custer's Company in 1866 with his brothers as a private mercenary army. The Company's official mission was to "Secure a better way of life for the Betters of Society and secure them from foreigners and the mongoloid races, especially Irish, Slavs, Italians, Polocks, Redskins, Catholics, Orthodoxers of any type, Amish, Hindoos, Ancestor-Worshipers, and Mohammedans. Of note is the fact that Frenchmen and Germans can be Inferiors if Papist, but those who have accepted true Christianity are generally not considered Inferiors." He soon procured a government contract to fight Indians and Southron guerrillas in the western territories, first battling the White League in Mississippi and then moving into Dakota to fight the Sioux Indians, on a mission from the government to kill all Indians or force them onto the massive Wounded Knee Reservation, a pre-War settlement that had become a veritable fortress prison for tens of thousands of natives, all pressed into slums and forced to work menial jobs. Many natives also fled west to the Kingdom of California, which treated them little better and would eventually give rise to the Ghost Dance War. Custer became a household name again for his daring exploits in 1875 when he went into active duty once again against the "vile Sioux devils," especially the Battle of Little Bighorn which saw a combined force of Union Cavalry and Custer's Company (now under the command of his brother Boston) destroy an army of 10,000 Sioux in one day in one of the bloodiest battles ever fought against the native tribes by an American government. It is Custer's Little Bighorn Campaign that is considered by most to be the last real war between the whites and Natives in Union territory, and the absolute slaughter that followed was remarkable. The battle itself was bad enough, with Custer deploying Colonel Pierce Munitions' new "coffee grinder" guns, actually named M74 Pierce Autoguns, rattling off hundreds of shots per minute and absolutely decimating the Sioux. Captain William McKinley, who had been in the Ohio Infantry and fought in the Great American War under Custer during his Trinity River Campaign, was also present in the RU Cavalry at this point, said of the battle:

"It was like making history with lightning. We began the cranking of our wagon-born Pierce guns, the ones they compare to coffee grinders, and fired into the savage horde. It was spectacular. I have never seen more panic in someone's eyes than when I opened fire on those Sioux horsemen and ripped them apart with the bullets I was spitting out as fast as I could turn the crank. It was a beautiful sight to once again serve under Custer, and I was not surprised he brought us such glorious victory."

-William McKinley, Captain, 14th Ohio Horse Regiment

"The bodies piled high around us, both man and horse. We took casualties, but the Sioux took far more. It was haunting. I was crawling with a scoped repeater rifle through bloody dirt and over dead and dying horses and Sioux, picking off the Sioux who were trying to run away. They were terrified. I think they thought hell had come for them. They never stood a damn chance. It was more of a slaughter house than a battle. I felt a pang of guilt each time I squeezed the trigger on the helpless stream of retreating Indians. But then I remembered my duty to God and Country. And I kept firing. I lost count at 50."

-Cyrus Fink, Sergeant, Custer's Company
​

Union troops stand guard by a squadron of Pierce M74 Autoguns
​

Custer opened up several more business ventures in the West, most notably a meat and pelt business. Wagons or train cars would drive through herds of buffalo and a coffee grinder would open fire and massacre as many as could be had in the shortest amount of time. Within a decade, Custer would be rolling in millions of dollars simply from almost driving the buffalo to extinction. Still more money came in from Custer Corn Whiskey, made from grain harvested on his massive estates in Redemption. He was also looting priceless Native American artifacts the entirety of his career in the West and selling them back East for absolute fortunes. Owning Native American artifacts became the "in" thing to do, and was simply all the rage in New England. Custer's two favorite items were Chief Crazy Horse's engraved flintlock pistol he had taken from the chief's body at Little Bighorn and the original iron helmet of Hernando Cortez, both of which sat in a glass case behind his desk at his headquarters in Shicagwa. Custer was truly one of the most powerful and rich men in the Union.

The advent of the Pierce Munitions "coffee grinder" guns spelled the doom of the American Indian and his way of life. This also spelled trouble as knockoffs began appearing all over the world, especially the French-made M80 Napoleons pouring into Mexico through middlemen in California. It was simply no time at all before the M80s had made their way into the hands of Heinrich Wirz and his terrorists, who once again rode across the border from Mexico into Texas in 1881. The Union economy was very weak after recent stock market scares in New York City, and Wirz knew it was the right time to sew anarchy in Texas and the South. They would ride on multiple occasions into small towns with a wagon concealing an M80 Napoleon, take off its blanket, and then open fire at random, slaughtering blacks, "carpetbagging Northerners," and Union soldiers. Then, in late July, 1882, Wirz struck once more, detonating explosives under a train carrying former Virginian potentate Robert E. Lee, assassinating him for his "betrayal of Southron manhood and the glorious nations of Virginia, Texas, and Georgia." Lee was still quite fondly remembered in Virginia for his dedication to his very loyal men and in the Union for his humility and gracious defeat, and this caused a break between the Veterans of the Army of Virginia Society and the White League. Wirz inadvertently had sent Virginia further into the Union's hands.

In 1879, George was presented by President Claywell with the Order of Patriotic Brethren Medallion for his "gallant service to God, Country, and Future Generations." Children worshiped him, men wanted to be him, and women were known to faint just at the site of him in the room. His trademark long golden locks and pointed mustache, as well as his bravado and charisma, made him an ideal face for the Union. And he began to see himself as the heir to Lincoln. Many people, himself most definitely included, claimed only Custer could be the new Lincoln and build the Union into the unstoppable machine everyone knew it could be. In 1883, Custer would found his own movement and begin campaigning for President of the Republican Union on a platform of militarization, expansionism, xenophobia, crackdown on Southron separatists, and revenge against King Alfonso, Wirz, and all the other former Southron leaders holed up in Mexico. As border skirmishes continued to be swept under the rug by an increasingly unfit and senile President Claywell, the people of America were finally ready for the dawn of true fascism. A young, power-mad war hero would take the reigns and recreate America in his own image and at last reincarnate the Second Sons of Liberty and its old everyman support base in the form of the Manifest Destiny Party. The clock of fate had struck midnight, and a new era was on the horizon.

Map of the World following the Great American War​

 

[Napoleon53]

BE OF GOOD SPIRITS:
THE CHARLES MARX STORY

For a very long time, Charles Marx had lived in the shadows of his much more famous father, Dr. Henry Marx, the founder of Scientific Marxism and Phrenological Studies. Charles had long desired to become a great biologist like his father, but young English immigrant Charles Darwin was now undisputed king of all things biological. Charles had attended Benedict Arnold University of Boston and had eventually worked his way up to professor of occult studies, a very unusual and small field in the Union at the time. It was his job to compile information and lecture about various pagan rituals and religions. He had spent some time in the Baltic region, studying the last practitioners of the ancient Nordic faiths, and had spent time in the Congo learning about Black Magic from the remote and isolated tribesmen.

In 1850, Marx actually had to be rescued by a Chersonesus State University professor named William Roy after Marx went off the radar for too long and was presumed dead in the Congo. This led to the famous catchphrase, "Dr. Marx, I presume!" In reality, Marx had gone temporarily mad and had declared himself "Great White King in the Congo." In reality, Marx was king of approximately 20 tribals who had never seen a white man before and thought him a god. Marx returned home to Boston for several years to recover and publish a memoir of his adventures titled, Great White King in the Heart of Darkness, or How I, Dr. Charles Marx, became the God of the Congolese Savages. He thought this the pinnacle of his career as far as excitement would go, but he was mistaken. He would begin one last journey to a foreign shore that would bring him everlasting fame.

Dr. Charles Marx (left) and Dr. William Roy (right) pose for a photo with Congolese tribesmen​

In 1855, Marx would leave for the Caribbean, first visiting the Republic of Cuba to learn about the ancient faiths once practiced there, then leaving for Saint-Domingue, sometimes known as Haiti on Union maps. There a remarkable series of events would unfold. For it was there that Marx met a local spiritualist named "Mama Dog," a strange hermit of a woman who lived deep in the tropical forest of the island, far away from prying eyes, practicing the dark art of Voodoo that had been created long ago by merging aspects of Christianity with ancient African pagan witchcraft. Marx had heard tell of this former slave that she could summon the dead to the land of the living and could sense the presence of spirits, both good and bad. Intrigued, Dr. Marx pressed on and began a three week search for the "Queen of Vodou." When he finally found her, she was living in a cave in deep isolation, kept company only by her tealights and her pet cat. Marx was a radical AFC member, but found himself wondering if the dead really could be summoned, and what they might have to say.

As Marx discussed matters ethereal with Mama Dog, he apparently became quite convinced of the power of vodou and immediately wanted to learn these dark arts himself. Marx never wrote down what happened in that cave, but he wrote to his good friend Bruno Wald of Harvard, "I have seen the other side. We have been living on an isolated island in a black sea of infinity. There is a vast world on the ethereal on the very cusp of the plain of existence we currently reside in. A place of the dead. And through meditation, learning, and patience, I have unlocked a portal to this other realm. I have seen the light and the dark. The spirits of past patriot-saints, and the devilish bugaboos. I mean to share this knowledge with the world." Many historians believe that Mama Dog actually was plying him with a horrifying cocktail of mind-altering drugs, and that Marx in fact had gone insane on the island and never regained his faculties.

Marx returned to Boston from Saint-Domingue a man obsessed with the occult. For the next few years he would continue his studies of the dark arts and "ancient magick and voodoo." It was the time of the Great American War, and Marx wouldn't come into his own until after the war ended, but it was in 1861 that Marx met "Mr. Tobias," an odd, thin, lanky man with flowing black receding hair. Mr. Tobias was a Jewish Englishman who had come to America just several years before to join the Union cause, but one of the first battles of the war had left him completely blind. Now, he was running a "transcendentalist spiritual meditation salon" in a cabin outside Boston. It was there that Dr. Marx and himself would meet for the first time in December, 1862. Shortly after the meeting, Mr. Tobias became a guru of sorts to Marx and the two began an intense study of spiritualism and the occult. Before long, Marx began to "perfect the means of conversing with the dead." The cultural explosion was on the edge of finally happening. This was only aided by the Second AFC Standard Edition Bible that released around this same time. The Council of Jehovah had gone over it with a fine-tooth comb to purge anything that might make themselves look bad. This included drastically altering the Witch of Endor story from the First Book of Samuel, with the Witch disappearing altogether from the tale. Outsiders had accused the Council of practicing sorcery and the dark arts in occult rituals, and also spread conspiracy theories about a hierarchy of "Freemason Grand Masters" who controlled the history of the country. Just to make sure they never came under fire from their own church, the Council made sure to clean up the Scriptures a little bit to solidify their power.

A flattering depiction of "Mr. Tobias"​

The outbreak of Spiritual Marxism that swept the nation in the waning days of the Great American War can be attributed to the desire of so many families to know that their fallen sons were still out there somewhere and could possibly communicate. Marx and Mr. Tobias proposed that the dead were still indeed reachable, and that only select physical "mediums" could reach these dead people, by way of "extruding ectoplasm from their soul at a cosmic level during a "Session" (within the spiritualist movement elsewhere these were known as "seances." Marx preached that speaking to the ghosts of loved ones was harmless enough, but also warned that untrained "mediums" could not tell the difference between the ghosts and angels and the evil "bugaboos and harpees." Bugaboos were demons while harpees were "Hell's Archdemons" and not to be trifled with. As the source of all things evil in this world, bugaboos and harpees "served Satan and brought death and destruction upon the earth." As Marx began to flesh out his new ideology, he published a set of "The Eight Pillars for Spiritual Marxism." He also preached that this ideology was not incompatible with American Fundamentalist Christianity, but rather enhanced it and worked alongside it.

1. We believe in Jehovah our God, Jesus Christ the Savior, the Holy Ghost, and the Prophet Burr, All Hail, and whosoever shall be of the Chosen as written in the Holy Script and the Books of Manifest Destiny shall have everlasting life.

2. We believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Infinite Intelligence of a Grand Architect of the Universe, proving God's existence and the existence of the spiritual realm and the Light and Dark therein.

3. We affirm that a correct understanding of such expression and living in accordance therewith constitute true religion, and that abuse of the practices of Spiritualism can bring grave demonic forces from Hell itself into our plane of existence to wreak havoc and sew death and discord. Spiritualism must be learned over many years before the other side can be safely contacted.

4. We affirm that the existence and personal identity of the individual continue after the change called death. Those Inferior souls and the souls of the wicked shall not speak to the living, for they are damned and lost souls and shall perish in hellfire for eternity.

5. We affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomena of Spiritualism.

6. There are Mediums of Spiritualism and Prophets of Spiritualism. While there are many mediums yet living, the only Prophet of Spiritualism under the New Covenant is the Prophet Burr, All Hail his name. Mediums can, through their output of ectoplasmic spiritual energy, discuss matters with the dead and be a messenger of the secrets they took to their graves, but only Prophets can speak to the Angels and God Himself and learn the future and things yet to come. But there is no Prophet but the Prophet Burr, All Hail.

7. We affirm the moral responsibility of individuals and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws. Questioning the Word of God and tempting the bugaboos and harpees brings only disaster, while living within the boundaries set by God's Word and the Books of Manifest Destiny shall bring glory and light, in both the spiritual world and the physical.

8. We affirm that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine attributes proven through Mediumship and Prophethood. Within each Chosen Child of God is the key to unlock the door to the spirit world, but only through meditation and study can this ever be achieved.​

​

Marx and Mr. Tobias quickly took their show on the road, appearing at countless theatres, churches, and social spots, summoning up spirits, casting out demons, handling serpents, and speaking in tongues. The Union was still wracked with grief over the loss of countless sons and fathers, and quite simply many people desired to know that their boy was all right and at peace, and to say "I love you" one last time. Chief among these grieving citizens was Esther Anne Lincoln, widow of the Father of the Restoration. She personally asked Marx and Mr. Tobias to come to her house and make contact with her late husband. During a four hour session "Marx summoned forth with holy ectoplasma the spectre of Father Abraham himself. The deceased President reassured his wife through use of a spirit board that he was in fact at peace and proud of his family and nation." Lastly, a photograph was taken of Mrs. Lincoln which apparently showed the "Ghost of the President" comforting his wife.

The Spectre of the President with his Wife (1863)​

As can be imagined, there was a huge initial backlash against Marx and everything he stood for, but the acceptance of his bizarre teachings put the AFC and America as a whole in a unique and uncomfortable position. The punishment for witchcraft within the AFC was expulsion and damnation, something which the Council of Jehovah was not ready to do to the grief-stricken widow of the Father of the Nation. It was all made even worse when Mrs. Lincoln claimed Lincoln asked the Angel of Destiny to speak to him through a "spirit board" during the Great American War. In late 1864, the Council of Jehovah convened with Reverend-Colonel Edward Everett and Supreme Deacon Milo Miles (a new title created just for the legendary evangelist, now in his seventies) to arrive at a final decision about the entire matter. In a shocking move, the AFC Church officially declared Marx's teachings to be true and right, and the Council itself began holding sessions to contact the souls of patriot-saints in the afterlife. This caused a massive rupture within the church and with the general public from the the AFC. But the ongoing popularity worldwide of spiritualism could not be stopped. Stories such as the Witch of Endor in First Samuel were cast in a different light, with there still being "practitioners of the dark arts" and "evil witches" deserving of death. But this new form of "Christian Magick" was said to be a Holy Rite and a form of communion with Heaven, as long as the proper cautions were used to avoid contacting the demons of Hell itself. All in all, this was a nation believing prophecies handed down by a Revolutionary War veteran with traumatic brain injuries, so there were few lines to be crossed to arrive at this point. On January 1st, 1865, the Council of Jehovah would meet for the first "Cremation of Sin" at Valley Forge to "commune with spirit of the Prophet and seek his divine wisdom in all things and to call upon the spirits of all past Patriot-Saints to protect the nation from the evil machinations of Lucifer and his hordes of hellbound apostates and mongoloid steppe demons." The Council members would gather around and rhythmically pray to the Prophet Burr before lighting a wooden cross on fire and calling upon the spirits to communicate. Copious amounts of peyote were also involved. A new chapter of American history had arrived. The Era of Spiritual Marxism had begun. Though most of America remained unconvinced, events would steer them toward belief in the later years of the century. Back in Europe, where spiritualism had seen a brief wave of popularity in the 1850s, many scoffed at the "crazy Americans" and laughed it off as yet another sign the Yankees had lost their collective minds. But in America it was far more enduring, defying all expectations and surviving well into the next century....

Rare photograph of a "Cremation of Sin" circa late 19th century​

 

[Napoleon53]

Much of this is based on Zoidberg's great 1.0 two guest chapters on Africa. It, however, becomes quite different by the end of the chapter, as you'll soon see.

CHAPTER 38
THE RACE FOR AFRICA

"Without any doubt the Franco-Spanish Empire is the Third Rome. [....] During the Great Wars of the Empire under Caesar Napoleon I, France proved herself by conquering nation after nation, even when she was against all the odds and facing mighty Britannia. [....] Now, thirty years after the wars have ended, Britannia is a dusty history book and the Franco-Spanish Empire is poised to dominate the dark continent of Africa. If the Empire could have Europe under her heel, why not the Dark Continent? [....] The young Caesar has many years ahead of him, and may he bring glory to the Empire forever more!"

-Excerpts from the article "The Rise of the Empire Across the Globe" by French writer, novelist and journalist Octave Louis Martel, Imperial Times of Paris, July 19th, 1845​

During the waning days of the Pax Napoleonica, just before Caesar's Invasion of Egypt and the Levant, the great powers of Europe, making new breakthroughs in technology, science, and general industrialization, were determined more than ever to conquer new lands in Africa, Asia and other "exotic" locales and to bring European culture and religion to these places while at the same time taking diamonds, gold, crops, and furs from them. These European empires had particularity desired a new dominance over Africa ever since the 1832 World Congress, when it was agreed that the United Empire of France-Spain would be given dominance over Saharan Africa, while Prussia, a rising power, would hold dominance over Sub-Saharan Africa. These points were agreed on by all of the major powers of Europe and the Americas, and at the time they seemed fair and forthright.

It reality, these assurances were over-generalized and rather vague. While all of the world powers observed these accords, they were not viewed all that seriously due to the fact that European nations at the time were not entirely capable of colonizing the depths of Africa. This was due to the lack of immunity against diseases, horrid climates, hostile and unknown tribes, and many other factors. All that the leaders and emissaries did at the Congress to formalize these borders was to draw them on a map of Africa and call it a day. A line was drawn at the 5th Parallel North and at the 10th Parallel South. Above the 5th parallel North was marked “French Africa” in several different languages, while below down to the 10th Parallel South was marked “Prussian Africa”, again in several different languages. The so-called "Prussian Line" stopped at the 10th Parallel South as Portuguese and Dutch colonies were already located below, and as a result, these nations were tacitly given influence over this region of Africa. Meanwhile many a nation, be they a major or minor power, hoped to use these vague assurances to their advantages by slipping in their own African colonies sometime in the future. However, this was merely Day One of the Race for Adfrica. Colonization would not be fully under way for quite some years to come.

FRANCE-SPAIN AND PRUSSIA, THE ARCH RIVALRY OF THE RACE FOR AFRICA:​

The two main powers throughout the Race for Africa were the Franco-Spanish Empire (after 1896 the Empire of Europa) and the Kingdom of Prussia (after 1850 the Nordreich). In 1832, France had owned quite a bit of land on the coast of North Africa, while Spain owned at least one port. In 1838, when France and Spain officially went into a personal union and became the United Empire of France-Spain with Napoleon II's marriage to his Spanish consort Eugenie, these African holdings officially became Franco-Spanish colonies. Prussia was given the Spanish islands of Bioko and Annobon as a gesture of goodwill from France. It was just the beginning of what would become an impressive African holding for the Hohenzollern-Wettins.

Thus Prussia, as a new power on the world stage, was especially eager to establish a strong foothold in Africa after 1832. Faced with being cramped into the middle of Russia and the United Empire, Prussia saw African expansion as its route to fame, fortune, and respect. During the late 1830's they did just this. On the coast of Western Africa, along the Equatorial region, Prussia founded the colony of Friedrich-Wilhelmsville (OTL's Libreville, Gabon) in 1836. This would be promptly followed by the foundation of Neue Berlin (OTL's Port Gentil, Gabon) in 1837. The Franco-Spanish Empire took notice of this, and most certainly wanted to one-up their new Prussian rivals in Africa. However the Franco-Spanish Empire was already the most massive globe-spanning empire since the time of Genghis Khan, with most of Europe, South America, the Indian Subcontinent and Australia under their control. As a result, Caesar Napoleon II decided to take the colonization of Africa slowly.

Then the year 1838 came and turned Europe's attention away from Africa, albeit temporarily, due to the assassination of the Austrian Emperor and the subsequent crackdown on anarchists. With Austria-Hungary in due time to come into a personal union with France and Spain thanks to the Second Treaty of Vienna (1836), the history of European colonialism would be changed forever. In the meantime, France still had colonizing Africa on its agenda. In 1841, two new Franco-Spanish cities were founded in North Africa, just under the Kingdom of Morocco. They were Laâyoune, or El Aaiún in Spanish, and Cape Napoleon (OTL's Cape Bojador). These colonies were bilingual, with both French and Spanish as official languages and with colonial officers from both nations in charge of the colonies. Many more future Franco-Spanish colonies would contain an equal influence of French and Spanish culture, with Austrian, Hungarian, Bohemian and Slavic culture coming into the mix after the formation of the Empire of Europa. All these European cultures would in turn mix with the various native African cultures. Cape Napoleon became the crown jewel of the new colony of Boujadour.

Franco-Spanish Zouave Infantry
on parade in Boujadour​

Meanwhile, Prussia continued to found more outposts, including Neue Potsdam (OTL's Doula, Cameroon) in 1841, Von Zietensville in 1842 (OTL's Beua, Cameroon), and Stadt von Afrika (OTL's Omboue, Gabon) that same year. It was also during this time that Prussia would begin to have her eyes set on the large and unexplored Congo region. However, the desolate interior of the Congo would not be colonized for years to come due to several deadly diseases which thrived in the jungle, along with the presence of hostile tribes. Still the land was recognized as Prussian, and Prussian-backed expeditions would be carried on and along the Congo River sporadically during the 1840s and 1850s. The most famous of these expeditions was the 1854 expedition by explorer August Kappler, in which his expedition of 500 men, mostly Prussian but also containing some other Nordic volunteers (including 50 Finns far out of their natural habitat) successfully traveled up the Congo River and back to Neue Potsdam. Another expedition, this time smaller, was made by Kappler in 1861, which a few months after departing from Neue Potsdam mysteriously disappeared. It was speculated that the party was attacked and killed by hostile natives, though there was never any evidence to say exactly. Some evidence gives credence to the theory that the same tribals who possibly murdered the 1861 expedition also were the ones whom Dr. Charles Marx lived with during his own 1850 expedition.

August Kappler​

One of the most important events in the early days of the Race for Africa came in 1849. With the Ottoman Empire in turmoil and fighting the Balkan Wars, the Franco-Spanish Empire decided it was high time to conquer Algeria, an Ottoman dependency the Dual-Monarchy had long had its eyes on. The invasion began on August 12th, 1849 with multiple troop landings across the Algerian coast targeted at Algiers and Oran, with the Franco-Spanish Empire not even bothering to issue a formal declaration of war. The invasion was commanded by generals from both nations: the French Count de Ghaisnes de Bourmont and the Spanish Duke of Valencia Ramón María Narváez. They both proved themselves excellent commanders during the war, with their use of scorched earth tactics working amazingly well against the Arab defenders. These tactics greatly raised the moral of the Franco-Spanish soldiers, and made quite a name for the two generals back home. The war would last only three months, with the conflict over by Christmas. It was this conflict that likely emboldened Caesar Napoleon II to invade the entire Ottoman Empire just a few years later, finally ending the Pax Napoleonica.

Imperial troops push forward in Algeria​

By the beginning of November, most of Algeria had been overrun by the Franco-Spanish invaders, and the Ottoman provincial ruler Hussein Dey, seeing no way out, surrendered on November 13th, 1849. The Treaty of Oran was signed a day later, and established Algeria as a Franco-Spanish colony. The Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I was not pleased, as he was already on the verge of losing land in the Balkans. Nevertheless, he had no choice but to comply with the treaty, as he had no real way of regaining Algeria without simply asking for Caesar to come smack him from power and end the Caliphate forever (something which would ironically later happen anyway) Franco-Spanish settlers would come gradually to Algeria, with Franco-Spanish presence and culture becoming noticeable by the mid-1860's.

Back in Europe, in late 1850 the Nordreich was born, encompassing not only Prussia, but also Saxony, Poland and Finland. While all this was going on, Europe still had her eyes on Africa. With its new European empire secure, the House of Hohenzollern-Wettin became even more enthusiastic to colonize more land in Africa, and they made no secret of it. These new countries under Nordic rule would bring new wealth to the country and speed up their colonization of Africa. A new wave of future settlers would also bring to these colonies in the middle of Africa a mix of North German, Polish and Finnish culture. Between both the Europan and Prussian Empires, there would be a very unusual and interesting mix between the European and African cultures.

When the 1860s rolled around, it was clear to all that the Franco-Spanish and Prusso-Nordic rivalry that started in the 1830s was beginning to intensify greatly. This competition between the two multi-ethnic superpowers would later come to be known simply as "The Great Game"; a term coined by English writer, journalist and politician J.R. Kipling in 1894.

OTHER POWERS:​

Aside from France-Spain and Prussia, the Kingdom of Holland was increasingly becoming a rising power in its own right, having colonized most of Indonesia (and claiming the whole region), New Guinea and dipping into Indochina. In Africa, the Dutch had one sole possession, the Cape Colony, which expanded rapidly during the late 1830's through to the 1850's. It should also be noted that by the late 1840's, Holland was officially no longer a puppet state of France (though it was still a close friend and ally), and was very much on its own. This new independence from French control allowed the Dutch Empire to grow even more than it already had been. By 1850 the Cape Colony was one of the most prosperous Dutch colonies. The residents of the Cape Colony were an ethnicity known as Afrikaners or Boers, and were the the descendants of Dutch Calvinists, Germans, French Huguenots, Frisians, and minor numbers of other Europeans who settled in the region. Interestingly, American protestants who feared the growth of the AFC Church in the Republican Union also arrived in the area.

The Boers played a large role in the expansion of the Cape Colony along with the mother country, with several new cities being founded by the Boers, sometimes in cooperation with new Dutch settlers. One of the most prominent Boer leaders was Andries Pretorius, who was instrumental in the expansion of the Cape Colony through the moving of settlers into the frontier and the foundation of new cities. These new cities included a new capital of the colony named Lodewijksville (OTL's Johannesburg), said city named after King Louis I of Holland, Pretoria (named after Pretorius himself), Bloemfontein, New Friesland (OTL's Kimberly), among others. The rather sporadic conflicts with local tribes were either minimal or easily won, and the Cape Colony became so large it was officially reformed into "The Colony of Dutch South Africa" ("De Kolonie van de Hollands Zuid-Afrika" in Dutch) in 1859, with Pretorius as its first governor. While the Boers continued to have close ties with their mother country over the decades, during this time the Boers would begin to develop a new identity and national consciousnesses. By the 1860's, greater calls were being made from the Colonial Parliament in Lodewijskville for some sort of autonomy from the mother country, with some radicals calling for all out independence. Still, most were satisfied with the relationship between master and colony, so things stayed as such for the immediate future. Expansion would continue in the future as well, bringing the Boers into inevitable conflict with other local tribes, in particular the Zulus.

Andries Pretorius, the first Governor of Dutch South Africa​

Boer settlers in the interior of Dutch "Zuid-Afrika", circa 1840​

In terms of other nations, the Portuguese Confederation had already owned colonies in East and West Africa for centuries, while Denmark-Norway had owned the Gold Coast ever since it had been given it during the division of the British Empire at the 1826 World Congress. The Kingdom of Denmark--now under King Frederick VII after the disastrous reign of his father, Christian VIII, that saw an end to the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway-- finally turned a new page and began being much more successful in the Gold Coast Colony, founding the city of New Aarhus in 1848 for example. While France-Spain and the Nordreich would be the dominant forces in the Race for Africa, a number of other European and even North American nations would play a role of their own in due time.

A French political cartoon from around 1885, commenting on the Nordreich (personified by Chancellor Otto Von Bismark) and its increasingly aggressive and competitive attitude in the Franco-Nordic Great Game, with the rest of Europe looking on.

"I have thought some more since then and I have read carefully the different treaties between the European powers, themselves and the natives, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of Africa. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagles--be they Franco-Spanish, Nordic, or American--putting their talons on any other land. The same goes for any other European power."​

Virginian Great American War veteran, author, humorist and political theorist Samuel Clemens in his essay, "The Emperor's Folly", first published in Ireland while living in exile, December, 1889

​

One of the most important sagas of the Race for Africa was the Great Game, a period of intense colonial rivalry across the world between the two greatest European superpowers, the United Empire of France-Spain and the Nordreich. The Great Game mostly took place in Africa, but also in Asia and other places as well. The Great Game continued into the late 1860s and 1870s, with things really heating up in the early and mid-1870s. The Franco-Spanish Empire continued to establish more cities and trading posts along the northern coast of Africa, and in 1873 took their expansion one step further. France-Spain embarked on a large-scale military expedition in the Horn of Africa, in an effort to finally have a power-base in the region; conquering many of the northern Somali Emirates as well as the Yemeni islands of Socotra. These colonies would increase France-Spain’s trade power in the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, the Nordreich was also flexing her muscles on the African continent. With new advancements in medicine and weaponry coming in the late 1860s and early 1870s, the Kaiser finally felt confident enough to colonize deeper into the Congo. So, with new powers at its disposal, the Reich would keep on pushing into Africa, colonizing the land around the basin of the Congo River by the foundation of new cities, military bases and trading posts. Fighting against restless tribes also occurred, but the odds were all in the Reich's favor due to their more advanced weaponry. By 1875, a great deal of land around the Congo River basin was colonized, with the lion's share of the Nordic Congo being colonized and settled by the mid 1880s. The colony of the Prussian Congo (which included, oddly enough, some outer regions not a part of the Congo region) would not be fully colonized by the early 1890s. However some problems remained during the over twenty year colonization process, such as hostile tribes continuing to harass the Nordic settlers and adventurers, making colonization a bit more difficult than previously thought, though not by that much in the long run.

Nordic troops slog through the murky waters of the Congo
​

However, one native African kingdom would continue to be particularly troublesome. This was the Yeke Kingdom in Katangaland, led by their persistent and stubborn founder and ruler named Msiri, a man who had embraced modern weaponry and tactics. When the Reich and the Yeke first butted heads in 1886, the Nords were at first at a disadvantage due to a shortage of supplies and manpower and the shock of the Yeke using their own tactics and weapons against them. The Yeke Kingdom fiercely fought off the sporadic Nord incursions, brutally massacring any European who dared step foot within the kingdom. The Nords tended to stay out of Msiri's way for this reason, but all this changed three years later in June of 1889, when a great number of reinforcements of settlers and soldiers arrived to eventually pacify the region. Soon after, a new army was formed from said reinforcements under the Austrian-born adventurer and mercenary Rudolf Carl von Slatin. Within a few month’s time, Slatin’s Colonial Army of Katangaland, with the help of a some Portuguese volunteers, finally killed Misiri in battle at his capital of Bunyeka. Katangaland was finally open for Nordic settlement. Small areas of the region would also be colonized by the Portuguese Confederation, which sought to connect their colonial holdings in the eastern and western coasts of Africa inland.

Msiri, founder and ruler of the Yeke Kingdom

Carl Rudolf Von Slatin
​

Prussia also began to colonize some land in south-western Africa beginning in 1874, just above Dutch South Africa. After a sizable number of towns were founded, the colony was dubbed Kaiser Wilhelmsland in 1881, and a new city and capital for the colony was founded. This new city was simply named Port Wilhelmsland (OTL's Walvis Bay), and would become a major commercial hub in the coming years. While this was going on, the Dutch were not pleased that the Prussians were colonizing land seen as in their sphere of influence. Amsterdam and Lodewijksville sent letters of protest, but there was little they could do, and eventually came to an agreement with Prussia as to the borders of the the colonies in 1890, with relations between the two nations improving greatly as a result.

THE ITALIANS GET THEIR SLICE OF THE AFRICAN CAKE:​

The Italian kingdoms were the first of the few minor European nations to get a piece of Africa for their own. Specifically, the Kingdom of Italy got theirs in 1867, when, as an act of goodwill and to keep the Kingdom on their side, the Franco-Spanish Empire gave the Kingdom of Italy permission to colonize some small land in north-west Africa, near some of France-Spain's existing outposts. This land was dubbed Italian Senegal in 1870, and while it was the Kingdom of Italy's only colony, it would prove a prestigious one at that due to the large amounts of gold and other valuable trade items the colony contained, making the Kingdom of Italy's coffers overflow. Senegal would be completely colonized and have finalized borders by 1888, all the while proving a worthy investment.

In 1873, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, somewhat jealous of their northern neighbor's new colony, wanted to get in on the game as well. They got just that when the Franco-Spanish Empire, not wanting to see the other of the two major Italian puppet states feeling left out, allowed the Two Sicilies to embark on a military expedition against the Swahili City states, also due to the fact that the Empire had no interest at all in the region and would much rather have the land in the hands of an ally than a rival or potential enemy (in other words, the Reich). France-Spain would allow the Sicilian military to handle the expedition on their own, with France-Spain also giving a good deal of support in the form of weapons and volunteers. After some brief preparation, the Swahili City states finally came under attack on November 1, 1873. A rising Sicilian general by the name of Giuseppe Garibaldi led his troops, along with several French and Swiss regiments, on an attack of a great number of southern Swahili city-states. The war was a quick and easy one due in part to the power of surprise the Sicilians had over the African natives, lasting only two months and ending on January 3, 1874. The war, while brief, brought great fame to Garibaldi, who would become known as the "Lion of Africa." He would later serve as the Prime Minister of the Two Siciles, further cementing his status as an iconic figure.

Meanwhile, of the nations in the region of the southern Swahili states, the Sultanate of Zanzibar was one of the only nations of Africa to survive colonization without being fully colonized, sharing this distinction only with Morocco and Ethiopia. The Sicilians decided a protectorate and trade agreement was more efficient there than outright direct rule.

"The condition of a protected dependency is more acceptable to the half civilized races, and more suitable for them than direct dominion. It is cheaper, simpler, less wounding to their self-esteem, gives them more career as public officials, and spares unnecessary contact with white men."

- Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi, "The Lion of Africa"

Flag of the Sultanate of Zanzibar

THE DUTCH-ZULU WAR:​

While Dutch South Africa continued to expand, conflict inevitably came between the Afrikaner settlers and the Zulus, one of the most influential native African nations in the region. At first, in the mid to late 1870s, conflict only came in the form of skirmishes, but things finally escalated on July 27th, 1880. Accounts of what exactly happened vary, but all that is known is that a tribe of Zulu warriors, perhaps acting without permission, attacked an allegedly defenseless Boer caravan. Who instigated the fight would never be known, but the news that the Zulu warriors massacred women and children infuriated the government in Lodewijskville. When the Colonial Parliament asked the mother country for permission to "rid South Africa of the Zulu nation once and for all", the young King Louis II happily went along, eager to expand the Dutch Empire under everyone's noses. The Kingdom of Holland declared war on the Zulu nation on August 2, 1880. While the Zulus under Chief Cetshwayo kaMpande put up a good fight, proving quite a thorn in the Dutch Expeditionary Force's and local Boer armies' sides, they were simply no match for a technologically advanced European army, as was the case with so many colonial wars. The war reached a climax on April 28, 1881, when the Dutch, having occupied most of the Zulu kingdom, reached the final outpost of Zulu resistance and wiped out the last Zulu army in less than an hour. A new town was founded on the site of battle named "New Groningen" (OTL's Durban), and that final confrontation became known as the Battle of New Groningen as a result.

The Zulus attack the Dutch and Boer Armies during the Battle of New Groningen
​

Cetshwayo and most of his family were imprisoned by the Dutch Army soon afterwards, dying one by one under mysterious circumstances. The Dutch would continue to expand into the heart of Southern Africa during the 1880s, coming into conflict with more tribes and later causing a noticeable tension between the Boers and the subjugated natives, the latter who would eventually find themselves as second class citizens in their own land.

OTHER POWERS:​

The Portuguese Confederation's main goal in the Race for Africa was to make the push from the east coast to the west coast of Africa, and to build "a railroad from Luanda to Maputo". After gaining enough resources to do so, they starting construction on the Luanda Railway beginning in 1883. Things went well for the most part, with most tribes falling into line quickly, except for the Yeke Kingdom under their ruler Msiri. However, after his kingdom collapsed in 1889 at the hands of the Prussians, the Portuguese continued to expand into small areas of Katangaland, reaching from coast to coast by Christmas of 1889. With the tribes finally out of the way, construction of the railway was completed in 1890. While Portugal was an afterthought in Europe for the last two generations, their colonies were still fairly successful for a nation of such stature.

Outside of Portugal, Denmark continued to expand in the Gold Coast region. In 1871 the Danish West Africa Company ("Dansk Vestafrika Kompagni" in Danish) was founded in an effort to gain more profit from the colonies goods, a scheme which went quite well. The Danish continued to expand the colony of Danish West Africa deeper inland during the 1880s, and even went on to conquer the Nigerian region by 1890.

Meanwhile, during the last 20 years that Europe was busying itself colonizing Africa, North America, too, was sneaking its way into the Dark Continent. In 1865, famed black AFC minister and revolutionary, Reverend Aaron Burr Douglass, would create the African Fatherland Movement, desiring to see his people, now freed from Southron slavery, return across the waters of the Atlantic to Africa and "preach the Word of God and the Message of the Prophet Burr to every tribe and people of the earth." Douglass would finally gain support from the the AFC Church and the Council of Jehovah in 1869, and the Church provided several million dollars and supplies to start out, while several black AFC Volunteer Brigades shipped out as the "Free Army of Lincolnia." With Douglass as their Moses, thousands of blacks would begin crossing the Atlantic to West Africa. Douglass slowly found himself ironically battling African tribes like the Asanti west of the Danish Gold Coast and soon founded himself founding the city of New Philadelphia (OTL's Monrovia) in mid 1870 as a capital for his new realm. Following several more battles with the natives there, as well as a brief skirmish with Danish troops, the "Republican Union of Lincolnia" was officially recognized by the Republican Union, its recognition being the last act of President McClellan. In his honor, another city was founded and named McClellanburg (OTL's Buchanan). By the end of the century, the other major city to sprout up was Douglasstown (OTL's Greenville) following Douglass's death. Douglass had ruled as "President of the Republican Union of Lincolnia" but had mostly dictatorial powers. Even so, Douglass was shockingly noble in most of his policy-making, except a total ban on Irish and Slavic peoples from ever entering the RUL. He was succeeded in office after a "free and open election" by Alvin Thomas Wayne, who began ruling with a much more heavy hand and outlawed all parties aside from his own "Fatherland Front." He then proclaimed himself the "Prophet of Africa and the 12th Imam, Uniter of Christianity and Islam" and founded the "African Fundamentalist Church" as a bizarre cross between the AFC Church of Burr and Islam. This led to the bloody Lincolnian Civil War of 1891, which saw the Fatherland Front against native-born African "heathen Inferiors" and slaughter them by the thousands, as well as murdering any citizens who refused to agree that Wayne was a new prophet. This ethnic cleansing went relatively unnoticed in the rest of the world but absolutely ravaged Lincolnia. However, with the rise of Custer and the Manifest Destiny Party back in North America, the Union Army would arrive in early 1893 and took control of the situation, ousting Wayne and banning the Fatherland Front. The AFC Church then excommunicated Wayne and officially condemned him to Hell shortly before his execution by firing squad on November 9, 1893. The Union government then took full control over Lincolnia as a Union Territory, ending its troubled period of independence.

Lincolnian troops pose for a photo amidst the Lincolnian Civil War (circa 1892)

Lincolnian troops practice aiming during the Lincolnian Civil War ​

An American officer stands at attention with rebel forces shortly after they seized New Philadelphia from Wayne and the Fatherland Front

Union troops fight Fatherland Front troops in Lincolnia

Lincolnians salute an image of President Custer​

Meanwhile, the Confederation of the Carolinas--which had been given the Newport News and Norfolk area Virginian port cities and the island of Bermuda during the Valley Forge Accords at the end of the Great American War--had been launching its own colonial endeavor. In 1870, they occupied some lands south of Portuguese Angola and declared it to be Jacksonland, after their fallen Chancellor. It would fall once more to Wade Hampton III and his trusty West Carolinian adjutant Nathan Bedford Forrest to settle this land, pushing out the native tribes and building a new capital of New Raleigh (OTL's Swakopmund, Namibia). The colony would never be as industrialized or successful as the other nations' holdings, but it was still a nice money-maker and allowed for Carolinian pride following the uneasy victory of the Great American War. The Confederation also used it as a dumping ground for ex-slaves following their 1880 Emancipation Act. Nathan Bedford Forrest would, unfortunately, wind up as Colonial Governor following Hampton III's retirement in 1880, and Forrest would rule over the blacks there with an iron fist.

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 39
THE GREAT PERSIAN REVIVAL AND THE RUSSO-PERSIAN WAR

Persian troops in a trenchwork in Armenia, circa 1890
​

The Russian Empire was, by 1840, a superpower in its own right, slowly taming the independent kingdoms and lands of the Caucasus, exploring Alyaska in North America, and building an Imperial Army which could truly be feared by its neighbors. But the prestige gained could only do so much, as Nicholas I fell into ill health and the nation became embroiled in the English Revolution. Other nations were gaining new technologies and sciences and skills, while Russia mostly remained in the 18th century, little different than a century prior. At last, in 1855, Alexander II came to the throne with his consort Victoria of England. He was determined to modernize his nation and bring Westernized ways of thinking in to make sure his country was actually keeping up with potential enemies and garnering respect around the world.

It was around this same time that Persia witnessed the final destruction of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of Caesar Napoleon II and the collapse of the Islamic World. In 1860, the Afghanistan conflict broke out between French India and Afghanistan, which saw Afghanistan lose Kashmir. This served both as a warning and an opportunity for Persia. It's Shah, Naser al-Din, of the Qajar Dynasty, feared that Western powers would come for his country next, but also saw the chaos and disunity of the surrounding regions to his advantage. While the League of the Three Czars busied themselves dealing with Constantinople and minor disturbances in the Balkans, such as the failed military coup against Tsar Timotei I of Bulgaria in 1865, Persia was doing its best to move out of the Renaissance and into the 19th century. The state was almost bankrupt and civil unrest was high following the Turkish collapse, with many saying there needed to be a revolution against the monarchy before it was too late. With the help of his trusty Chancellor Amir Kabir and many former Ottoman officials who had come to Persia seeking work, the Shah managed to pull Persia up by the bootstraps and greatly reversed its fortunes through promoting business, putting higher taxes on the wealthy, and reforming the law of the land. By 1870, the Shah had created a modern army utilizing rifles and modern tactics.

On August 5, 1870, Persia declared war on Afghanistan and swiftly crushed the hill tribes of the nation, annexing it by early 1871. The Shah then went about taking firm control of Turkmenistan and abolishing the Central Asian slave trade forever. This brought great excitement back home and in Europe, and he became known as Shah Naser al-Din the Enlightened. He made Russia very uneasy, however, and in 1872 the Czar invaded the Khanate of Kokand and annexed it. In return, Persia took Badakhshan, the Khanate of Kiva, and the Emirate of Bukhara, finally doing away with all the independent peoples of Central Asia.

Things would continue to be tense between Russia and Persia for a very long time, culminating in 1888, when the Russo-Persian War finally arrived. Since the Collapse of the Turks, the greater Armenio-Georgian region had been a mess of disputed border and warring tribes, with the Georgians and Gurians backed by the Russians and the Islamic tribes backed by the Persians, while the Armenians were backed by no one. Persia moved into Armenia on June 2, 1888, and immediately crushed all opposition. However, unlike their treatment at the hands of the Turks, Shah Naser offered them citizenship and protection if they would join the Persian Empire. Reluctantly, most of the Armenians agreed, with some proclaiming him the second coming of Cyrus the Great. The Georgians and Gurians did not, however, and Russia moved in to protect their allies. A massive war broke out in the Caucasus, with the Georgians and Gurians practicing ethnic cleansing on the Armenians and the Persians brutally avenging them through massacres of prisoners of war. The Caucasus War had begun. Without being able to utilize its impressive navy and with so many troubles in the Balkans, Russia was under prepared and furiously sending men to their death as fast as it could.

Scene from the Siege of Baku
​

The war soon spread across the steppes and into all the various regions of the area. For the first time, the 19th century came to the steppes, and it was covered in blood and stepping to the sound of a drum. The war was unbelievably nasty, and the battles gave way to sporadic and confused massacres and skirmishes. Finally, on October 4, 1890, the Treaty of Madrid was signed between the two powers in Spain, after Caesar had volunteered to help negotiate an end to the conflict.

What should have been a total Russian victory had become a fiasco drenched in Russian blood. The Persians had stood their own, and though neither side really won a battle during the war, Persia had remained solidly behind the Shah and ready to fight. This was a humiliation for the Czar, and when he signed the Treaty of Madrid, Russia and Persia agreed to let Armenia remain its own separate nation, with Caesar guaranteeing its neutrality himself. Azerbaijan was entirely granted to Persia, and Russia agreed to accept Persian suzerainty over Central Asia. In return, Persia acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russian-backed Kingdom of Georgia, consisting of Odishi, Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti, and Samtskhe.

Flag of the Kingdom of Georgia​

This humiliation at the hands of such a backwater as Persia spelled more major changes for Russia, who now worried about looking weak in front of allies Bulgaria and Romania and potential enemies such as the Nordreich. This grave situation was made worse by an attempt on Alexander's life by a Beutelist just a few weeks later in December of 1890. Alexander now cracked down on some of the liberties he had been allowing to bring about Westernization and began massive pogroms against Anarchists and Beutelists.

Meanwhile, Persia was not technically victorious, but it was in all other ways, as it had humiliated one of the greatest powers on earth. The Persian Army returned home to crowds of cheering citizens. Though it was beaten and bruised, it was not defeated. They had held their own. In 1895, Persia would invade the Trucial States of Oman and began steadily annexing territory in Arabia in the hopes to secure the lucrative oil fields there, now that that market was booming. Persia was not a great power yet, but it soon would be. Meanwhile, Russia was in the midst of escalating tensions with the Chinese. And to the far east, Yankee sailors were landing in Hawaii and Edo Bay, bringing the anti-Slav crusaders ever closer to their doorstep and modernizing yet another former backwater. The Land of the Rising Sun was about to about to learn the story of the Pinnacle Man, and his valiant defeat of the Mongoloid Hordes thanks to the Divine Wind of Jehovah....

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 40
AN EAGLE FOR THE VATICAN

Lucien Louis Joseph Napoleon, Prince of the Two Sicilies, in official garb as Cardinal Bonaparte (circa 1860)​

In 1878, Pope Pius IX died after an over thirty-year reign as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. As the Papal Conclave convened to elect the next Holy Father, Caesar Napoleon II saw the opportunity his family had been looking for since the days of the Great Wars of his father: the chance to put a Bonaparte on the Throne of St. Peter. Caesar Napoleon II's cousin, Lucien Louis Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Zénaïde I, late Queen of the Two Sicilies, and brother of the current queen, Carlotta, was the candidate Caesar desired. With Carlotta already having more than enough children to ensure succession, Lucien held very little power and stood no chance of ever becoming a monarch and showed no sign of interest in becoming a military man, though he did accompany his cousin to Jerusalem during the collapse of the Turks. When he joined the Catholic Church as a priest in 1858, however, his family finally saw a true purpose for him: they were determined to make Lucien Bonaparte the next pope.

The Papal Conclave convened in the Sistine Chapel on the 18th of February, 1878, and began its process of picking the next Holy Father. Since Pius IX had made the Papal Doctrine of Infallibility official in 1870, the power that was to be wielded by a future pope was terrifying indeed. Even more terrifying, however, were the threats being issued to the Cardinals. The blackmail was quite heavy as well. They were to pick Lucien or risk "losing everything they owned and their very lives and honor." To top off the intimidation, troops from the Kingdom of Italy and the Two Sicilies were positioned outside of Rome on "routine training exercises." Their position was clear: Lucien would become pope by election or Napoleon II would have his Italian satellite states' troops march in and place his cousin on the throne by force or perhaps do away with the position altogether. Something like this had not occurred in centuries. With Caesar a single-minded sociopath when he set his mind to a task, the reality of the situation was quickly grasped by the College of Cardinals. Terrified, on February 20th, 1878, 50 year-old Cardinal Bonaparte was proclaimed to be Pope Sixtus VI. Europe trembled.

Pope Sixtus VI​

In Paris, the streets filled with cheering crowds waving French, and Papal flags and crying out that the House of Bonaparte would never be stopped. In Vienna, opinions were mixed. Austria-Hungary knew they would be absorbed into the Franco-Spanish Empire when Napoleon III inherited the throne, but they still felt rivalry, and disliked having a Bonaparte as pope. The Catholics in Eastern Europe felt the strongest about the matter, and though they grudgingly accepted it, many felt the Papacy didn't have as much prestige as it had before. It would be a couple of decades before the controversy (and Sixtus) would die. The thing that kept the church from fracturing over this choice as Pope was Caesar's radical expansion of Catholic power and his seizure of the Holy Land and Jerusalem itself. The Knights of Jerusalem were invited in by Sixtus VI to serve as permanent bodyguards along with the already famed Swiss Guards. These men were also plants for the Empire to learn the most secretive and interesting things going on inside the Vatican walls. This way, even after Sixtus was dead and dust, there would always be a plant inside St. Peter's, cluing in the Bonapartes as to the inner goings-on.

Of course, the reaction in Protestant nations was much stronger. England called Sixtus another "example of French imperialism and corruption." The Republican Union immediately began calling Sixtus the Anti-Christ, dwelling on the two sixes in his name, calling him the Beast of Revelation (where the third "six" was was awkwardly up to conjecture). The American Fundamentalist Christian Church began telling its members to prepare for the Last Judgment and to pray for God to "smite the Bonapartian Imperialist Whore of Babylon." The excitement and fear never died down, and each and every decision Sixtus made was perceived as yet another "sign of the coming Apocalypse." The final public sermon of Supreme Deacon of the AFC Church, Milo Miles, made America's opinion clear:

"And the scripture of Revelation 13 says, 'John saw it rise up out of the sea. And it had seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads was the name of blasphemy!' I ask you now, my fellow Christian patriots, does this terrifying description not match the devil that sits upon the Papist throne today? The Seven Heads clearly represent France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, the Two Sicilies, the Rhine, and, course, Ireland! This nest of Papist vipers reveals itself unto us, and it doesn't even attempt to hide its true demonic purpose anymore! There are bugaboos and demons in the Vatican right now and at this second. I have no doubt Sixtus Bonaparte, that slovenly sack of subhuman detritus, is communing with Satan at this very moment as we sit here in worship of Jehovah. 'And upon his heads was the name of blasphemy.' Do you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, know what that name is? It is BONAPARTE! The House of Bonaparte and their self-serving, imperialist, papist, and, frankly, homosexual, hedonistic ways have the gall, the outright hubris, to proclaim their spawn as Holy Father. I will tell you now, there is no Holy Father except God the Father, and there is no messenger of his on earth except the Prophet Burr, All Hail his name! But the day of reckoning approaches like a thief in the night! I can hear, right now, the jingle-jangle of a million lost souls, bowing before their Bonapartist Fauxian collaborative papal pig who resides in Rome, that pernicious emirate of whores! That pompous little brat with his aquiline nose and his beady little inbred, mongoloid eyes sits upon the Throne of St. Peter and dares call himself Holy Father. Well one day, and soon, the Republican Union shall give birth to the New Jerusalem and we shall destroy his Synagogue of Satan! Amen and All Hail!"

Two weeks later, Milo Miles would pass away at the age 83.

Council propaganda from the era of Sixtus VI ​

In actuality, Sixtus wasn't a horrible pope or a horrible person (he had suspicions, but was not aware corruption had given him his position), and he was actually far less biased to the Bonapartes than they had wanted. He was also not exactly brilliant, and his family continuously tricked him into making decisions which benefited them. His legacy was thus mixed, but the Bonapartes were content to have the Knights of Jerusalem remain after his passing. Their worms were already infiltrated into the high positions.

An interesting side note of this period was the creation of the 1878 Overture by renown composer Louis Jean Christophe Caron. The opening celebrated Caesar Napoleon I's victory in the Great Wars of the Empire and his son's conquering of the Holy Land, whilst the finale and its joyous bells celebrated the Coronation of Sixtus as the final triumph of "God's Chosen Family." The piece was performed in the Vatican during Caesar Napoleon II's first state visit to his cousin, and allegedly was the only time Napoleon II's officers ever saw a tear come to his eye.

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 41
THE THIRD AMERICAN REVOLUTION

​

Now Custer had crossed the Delaware, his mighty soul
Great tumults pondering and the coming struggle.
Now, crossing his Rubicon, he saw,
In face most sorrowful and ghostly guise,
His trembling country's image; huge it seemed
Through mists of night obscure; and willowy hair
Streamed from the lofty tower-crowned head of the Republic:
Torn were her locks and naked were her arms.
Then thus, with broken sighs the Vision spake:
"What seek ye, men of the Union? and whither hence
Bear ye my Eagle standards? If by right ye come,
if under law, thou art welcome within my city; these are the bounds;
No further dare thee step if thou wisheth to bring war
and unseat the elected heir to Lincoln the Great."
Now Custer's yellow locks were stiff
With horror as he gazed, and ghastly dread
Restrained his footsteps on the further bank.
Then spake he, "O Thunderer, Zeus in the highest Heavens;
Gods of my Pinnacle Race who watched o'er Rome of old;
Thou Jehovah, of Burr and Arnold,
Thou God of the Israelites and Abraham and Moses,
O Patriot-Saints erst rapt to heaven,
And God-like Philadelphia; this day aid me in my quest.
Not with offense or malevolence do I come,
I, Custer, conqueror and crusader, servant of this Union,
Thy soldier here and wheresoe'er thou wilt:
No other's; his, his only be the guilt
Whose acts make me thy foe.' He gives the word
And bids his Manifest standards cross the swollen stream.
When Custer crossed and trod beneath his feet
The soil of Pennsylvania's forbidden fields,
"Here," spake he, "peace, I shatter, and laws I desecrate;
Farewell to politicians and elections. Fortune, lead us on;
War is our judge, and in the Reaper our trust. All Hail!"

- Excerpt from The Saga of the Velvet Revolution by Joseph L. Woods​

In order to understand the events that led to George Custer becoming President for life, and the reigns of Joseph Steele and Charles Oswald after him, one merely has to look at the events that occurred slightly before the Third (or "Velvet") American Revolution. This period is known as the Great Disturbance. The Great Disturbance truly began in the late 1870s, when several runs on the banks in Europe caused mass upheaval and poverty. The Union was also still entrenched on incorporating the old Southron lands into itself, with New Antioch, Lewisiana, (formerly known as New Orleans) experiencing the Great Riot of March, 1879, during which then President Gideon Claywell was humiliated by Southron terrorists and separatists, mostly members of the White League, who elected to burn down the city courthouse and smashed storefronts for blocks, pelting officers with flaming bottles of whiskey, rocks, and even firing a few small arms at them. Martial law was instituted and Micah Powers, the head of RUMP, was forced to perform mass arrests. This event sparked a massive revolt in Cuba, now a Union penal colony, and over 6,000 Inferiors were killed by RUMP in the worst fighting since the Great American War. President Claywell, then 73, was accused of becoming senile and was widely hated. Claywell was actually a fairly decent man, but he was too elderly and tired to deal with the stress of his position.

The stage was set for the biggest problem yet to rear its head: growing numbers of anti-AFC citizens, mostly from the Old South and also the irreligious, Baptists, Methodists, and the like from the North. These were Union citizens speaking out against the "crazy, spirit-talking, Burr-worshiping warlocks" and who refused to accept that the country was now a vehicle for the American Fundamentalist Church. This outpouring of displeasure with the Church was shocking to the aging Reverend-Colonel Everett and the Council of Jehovah, who now feared their grand idea verging on collapse. Some of the many reasons why so many were up in arms in the non-AFC Union community was the overall direction of the country, which had gone downhill to many since Lincoln's death, and the fact that the AFC was now the majority of American citizens' beliefs, triggering the more traditional denominations and making them fear for their own religious freedom. They had achieved the Restoration that the AFC promised, so now what? There was no grand plan anymore, just existence. Everett was now in his late 80s. The Great American War generals were retiring. In their place was a greatly expanded Union, but one burdened by economic uncertainty and constant terrorist attacks under what most saw as a do-nothing, wash-up of a president. Some even attempted once more to draft Colonel Goodyear to run for President, but he was also in his 80s and had no desire to run the country. Crops had also been at their worst yield since the 1860s, and constant rain across the country was causing massive floods that wiped several towns off the map. Some AFC members said this was God's punishment upon America for drifting from the path of Manifest Destiny and becoming "fat, lazy, and complacent."

However, the AFC was by no means down for the count. As stated, they now held the majority. Most Americans in 1880 were attending Fundamentalist churches on Sunday. Many of these same people now felt threatened by the growing criticisms of their church and "divine doctrine." They began clamoring for a "New Strong Man" to take the reigns and finally set America's course for the future in a positive direction. A certain George Custer would just happen to be the man who felt the winds of historical change and decided to set sail to the unknown with a sword in one hand, and a Bible in the other. America would never be the same.

The entire "Strong Man" concept, a tenant of Social Darwinism, was actually and ironically not created by Charles Darwin, really, but rather by Horatio Gibbs, an eminent New York historian and ardent proponent of fascism who claimed that all great lands and empires throughout all of history were led by brave, noble--but also cynical and calculating--titans, titans who held all the cards and put their nation's glory above all else. Gibbs put his ideas forward shortly after Darwin first began publishing his research. Darwin said of Gibbs, "Some may call me the founder of Social Darwinism, but in truth, much of that credit should go to Mr. Gibbs for his excellent theories." From Alexander, to Julius Caesar, to Cromwell, to Frederick the Great, these men all held near-absolute power and used it to ruthlessly expand and dominate at the helm of their "Superior Civilizations." These men were men who had, according to Gibbs, more "bodily fluids and traces within them of Pinnacle Man ancestry. Or, as in Alexander and Julius Caesar's case, they actually were Pinnacle Men. These great and noble commanders contained within them the fire in the belly that was needed to govern and go down in history as the greatest leaders of all time." Within the Unionist and AFC community, this idea was extremely popular and was partially propelled A. A. Lincoln to power in the first place. However, since his fall, there simply was no one around with the charisma, ego, and guts to come forward as Lincoln's successor. McClellan had made out as to be his successor and a Strong Man, but life in politics just simply didn't agree with him and he went into quiet retirement. By the 1880s, and the apathetic reign of President Claywell, the Union needed to turn itself around quickly or risk a religious civil war. There were millions of eager souls ready to fight for America in every corner of the globe, but they were unaffiliated with any party or movement, they simply wished to serve the Church and Nation. At last, in 1882, the answer to their problems would be revealed.

George Armstrong Custer formed the Manifest Destiny Party in 1878 in time for the Presidential elections that year. He received some moderate press coverage and publicity, but the MDP was expected to be lost in the sea of other parties now clogging up the political system. But Custer was not a man to be ignored, not ever. The time was just not right. The fury over Claywell's presidency had not yet been felt by the American people. Soon, members began wearing navy blue military style uniforms and sporting yellow armbands with the saying "Manifestum Fati" emblazoned on them. General Madison Miller, a Great American War sergeant and devout loyal friend to Custer, became head of the "Manifest Militia," an armed wing to "defend party members from terrorists and thugs" following massive street battles with Protestant mobs. Custer then began making more moves, recruiting all across the country and bringing in Custer's Company as an official wing of the party.

And so on a rainy Patriot-Saints Day, 1881, Custer and his Manifest Destiny Party stormed the into the Washington Pub in downtown Philadelphia and declared they were going to demand the ousting of President Claywell and the restructuring of the government. They declared they were doing away with the National Assembly and that Custer would rule by decree as a Strong Man chosen by Jehovah like the Judges of Israel from the Old Testament. Immediately, President Claywell sent in RUMP to quell the apparent "Washington Pub Revolt." Some 150 MDP hardliners were inside the pub with Custer and Miller, and outside over 600 RUMP officers were on their way to arrest them. Captain Martin Kohl was in charge of the operation to arrest Custer and the MDP leadership. However, when the building was surrounded, Custer shocked his men by laying down his weapon and standing on the balcony of the pub, hands in the air.

According to testimony, Custer took a long look at all the RUMP officers gathered outside and smiled slyly as if he still had a card up his sleeve. Kohl--unsettled by this legendary figure trying to overthrow the government and wanting to quickly restore order--quickly ordered his men to close in and arrest the "sitting duck." Kohl became increasingly unsettled as his officers appeared reluctant to do so. Custer was a legend and, to many young RUMP troops, their childhood idol. And now here he was, unarmed, in the midst of an attempted coup. Custer spoke, first friendly and quiet, then rising to an impassioned, fervent shout:

"Greetings, my friends! I hear tell that you all have a warrant out for my arrest. They say I am a traitor and promoting the dissolution of the government. I say to you, men of the Military Police, free men of Philadelphia all, that this is true! But my treason is not against this country. It is against President Claywell, the lazy despot who currently is driving our nation into the gutter. You men fought and bled for this nation twenty years ago, or maybe it was your fathers. But either way, the Grand Legions of the Union did not die in vain. They did not give their precious lifeblood to sacrifice on the altar of indifference and disrepair! I wallowed through the muck and filth of siegeworks, I saw fighting on both fronts, I had two commanders shot right in front of me. I have seen Hell itself for this nation, and I'll be most certainly damned if I let it go to Hell because the President is a crazy old politician, living in luxury while economic turmoil and uncertainty grip our fair land. God put us forth on this continent with a new goal: that the Chosen shall sweep coast-to-coast and build a New Jerusalem that shall stand for 1000 years. I say to you, now, that I will build this New Jerusalem. The National Revolution has broken out! Now who is with me?!"

Slowly, the RUMP officers backed away from the target of their warrant. Kohl sat motionless on his horse. A deafening silence went over everyone present.

Drip. Drip. A rain gutter emptied its contents onto the street.

A cough.

Silence. Only the pitter-patter of the raindrops on the Pub.

"Manifest Destiny! Now and forever!" came a cry from the RUMP lines.

"Custer for President!" shouted another officer.

It exploded, up and down the ranks. Men began cheering and raising their guns in the air, firing bullets toward the sky like New Year's Eve, and started to rush the balcony. Kohl raged and ordered his men to get back in formation under the pain of death. He was greeted by almost his entire force joining the Manifest Destiny Party inside, overflowing the large building. The Head of Rump managed to keep several of his orderlies in line and together they rode to the President's Mansion to warn President Claywell that the Army needed to deploy to put down this coup.

Custer and Miller soon received reinforcements from the Manifest Destiny Party coming in from all over the nation. Load after load were arriving by wagons and carriages and rallying to the MDP colors. That night, cries of "Custer! Manifestum Fati!" were heard all throughout the capital. The local garrison had deployed at the President's Mansion, but morale was extremely low. They all feared a repeat of Crawford's March on Philadelphia 80 years before. If Claywell was the new Adams, they wanted no part. Instead, many began defecting. By morning, all of Philadelphia was in chaos, with law rapidly giving way to street battles and rolling gunfights. The First Fundamentalist Church, Aaron Burr's castle upon rock, was the rallying point for the Fundamentalists who were quickly siding with Custer. Other areas of the city saw massive crowds of anti-AFC citizenry who were rapidly arming themselves for a violent final showdown. The fate of the Union would be decided shortly.

On Christmas Day, 1881, Custer made his move. With a crowd of thousands of citizens now following him with pitchforks, torces, old muskets, and whatever they could find, they marched down the main thoroughfare toward the Presidential Mansion. About two blocks east of the Mansion, the main force of anti-AFC rioters met them and violence instantly broke out. Bullets whizzed through the air, clubs descended on heads, and blood-curdling screams rang out as the Third American Revolution broke out into armed conflict. What few Union troops who remained loyal to Claywell stormed forward, bayonets down. The revolutionaries met them gladly and immediately broke the troops' moral with their overwhelming force. Onward went Custer and his forces toward the Mansion. But a trap lay in wait for them. Over 50 marksmen had hidden themselves in the nearby buildings, many on rooftops. Claywell had ordered them to fire on the crowd with no mercy if they broke through the defensive forces. They opened fire and it was like fish in a barrel. Men and women alike hit the ground, blood soaking into the cracks in the cobblestone. Just a few feet from Custer, Miller went down, killed instantly by a bullet to the head. As the sniper fire began just mowing down his supporters, Custer, for the first time in his life, ordered a retreat.

After "Communing with the Spirits and reading the Scripture," the Council of Jehovah elected to excommunicate President Claywell, effectively sealing his fate forever. They are pictured here during one of their infamous Cremation of Sin ceremonies.​

Custer's forces went sprinting back from where they came from, taking rounds to the back as they ran. Soon it was an all-out rout, with thousands of AFC loyalists and revolutionaries pouring out of the city. However, Custer himself was corned and arrested by RUMP officers as he tried to regroup in the countryside outside of the city. Most shockingly, the Council of Jehovah itself fled the city to Boston, where they set up "Council In Exile." They immediately voted to excommunicate President Claywell from the Church, thereby condemning his soul to Hell. They officially called upon every Bible-believing man and woman in the country to come to Philadelphia to free Custer from the Philadelphia's jail, where he was now being held by RUMP under heavy guard. The lines were drawn. Claywell, now thrown out of the Church, begged every "patriotic and upstanding citizen to come to Philadelphia to support the rule of law." His popularity plummeting, his considered having Custer hanged for treason to cut the head off of the snake, but knew that would just make him a martyr. Instead, he readied his defenses once more and manned his battle stations. As it would turn out over the next several months, the Council of Jehovah was actually behind the Manifest Destiny Party the entire time, and had even helped get Custer's message around the country to form his party in the first place. Claywell took to the newspapers that still would print his words and told the American public this:

"As we peer into society's future, we must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. Engaging in wars with no merit, seeking only expansion. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow. The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. The Federalist conspiracy so long ago was righteously ended by Willard Crawford, just for one instance of this opposition. We, in turn, are opposed around the Union by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on spies by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. A council of masked bandits playing at priesthood. Now they have come into the light and shown themselves as who they really are with this attempted overthrow of the freely elected government. The Council of Jehovah has controlled American history for the last several decades and their rule from on high is at an end. We cannot do this without every red-blooded, liberty-loving American joining us to combat this tangled web of conspiracy. I, President Gideon Claywell, beg of you. Please support the Union government in this battle against religious tyranny and injustice."

This would be the last public message ever written by President Claywell. Only the greater Philadelphia region was printing his well-crafted speech. Instead they were printing George Custer's message from prison, Our Struggle, a series of talking points upon which he said he would build his revolutionary government. The Claywell government tried to determine who was smuggling the writings out of the jail, but no suspects were ever found. The Council had struck again.

THE TEN POINTS OF THE MANIFEST DESTINY PARTY:

1. Total Union Supremacy.
2. God has ordained the Union as his New Jerusalem, and it shall never be stopped.
3. Total suffrage and equality for women, up to and including military service on a voluntary, non-combatant role.
4. 100% Segregation of Betters and Inferiors. Under no circumstances should the blood of the Inferior mongoloids mix with that of the Betters, the heirs of the Pinnacle Men.
5. Only members of the AFC Church should be allowed to hold office. For you cannot serve both God and the World. The New Jerusalem cannot be built by heretics and atheists anymore than by Beutelists or Bonapartists.
6. The dissolution of the National Assembly in favor of a Cabinet of Advisors under the President. A Strong Man of Pinnacle Blood needs no "rubber stamp" to get his agenda accomplished.
7. End of terms and elections for President. A Strong Man should hold power as long as he is able to and represent Jehovah's authority on Earth, carrying out His will and that of the Manifest Destiny Party and the American Fundamentalist Christian Church. If a leader should fall into moral decadence or become lazy, it is the moral right of the people to overthrow said leader.
8. Revival of American military power as an unstoppable force, capable of defending the New Jerusalem.
9. The End of Poverty and a rabbit in every pot. Betters should live as Betters, not as impoverished serfs. Not a single soul shall go hungry under the rule of the Manifest Destiny Party.
10. A national minimum wage for all Betters of society who will work. The Judeo-Christian Work Ethic is what America was built on, and its virtues should not go unrewarded. However, a poor work ethic is incompatible with the American way of life and the teachings of the Holy Books.​

As can be imagined, to many Americans struggling with poverty and hunger, especially those in the poor regions of Redemption, Michigania, and the Old South, this sounded like a fine offer. Sure, religious freedom would essentially be left by the wayside in exchange for security and livability, but to many this was an easy sacrifice to make. Especially since the AFC believers already long considered the other Christian Protestant denominations heretical. Custer's 10 Points became a battle cry for anti-government forces all across the Union. In January, Shicagwa's city government invited the Council of Jehovah and the MDP to take over there, and Henry Marx Cavendish, head of Shicagwa's MDP, took over as city dictator. In February, New Anglia, Salvation Springs, Baltimore, and New York City all through out pro-Claywell officials and handed over the keys to the city to the Custer and Council supporters. It would become known as the "Velvet Revolution," a third American Revolution. Though there had been violence and slaughter, it was still relatively mild at this point. Everyone knew Custer was still on the verge of seizing power, even from inside his jail cell.

As the nation ground to a halt and the food shortages became worse, public order began to disintegrate. Non-AFC followers began to convert, some simply to gain access to the huge stockpiles the church always had built up for the "End of Days." Still others enlisted in MDP and Council militias, which promised steady rations. The nation was on the verge of another shattering like that of 1801 unless someone acted soon. And someone did.

Custer was freed when a caravan of armored wagons loaded down with coffee grinder guns seemed to come out of nowhere and assaulted the Philadelphia Jail, mowing down several dozen guards and blasting a hole in the side of the building. A team of MDP militiamen, led by a then-unknown young Theodore Roosevelt, poured in through the breach and took control, quickly freeing Custer and making a hasty getaway. Custer was free. Prometheus' fire could no longer be contained.

When Custer arrived in Dover, Delaware, in early March, he was greeted with a hero's welcome and a parade. Huge banners with the MDP logo hung from buildings. Within a year of its founding, the MDP had seized control of virtually the entire country. And it was all the workings of Custer and the Council of Jehovah. Edward Everett was publicly promoting Custer as the "Pinnacle Man ordained by God to purge the Inferiors and sinners from the government and the nation itself." At a massive rally on March 6th in Dover, Delaware, Custer held up an old flag covered in crusted blood.

The Bloodstained Banner

Flag of the Manifest Destiny Party​

"This flag, so courteously lent to us by Benedict Arnold University of Boston, is the Bloodstained Banner of Valley Forge. This flew over your great-grandfathers as they fought off Redcoat Tyranny! This flag, by damn, belonged to none other than the Prophet Burr, founder of our faith and all hail! This flew over the Prophet's regiment when Captain Arnold threw himself into a hail of British gunfire, saving the Prophet's life and giving up his own, much like Christ himself. This was touched by American Fundamentalist Christianity's first MARTYR and his HOLY BLOOD! We, today, stand amidst our own Valley Forge. This is a the defining moment that will decide the fate of our children, and our children's children. This final March will decide whether we shall live under a decadent and corrupt government bereft of any morals or virtue, excommunicated by our Church, or if we shall live in a glorious New Jerusalem, where we can raise our children in a decent, God-fearing country dedicated to the Word of Jehovah, the Word of Christ, and the Books of Manifest Destiny as laid down by the Prophet according to the Word of the Angel of Destiny. The Manifest Destiny Party is going to march on Philadelphia and take back our country from the dogs currently in power. Standing upon this victory-crowned summit, will it turn its face to the rising or the setting sun? I say, ladies and gentlemen, that I shall lead us to a thousand-year Republic upon which the sun will never set and that the entire world will hail. The Union was restored by Patriot-Saint Lincoln, all hail, and now we must restore the purity of our government and the sacred blood of our race. No more poverty, as we shall establish a living minimum wage for all Betters of Society. No more hunger, as we shall restore our agricultural prowess and bring in the harvest of God's bounty. No more useless Presidents. For a President who cannot command respect and move his country forward deserves neither to lead nor be respected, as Social Darwinism tells us. No more attacks from nascent terrorists who cross our undermanned border with Mexico. No more shall the former Southron governments send their lapdogs to attack us from the safety of their palaces in Mexico City. If Mexico wants to send their worst, we'll send our best, and we'll march down there and wipe those scum from the face of God's green earth. So we shall march to Philadelphia and show Gideon Claywell that the working man, the common Union soul, shall not be ignored. We will not surrender to the false song of complacency and decadence. Over 35 million Americans believe in the Prophet and know the divine destiny of this nation. The Pinnacle of Civilization is at hand. We must only march and seize the day! All hail glorious victory! All hail the Manifest Destiny Party! All hail the Council of Jehovah! All hail the Reverend-Colonel Everett! All hail the Anglo-Saxon Race!"

At that, the revolutionaries marched to Philadelphia to overthrow the government. "For Custer and Council!" was their cry. Custer crossed the Delaware under the dead of night, just as Washington had done over a century before. As the drumbeats of 130,000 revolutionaries began to be heard by people in the capital, President Claywell had to make a decision. Knowing he faced certain defeat, his officers told him to flee to Canada and throw himself upon the mercy of the Bonapartes. He knew he'd never make it, however. The Fascist revolutionaries were closing in far too quickly and from all sides. At 11:30 am, on April 1, 1881, President Claywell retired to his bedroom in the Presidential Mansion and his blew his own brains out with a Pierce Munitions .44 caliber revolver. The Velvet Revolution was effectively victorious before Custer even entered the city.

As Custer and his officer staff examined the city through field glasses, he suddenly saw the gates of the city begin to swing open. Something had happened. The government forces were surrendering and switching their allegiance. Without a shot, Custer and his army marched into Philadelphia and overthrew the government. By 9 o'clock that evening, Custer had been sworn in as President of the Union. The Reign of Custer had just begun. The American Caesar had arrived. Soon would come the round-ups and purges that would cement Custer in power and leave him unchallenged as dictator until far into the 20th century.

Manifest Destiny Party "Blueshirts" march into Philadelphia to seize power without firing a shot.

Blueshirt revolutionaries were dug in around the city for the first part of the morning. Their trenchworks would not be needed, and neither would their guns, as the city surrendered without firing a shot.​

Teddy Roosevelt, center, as a Blueshirt Captain. Following his valiant rescue of Custer he was quickly promoted.




​

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 42
LIFE WITH CUSTER: THE REIGN BEGINS

President George Armstrong Custer​

The first years of Custer's reign were vicious and full of rapid-fire power-grabs. He was not stupid, and he knew that he had to centralize power and destroy his opponents immediately to prevent a possible civil war. According to the Second Constitution, freshly drafted in early 1882, religious freedom was still guaranteed, although every citizen now had to register which faith or denomination they belonged to. As the AFC Church took absolute control of the country, it experienced the largest growth of members in decades. Rather than list themselves as part of some minority denomination, many Americans just broke down and finally embraced the AFC as the only way forward in society.

There were still many stubborn and rebellious minority churches who held out under such pressure, such as many of the Baptist churches of the south, who refused to list themselves by religion as they thought it violated their rights. Custer would make a quick example out of them. One the night of June 17, 1882, the Great Raid of Peachtree took place, with Union officials rounding up the members of ten different churches, throwing them into prison wagons, and burning down their churches. This was the work of the Office of Racial and Religious Affairs, a new creation formed from the old Custer's Company mercenaries. Now they served as the secret police. The new Supreme Chief of ORRA was George Washington Dewey, a former sailor during the Great American War, veteran of the Cuba Inferior Uprising, and radical Custer supporter. It was Dewey who took Miller's place as the commander of the Manifest Militias, and it was Dewey who orchestrated Teddy Roosevelt's daring raid to rescue Custer from prison. He was, interestingly, a Vermont native, and he became the first Vermont native to hold high office outside of his own state.

George W. Dewey, Supreme Chief of the Office of Racial and Religious Affairs​

As can be imagined, these events in Peachtree shook the nation, frightening many into falling into line, but hardening some others. But ORRA was ruthless, cracking down wherever insurrection struck. The period of 1882 to 1885 is known as the "Solidification," when Custer and the MDP rounded up and "got rid of" all their immediate adversaries. RUMP, which has somewhat opposed Custer's rise, was completely cleared out in late 1882. On October 31, ORRA performed a series of daring raids on RUMP headquarters across the country, arresting much of RUMP's leadership and its Chief, Josiah Reed, for high treason and plotting against the President. Josiah Reed and thirty other officers were executed by hanging for their crimes, and President Custer put his brother Thomas in as Supreme Chief of the Military Police. The Council of Jehovah exerted some control over ORRA, but the President made sure he would have complete dominion over RUMP. The old Blueshirts and volunteer brigades of the Revolution were absorbed into RUMP, for the most part, though many went back to their civilian lives.

Thomas Custer as Supreme Chief of the Military Police​

The military too saw a massive purge in the officer corps, mostly in the winter of 1882. Several of the generals who opposed Custer and supported Claywell had quickly fled to Mexico and California following Claywell's suicide. Interestingly, Field Marshal Wyatt Jenkins, war hero and supreme commander of the Union Army during the Great American War,, was publicly supportive of Custer and the new government, but decided to retire from the Army and moved to Oregon "for good health and fresh air." What was even more interesting was that none other than former President George McClellan came out of retirement to once again take command. Now field marshal, he set about clearing any dissidents out of the ranks and surprisingly seemed quite eager to work for Custer. Little did anyone realize that Custer did this because he wanted McClellan to be in charge of a future war against Mexico, something which was on the top of his agenda. Custer also made it clear to the army that former Southrons were welcome, but if they ever showed the slightest hint of disloyalty, they would be purged from the ranks. At the same time, Custer increased the pay and greatly improved living conditions in the military, winning him much needed support.

The civilian world did not survive the Solidification unscathed by any means either. Rather it experienced quite the change. Shockingly, Custer was actually a reformer and hated the entrenched bureaucracy that "bogged down the Union in balderdash and hokum." RUMP went on a massive round-up in New York City, formerly the turf of the biggest organized crime syndicate front in the Union, the New York Port Authority. Among the members arrested for extortion, blackmail, and abuse of government funds was Chester Arthur, the biggest crime boss on the east coast. Custer declared that "No man, no matter his position, will get away with stealing from the taxpaying Betters of the land. Any person who breaks the law will be punished to its fullest extent." Next, Custer came through with giving women full equal rights and suffrage. Though the National Assembly was dissolved and presidential elections over, there were still local and state-wide elections. Women were among the Manifest Destiny Party's most ardent supporters, and many women were among the dead of the Washington Pub Revolt. Now they could file for divorce, inherit property, and enlist in the military's nurse corps and auxiliary corps, serving as messengers and secretaries. This was a calculated move by Custer to make everyone feel as united and useful as possible. He needed women to support him because "If the Anglo-Saxon mother respects the President, she will bring up her precious children to respect the President. And America shall be stronger each and every generation because of her."

One group that did not feel united or useful (though Custer cared little) were the Inferiors. Inferiors now had to really watch themselves. Ghettos became no-go zones, where only RUMP could go in and face the Irish, Slavic, and Spanish Inferiors. Custer made it very clear they were no longer citizens, by any length. They were now "residents" and subject to further dehumanization. RUMP and ORRA officers would routinely go into Inferior neighborhoods with a high crime rate, grab the first young men they could get their hands on, and then they would hang them on the gaslights in the street for all to see. ORRA also quickly assumed responsibility for policing the borders, ruthlessly shooting anyone who tried to cross without being stopped first.

Canada and California had had enough. They immediately began shutting down their borders for the final time with the Union. They no longer could tolerate the Union's ways and Caesar Napoleon II formally issued a condemnation upon Custer's government in early 1882. In exchange, Custer cut all cotton and tobacco supplies to Bonapartist realms. A major rush on the banks in Europe followed with the Empire scrambling to double the supplies of cotton coming in from India. Not to be outdone, Napoleon II then announced trade sanctions upon the Union. Custer fired back by literally severing all ties the Empire had with the Union and announcing, "The Republican Union can function just fine without Papist trade partners and guttersnipes. Let my soul be damned to Hell if I allow Old Boney to think it matters that his country doesn't trade with us. The American people are a self-sufficient lot, and their economy will suffer much more than ours.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the already fragile stock market was only made worse by the death of Napoleon II in 1883 at the age of 72. With the strongman of Europe gone, the Imperial economy flew into a spiral, and several revolts broke out across the world in its domain as the forgettable Napoleon III came to the throne as the first Emperor of Europa. Some even anticipated that the Empire might be on the brink of a massive breakdown and splintering, but Napoleon III's policy team helped to stitch things back together. Revolts in Brazil and India were brutally put down, and an attempt at independence in Egypt saw thousands die. Napoleon III was a fat little man who had already had several heart-attacks, and he was not expected to live long. Meanwhile, his son Napoleon IV was waiting in the wings, already a young man of sound body and mind, and it was truly the Prince of Bombay who held everything together during his father's brief reign, bearing much of his sickly father's responsibilities.

Other nations were also quick to condemn the Union for its new leadership and policies. But among those strangely and quietly absent from the list of opponents was the Reich and the Kingdom of Sweden, which had been growing closer and closer to the Reich and away from the Empire since the passing of Napoleon II. Many historians have claimed that the passing of Napoleon II was the moment Scandinavia finally used to drift away from Catholic Europa and more toward the Protestant Nordreich. Even the Poles within the Reich had began converting to Lutheranism since the election of Cardinal Bonaparte as Pope in 1878. This period also saw the "Polish Diaspora," where many Catholic Poles, feeling unwelcome and thinking the Reich now saw them as Bonapartist collaboratives, finally packed up and moved to places like France itself, India, and Africa. A regiment of Polish mercenaries served in the Empire of Persia and some even enlisted in Gran Colombia. This erosion of Polish national identity would drastically help the Reich on its path of becoming a Teutonic Protestant empire. This entire period of European history is when most say the lines began to be drawn for the Great War that was still years down the road. The less-than-terrific but mercifully short reign of Napoleon III and the ensuing financial meltdown hurt Imperial prestige at a time when the declaration of Europa was supposed to be the pinnacle of their achievement. This finally sent the Reich and Russia fully on their own paths and severed the final links of the Continental System. This is decidedly the final and total end of the Pax Napoleona in Europe, and from then on out, the Empire would find much larger amounts of opposition from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. It would nearly 30 years before the outbreak of the Great War, but a major storm was clearly on the horizon. As Imperial citizens waved Europan flags in Paris, Madrid, and Rome for the first time, little did they know they would be the last generation of Imperial citizens to know peace. This pre-War period would later be known as the "Last Days of Imperial Glory." The succeeding generation would simply be known as the "Lost Generation."

- THE FIVE YEAR PLAN -​

Meanwhile, back in America, Custer was still hard at work. At last, he had practically wiped out outlaws and bandits in the West, largely thanks to California and Canada sealing off their borders. Much to Canada and California's chagrin, this caused Custer's popularity to skyrocket, as it made him appear to follow through on his promises of bringing law and order to the Union. He dispatched Teddy Roosevelt, now "Marshal of the West," on a mission to round up every last remaining outlaw gang in the Western states. Roosevelt brought with him a crack team of cavalrymen which became known as the "Rough Riders." These policemen of the plains finally ended the cowboy way of life forever, and industry and the modern world finally came roaring in. This modernization was part of Custer's "Five Year Plan." The Five Year Plan was a blueprint for hotwiring the Union to make it a modern super-state by 1886. The first step of this plan was "Crushing the Criminal Underworld," which Custer, RUMP, and the Rough Riders did quite nicely. The largest and last influential criminal gang, the Van Heusens, was cut down near Salvation Springs, Lewisland, with all 30 members of the gang being killed or dying shortly after capture. This black flag tactic crushed resistance in the West, bringing an end to organized crime in the area for decades.

Teddy Roosevelt leads the Rough Riders into action against the Van Heusen Gang in 1884 (Roosevelt relied on sheer force to break criminals and very rarely took prisoners)

- THE EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION AND THE WORLD OF LITERATURE-​

The second step was the "Educational Revolution." For the first time ever, schooling would be free to every single American, with guaranteed access to some form of trade school if desired, including for women. Higher education, such as college, was still in the hands of the private sector, but this new system still made sure that the next generation of Americans would be smarter than the last, and also more thoroughly indoctrinated. To helm this effort, Custer installed genius savant Thomas J. Edison, then recently-appointed Dean of Harvard, as Supreme Chief of the Republican Union Office of Education (RUOE) in 1884. Edison was a fairly young man, only 36 at the time, and was quite charismatic. Edison was the one who ultimately decided what could make into the curriculum for the massive new free schooling system. According to some sources, Edison said at the time, "The best way to control a people is to teach the children. To grow a tree, you water the roots. You do not sprinkle water on the highest branches and expect good results. No, you must control the children, the roots. The rest will follow." Edison would hold his position as head of the OE until his death in 1931. Edison would not only create the curriculum for the school system, but he also worked with Charles Goodyear to open the "Goodyear Foundation," a massive nonprofit organization that covered 75% of the cost to open new public libraries, available to all citizens of the Union at no cost. This created an information explosion, and publishing houses boomed, churning out massive amounts of copies of the great Union-approved authors of the past, such as Shakespeare, Plato, Aristotle, and Sir Walter Scott, as well as more recent popular writers such as Charlotte Bronte, Horatio Gibbs, Charles Darwin, Charles Dodgson, and Charles Dickens.

Professor Thomas J. Edison, Supreme Chief of the Republican Union Office of Eduction​

Esoteric books also were all the rage, such the occult masterpiece Practical Spirit Summoning by Anthony Stark, a bizarre Fundamentalist mystic from the hills of Michigania, and the 6-part, decade-spanning Harold Porter novel series by Wilhelm Beck, about a young boy sent away to the magical "University of the Council," where he is told he will one day be the Chosen One of the Council and "balance the ectoplasma" by destroying Nax the Archduke of Hell. This proved to be an overwhelmingly popular book, with many seeing Ashgarth, the brave talking magical bear who protects Harold, as a Christ-like figure, falling in battle and snapping Harold out of his possession by Nax.

"You're a wizard, Harold! You were supposed to bring balance to the Ectoplasma, not side with Nax! You were chosen by the Council of Jehovah for this special cause! To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness within yourself!"

- Ashgarth the Bear to Harold Porter in Volume 6.1 of the Harold Porter series, There and Back, or The Voyage to the Spirit Hallows wherein our Hero and his Trusty Bear-Friend Bring Balance to the Ectoplasm (Part I) (1889)

Meanwhile, more psychological tales came from Charles Dodgson, an English immigrant living in Shicagwa at the time. He was experimenting heavily with cocaine and mushrooms at the time and in his drugged state wrote Alvin's Magical Journey Through Anglia in 1885 about a little boy named Alvin finding himself suddenly trapped in a magical land one day inside his wardrobe where he meets crazy characters, such as a talking wasp (a wasp in more ways than one) and the King of Hearts, a narcissistic parody of the Bonapartes, who at first befriends Alvin by plying him with "Turkish Delights." The King of Hearts then demands Alvin bow down to his power and charm and worship him, but Alvin refuses. Alvin is then sent to the Mad Ball, where he meets the Nutter, a crazed psychotic Irish stereotype who welcomes "naughty" children to his balls and then chops them up and eats them for dinner. The wasp comes to his rescue, slaying the Nutter and helping Alvin take down the King of Hearts by killing "The Jabberwock," a dragon that the King uses to destroy villages that will not worship him. The story ends with the wasp and Alvin showing to the King's men that he is truly a sad little man with no meaning in life other than making others worship him. The tale was an overwhelming success with America's children, and thus generations of young Americans would grow up thinking every Irishman they saw was the "Nutter," just waiting to feast on their bones. The Nutter would eventually inspire offshoot works by other writers, and he would become the preeminent bogeyman in 20th-century horror and fantasy fiction.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alvin remarked.
"Oh, ye can’t help that, lad" said the Nutter, doffing his round green hat: "we’re all just simply mad here. I’m mad. Yer mad. Shore and begorrah, mad arseways from Sundays!"
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alvin.
"Ye must be," said the Nutter, "or ye wouldn’t have come here. Haha!”
"But I was forced to come here by the King!" said Alvin, angrily. "I wanted no part of this world! I want to go where people are sane."
"There, there, now, me boy-o!" said the Nutter, grinning like a bugaboo. "Have a seat! Yer late! Yer late! For a very important plate!" The fiendish Nutter then brandished an axe and lunged at poor Alvin, as if to make him a part of some sort of horrible feast. "A stew! A STEW!" cried the Nutter. "A stew for me, a stew of ye! I'll boil yer bones and I'll put ye on scones, ye delicious wee child! Why, I'll bet, with a sauce, ye taste quite mild! Now come here and taste me blade and then I'll prepare me marinade!"

-Excerpt from Alvin's Magical Journey Through Anglia (1885)
​

However, not everything from the Union at this time was vaguely-masked allegories promoting the government. Some truly great works were created by authors like Harriet Brooks, who wrote Dust in the Wind, one of the first great Union love stories recognized by the outside world as a classic. It's the story of Lady Magnolia, a daughter of a wealthy Georgian plantation owner living through the Great American War with her trusty freedwoman servant Mammy Brown. She sees her country--and indeed the Southron way of life--fall apart all around her and the love of her life, her fiance Beau Adler, killed in battle against the Yankees. She then finds herself falling for Major Rhett Harrison, a dashing Union cavalryman who has been stationed in the area following Legion X's push to New Orleans and who rescues her from bandits. Conflicted between loyalty to Georgia and her father and choosing true love with a man who she should hate, she has to decide between them. Finally, as she rides off into the sunset with Major Harrison, her father realizes the war is lost and the Old South is gone. The last scene of the book has her father break down mentally and light the plantation on fire. With no more slaves, he cannot make a living any longer. And without his daughter, he has no reason for living anyway. As her father walks, suicidal, into the flames, he calmly says the famous line, "Frankly, I no longer give a damn." The book was a masterpiece and truly showed how the Southron way of life was destroyed forever and the impact it had on the psyche of the average Southron who lived through it. But it also genuinely hoped for unity after the destruction of the Old South. It romanticized a cruel chapter in history and actually brought closer ties between the former Southrons and the Union by showing the human side of the conflict, a conflict where many were simply doing their duty and fighting for their country. Although Georgia is portrayed as backward and the Union as a noble force of freedom for the slaves, it was remarkably unbiased either way; perhaps this was the charm that made it popular in the Union in both the North and the Old South.

"Take a good look my dear. It's an historic moment you can tell your grandchildren about - how you watched the Old South fall one night."
- Major Rhett Harrison to Lady Magnolia in Dust in the Wind (1882)

- ECONOMIC MOBILIZATION - ​

The third step in Custer's Five Year Plan was to totally make the economy within the Union self-sufficient. To do this, he brought in none other than the almost century-old Charles Goodyear for advice. Goodyear blatantly told him that the Union should take Panama. Bringing his canal experience full-circle, Goodyear told Custer that if the Union desired to be a great power and become capable of taking on the world, Panama must be taken from Mexico by any means necessary. Once in Yankee control, Goodyear Enterprises would move in with contractors and build a canal to connect the Pacific to the Atlantic, which would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in shipping revenue. Even the Empire should be invited to send its shipping through, partly in the hopes that one day if it was sealed off to them it would devastate Imperial shipping. Old Kinderhook executives also pitched the idea in a separate meeting. Taking this as a sign, Custer told Teddy Roosevelt:

"All right, I've heard what I've needed to hear. I already was planning for a war with the Mexican filth when I created my Five Year Plan, but these meetings clinch it. We need to defeat Mexico. I don't know if we would want to occupy the whole country, since it is just filled with Inferior subhumans, but we could certainly force them to part ways with their southern provinces to create our canal. They may have had a guarantee of neutrality from Caesar, but Caesar is dead now. I highly doubt that his porcine spawn would dare risk a war over such a dustbin as Mexico - run by a Bourbon, no less!"​

Custer also revamped the Republican Union Office of the Treasury (RUOT) in 1883 after purging the department of undesirables and crooks. The interestingly named Von Steuben Newkirk was appointed as the Supreme Chief. Newkirk was a rigid conservative and he was the man who had busted the New York Port Authority Case wide open and had gotten Chester Allen Arthur thrown in prison without the key. The Treasury became the organization that would work hand-in-hand with RUMP to bust government spending abuse and financial crimes. It also set the trade policies with every country in the world - after some input from the President, of course. Newkirk was one of the men Custer trusted most, and the two could often be seen together conversing about matters other than the Treasury. In the event of a war, the Treasury would also be responsible for making sure the Army and Navy had the proper resources and funding. This position was called the Quartermaster General, and this position was filled by the young 27 year-old radically devout MDP man Woodrow Wilson, a native-born Virginian who for some reason had become one of Custer's most loyal men during the Velvet Revolution. Wilson had been his personal aide-de-camp (or underman as the Union preferred to call the position). Wilson once said:

“I come from the South and I know what war is, for I have seen its terrible wreckage and ruin. I grew up wishing for Southron independence once again. But, eventually, I realized this would never be. And then the words of the Prophet shot through me one day and saved my soul. I received, in a message from the spiritworld, direction on what to do with my life. Like Saul of Tarsus becoming Paul, I went from Woodrow Wilson the poor Virginian boy to Woodrow Wilson, loyal child of Jehovah and proud servant of the Union. I may have been born a Virginian, but I'll die an American.”

Von Steuben Newkirk, Supreme Chief of the Republican Union Office of the Treasury

Woodrow Wilson, Quartermaster General

- LIVING CONDITIONS -​

Custer's final point of his Five Year Plan was to revolutionize the very way that Americans lived. He desired an end to all poverty for Betters of Society, and recognized the Union's fragile economy was the weakest link in the country. If the people did not feel their lives improved on a personal level, why should they keep supporting him? Why should they not simply overthrow him, as he had done to Claywell, and as Crawford had done to Adams and Hamilton? He also had promised women equality and equal standards of living with men. Surely, he needed to do something, and quickly. His answer was the creation of the Office of Public Works (OPW), under Supreme Chief Bill Garner. Bill had been the superintendent of Shicagwa during the major boom there after the war and was the former chief financial officer for Colonel Goodyear Enterprises. Garner drew up plans for huge new stadiums, parks, and buildings to be made, all creating thousands of good-paying jobs and basically paying for themselves. The first building completed by the OPW was the Coliseum, a massive rally center for the Manifest Destiny Party in downtown Philadelphia. Capable of seating tens of thousands, it was one of the biggest stadiums in the entire world and was a massively popular tourist attraction. Garner also renovated the capitol building, giving it its distinctive dome that would be famous ever since.

Bill Garner, Supreme Chief of the Office of Public Works

The Coliseum

The Republican Union Capitol Building​

Custer also became quite "progressive" by asking Matilda Richardson to be Under-Chief of Public Works, becoming the first woman ever appointed to a governmental post in America. The 33 year-old was one of the most popular figures in the Manifest Destiny Party and symbolized its "softer side," such as the monthly food-drives where the MDP would campaign for funds to feed hungry families and down-on-their-luck veterans. As Under-Chief, Richardson would become known as "the Angel of the Slums" and "the Girl with the Star-Spangled Heart," tearing down horrible tenements where the poor lived like rats stacked on top of each other, sometimes literally dying from horrible living conditions. In their place, she built new "Custerburgs," new government-owned housing that, while not palatial, was at least somewhat livable. In exchange for living there, people would either have to join the military or the OPW, and this is where much of the non-Inferior labor to build Garner's projects came from. Richardson was, however, absolutely ruthless to Inferiors and saw them as "churlish and mongoloid jackanapes incapable of living with their Betters. Wherever the Inferior goes he brings only filth and squalor." She also began a policy known as "Separate Worlds," where Inferiors were legally prohibited from living within a certain radius of Betters. This cut down on the complaints about Inferiors moving in nearby and "ruining the neighborhood." Decades later this would end in the punch-card system for tracking Inferiors, a primitive computer system named MATILDA in her honor.

Matilda Richardson, Under-Chief of the Office of Public Works​

As can be imagined, a woman in government upset some traditionalists, but Custer made it clear she was to receive the same respect due to a man. Custer also created the Women's Legion as part of the Armed Forces, mostly for nurses and non-combatant roles. Although during the Mexican-American War, the world would see several Yankee women grab rifles and fight openly alongside the men in heady situations. It laid the groundwork for the 20th Century Women's Action Corps.

- SOARING TO THE HEAVENS -​

Even before Custer came to power, Charles Goodyear was determined to produce one more lasting, life-changing invention before he died. One that would revolutionize travel. So he pulled out twenty-year-old blueprints of some flying machines and turned them over to Nicholas Briggs, a scientist from Connecticut who was obsessed with developing manned flight and had been attempting to create his own machines for years with no luck. Now, with the financial support of Colonel Goodyear Enterprises, Briggs was on the cups of achieving not only his dream but Goodyear's as well.

For seven years, Nicholas Briggs, as the CEO of "Colonel Goodyear Air," worked on all of the huge problems with developing the machines. Then, in 1885, much to the aging Colonel's delight, Briggs announced that CGA was building the Edward Everett, the first self-propelled airship in the history of mankind. On Remembrance Day, 1885, in the hills just outside Philadelphia, the Edward Everett was unveiled before a massive crowd of onlookers, including Custer, many of his Supreme Chiefs, Colonel Goodyear himself and his young, late-in-life son he was grooming to take over after his death, Charles II.

The machine had never flown before, and Briggs warned it could end in disaster. The pilots all said final farewells to their respective friends and family, and a prayer meeting was held a few minutes before take-off by members of the Council of Jehovah itself. At precisely 12 noon on Christmas Eve, 1885, the crew of fifteen men made history and flew the Edward Everett up over the heart of Philadelphia and then back to the field. The Philadelphia City Orchestra performed the Hallelujah Chorus as the ship landed and the crowd cheered and applauded as their heroes exited the craft. The pilots were lifted on shoulders and marched to the speaking podium, where Custer thanked them all for their service and awarded them Order of Patriotic Brethren medallions.

Charles Goodyear II

Photograph of the five lead aviators from the Edward Everett crew (from right to left): Chuck Brown, Aaron Burr Taylor, Manfred Steiner, Ricky Cole, Harry Abernathy

Charles Goodyear​

Finally, with his new government in place, national prestige rising, and personal popularity soaring, Custer sent word to Field Marshal McClellan to prepare the armed forces for battle. The Mexican-American War was about to begin....

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 43
THE UNITED EMPIRE OF EUROPA

The Declaration of the United Empire of Europa in Paris​

Lithograph depicting the Ascendance of Napoleon II's soul to Heaven and his father
​

The passing of Napoleon II in 1883 at the age of 72 shook Europe and the world to its core. For decades, he had proven himself a worthy successor to his father; perhaps even better than him. Napoleon II went very quickly. For years a virile man with no health problems to speak of, he contracted pneumonia in late 1882 and spiraled quickly out of control and then was diagnosed with liver cancer in early 1883, passing in October. Though everyone knew he would pass soon, it couldn't have come at a worse time. The Republican Union was rapidly solidifying under Custer's Manifest Destiny Party and Napoleon III, Prince of Bombay (Crown Prince) was an obtuse, fat little man with a history of heart problems and a reputation for caring more for wine, women, and song than actually matters of import. The coronation of Napoleon III was long-planned to be a glorious day, heralding the birth of the United Empire of Europa, a new continent-spanning superstate unseen since the glory days of Rome. The creation of the state was meant to bring lasting peace and to make the Reich and Russia too afraid to ever raise a hand against it.

Caesar Napoleon III

Napoleon III shortly after his 1883 coronation
​

The funeral of the Heir to the Crusaders was one of the most epic events in European history. Even in Russia and the Reich, flags flew at half-staff out of respect for a man who, while placed in a position of extreme power and danger, successfully destroyed the Ottoman Empire and brought the Holy Land back into Christian hands. He was also well-liked even by most of his rivals, with the Russian Czar remarking, "Truly a great man has passed. His father was a once-in-a-lifetime persona, and to follow up such an act and achieve even greater heights is extraordinary. He also conducted himself with dignity and respected friend and foe alike, and this is why I have ordered the Russian flag lowered today in his honor. The old lion is dead. May he find peace in the next world with God our father."

From California to Jerusalem to Rome, tens of thousands of flags were lowered and trumpets blared their final respect. Paris itself became draped in black, with one reporter from Scotland likening it to "as if laughter was illegal. The people everywhere mourn the loss of Napoleon II like a beloved member of their family." Frederic Chopin, renown Polish composer, had recently moved to the Empire from the Reich as part of the Polish Diaspora, and for one final time he penned a masterpiece: Death of L'Aiglon. The dirge was played as ten Imperial guards, one a hobbled veteran of the Great Wars of the Empire, marched his casket into the Notre Dame Cathedral. There, thirty thousand veterans and citizens gathered, torches in hand and in the pouring rain, and once again sang the Chant du Depart. Then, 200 Roman Catholic monks sang, for the first time in centuries, an ancient Crusader hymn of Old Jerusalem. The Pope, Caesar's cousin, officiated the funeral, and the Swiss Guard and the Knights of Jerusalem shared shifts guarding the coffin with the Imperial Guard. For his achievements in destroying Muslim power over the Holy Land and restoring it to Christian rule for the first time a thousand years, as well as living a "clean and moral Christian life and putting his faith above all other things," the Papacy canonized him as a Saint.

The earthly remains of Saint Caesar Napoleon II, the Great, on their way to Notre Dame Cathedral​

Napoleon III ascended to the Imperial Throne of Europa on Christmas Day, 1883, after a courtesy waiting period out of respect for his late father. Already, 24 year-old Napoleon IV - now Prince of Bombay - knew a disastrous reign might be at hand. It was the young prince who carefully held together the Empire as the old borders separating Austria-Hungary and France-Spain officially dissolved and became a new Europa. There was some insurrectionist talk in several places around the greater Empire, especially in Austria and the Middle East. Even in Holland, where King Louis Napoleon I had passed in 1875, leaving the throne to his son Louis Napoleon II, there was talk about pulling out of the Empire. Louis Napoleon II loathed his cousin, and reportedly called him "a lecherous, womanizing pile of shit" in private. Napoleon III, in turn, was completely clueless about Holland's feelings toward him and eagerly asked Louis Napoleon II to stand beside him at the coronation in Paris. The Dutch king reluctantly agreed to save face. Napoleon IV, however, was no dolt, and he saw the risks of fracture on the horizon.

Official flag of the United Empire of Europa​

Simplified flag of the United Empire of Europa​

Napoleon III immediately made several mistakes upon coming to power. He openly stated that, "Europa means peace. We seek peace, and we shall always maintain the Pax Napoleonica as long as I am Cesar." This was all Custer needed to hear to know he could attack Mexico and Napoleon III would do nothing to stop him. The Imperial Army was not pleased with such complacency either, and the leadership knew that Russia and the Reich would also see it as open season around the globe to push the Empire around. Shocking themselves, they began wishing for Caesar to die. Soon, wishes became actions. The final act of Napoleon III before he died was to make his eldest daughter, Marie, Queen of the Kingdom of Quebec. The creation of Quebec was concocted by the Prince of Bombay to solidify Canada in the event of a war. The idea was that if something should cut off the colony from the motherland, Quebec could continue Bonapartist rule and not simply fall into disarray or Union control. It also concentrated power in Catholic and densely-populated Quebec, leaving the rest of Canada a colony of the Empire proper.

Another tipping point with the War Council came in Ireland. Joseph Bonaparte's son King Dominic I died at 79 in 1877. His son Dominic II (born 1828) was crowned at age 49. Ireland and the Republic of Scotland still detested each other in 1890, and when Napoleon III considered taking troops out of the bastion of Fort Scotia, a small slice of Imperial soil which helped keep the peace between the Irish and Scots, his cousin Dominic II talked him into leaving them. This idea of withdrawing troops from a legal territory was repugnant to the Imperial Army and had never been done in decades.

In 1890, just a few years after the Union invasion of Mexico and growing disconnect between the Kingdom of Holland and Europa, several members of the Imperial War Council began a plot that would reach to the very heart of the Imperial family: the Prince of Bombay himself. Napoleon IV was as frustrated with his father as anyone else, and knew that a major conflict was brewing on the horizon and that Europa was entirely unprepared for whatever that conflict might hold (likely carnage on an unimaginable scale). What finally tipped the scales was the Treaty of Metropolis, wherein Napoleon III gladly signed the Empire into a shipping deal through the Panama Canal. Napoleon II had declared a trade embargo on the Union before his death in response to Custer's wanton aggression and radical fascism, and now here was his heir gladly scraping the Continental System and reopening trade. This was an obvious ploy by Custer to be able to hurt the Empire by controlling its trade as much as possible. Napoleon IV had had enough. Shockingly, he and the War Council began a plot to assassinate his father "before anymore damage can be done to the Empire and our forefathers' legacy."

On March 18, 1890, as Napoleon III was enjoying a fine dinner by himself of three steaks, a cake, a side of bacon, and copious side dishes, he began coughing uncontrollably. After a while, he seemed to recover himself and drank several glasses of wine. But one hour later he began vomiting and fell to the floor, writhing in agony and clutching his chest. Napoleon IV was "alerted" and he and several members of the Imperial Guard rushed into the room to find Caesar dead on the floor in a puddle of his vomit, his breeches soaked with his own bodily fluids. Napoleon III - Caesar of Europa and the boy for whom Napoleon II had waged his wars in order to leave the strongest empire the world has ever seen to - died alone in a puddle of his own vomit, poisoned by his own son and his staff. Napoleon III was quickly embalmed and readied for funeral, the cause of death listed as "heart attack" by his personal doctor, Dr. Henri Roseau.

Caesar Napoleon IV​

The response to Napoleon III's death was so lackluster that it truly showed how much the Pax Napoleonica had eroded in just a handful of years. While every major head of state attended the funeral, once again in Notre Dame, and while once again the Imperial Guard stood respectfully by his coffin for every second as mourners robed in black passed by, there were no laurels. No hymns of glory. No sonnets of sainthood. No victories to celebrate that didn't involve breasts or hors d’oeuvres. While Napoleon I had left behind a legacy of founding the greatest empire the world had ever seen, and Napoleon II had left behind a legacy of expanding it and liberating the Holy Land, Napoleon III left nothing behind but a stain on the floor of the dining hall of Fontainebleau and weakened Empire. Now, it was up to Caesar Napoleon IV, now 31, to right the ship and get the Empire back into stride before something catastrophic could happen. His coronation was the most militaristic sight Paris had seen since the return of Caesar from conquering the Holy Land. Napoleon IV forwent a carriage, and instead rode on a brown Arabian stallion in full uniform as an Imperial Dragoon, flanked by 20,000 soldiers and with as much pompous showmanship he could muster to show the world that the Empire was back.

In the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon III's step-brother High King Francis Joseph I showed no signs of ill-health and was Napoleon IV's crown-bearer at the coronation. Francis Joseph was always working in conjunction with Paris, but every so often he did show a little independent spirit, but he tried to be a good uncle to his adopted nephew. By the 1890s, the Rheinbund was no longer a minor country, but a legitimate and respected power. In Holland, Louis Napoleon I had annexed a vast amount of Asian territory during his rule, and Louis Napoleon II carried on the same legacy, invading several Indochinese countries, the Zulu Kingdom in southern Africa and parts of southern mainland China in the next couple decades. Holland had become a great power when no one was even looking, and it enhanced their prestige so much they actually started doing things independently, whether Caesar thought it was good or not. Louis Napoleon II put Holland on the map as a force to be reckoned with. Napoleon IV resented Louis Napoleon I, and always considered him to be the "black sheep" of the Bonaparte family. Holland was the only country within the greater Bonapartist empire that did not have a Catholic majority, and the people felt a growing disconnect with Paris.

Meanwhile, another royal family was experiencing a shakeup in the east, and the "Heir to Genghis Khan" was about to announce himself to the world....

"With drums drumming, out came the shout! Vive l'Cesar! Vive l'Empire éternel!"
Caesar Napoleon IV (center) addresses the Imperial Army in full parade uniform shortly after his coronation

The Grand Imperial Parade of 1890

Royal families of Europe make their way to the coronation of Napoleon IV

Queen Marie I of Quebec

King Louis Napoleon II, King of Holland

Portrait of the Royal Family of the Rheinbund

​

List of Bonaparte-Hapsburg Leaders of the 1860s-1900:

• Napoleon II (born 1811 died 1883) Caesar of the United Empire of France and Spain, Emperor of the United Empire of Brazil and Rio de la Plata, Pharaoh of Egypt, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Grand Protector of the Levant, Lord of Mann, Grand Master of the Knights of Jerusalem
  
• Napoleon III (born 1839 died 1890) Caesar of the United Empire of Europa, Emperor of the United Empire of Brazil and Rio de la Plata, Pharaoh of Egypt, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Grand Protector of the Levant, Lord of Mann, Grand Master of the Knights of Jerusalem
  
• Napoleon IV (born 1859) Caesar of the United Empire of Europa, Emperor of the United Empire of Brazil and Rio de la Plata, Pharaoh of Egypt, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Grand Protector of the Levant, Lord of Mann, Grand Master of the Knights of Jerusalem
  
• Napoleon V (born 1877) Prince of Bombay
  
• Francis Joseph I (Franz Josef I) (born 1830) High King of the Confederation of the Rhine
• Massimiliano I (born 1832) King of Italy, Count of Vienna
• Charles Louis I (born 1833) King of Andorra
• Carlotta I (born 1824 died 1876) Queen of the Two Sicilies
• Carlo I (born 1847) King of the Two Sicilies
• Dominic I (born 1798 died 1877) King of Ireland
• Dominic II (born 1828) King of Ireland
• Marie I (born 1858) Queen of Quebec
• Louis Napoleon I (born 1808 died 1875) King of Holland
• Louis Napoleon II (born 1856) King of Holland
• Elisa Napoleona I (born 1806 died 1897) Princess of Lucca and Piombino
• Adriana I (born 1849) Princess of Lucca and Piombino (mother Elisa Napoleona II died at childbirth)

King Carlo I of the Two Sicilies

King Dominic II of Ireland

Princess Adriana I of Lucca and Piombino

Napoleon V, Prince of Bombay

Map of the world in 1883​

 

[Napoleon53]

So glad to have Zoidberg12 back in the Madnessverse!

Things are quickly going downhill. The Union is much nastier than 1.0, and this chapter truly tips the scales.

CHAPTER 44
THE SUBJUGATION AND IMMOLATION OF THE MEXICAN RACE

A Union propaganda paper from Pittsburgh openly promotes the idea of genocide against the "subhuman Mexican bastards"​

It was 1886. In Paris, Napoleon III was on the Imperial Europan throne and promising "eternal peace." In Philadelphia, Custer and McClellan were making plans to invade Mexico and build a canal to link the Atlantic and Pacific. Custer had also just appointed Nelson Miles as his Vice President (before this, the responsibilities of succession fell to Thomas Custer), and Nelson was the general who had initially pitched the idea of invading Mexico to Custer years ago to begin with. Now, with a revamped economy on the upswing and national morale behind him, Custer prepared to make his moves. The nascent Second Mexican Empire, backed by the leadership of the Old South and under the Bourbon Emperor and Great American War war criminal Alfonso, was wary that the Union might attack and had spies stationed along the border to keep an eye out for any potential incursions. Even Heinrich Wirz and his Riders held back their typical raids into the Union for fear of giving the Union a reason to come down and wipe them out.

Custer knew he had the leverage at this point, but he still didn't want to risk a global war over Mexico. Instead he created the first false flag in modern history. The Union Navy was on stand-by in the Gulf, sailing around under the guise of "military exercises," and then the President moved the R.U.S. Titania down near the Panamanian coast in the Gulf of Mosquitoes. The Titania was ordered to steam close to the Mexican ironclad squadron in the area and flash a code to exchange news, as was common between international ships in this period, as they were still deprived of instant talkiebox communication. During the routine event, an explosion went off on the back deck of the Titania. The wounded ship's crew instantly moved into action, opening fire on the outdated Mexican ironclads with heavy deck artillery and coffee grinder turrets. Within twenty minutes, nine ironclads were sinking beneath the waves and eight more were abandoned as the terrified and confused Mexican sailors dove overboard and swam for their lives. The massacre continued as the rest of the Union fleet moved in and trapped the remaining members of the fleeing ironclad squadron. The commanders quickly surrendered, knowing they stood no chance against the larger and faster warships. Next came the pathetic wooden reserve ships that Mexico deployed to defend the town of Colon as a last ditch effort. Fifty Mexican ships were destroyed by the end of the day, effectively eliminating the already-meager Mexican navy from the Atlantic Ocean. The source of the explosion on the Titania was blamed on "Mexican Inferior treachery." In reality, the Union had rigged the whole thing from the start with a small stick of TNT just large enough to create a show (no one had even died in the blast).

The Battle of the Gulf of Mosquito​

The reaction from the Union populace was pure, unadulterated rage. The people were clamoring for a declaration of war, begging Custer to destroy Mexico once and for all. Things had gone perfectly for him. Playing up the stories about the "backhanded attack on the Titania," Custer declared war on May 28, 1886. The Union was officially at war. Immediately, the assault began all along the border. McClellan steamrolled through the Mexican border defenses and mercilessly slaughtered any enemies he could find. The Mexicans had always feared a Yankee invasion, and so they planted minefields all along the border. But rather than risk it themselves, the Union troops forced captured Mexican border guards forward ahead of their army. Hundreds of captive Mexicans died detonating mines so the Americans could advance.

Union troops advance under heavy Mexican fire​

As the Union swept south under McClellan, the Mexican Imperial government was preparing to flee Mexico City for Gran Colombia. Unfortunately for them, Legion X, supported by several smaller brigades shipped in from the Caribbean such as the black Jamaican Volunteers, had just landed at Colon, Panama, where the Union Navy had been holding strong since the "attack" on the Titania. These forces crushed local resistance, many of whom felt little loyalty to Mexico City and remembered the old days of Panama's brief venture as a Beutelist state under Meinrad Beutel's right-hand man (and eventual foe) Leonhard Troki. This caused Mexican defenses in the area to crumble into dust as Legion X, under Legate General Zachary T. Lewis, pressed his men further into enemy territory. Gran Colombia was cut off by June 15. The Bourbon government had no where to run. A messenger begged California for exile, but it was refused by the Bonapartist government (the Bonapartes still at this point refused to recognize the House of Bourbon as a legitimate family or nobility).

Union troops land in Panama​

The war was proceeding well. The regions of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas fell by the end of June. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders almost single-handedly captured the western coast of Mexico, bringing up McClelland's rear as he advanced on Mexico City. With support at home sky-high, the war that Custer had long intended to be a war to conquer Central America had suddenly become a war to conquer all of the Mexican Empire. The Bourbons boarded a ship in Acapulco and set sail for destination unknown. In his place, Emperor Alfonso left Heinrich Wirz behind to manage the war effort. The aging terrorist began a ruthless scorched earth campaign, trying to leave nothing of value behind for the Yankee aggressors. The Bank of Mexico (the old Bank of Georgia under a fresh name) also sought escape to the Pacific at Puerto Escondido. However, they wouldn't be as lucky as the Bourbons. Moments before they were to be in open waters, a Union Navy patrol squadron, all the way from Oregon, under Captain Stanley McDonald, spotted the small fleet of private vessels and stopped them. A boarding crew found millions of dollars worth of gold and currency, much of it still bearing old Georgian symbols, as well as the Chief Financial Steward of the Imperial Bank of Mexico, Bernard Williams, a wanted "war criminal" from the Great American War and at one point a card-carrying member of the Riders of the Storm. He and the rest of his staff were immediately thrown into one of the Yankee bilge compartments and the Union ships steamed into Puerto Escondido and took over the port. Union marines soon overwhelmed the small garrison in the city and planted the Union flag over the town hall on July 14.

Back up north, McClellan was continuing his push, finally hitting resistance pockets fighting under Wirz, now self-proclaimed Potentate of Mexico. He told his men that "you will either die from a Yankee bullet or you will die when I shoot you from running from Yankee bullets." Faced with the hopelessness of their situation, morale plummeted. All the way south, the Union Army was instructed to burn every single Catholic church and monastery they came across, and all Catholic symbols were to be removed to make way for "Americanization." Tens of thousands of Mexican citizens were rounded up and forced into reeducation camps. As the war dragged on, Custer implemented a policy of "de-Mexicanization." Instead of filling up the camps in Mexico, they were shipped far north, to places like Oregon, Redemption, and even Vermont. Custer then went about implementing martial law upon the Mexican states already under his control. Chihuahua and Sonora became the "State of Brown," after John Brown, the martyred Patriot-Saint. Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas became the "State of Arnold," and the Rio Grande became the "Magnum River" ("Magnum" meaning "great/grand" in Latin). This policy of complete cultural eradication incensed thousands of remaining Mexicans and drove them to resistance. But RUMP was the veritable rainbow that followed the Army storm, and the Military Police brutally crushed any uprisings.

By late August, Mexico City was under siege. The hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned Wirz was determined to go down fighting and take as many Yankees with him as possible. By mid-September, however, McClellan had had enough. He ordered the largest artillery barrage in human history up to this point, utilizing the most modern guns, and rained hell down upon Mexico City. The ancient capital was crumbling, its ancient structures collapsing under the lead rain. Shrapnel shells burst in the air, spewing death upon civilians and soldiers alike. The famed Metropolitan Cathedral, one of the oldest remaining structures on the continent, was devastated on September 19th. Continued damage caused the building to collapse on the 21st. A raging fire erupted in the basement and corridors underneath the Catholic church, which had been utilized as an ammunition depot by the Mexican defenders, causing a massive explosion which devastated the surrounding area. Castillo Chapultepec, the former home of both the Mad Emperor Iturbide and Emperor Alfonso, was also hit directly (likely very much on purpose) on September 20th. The building had mostly collapsed by the end of the month, though the Union would later rebuild it somewhat.

Union troops watch out for guerrillas outside Mexico City. Pierce Munitions M1885 grinders could fire 500 rounds per minute and were fed with a 250 round canvas belt​

Finally, the guns inside the city fell silent. The roaring flames lit up the night sky and the stench of death hung heavy in the air. All along the hills surrounding the city the Union Eagle Standards waved high above a sea of blue and khaki. Over 50,000 hardened veterans stood ready for the final assault. With a deafening cheer of "For the President!", the Yankees rushed the city, Rough Riders and Roosevelt out front leading the attack, scampering over the burnt-out ramparts like rats in a garbage dump. A huge blue mass was swarming the city, cheering and screaming, their rifles equipped with bayonets for close-quarters combat.

Then Wirz struck. The final defenders of the city rose up from their hiding spots and fired into the Union troops. Despite taking heavy casualties, the Yankees drove forward, returning fire as best they could. McClellan and his elite cavalry unit advanced as well, bringing up the rear. In the wreckage of the old Castillo Chapultepec the the supreme Union commander made his headquarters. For the next three days, a brutal game of cat and mouse was played out all through the city. Every house and every building seemed to house an enemy, and every house and building claimed another American life or two or three or ten. At last, Wirz himself was located in an old library in the southwestern area of the city. After a massive shootout, Wirz was at last struck down by Union bullets, crippling him instantly from the waist down. He was loaded onto a wagon and brought before McClellan. Enraged at finally seeing the terrorist who had caused so many deaths since the war and who was responsible for the horrific guerrilla campaign inside Mexico City, McClellan drew the saber from his belt and - according to the legends - took Wirz's head clean off with one strike. Whether that tale is true or not, Wirz's head was indeed mounted on a pike in front of the Castillo for all the city to see. Almost immediately, the battle began to cease and the last defenders began either surrendering or fleeing when possible.

Though the war was not over yet and a bloody guerrilla campaign would actually rage on for two more years, McClellan was named Military Dictator of Greater Mexico, which encompassed the regions already captured and those yet to fall under the Stars-and-Stripes. The Castillo was rebuilt and renamed "Castle McClellan." Mexico City was renamed to "Metropolis" in 1888, with Union architects from all over the country coming to "work with a blank canvas." Almost the entire city was annihilated. The surviving "Inferior" Mexican people were either forced into work details or shipped off to reeducation camps far away. Many of the men were simply executed for "aiding the resistance."

The brutal ethnic cleansing in Mexico was the first time the Union had invaded a majority-Inferior nation. The extermination of Mexican and Catholic culture was astounding in its efficiency. The Mexican flag, in any variant, was banned. Catholicism, while still technically legal in the Union (though attending would have you designated as an Inferior), was banned in occupied Mexico itself and all Catholic churches were declared illegal dens of rebellion. In early 1887, RUMP swept through with the new Office of Racial and Religious Affairs (ORRA) and arrested all known members of the Catholic Clergy in Mexico. Many of these friars, priests, and nuns were pressed into work details and shipped south to Panama to work on the Great Canal. The Bourbons had previously started an attempt at building a canal, but it was only about ten percent complete. Charles Goodyear II came down from New England to take power over the project.

Despite disease, guerrilla attacks, and several worker revolts, the progress on the Canal was remarkable by 1890. By 1892, through unrelenting willpower and with what amounted to expendable slaves as a workforce, the Great Canal opened for business. Two years prior to opening, Napoleon III had gladly signed Europa into the Treaty of Metropolis, opening the future canal for Imperial shipping and effectively recognizing the Union ethnic cleansing of Mexico as good and fine. Many have said this was likely the last straw that forced the Prince of Bombay's hand to remove his father from the throne at any cost necessary. Now, under Napoleon IV, he begrudgingly had to make use of the Canal until 1900, when the treaty ran out. This infuriated him beyond measure and would be one of the many sparks that would eventually spark the First Great War.

A Nordreich trade ship steams on through the Great Canal, circa 1900​

Custer and Goodyear I came down from Philadelphia to visit the Canal on its opening day. This was one of the earliest times "motion picture cameras" were used to record an historical event. Custer greatly recognized the power of film as a propaganda tool and footage of the event was screened all across the Union. Also shown was the progress of building "Metropolis" as a great new city. Metropolis would be the capital of the new state of New Canaan. As foreign ships began streaming through the Great Canal, Mexico's culture was quickly becoming entirely erased. Teaching Spanish was outlawed, and Custer intended the current generation of Spanish speakers to be the last in Union lands. All of Mexico was broken up into several large states. These new states were the aforementioned Brown, Arnold, and New Canaan, and also Lincoln and Grand Panama to the south.

Out of the twelve million Mexican citizens that once populated the Second Mexican Empire, only 5 million remained. Seven million Mexicans had been slaughtered, displaced, forced into work crews, exiled, or otherwise met unseemly fates. Over 100,000 were shipped to the hellish penal colony of Cuba, while another 250,000 or so were shipped in huge convoys and dumped in South America and even some in Africa. All members of the former government were executed. ORRA cut its teeth in the Subjugation of Mexico and it was ORRA that would slowly erase the last vestiges of Old Mexico. One day at a time, ORRA scrubbed the very existence of Mexico as an independent Catholic nation from the face of the earth.

In the quiet of the Mexican desert, a tumbleweed blew across the plains. Hundreds of vultures circled in the sweltering summer heat. The air was thick and rancid with the smell of rotting flesh. Packs of coyotes dined on human meat. A gunshot rang out. The vultures and coyotes were used to the sound now, and carried on as normal. Then came the sound of the coffee grinders opening up, facing no returning fire. Little did the world know that in the old Sonoran Desert... ORRA was very busy. By 1905, over two million ethnic Mexicans and those designated Inferior would be taken out to the middle of the desert and shot. Their corpses were dropped into shallow graves and not even filled in, depriving the Inferiors of a proper burial and leaving the animals to finish the job. The actions ORRA committed were never discussed or even mentioned in Philadelphia. Custer knew. Vice President Miles knew. Roosevelt knew. Dewey certainly knew, as head of ORRA. But in the far reaches of the desert, only the coyotes and vultures knew. In the far reaches of the desert, only the coffee grinders spoke. A nation... an ethnicity itself... was no more.

Field Marshal and former President McClellan, largely responsible for the Immolation of the Mexican Race

A very rare photo of ORRA troopers standing over a mountain of corpses

An ORRA coffee grinder team poses for a photo

Flag of the State of New Canaan​

 

[Napoleon53]

COCAINE AND OTHER DELIGHTS:
THE STORY OF THE SWEET VICTORY COMPANY

Original logo of Sweet Victory soda, circa 1900​

One of the main ways that ORRA and RUMP kept their men on edge and ready to kill was a continual supply of the most popular soft drink in the Union: Carver Tonic. Carver Tonic had been all the rage in New York City, created be a black chemist and the son of Southron slaves named George Washington Carver. Though he was born after Strong Abe freed the slaves from Southron bondage, he was still beset by Southron racism and bigotry in his home state of Florida, which encouraged him to move north to Philadelphia, where he worked for a while as a chemist-in-training at Colonel Goodyear Enterprises, before he finally moved to New York to work as a pharmacist at a local drugstore, then known as Walker's Drug Parlor, at the young age of just 22. It would be on New York's 37th Street that the cultural phenomenon of Sweet Victory would be created.

It was summer, 1884. Originally, Carver had been trying to whip up a cure for low energy and exhaustion among the busy mailmen working around the clock in New York City. He first tried a ginger beer style drink that contained huge amounts of caffeine, but the mailmen found it unpleasant to the palate, and so he went back to the drawing board in between filling prescriptions and serving ice cream. He tried formula after formula, each to no success. Finally, on August 18, 1886, as the war in Mexico was erupting, the young man hit the Goldilocks zone for his beverage. To many of the mailmen, they found the overdose of caffeine to make them feel uncomfortable and like their hearts were beating out of their chests. In response, Carver had cut the amount of caffeine down and increased the sugar, but this still proved unpopular. Finally, Carver was at a neighborhood market when he noticed a stall selling unusual plants and ingredients from the Caribbean holdings. Their top-selling item was none other than the coca leaf. Being billed as a cheap source of energy, customers would buy the leaves and then chew on them for an instant pep. Carver tried one of the leaves and was shocked by how productive he suddenly became. He immediately bought a large bag of the leaves and rushed back to his lab under the stairs of the drugstore. In that small little area where he had failed so many times before, he began extracting the coca in its purest form. After much experimentation, he managed to refine it into a white powder, pure as sugar. He turned around and grabbed a bottle of his ginger beer and and sprinkled a tiny amount of the white powder into the mixture. He also added a tinge of lemon juice to really add some zing to the formula. Taking a swig, he instantly knew he had discovered the perfect energy drink.

Carver eagerly reported his findings to Robert Simpson Walker, owner of the Drug Parlor, and Walker was unimpressed. During Carver's impassioned description of the "miracle tonic" in Walker's upstairs office, Carver did his best to get his boss to help him make more and start selling it. Thinking the young man too excitable and brash and having thought his ginger beer disgusting, he rejected the chance to even take a sip. According to Carver's autobiography Sweet Success: The Story of One Negro and a Coca Leaf (Farnsworth Publishing House, 1940), Walker told him, "Georgey, I know you're trying to find your lot in life and help people out, but no amount of tonics and elixirs are going to grant them this magical amount of energy. We eat and we sleep, and no amount of cheap petals you bought at the flea market will make a real difference. I thought your ginger beer failure would convince you of this. Now please, by my mother's ectoplasm, we have a line downstairs, and a bunch of kids who want ice cream. Will you get back to work, please?" With a dejected sigh, young Carver nodded, tucking his bottle in the pocket of his apron and walking down the stairs to the store's large marble counter. As he worked, his face furrowed in contemplation and sadness, mixing up ice cream desserts for all the little school children, he began to have an idea. The children should try his mixture. With the lemon added and the extra sugar, they were sure to love it! Excitedly, his mind racing, he asked a little blonde-haired boy in suspenders and an old Great American War kepi is he would like to try a new soda for free.

Happy to try anything sweet and free, the boy replied, "What, mister? You mean I don't have to pay a nickel or nothing?"

Amused and quickly readying a clean glass full of ice, Carver smiled and replied, "No, sirree, boss! You just try this new ginger beer I mixed up and you tell me if it's good. If you like it, I'll give you a nickel, how 'bout that, son? If you don't like it, you can use that nickel to buy you something delicious to get the taste out."

The lad happily obliged, taking the glass by both hands and took a big swig, the froth from the ample carbonation giving him a little bubbly mustache. The boy's eyes dilated and he flashed a huge smile at Carver. "Wow-wee! That's scrumptious, Mr. Carver! Thank you! Can I finish it?"

"You surely may!" exclaimed Carver, slapping his hands together and rubbing the boy's head, jostling his old cap.

Before long, the other children soon wanted to try to the concoction, and when Mr. Walker came down the stairs to check on the store, all he saw was a sea of children asking to try "Mr. Carver's fizzy drink." By the next week, the children were almost manically gulping down the drink as fast as Carver could mix it up. Mr. Walker was astounded. The sales of his own "Walker Kola" were tanking, while Carver Tonic was a huge hit the likes of which he'd never seen. After a quick agreement, Walker allowed Carver to keep 25% of the profits from the sales of the drink. Carver soon realized he was going to need more coca leaves, as his current recipe called for twelve ounces of coca leaves to make one gallon of tonic. The neighborhood market could nowhere near supply enough of the "Cuban delights," and so Carver realized he would need another way to keep himself supplied.

It was then that he contacted Chester Gordon, a Scottish trader operating in the Caribbean who made frequent stops in New York to sell exotic goods. Carver offered up half his life savings to the captain if he would haul back a shipment of coca leaves, even in small quantities. Reluctant but seeing no harm in giving the young druggist a chance, Gordon agreed to bring back some leaves in his next trip. Several months later, the demand for Carver Tonic could not meet the supply, and Carver's dream was crumbling. Between the children and the mailmen he had originally formulated it for, he simply could not create enough tonic, and he was forced to stop selling it. But still he held out, hoping Captain Gordon would not let him down.

In early 1887, Gordon returned with a massive shipment of coca leaves he had acquired cheaply. The supply was so large that Mr. Walker had to rent out a storage facility just for the leaves. Gordon had actually raided the coast of Mexico as a privateer and found a farm in Yucatan where the plant was everywhere. Now, old Mr. Walker had one last concern. He worried that no one would remember Carver Tonic. After all, it had been months since the last bottle had been served, and he viewed children's interests as fleeting. Surely, they had moved on, he thought.

But he had once again underestimated Carver. Carver used the last of his savings to buy a wagon and mule, and on the side he painted an enormous advertisement: "Doc Carver's Famous Tonic Returns!" With his personal cylinder player mounted on top playing "The Union Forever," he began attracting children from all over and selling bottles of the drink to them on the side of the street. He was quickly dubbed "The Pied Piper of 37th Street," and even children and adults who would never go into Walker's were now buying from him on the side of the street, next to all the bratwurst and hamburger stands in Germantown. The combination of the the tonic with the German sandwiches was the final clincher that would cement Carver's legacy. He had just created America's beverage of choice.

First portrait of Carver as CEO of Sweet Victory Soda Company​

Things quickly spiraled downhill as far as his relationship with Mr. Walker went. Walker began to resent Carver's success and disliked how Carver was spending most of his time selling for almost 100% personal profit outside on his wagon instead of selling it inside in the drug parlor. This led Walker, by mid-1887, to ask Carver to either sell his beverage in the store exclusively for 35% profit or end their agreement. Carver shocked him by choosing to end the agreement. Using his profits, Carver had bought his own storage facility and moved all of his supplies to this new location. There, on the outskirts of New York City, Carver opened up "The Sweet Victory Soda Company." He changed the name to become "more American" and to celebrate the continual successes in Mexico by the Union Army. Within a few short weeks, he had new contracts selling to other drug stores around the city. At that point, according to his autobiography, "Everything went boom! I couldn't turn around without another store wanting to sell my Sweet Victory. Before long, I bought out the Long Island Cannery Company and opened a second headquarters there. By the end of 1887, all of New England was wanting my soda, and I had bought Chowder City Cannery in Boston and the McConnell Beverage Company in Rhode Island. It was amazing, and I thanked God Almighty for my success. He had shown his light down upon this poor negro boy trying to make an honest living, and he placed that coca leaf in my hand and guided me on to success. Praise God, for he truly is good!"

It was around this time that Carver met Lucinda Bates, a negro seamstress at a local tailor where Carver was getting his new suits pressed. They would quickly fall in love and were married by June, 1888. In six months, their son Praise God Carver would be born. Carver now had an heir to build his company up even more for. As tens of thousands of bottles of Sweet Victory began to sell around the country, the biggest sale was yet to come: a government contract. Apparently, Custer himself enjoyed the beverage frequently, and thought a large shipment of it might ease the nerves of his RUMP and ORRA officers currently dismantling what had been Mexico. The sale earned Carver millions. He moved out to a private estate in the New York countryside and named it Castle Carver. His original warehouse in New York City was demolished and rebuilt as a state of the art facility. Hundreds of workers slaved away around the clock, making Custer's new minimum wage. Train after train was loaded up at the new railway delivery center on the west side of the building. Soon, Sweet Victory opened up a secondary headquarters in Shicagwa to distribute to the Midwest. Even with so many bottles going to the military contract, a third headquarters was opened up in New Antioch, Lewisiana, in 1890. In just a few short years, Carver had gone from a nobody to one of the most successful men in America.

But he wasn't done yet. He continually invented better ways to refine cocaine and found new uses for it, such as an oil that could be cooked with (recommended for morning cuisine to wake the consumer up) to cocaine toothpaste. Only some of these products were popular, but he was about to hit paydirt once more in 1895. For it was then that, in his private laboratory in Castle Carver, he created "Pep-O-Step." These little lozenges were highly potent cocaine hard candies with a mentholated mint flavor. These proved incredibly popular with the military and businessmen working long hours, and soon he was the proud owner of the Sweet Victory Candy Company. Despite offering a mediocre chocolate bar named "Chococo," Pep-O-Step continued to be the staple of his confectionery company, but it marketed poorly with children due to his intense mint flavor. In 1902, Sweet Victory Candy would finally release "Go-Go-Pep Candied Lozenges." These lozenges were available in tins as squares, individually wrapped in wax paper, or could be bought in round tubes of tin foil. These new "cocaine sweeties" were overwhelmingly popular with America's children and were available in three original flavors: cherry, orange, and lemon. Carver wisely had waited to introduce the new treats until the First Annual Custer Youth Brigade Jamboree was held in Philadelphia, with almost one million children in attendance. At the Jamboree, several hundred Sweet Victory employees dressed as "Coco the Clown" and passed the candies out. CYB Grand Headmaster Teddy Roosevelt remarked, "I have never seen such high-energy children in all my days! America's children are as strong as bull moose!"

But the success of the Sweet Victory company wasn't being ignored by the business world. In Shicagwa, Reginald Curtiss opened up the Curtiss Confectionary Company and began producing "Little Sweetums," a chewy chocolate flavored small candy, wrapped in a distinctive brown-and-white packaging. He followed up this success with the introduction of the Bacco Bits Chocolate Bars. Bacco Bits contained high amounts of dextrose and "real bits of tobacco in every bite to give you energy!" Bacco Bits was overwhelming successful, and would eventually, in the mid-20th century, change its name to Joe Bar and become an icon in its own right.

Carver was upset at all the new candy companies cutting in on his turf and he decided he needed to once again diversify his assets. In 1908, he would become one the largest shareholders in Rudolf Kuhn's Pentagon Oil Company, operating in Texas and the former Mexican states. Pentagon Oil would eventually grow to be one of the most powerful companies on earth. Carver would wind up with the fourth most powerful corporation in the Union, behind only Colonel Goodyear Enterprises, Colonel Pierce Munitions, and Old Kinderhook. In 1910, the Manifest Destiny Party would proclaim Carver a "scientific genius and the face of the Negro people of the Union." Carver had been an MDP member since 1890. Carver's life was not yet over, and as the world braced for the First Great War, he would be the ambassador from Custer's administration to the hordes of young black men of military age....

George Washington Carver in full Manifest Destiny Party uniform, circa 1910

​

 

[Napoleon53]

I lied, here it is. lol

CHAPTER 45
THE MAD CZAR

Czar Viktor was quite mad, you see.
As stark raving as one could be!
He hunted the Jews, screaming "Off with their heads!"
And he murdered his rivals, right in their beds!
Mad Viktor was Czar
It was quite bizarre,
His brothers all died,
and their Mama Vicky cried,
and although he wasn't supposed to be...
He became His Imperial Accidency.

- Republican Union nursery rhyme, unknown author.
​

Without a doubt, the worst possible events were unfolding in the Russian Empire at the turn of the century. They simply could not have been worse. Fresh out of their undeclared loss in the Russo-Persian War, the Russian economy was suffering greatly. The humiliation of being fought to a standstill by the Persians, of all peoples, brought shame to Czar Alexander and his consort Victoria. Though when he passed in 1891 the official cause of death was declared a heart-attack, many said that Alexander had, in fact, died of a broken heart, his dreams of Russian power reaching the Indian Ocean dashed forever by the Shah. On top of this, his last actions had been a general repeal of all civil liberties after a Beutelist attempted to shoot him in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, his own capital. As his body was placed in his tomb, the eldest of his three sons, Nicholas, was working closely with his younger brother Ivan to prepare for ascending the throne. Nicholas had ambitions of avenging his father by destroying Persia while also calming the situation at home by easing restrictions on civil liberties. It was said Nicholas even had talked of abolishing serfdom. All-in-all, a nation under Nicholas would have likely been a fairly decent place to live, at least relatively and as compared to previous Russian monarchs.

The bomb explodes, killing Nicholas and Ivan

Crown Prince Nicholas is dragged from the wreckage (center) by a guard​

This was not to be, however, as in late 1891, just a month after the passing of his father and just a week away from officially being crowned Czar himself, Nicholas and Ivan were riding in their carriage through St. Petersburg when a Beutelist assassin threw a bomb inside the window. Ivan was killed instantly but Nicholas lived long enough to be dragged out from the attack and bled out on the cobblestones surrounded by his guards. His last words were to tell his wife and son he loved her.
Now this was bad, really, really very bad. According to policy, the throne should have gone to Nicholas' ten year-old son Alexander, but someone else was about to step into the power vacuum: Prince Viktor.

As the Russian government reeled from the assassination and was faced with having a ten year-old become Czar, many in the government feared a Beutelist revolution. This sort of vacancy on the throne was exactly what anarchists thrived on. And in the Orient, Yankee ships were landing in Japan. The American menace was closing in. Someone had to take power quickly and show the world that Russia was still ready and roaring for any challenge it might face.

So it was that in late September Prince Viktor, the late-born child of Czar Alexander and Victoria, was summoned from his position as governor-general of Turkmenistan. Viktor was... an interesting individual, to say the least. He was, according to his own late brother Ivan, "As if Hell itself found a creature so cold and vile that it spat him forth, only for Father to send him out to the Steppes to keep him from slaughtering everyone in the capitol." Viktor had been unquestioningly loyal to his father and deeply loved his mother, yet seemed to find no love with his parents. Though they publicly doted on him as a child, he often felt an outcast in the Romanov family, as if his late birth was an accident and he was "just the by-product of a defective condom" as he so succinctly put it to one of his few friends. Though he learned English perfectly as well as German and French, this failed to impress his mother and father. He also took up fencing and horseback riding, again to no applause. Finally, with no real prospect of ever sitting on the throne and feeling his life expendable, Viktor volunteered to fight in the Russo-Persian War. When the war broke out in 1888, he was 28 and appointed to the rank of captain. He led his men into some of the thickest fighting of the conflict and was wounded twice, once in the right arm and once in the left knee.

Thought the was quickly became just a massive mess and tactics went by the wayside, Viktor always hoped for the next big breakthrough, when he would plant the Romanov banner in Tehran and finally receive the love and attention he deserved. But, alas, this breakthrough never came and the war was ended by the Treaty of Madrid on October 4, 1890, a day Viktor called "the day of national humiliation" forever after. His faith in his father had become quite shaken. Alexander had been his idol his entire life, and simply wanted to earn his father's respect. Instead, the stalemate brought anything but glory. Wanting to avoid the Imperial capital, Viktor accepted a mostly-figurehead position offer as Governor-General of the Turkmenistan. With little to do but ride through decrepit feudal communities and extort grain from local farms, Viktor quickly grew bored of this and elected to go on a trip to the Far East to see the wonders of the Orient.

This would prove to be life-changing, as Viktor eventually found his way to Mongolia, then under the control of the decrepit Qing Empire. Viktor had arrived in Mongolia because he had heard tales that Chinese explorers had located the long-lost tomb of Genghis Khan and desired to behold such a marvel. But, Viktor being Viktor, he quickly became embroiled in a rebellion of local Mongols against the Qing Empire. Joining a group of horse-mounted warriors, Viktor became well-known as a brutal fighter, dispatching foes with ease and a dead-eye with a carbine. For the one time in his life, Viktor found happiness. But it was short-lived. In December, 1891, Viktor received news from the west that his brothers had been killed by Beutelist assassins and that Prince Alexander, a ten year-old, was now expected to become Czar with no real formal training or advisory. Before his return to St. Petersburg, Viktor would finally visit the uncovered tomb of Genghis Khan, which he declared to be "life-changing and spectacular. The amount of sheer extravagance boggles the mind. The Khans of old knew how to live life, and how to take it." Shortly after leaving the tomb and beginning the return trip home, he fell ill. He was often drenched in fever sweat and seemed to be unwell most all the time. Finally, one day Viktor began riding at the head of his party, no longer collapsed in the back of a wagon. He seemed different to everyone, and much more confident in himself. As they drew closer and closer to St. Petersburg, he began assembling an army to "hunt down Beutelist anarchist scum and the plague of Jewry."

As he rode into the gates of St. Petersburg, wearing a massive bear-skin coat and Asiatic tunic, he bellowed, "Russians, your time is now! Our Empire is at its lowest point and the Romanov Dynasty is crippled. But as long as a I breathe, the Empire shall flourish! I, Viktor, Prince of all Russia, proclaim myself our champion in our country's time of greatest need!"

In short order, the government realized "champion" meant Viktor wanted to be Czar. Violence was not an immediate reaction and at first Empress Dowager Victoria attempted to mediate the mess by asking Viktor to rule as steward during the immediate crisis until Alexander would be reach the age of 16. But Victor would have no part of this, refusing his mother's offer. He would have it all, he vowed, as had the great Khans of old. And no spoiled brat offspring of his beloved brother was going to stop him. Viktor then began campaigning all across the empire for support against the "anarchistic Beutelist scum who have almost caused the collapse of House Romanov." Day after day, unceasing, Viktor began formulating a plan to overthrow his own family and nephew and install himself. At last, the June Coup of 1892 was executed, with the main force of the Army, remembering Viktor's selfless courage in Persia, decided to back his now public claim to the throne. Many of his former Mongol allies, now fleeing a recharged Qing advance in Mongolia, also rode to his side. In one night, under the cover of darkness, Prince Alexander was arrested in his bedchamber and exiled to Siberia. Victoria herself, Viktor's own mother, was also summarily exiled, but she was sent to Georgia to split her away from Prince Alexander. By morning, Viktor was master of Russia.

Within weeks of Viktor becoming Czar, he repealed even more civil liberties than his father and announced that "the pox of Judaism has been banned within the glorious borders of the Empire." Thousands of Jews suddenly found themselves on a quick train out of the country, fleeing for their lives as the Russian army began slaughtering those who refused to leave. Also on the chopping block was virtually any non-conformist in sight, with Viktor determined to not stop the killing until he was satisfied that he was opposed by no one. "For I am the Voice of God on Earth," he proclaimed, "The Alpha and Omega. Those who seek to defile our Christian kingdom will find themselves punished in this life and the next." Interestingly, many of the Russian Jews who fled Viktor's atrocities would find their way to the Republican Union, especially the newly-created city of Metropolis, Main, in the former Mexican Empire.

But Viktor wasn't your typical Orthodox Christian. During his time in Asia, he had acquired many traditions from Tibetan Buddhists and Animism. In fact, the exact nature of his beliefs was never fully explained by himself or anyone, and has forever remained a mystery. As his sanity appeared to further break down, Viktor began to see himself as the literal successor to Genghis Khan, destined to lead the peoples of the Steppes to Imperial glory the likes of which no Bonaparte could hope to match. He declared war on the Qing Empire in 1894 and announced he would "liberate" Mongolia from the Chinese menace. A war of total ethnic cleansing followed, with any Chinese found in Mongolia brutally slain and their language banned. Viktor proclaimed Urga to be "the Imperial Capital of the Orient" and soon was wreaking merry hell throughout all of Asia. The Qing finally began modernization to combat the bloodthirsty Czar and managed to hold him back. In Urga, Viktor proclaimed himself "Czar of Czars and Khan of Khans, God's Voice on Earth." At this point, many of his soldiers began to simply fear instead of adore him, and he knew he had to keep their favor. So he installed a spoils system and ordered that all cities loyal to an enemy were to be utterly destroyed if they refused surrender. Several large Qing cities along the Mongolian border were completely destroyed and their entire populations put to the sword. At last, in late 1896, the Treaty of Urga was signed, with the Qing recognizing Mongolia as a Russian domain.

Russian troops shell a Qing flotilla

Russian troops advance against Qing forces​

Now Viktor was ready to turn his eyes south, to Persia and revenge. That revenge would wait, percolating in his warped mind, for the first few years of the 20th century. But at last, with the outbreak of the First Great War, the Russian Bear would assault the Persian Lion and duke it out for the final time. In the years until then, Viktor would solidify his rule over "Grand Russia." Victoria would die in 1896 of natural causes, but Prince Alexander would never be heard from again. As absolute power intoxicated the "Khan of Khans," the outside world looked on in horror. To the Nordreich, a nation which had formerly had good ties with Russia and had even discussed before joining the League of Tsars to oppose Bonapartist hegemony, Viktor was an unpredictable lunatic. At any second, he could decide to bring his new golden horde to East Prussia or Finland and slaughter every Reich citizens he could find. Indeed, the fear of having your countrymen made into a pile of skulls seemed to deter most nations from diplomatic relations with the Mad Czar. The League of Tsars held together, but only out of fear. Each member worried leaving the alliance would be seen as an act of war and would be retaliated against with extreme violence and Vlad the Impaler-level cruelty.

Inside Grand Russia, the people expressed total loyalty to the Czar. In 1900, he actually abolished serfdom. This was the start of the "Grand Purge," and followed Prince Alexander's disappearance in Siberia. This move caught everyone off guard, and no one could have predicted what happened next. In just several years, he rapidly modernized the entirety of his country and elevated the serfs to a decent minimum wage and acceptable standard of living. Factories sprang up all over Russia and trade boomed. This religion-driven social revolution was merely a cover for him massacring scores of the nobility and all who he saw as threats against his reign. By 1905, most of the Imperial aristocracy was gone, either living in exile or dead. As Yankee power expanded in the Pacific, Viktor warned his people to "Beware the Jew-run Republican Union, founded on Satanic drivel and funded entirely by the worldwide Jewish Zionist conspiracy. The subhuman Jew is a clever creature, despite its inhumanity. In its desire to dominate the world, the Jewish cockroach will do anything it has to to deceive and lead people astray and straight into Satan's waiting eternal clutches." In 1906, Viktor created the Imperskaya Taynaya Politsiya (ITP), or "Imperial Secret Police." The ITP were one of the most effective secret police forces on the planet, arresting or killing enemies of the Crown all over the world and rounding up political enemies and Jews and anarchists at home. Viktor also began a systematic cleansing of Muslims from southern Russia and the Caucasus, especially the Chechnyans. Viktor viewed Muslims as a potential fifth column which Persia could use against him during the next go-round. Jews still inside the Empire were forced to wear a yellow star patch on their clothing, marking them as unclean. Muslims were forces to wear a crescent. Most of these "subhumans" who refused or were unable to leave were often either killed on the spot or sent to Siberia to bust rock all day. Truly, a dark time had come to Eastern Europe. And in the face of continual Russian advances and the Dutch and Americans closing in, the Qing Empire would need to reform itself quickly and prepare itself for the Great War as well. In 1908, the Qing, for the first time, opened diplomatic channels with Persia. To stand up to Russia and Viktor, a coalition would be needed...

Viktor's rule was not unchallenged, and there were many plots to remove him, but none succeeded. Every attempt at revolution was brutally crushed and all the conspirators executed, usually by either crucifixion or firing squad. This total control and iron-fisted dictatorship was best described by Viktor in his favorite saying: "Trust no one. Not even yourself."

Russian Jews wear yellow stars to mark them as destined for Siberian work camps​

One of many official portraits of Czar Viktor I​

 

[Napoleon53]

CHAPTER 46
THE JAPANESE-AMERICAN WAR AND THE SUBJUGATION OF HAWAII

Nippon (also known by some in Europe as "Japan") had long been one of the only Asian realms that was not colonized heavily influenced by a European power. To the people of the Reich, Europa, and Holland, Nippon was far too defensible and densely populated to be a serious contender for a new colony. Back in the 18th century, the only allowed Western traders were based out of Dejima and were Portuguese. However, growing hatred of their weapons and their Catholicism led to massive unrest and an eventual massacre in Dejima of Western traders on April 3rd, 1710. For over 100 years, no foreign vessel dared to enter Nipponese waters and information to and from Nippon only came from the occasional Chinese merchant. In 1850, French vessels came to Edo Bay to force Nippon to reopen to the outside world. A massive battle ensued which saw 50 dead Nipponese and 176 French soldiers. The Europeans never really came back after that, becoming preoccupied with other territories and believing Nippon destined to always be a stubborn backwater. Growing up, prince Mutsuhito heard stories of the Battle of Edo Bay. Of how iron-clad whales rode into the bay and wished to destroy their way of life entirely. As news of the French Empire’s colonial ventures abroad entered the country, the French invaders were made the personification of Shinigami, the gods of death. These stories never left the young prince. When he became Emperor in 1867, Mutsuhito was very worried about the prospect of Western powers overthrowing his rule and destroying the ancient Nipponese way of life. He prayed to his ancestors that Nippon would forever be free of the control of the foreign Shinigami. To do this he believed he had to beat them at their own game. Feudalism, the Daimyō, and Nippon’s stubborn isolation had to go. If Nippon could modernize, then maybe, just maybe, Nippon would be safe from the foreign Shinigami. Unfortunately, Nippon lacked the expertise to fully modernize. As luck would have it, as Mutsuhito turned 18, things were about to get interesting. Very interesting.

In 1870, Captain Nathaniel Butterworth of the Colonel Goodyear Enterprises Pacific Trade Company arrived in Edo Bay. Charles Goodyear had heard of the Emperor's attempts at modernization and desire to strengthen Japan. To entice Mutsuhito into a trade deal, he sent large amounts of rifles, handguns, and modern machinery as a gift. In order to acquire more of these items for a cheap price, Mutsuhito was asked to only trade with the Republican Union, host an Embassy in Edo, along with accepting Colonel Goodyear Enterprises bases to regulate shipping. Mutsuhito was hesitant, but the Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, whom also wished to see Nippon modernize, was able to convince him. As the ink dried on the Treaty of Edo, a new era had come to Nippon. For the first 17 years, this way of doing things went fine, with a cordial relationship between the Nipponese and the Yankee merchants. The flow of modern weapons and industrial machinery allowed Mutsuhito to slowly, but surely, modernize Nippon and weaken the power of the Daimyō, first through increasing their obligations in taxes, then by centralizing the armed forces. They could try to rebel, but swords are no match for guns. Then came Arthur Ponsonby, official Union Diplomat to Nippon. Ponsonby was a radical member of the AFC and Manifest Destiny Party and was appointed by President Custer to explore new routes for the growth of the Union sphere of influence. The Subjugation of Mexico was fresh in the minds of the Union people, and they were looking outwards once again. Ponsonby was going to be the one to tip the scale, knock the scale off the table, and then flip the table over before jumping up and down on both the scale and table. He became close friends with the Shogun. Unknown to all but a close few, the Shogun had actually converted to the AFC faith in 1878, keeping it under wraps to save face. Several other Daimyō had done so, too. Through befriending Yoshinobu, Ponsonby found a way to bring Nippon under Union control. He convinced the Shogun and the Daimyō whom had converted into overthrowing the Emperor in a palace putsch. The saviors, as they called themselves, had a plan ready and men hired. But the plan was never to be. Mutsuhito, having long distrusted Yoshinobu, had gotten wind of the plot, and on September 22nd, 1890, the Nipponese Army stormed Edo Castle to arrest the Shogun. A violent battle broke out that ended with the destruction of Edo Castle. The next day, the Emperor declared the position of Shogun defunct, ending the centuries long tradition. The story of Tokugawa Yoshinobu was not over and about to get a lot bloodier.

Emperor Mutsuhito of Japan​

Since Butterworth's opening of Nippon to Union trade, a small amount of AFC converts had always been around, many simply calling themselves "The Saven." These Saven were fairly quiet and mostly kept to themselves. They were throughout most of Japan, but mostly concentrated on Kyushu. Some made the trip to America to see the "Holy Sites," such as Valley Forge and Burr's First Fundamentalist Church. At first, many Yankees looked upon these Nipponese as "yellow savages," not unlike all the Chinese slaving away in California. However, these people were different. They loved the Union and the Prophet Burr. Surely, then, they might not be all bad? In 1889, the Council of Jehovah announced that Nipponese were, in fact, descendants of the Pinnacle Man. According to this new doctrine, the Kamikaze ("Divine Wind") of Jehovah had shielded this "Lost Tribe of Israel" from the "Mongoloid Steppe-Savage Invasion" of Kublai Khan in the 13th Century, with unnaturally powerful storms destroying the Mongolian fleet. According to the Church, the Nipponese were actually Jews, lost Israelites who took the land of Nippon away from the illiterate extinct "Inferior Cave-Dwellers" at some point in the distant past. Then, it got even more extreme, with official doctrine then declaring that not only were the Nipponese Jewish descended, but that Jesus Christ himself had appeared to the Japanese and preached the Gospel to them, based on some bizarre, cryptic manuscripts left by Aaron Burr that no one had ever quite deciphered. The Council "clarified" these writings.


"And then, as stated to me by the Angel of Destiny, Christ preached to the eastern Jews, and he said to these people, 'Yea, in the End of Days shall thee remember my name and beg for deliverance from the forces of darkness.'"


Rumors that the Council had invented these "lost writings" out of nothing to justify a convenient friendship with the Nipponese floated around but were quickly silenced. The Nipponese were also rabidly anti-European, which played well into Union hands.

On October 4th, 1890, Tokugawa Yoshinobu appeared in Nagasaki. He declared himself to be the rightful ruler of Nippon and for all good Christians to join him. By the end of the month, Kyushu had fallen to the Shogun’s forces. Across Nippon, the Daimyo who converted to the AFC faith had also risen up, though most were quickly crushed and summarily executed. While Yoshinobu had guns, the overwhelming force of the Emperor’s army crushed the revolt by the end of April. As Nagasaki fell, a small fleet of ships left port, secretly holding the Shogun and his supporters.

After what became known as the Kyushu Revolt, the Emperor abolished the Daimyo system entirely. The Republican Union brought forth evidence that the revolt was the work of a low-ranking diplomat who was called back and “arrested”, but Mutsuhito wasn’t so sure. It took four years for him to find the evidence that Custer himself had backed the Putsch. Mutsuhito had what he needed to act. In May 1895, he ordered all the ports in Nippon closed to Union vessels and once again banned Christianity. He denounced the West and Custer in a fiery speech that sent the locals of Edo (or as the Emperor had been calling it since moving there in 1892, Tokyo) in a frenzy towards the Union embassy. The rioters set the embassy ablaze and killed anyone left inside. Across town, several CGE employees were killed after an incident with the local police. Those that escaped death in the incident, along with the remaining embassy staff, were arrested. This would prove to be an... unfortunate incident. Custer was livid at the arrest of his ambassadors and, as Defender of the Faith, he saw it as his duty to protect Fundamentalists wherever they were. On June 4, 1895, Custer declared war on Nippon "in response to indignities never before suffered by our glorious nation and in defense of the persecuted Christian peoples of Nippon."


During his time in America, Yoshinobu adopted the name of John Splendidfaith. Interestingly, "Yoshinobu" roughly translated as "Splendid Faith." When Custer declared war on Nippon, Splendidfaith and his loyal followers set sail once again, this time to the Republic of Hawaii. Earlier that same year, in January 1895, the Hawaiian army had overthrown Queen Liliʻuokalani in a bloodless coup. However, the Hawaiian military was using outdated weaponry.The new government was desperate for money to fund modernization, and Splendidfaith had the cash. In exchange for hosting him and his followers, the government of Hawaii would receive $100,000 (in 1895 dollars). They quickly accepted. In Honolulu, he officially declared his dedication to the Bushido Code, his loyalty to the AFC, and proclaimed himself the "Shogun-in-Exile of Holy Nippon". In his first speech as Shogun-in-Exile, which was smuggled into Nippon, he called for all "honorable Christian samurai" to join him on his quest to "take our country into the bright future of service to Jehovah." After the speech made its way to Nippon, more shipping vessels left Nippon, growing Splendidfaith’s following from 75 to over 500. This bizarre turn of events was just as Custer had hoped. Previously silent on the matter, he now propagated the idea that the Nipponese were a lost tribe of Israel. Now that Hawaii held the capital-in-exile for "Holy Nippon," the Republican Union shipped out 19,000 Marines and 3,000 ORRA officers, as well as an "aerofleet" comprised of eight heavy assault airships and a squadron of small, 10-man scout "blimps." They wasted no time terrifying Hawaii into submission.

On August 20, the lead heavy assault airship Gustavus Adolphus commenced bombardment on Honolulu while marines established a beachhead and built coffee grinder nests. Over 400 Hawaiian soldiers and militias were ruthlessly gunned down as they desperately attempted to repel the Yankee invaders. Meanwhile, John Splendidfaith and his followers declared a fifth column movement for the Union invaders and annihilated most of the Hawaiian troops inside Honolulu. The marines pummeled the remaining fragments of the meager Hawaiian army and seized control of the 'lolani Palace, lined up the Congress against the back wall, and then opened fire with a grinder, exactly as had been done to so many thousands in Mexico.

The ORRA had wasted no time in setting up "offices," and then they started rounding up Catholics, as a fairly large amount were in Hawaii due to Europan influence. While not listed on official records, most of the Catholics were taken out in the jungle and shot, and their bodies dumped in a ravine later known by islanders as "The Pit." Interestingly, the Society of Righteousness was responsible for the most brutal of the slaughters, conducting the execution of the former Hawaiian Royal Family with ancient katana swords, beheading their trussed-up prisoners with single strokes of the blades. A massive church was quickly built in Honolulu and the old Catholic buildings were blown to rubble. In another previously unthinkable event, the followers of Holy Nippon were proclaimed the "1st ORRA Nipponese Brigade," with the Shogun at the head as Legate General. The native population of Hawaii was severely depleted by the invaders, with most survivors becoming little more than servants, farm hands, and concubines. The sunny, beautiful weather of Hawaii was an instant draw for many Yankees, and they came flocking, quickly bringing the population back up.

The Union celebrated the defeat of the "yellow pagan Inferior Republic" by setting off fireworks and waving flags, and by encouraging the enlistment of men for the war against Nippon, which was still mostly at sea, even as Yankee prisoners continued to fester in Edo. The President was thrilled with the latest events, and immediately began using Hawaii, which was quickly renamed "the Goodyear Islands," as a base from which to begin his war against Nippon in earnest. Colonel Goodyear Enterprises was quickly hired and brought in a private army, the Overton Agency, to keep control over the island chain while the Union properly focused on Nippon. The wild-eyed blonde President declared all the little islands and kingdoms and atolls of the Pacific would be conquered by the Republican Union as part of its "manifest destiny to secure its future." Over the next few years, the Union Navy took one island group after another. One of the most important of these island groups was Polynesia, which had already been claimed by Peru. Recently-appointed Sky Marshal of the Aeroforce, Warren G. Harding, told Peru in an opinion piece in the Philadelphia Times to "back the Hell down or we'll send you to Hell. If you don't think the Union will fight three countries at once, you're dead wrong. If God is with us, who can stand against us?" Peru backed down, essentially wiping its hands of insanity for now and trying to look inward. After that tense stand-off, the Union went on to take all the South-East Pacific islands yet unclaimed by other powers. Finally, the Dutch government told the Union any further western expansion in the Pacific would mean hostilities with the Dutch and their allies. Thus, the nations created the "Wall of Micronesia," which marked the border between their Pacific empires.

Yankee troops fire on Hawaiian forces during the Subjugation of Hawaii​

Independent Australia, now run by white supremacist and Custer fan Protector of the Realm David Campbell, dreamed of uniting all of Australia under Anglo-Saxon rule and forcing France out of the continent. Campbell's blatant racism against black Aboriginals was excused by the Council of Jehovah, who declared the Aboriginals "disgusting Inferiors and Pan-Indochinese mongrels, the byproduct of African, Indian, and Mongoloid Chinamen breeding a race of cultureless cave-dwellers worthy of the mercy of destruction." Following the Subjugation of Hawaii and the creation of the Goodyear Islands, Campbell asked for the first-ever formal conference with Custer. In Salvation City, the rechristened Honolulu, on January 30, 1896, President Custer met a foreign leader officially for the first time. The two men got along splendidly and began developing a plan for the future of Asia. Custer also introduced Campbell to Legate General Splendidfaith, who made a big impression on Campbell's view of Asians. The Legate-General was clearly an impassioned pro-Western Christian and believed that the Nipponese needed to be defended from the Mongoloid menace of China and Russia.

Union troops welcome the Australian delegation and Congressional Guards (in white) to the Old Palace in Salvation City, Goodyear Islands

Protector of the Realm David Campbell, fascist Australian strongman

John Splendidfaith, Leader of Holy Nippon​

By the end of the Salvation City Conference, Campbell, Custer, and Splendidfaith called for the 20th century to be the "century of Fascism and the manifest destinies of our great Anglo-Saxon race." This weirdly included Holy Nippon, and its "white Jews, lost in Asia." They declared the area stretching from Nippon in the north, to Australia in the south, to the Union to the east to be the "Greater Fascist Co-Prosperity Sphere." This marked the first time that Custer officially entered an alliance with a foreign power.

Now, finally sorted through determining who would run the Nipponese puppet government upon invasion and subjugating Hawaii, the Nipponese-American War finally came to a head and saw the first real action. Australia declared war on Imperial Nippon in April, 1896, and dispatched ships and men to help the Union Navy assault the Nipponese coast. The vicious barrage greatly weakened support for the Emperor, who seemed helpless and held himself up in a bunker of sorts in Edo. The worst was yet to come, however, as Union aeroships flew overhead and dropped bat-bombs, pots full of oil and bats. Before the pots would be dropped, a match would be used to light the bats on fire. When the pots broke on impact, the bats would scatter and light the entire city, primarily built of paper and wood, on fire. Warren G. Harding personally oversaw the devastation of Edo from his enormous aeroship R.U.S. Pride of the Buckeyes, which he affectionately referred to as "my little Teapot, short and stout." Accompanying him was Quartermaster-General Woodrow Wilson. Wilson wrote of witnessing the Great Fire-bombing of Edo in his 1925 book, Tempest in a Teapot: My Time with Warren Harding in Asia.

"There stood Harding, his leather-gloved hands clasped behind his back. Always bombastic and full of machismo, the Supreme Chief of Military Affairs cut a good figure in his personalized brown uniform with yellow trim, with a chestful of medals from Mexico and an Order of Patriotic Brethren medallion pinned to his lapel above them all. A yellow necktie was neatly in place over his black shirt collar, and his mustache was curled up at the ends. A brown scarf hung about his neck, as it was quite cold eight thousand feet up in the air. This man so fabulously bedecked before me had just ordered the first bombing run on a city in the history of mankind. As the first bat-bombs dropped over Edo and the buildings lit up like Patriot-Saints Day crosses, a deafening cheer arose from the bridge's navigational crew (who were equipped only with primitive talkieboxes and manual navigational and targeting instruments). Harding, always one to contrive the quotable out of thin air, remarked to us all - or maybe to himself, or perhaps to God - 'Like bats out of hell, gentlemen. Like bats out of hell.' I never forgot that day. I can still smell the fumes from the ship's engines. When I close my eyes I can still see Harding standing in front of the observation window as Edo burned below."​

Supreme Chief of Military Affairs Warren G. Harding

The R.U.S. Pride of the Buckeyes​

As Edo went up in flames, the Emperor fled the city. As news spread that the Emperor was routing, the people rose up in general revolt. Supporters of the Emperor viciously slaughtered the rebels, who both represented internal Nipponese movements and supporters of Holy Nippon. Though the Holy Nippon supporters were outnumbered ten to one, they experienced great success, as many had been tipped off before the attack to be ready to rise up. Mayhem was the rule of the day as Nippon exploded into civil war. As the Emperor reached the outskirts of the city, a mob stopped his carriage before dragging him out and capturing him. Shouting "Long live the revolution!" radical Beutelists severely beat him before carting him off to parts unknown.

Over the next few weeks, the battle lines became clearer as Holy Nippon squared off against Imperialist remnants and the "Workers' Beutelist Party of Equality." This entire time, the Holy Nippon forces, greatly outnumbered, should have been quickly annihilated. However, they had been equipped with primitive talkieboxes that enabled communication with the Union Aeroforce. Whenever danger was near, a "miracle from Jehovah" would occur and a Union aeroship would fly overhead, with highly-skilled snipers opening fire from portholes. Three aeroships did indeed go down in the war, but their constant victories more than made up for those few loses. At last, John Splendidfaith arrived on Nipponese soil on October 1st, 1896, accompanied by the 1st ORRA Nipponese Brigade. Australian forces also made landfall shortly after, bringing up his rear as the "Christian Samurai" began slaughtering those who refused to accept the rule of Splendidfaith. By October 20th, Splendidfaith was in command in Edo and protected by Australian infantry as the ORRA Nipponese Brigade combed through the ruins of the city looking for enemies. The Yankees whom were imprisoned by Musuhito were finally freed, and anyone found to be a Beutelist was immediately executed.

The bloody war would last until 1900, when the last vestiges of the Empire would collapse upon the discovery that the Emperor had actually been murdered shortly after his capture, making their four-year war to reestablish his rule pointless. Many began to believe in the power of the Yankee God. Nipponese culture was totally collapsing and centuries of isolationism came crashing down. In 1901, Custer officially announced Nippon was an American protectorate and the Shogun declared himself Protector-General. That same year, the Fundamentalist Church of Nippon (FCN), a sub-branch of the AFC, was established. They took up residence at the old Imperial Palace in Kyoto where construction of a new religious compound on the site quickly began.

 

[Napoleon53]

BORN IN FIRE:
JOE STEELE MAKES A NAME FOR HIMSELF

The official story was told and printed again and again, memorized by every child in the Union: On Christmas Eve, 1878, a small basket was found on the Custer property in Shicagwa. The lid was covered in snow, and it very well could have been covered completely and forgotten if the snows had blown over it in the wind. It was brutally cold that night, but General Custer, always one for getting a robust breath of fresh air, stepped out on his porch and lit up a cigar. He stood there for a few minutes, just enjoying the smoke while watching some coaches go by on the cobbled street directly outside his iron-gated front yard. It was then that he noticed the basket.

George walked down the path a few yards and brushed the snow off the little wooden box. When he saw there was an ice-white newborn baby inside, he was shocked, and immediately rushed back inside. A few of his servants took care of it over the next few nights, and by a week later, it was doing fine. Custer was thrilled. His wife had died in childbirth, and so had never had had children himself, but he had always wanted to be a father. He saw this as his chance. He named the baby Michael Goodyear Custer, and had Michael legally registered as his son.

Several years later, in 1881, a small little Michael Custer stood on the stage next to his father and other Manifest Destiny Party elites as Custer was sworn in as President. The boy was wearing a spiked pith helmet and holding an Old Republic flag, and roaring out "All Hails!" as loudly and frequently as possible in his squeaky little voice. As the MDP grew in strength over the years, he became a frequent mascot for the party, even becoming the likeness of stuffed "Soldier Boy" dolls that children around the Union carried with them everywhere. When he was 16 in 1894, he delivered his first speech, calling for all Americans to "rally round the flag and shout the battle cry of freedom". The speech was a smashing success, and he was given a standing ovation.

Now, it was early 1897. The R.U.S. Pride of the Buckeyes, Harding's capital ship, was strafing over the countryside of rural Japan, dropping bat-bombs and turning small villages into bonfires while flanked by the R.U.S. Presidentia and the R.U.S. Uncle Sam. A 19 year-old Aeroengineer named Joe Steele was working in the command bridge, just a few feet from Sky Marshal Warren G. Harding. It was non-other than Michael Custer himself, hiding his identity with a beard and a false ID so he could go to where the fighting was thickest. He had grown tired of a life of luxury and safety and wanted to have adventures like his father before him. Now, here he was, where only Harding knew his true identity. His job was to use the ship's intercom to communicate with the engine bays and to watch various gauges on the wall in front of his desk to make sure nothing overheated or experienced a critical failure.

Steele nervously chewed on the end of his fountain pen as he wrote down the current speed and direction of the ship. The furnaces seemed to be fine, and everything was in order. Below him, on the ground, everything was disorder. Hundreds of villagers fled for their lives. And here he was, writing down numbers when he could be on the assault platform below the command bridge, blasting away with a grinder. Even now, he heard his mates churning away on the grinders, bullets spraying the heathen villagers far below.

Things were about to get exciting, however. A little too exciting. On the horizon, the R.U.S. Sky Titan appeared, lumbering through the billowing black smoke of the villages wafting up to the sun. Harding spotted it immediately and exclaimed, "By damn! It's the Sky Titan! The crew got captured on the ground in the north during repairs! They must have broke free!"

A cheer went up from the bridge. Steele and the other engineers took off their brown caps and waved them in the air, shouting, "All Hail the Victory!"

But their jubilation was shortlived. Within ten seconds, flares and bullets started spraying from the assault deck of the Sky Titan. A massive explosion erupted from the Presidentia and it began dipping heavily before suddenly dropping like a flaming brick. A sneak attack! Harding cursed violently as several aeronavigators tried to steer the Pride of the Buckeyes away from the falling wreckage of the Presidentia. "Hell's Bells, gentlemen! What in Jehovah's name is going on?! Why are they firing upon us?"

It was then that the crudely-painted Rising Sun painted on the side of the Sky Titan became visible. The missing ship began to steer itself directly at the Pride. Even from this far away, the crew of the Pride could hear the shout coming from its crew.

"Tennōheika Banzai!"

Harding spun around to face his crew, his eyes wild with fear. "IT'S A TRAP! Drop altitude before they smash into us! Drop altitude right the hell now!" he screamed as he waved his arms in the air, thinking they were about to die.

The navigators scrambled to the controls to drop as much as possible so that the Sky Titan would end up flying over them instead of right into their starboard side. Just barely, the Japanese flew overhead. A deafening screech was heard as the keel of the Sky Titan clipped right through the top of the Pride, sending air and gas screeching out of the ship. Combined with the engine thrusters already bringing it down, the Pride began to sink toward earth at a rapid speed. All the men on board began to scream prayers to Jehovah and the Prophet Burr as the navigators tried to bring the ship down without completely crashing it.

Grinder and rifle rounds from the Japanese ship began to pepper the windows and portholes as they turned around and started following the Pride to the ground. The R.U.S Uncle Sam, meanwhile, was closing in, blasting away at the Japanese. Steele saw his first combat casualties of the war in person as Japanese bullets blasted through the observation window and smacked into several other engineers, sending blood and glass shards everywhere. The wind now whipping into the bridge and dead men lying all around, Steele abandoned his desk and raced for the assault platform below. He sprinted down a metal corridor and down a flight of stairs to where the rifles and heavy guns were stored. He and pulled several other engineers with him and they began the heavy guns, the ship plummeting toward earth the entire time.

"For the President!" Steele cried, firing the gun. A shrapnel shell went blasting toward the Sky Titan and made a huge gash in its side and triggered an explosion inside the main fuselage. As Steele and the other men fired away, the Japanese aeromen could be seen dying in droves, their bodies often sent out of windows and paneling before hitting the ground like so many sacks of meat. Before long, the Sky Titan was in bad shape. The Pride of the Buckeyes was a Crawford-class aerodestroyer and could take a few hits and survive. The Sky Titan, while massive, was a Franklin-class aerosloop and was massively outgunned. Moments before the Pride hit the ground, the Uncle Sam opened up every gun it had on the Sky Titan and it exploded into a million pieces in the middle of the sky, raining debris down below for over a mile.

Harding's flagship hit the ground in the forest below in a violent slam, but somehow most on board survived the wreck. One of Steele's comrades who helped him man the gun was not so lucky, a tree smashing through the hull and impaling him through the chest. Steele grimaced as he picked himself up and checked himself for injuries. When he realized he was safe, he desperately ran to the wall of rifles on the wall and grabbed several, passing them out to the crew as he climbed the stairs to Harding's command center.

Harding was bleeding from his forehead and his left arm hung limp, but he was walking the bridge desperately trying to signal the Uncle Sam, flipping switches as fast as he could. When the talkiebox's little red tube bulb finally lit up, he spoke into the handset. "This is Sky Marshal Harding! We need the Uncle Sam to immediately secure our position! We have crashed, but we are whole and need evacuation now! The Jap Impy dogs knew we were going to be here! This was a damned set-up job!"

A voice answered from the speaker. "Sky Marshal Harding, this is Captain Abernathy of the Uncle Sam. We have sent the Sky Titan and her Imperialist swine crew to hell! We will descend as quickly as we can, but we must warn you that we have spotted Jap troops headed to your vicinity."

Harding froze for a second before replying, "Roger that! The Pride of the Buckeyes will stand firm against these savage heathen race-traitors. Are you able to target these Jap troops, Abernathy?"

A low hum and hiss was his answer before Abernathy's signal finally came back. Harding thought the new talkieboxes very useful, but also very annoyingly dysfunctional most of the time. "That's a negative, sir. Can't target the Japs without risking some shells coming down on you or the survivors from the Presidentia. Hold the line, sir! We are coming down as fast as we can!"

Almost as soon as Abernathy finished, rifle rounds started to pepper the grounded Pride. A wave of Imperialist forces were coming through the trees armed with carbines and katana sword, screaming like banshees.

"Tennōheika Banzai!"

Steel charged up to Harding and handed him a pistol to defend himself even with his broken arm. Then, Steele crouched down as much as possible and duck-walked toward a hole in the hull facing the attack. He carefully peaked around the corner and could see the Imperials rapidly closing in. He also saw an M-1895 grinder thrown from the ship and laying in the dirt ahead behind a toppled tree. Joe took a deep breath, dropped his rifle, and then scrambled for the grinder through all the muck and dirt. He could feel bullets whistle past his head as finally hefted the grinder up to his shoulder. By some miracle, the gun itself was not broken and he fed the belt through. "For Custer and Country!" he cried, holding the trigger down and blasting away at the stunned Japanese troops. An Imperial's head exploded into red paste and then another round blew a crater in another attacker's chest.

While Steele held the line, Harding was inside the wreck firing away with his revolver and leading the other crewmen into the fight. Sawed-off shotguns were distributed and the Americans began returning fire in earnest, pushing the Japanese away and back into the trees. Just when the Pride crew thought the fight over, another Banzai charge could be heard from the other side of the ship. Like lightning, the Japanese were upon them. The first wave on the other side was merely a diversion to cover their advance. With pistols and sword drawn, they entered the command bridge. One of the navigators was cut clean in two by an Imperial officer, his blood spraying the walls like a fountain. Steele realized what was going on and lugged the grinder back into the ship.

"Feed me another belt, you damn dirty apes!" Steele shrieked, his gun almost out of rounds. The heat from the water-cooled barrel should have been almost unbearable even through his gloves, but he wasn't feeling anything. He didn't even feel the bullet in his right shoulder as his brown uniform began to drip with blood from the wound. Harding himself hurried over, firing for cover as he went, and forced his broken arm to work and loaded another belt of rounds into Steele's grinder. "All Yankees hit the deck!" Steele ordered. At that, seeing what he was about to do and with the Japanese unable to understand his warning, the crew hit the floor, hands over their heads. Steele began blasting away, taking out a huge swathe of enemies, sending them reeling backwards, and making their blood geyserout like water fountains. Terrified and deafened by the grinder firing in a metal structure, the Japanese began to pull out. In under a minute, the enemies were running for the hills as Steele and the others shot them in the backs.

At last, the noise stopped. All that could be heard was the sound of the Uncle Sam coming down for a landing and the cries of the wounded and dying. Harding stood upright next to Steele, surrounded by Japanese corpses, an empty canvas belt at their feet. Steele seemed to finally realize how hot the gun was and dropped it, screaming in agony as his hands blistered. But the entire surviving crew stood silent. And then the chant began...

"Steele! Steele! Steele! Steele!"

"Don't make waves," his father had told him. Now here stood Joe Steele, Hero of the Union. "Oh well," the young man thought to himself as he desperately tried to ignore the pain in his hands, "Michael Custer didn't make waves. Joe Steele did."

The next few weeks were firestorms of publicity. When the public realized Michael Custer had single handedly killed 34 enemy soldiers, rescued the Sky Marshal, and saved the crew of the Pride from an ambush, they went wild. The Pride of the Buckeyes was hauled back by steamer ship to Hawaii to undergo repairs. Steele was sent back to Philadelphia while his wounds healed. There, a massive parade was held in his honor and his father presented him with the Order of Patriotic Brethren medallion for devotion to country, the Gold Cross for selflessness, the Distinguished Service medal for, obviously, his overall performance, the Pentagonal Star First Class for valiance in combat, and the Order of Valley Forge for his wound. When people began to refer to him as the "Man of Steel" when he would make public appearances, this led to him keeping the alias. Joe Steele was truly born.

Steele speaks to the masses in Philadelphia

Custer introduces his war-hero son at a Manifest Destiny Party rally in New York

​

 

[Napoleon53]

MICHAEL'S MAGICKAL PATRIOT-SAINTS DAY:
A VERY MADNESSVERSE HOLIDAY SPECIAL

'Twas the night before Patriot-Saints Day, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
A bottle of brandy was placed upon the mantle with care,
In hopes that Father Abe soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While dreams of goodly ghosts and presents filled their heads;
And mamma in her robe, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear but lo,
A great iron carriage pulled by buffalo.
With a laugh and a salute, it was old Father Abe,
I knew in a moment he must be back from the grave!
More rapid than eagles his cattle they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Liberty! now, Dancer! now Mason and Dixon!
On, Comrade! on, Courage! on Crawford and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop carriage it flew
With the trunk full of gifts, and Father Abe too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each giant hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney ghostly Father Abe came with a bound.
He was dressed all in blue, from his head to his foot,
He was back from the dead, a ghost to boot;
A bundle of gifts he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a soldier just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his beard, how manly!
His cheekbones like razors, his breath smelled of brandy!
His noble mouth smiled a faint smile,
And his stovepipe hat gave him quite the profile;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He was ghostly and pale, a spectre of ectoplasm,
His medals were shiny, bright gold, silver, and platinum.
He looked gaunt and strong, a true Pinnacle Man,
As he laid his presents of guns and bullet cans;
In a flash he saw me, with a twist of his head
But I was a Better, I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And laid out his treasures; then turned with a jerk,
And he looked up and saw our President's picture,
And he raised his hand and recited a Scripture.
He sprang back up to his carriage, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Patriot-Saints Day to all, and to all a good night!”​

It was Patriot-Saints Day Eve. Little Michael Custer, a mere lad of nine, sat by his bed, his head bowed in prayer.

"My dear God, bless Papa, and make him even greater, a savior of our country like you save souls. I worry about Papa sometimes, God. Please make him strong for us all and please let me see him more. We never have time to play or talk anymore. And make me grow up great big and strong too, a man of steel. And I don't like to ask much for free, but I'd love a new train set, and a Pierce .45. I promise I've been a good boy all year. I memorized the Book of Manifestum, all by myself! Amen and All Hail!"

Though Michael prayed for presents and more time with his dad, who was off managing the immolation of Mexico, his prayers never seemed to come true. He prayed every year for his dad to get to see him more, and while managing the country often forgot the finer points of fatherhood, such as giving his son guns and train sets and going hunting together. Little Michael wanted to see his dad more than anything. Without a mother, he often spent lonely days surrounded by officers forced to babysit, and they were no fun at all! Why, they even let him drop his cat Toby out the window of the President's House. They didn't even flinch! He hated that cat, anyway, a gift from McClellan. He was glad the feline fink was gone; he always scratched him so! And so Michael sat, day after day, month after month, longing for friends and his dad. He understood, of course, that his father was a great, very busy man. But he wished for his prayers to come true. He wished for his dad and a bundle of presents, a Patriot-Saints Day dream come true!

Michael rarely played with other children. Being the President's son, few parents wanted to risk their child playing with or getting rough with Michael. He spent most of his days with his tutor, the blind Christian gentleman Mr. Tobias, the English-born right-hand of famed spiritualist Dr. Marx. Only the best for a President's son! Mr. Tobias was very gruff and ornery, though, and would smack Michael across the hand for mispronouncing words or reading ectoplasmic incantations wrong. Wanting his son to be a hard man, Custer got a hard man to rear him. "No, you little guttersnipe!" Mr. Tobias would screech in his Cockney accent, whacking Michael with a hickory switch. "How on earth will the spirits be able to even make out what you are saying with that stutter of yours? Do it again! And this time try not to summon vagabond bugaboos for fifty miles!" Whatever the subject, Mr. Tobias would always be sure to criticize Michael every step of the way. "Frederick the Great died in Potsdam, not Berlin! Any ignorant hilljack knows this fact! Will you be bested by a common street urchin, you little brat?" Smack! went the switch again.

Michael was entirely miserable, but he bore his pain like a true Pinnacle Man and rejoiced, for he knew his was the New Jerusalem in this life, and the Kingdom of Heaven in the next. He stalwartly refused to give up learning, and Mr. Tobias hit him less and less. But still hung the dreary darkness of being alone, with 100 butlers and nary a friend. He prayed and he prayed and he prayed every night, for joy and friendship, for love and light.

He had been told, time and again, that the old stories of Patriot-Saints day were just legends. Only a fool would believe the spirits would cross over from the Other Side with gifts and guns and all sorts of lovely things! But the charm was still there, a magic of sorts, and young Michael's faith in having a joyful Patriot-Saints Day was unshaken. He did believe in Father Abe! He did! He knew every story, all by heart, about Father Abe's iron carriage that flew through the sky. Pulled by buffalo, huge wild beasts, with a trunk full of presents for every good boy and girl of the Betters of Society. It was a night of joy, but also a night of pain for sinners and the unfaithful, as the wicked and wild Nightstalkers would walk the streets. These figures of the dead, in robes of black, would beat and maim Inferiors who dared offend Jehovah. Their faces were warped, but through the night the spectral figures of Father Washington, Father Crawford, and Father Cromwell could be seen, whips in hand. Their eyes glowed red, their mouths deep in frowns, composing the music of the night with the screams of sinners. But their rude ways were necessary, their wicked laughter and brutal beatings were God's judgement upon sinners, and upon no-good little boys and girls who didn't remember their Scriptures! A Nightstalker would come for every bad little child, and stuff them in his sack, to drown in an icy lake, beat with a club, or even... send straight to the wide-open iron gates of Hell itself. But little Michael feared them not, for he was a Better boy, with nothing to hide. But he could hear them now, out in the streets. Their whips cracking. He heard Father Washington command in the distant ghetto, "In the name of God and the Continental Congress, begone sinners!" Father Cromwell joined in, shouting, "He who stops being good stops being Better!

He crawled into bed, and tucked himself in, the cries of the Inferiors music to his ears. As he laid alone, staring at the ceiling, he hoped and he prayed for all his dreams to come true. But never would they, he thought. Some things were just too fantastical to be true. But he remembered Mr. Tobias, and all their sessions with the Other Side. Surely, if pernicious bugaboos and harpees could be real, then so too could be the legend of Father Abe, the gift-bearing Martyr of the Union! He had to be real! He just had to be! With that, little Michael curled up and drifted off to sleep.

About two hours later, close to midnight, Michael awoke to the sound of a thump. His eyes widened with fear, not knowing what it could be. When he heard, faintly, something slide down the chimney. His heart was pounding, he dripped a cold sweat, as he crept out of his room and into the parlor. There, in the faint light of a dim electric bulb, a huge ghostly figure appeared by the fireplace. He wore a blue suit and a great top hat, and he had a huge sack strapped to his back. The man seemed real, but also faint, as if Michael could see through him. A ghost! A real one! It was Father Abe! It had to be! Strong Abe the Martyr had heard his prayers! The tall, lumbering figure, seemingly not aware that he was being watched, made his way to the Patriot-Saints Day cross. Michael had helped decorate it himself, and placed the Star of Union atop the mighty wooden central beam. Father Abe began to pull presents, as if by some strange Christian magick, out of his pack without ever seeming to run out. The bag was an infinite portal of firearms, ammunition, and all sorts of wonderful things! The martyr was smoking a pipe, of course, and Michael had never smelled tobacco so sweet. There also was the smell of fine brandy, old Abe's favorite drink, as the figure took a sip from the libation bottle on the mantle. Michael knew his Abe-bait would work! His jackboots stomped on the polished mahogany floors as he continued around the cross, laying out a new Pierce .45 and a huge box of bullets. Next, he laid out a train set and tiny figures of Union soldiers, all painted up in genuine lead, with a big toy aeroship with a real balloon! To top it all off, the Pinnacle Man laid down a genuine buck knife, engraved with Michael's name, with a handle carved of the finest ivory.

Softly, Michael spoke through the silence, "I... I thought you weren't real. They always said you were just a story! But I always had hope, sir, hope you'd come visit me, Father Abe!"

The huge old man turned with a smile, doffing his stovepipe hat like a gentleman. His loud, clear, baritone voice replied, "I am humbled to make your dreams come true, young man. But I have one last gift but to give you."

Michael's eyes widened, about to pop out of his skull. "Oh joy, Father Abe! I am beyond grateful for my presents you already left! I can't imagine anything that could make this Patriot-Saints Day brighter! My prayers have been answered!"

Father Abe walked over to him, his stride three feet at a time, like Goliath in the Bible. He crouched down in front of Michael, now grinning mischievously. "Ah! But you have one last prayer yet to be answered! Tell old Father Abe now, what, pray-tell, is the third verse of the Book of Fati?"

Little Michael didn't stutter at all! He knew this by heart! "And so it shall be that Manifest Destiny shall heal our wounds and sorrow. Fear not, faithful children, for the Angel of Destiny marches with us through the sands of time, both before and after and forever more, and shall bring us to fulfill these Prophecies and Visions. Stand strong, and fear not, for the Lord of Hosts is with our nation. And we shall handle serpents and drink poisons and experience tumult, but nothing shall stop us from achieving our God-given duty of Manifest Destiny. And all who are against us shall be cleansed like unto glass with Holy Fire. Amen."

The old man smiled a great big smile and pointed to the door of the parlor, which linked to the mudroom and front entrance. There came the sound of a door creaking, and then the hall light shone in behind the figure of... Papa George! Michael's father was home for Patriot-Saints Day! He shook with joy and yelled, "Papa! Papa! Praise Jehovah, you're home!" before rushing to hug the blonde warrior-president. As his dad picked him up and hugged him, Michael shouted once more, "I knew you were real, Father Abe! I knew they lied about you!"

The ghostly figure began stepping back to the fireplace to leave, but as he did he said this to little Michael:

"Michael, your friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe anything except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Michael, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. The Other Side is eternal, a magickal place of inexplicable affairs and wondrous things. There is magick, Michael, yet in this world.

Yes, Michael, there is a Father Abe. He exists as certainly as love of country and duty and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Father Abe or the Other Side. It would be as dreary as if there were no Michaels. There would be no childlike faith then, no songs of great triumph, no romance, no happiness to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Father Abe! You might as well not believe in your father! Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the Strongest Man, nor even the united strength of all the Strongest Pinnacle Men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, duty, wonder, love, and honor, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Michael, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Father Abe! Thank God he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Michael, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood and bring fortune and gifts to all God's Chosen Betters. Now, I must be off! The buffalo are getting restless and I have many, many more stops to make. Enjoy your presents and your father's company. Happy Patriot-Saints Day, Michael Custer!"

With that, the great man was gone. And that concludes the story of Michael's Special Patriot-Saints Day. All hail!


- Michael's Magickal Patriot-Saints Day by Henry Smythe (Harbinger Press, 1920) as read by President Charles Oswald at a President's House children's holiday event, August 10, 1965

 

[Napoleon53]

Play both of these with the song slightly louder to experience what I imagined while writing:

CHAPTER 47
THE FLIGHT OF THE COLONEL

Advertisement for the Colonel Goodyear, Goodyear Air & Rail's most powerful and advanced aeroship ever​

It was the night of December 10, 1900, in the skies over Boston. Colonel Goodyear, the flagship aerodreadnought of the CGYE corporate fleet, was on a routine mission to fly to New York City to bring Colonel Charles Goodyear himself to his huge Centenary Jubilee. 100 years ago, the Old Republic still stood, raggedly, under the Articles of Confederation, men wore wigs, the Federalist Plot was just unraveling, and no one had even really heard of Aaron Burr. Now, a century later, Charles Goodyear rode in a giant airship the size of a mansion, the American Fundamentalist Christian Church was the most prominent part of American life, and the Union stretched from Vermont to Panama.

It was storming heavily, with lightning striking all about and the rain pelting the mighty flying behemoth as it flew through the clouds. An old man sat in a wheelchair on the above-deck, under a large awning. The navy blue canvas above did little to shield him from the rain, however, as the wind was blowing it in sideways buckets. The old man sucked on a lozenge as he gazed out over the deck railing. Below was the city of Boston. Decades ago, when Charles was still a very young man, he saw the British Army from Canada burn and desecrate this city. Set it back a thousand years, the brutish redcoats cried! Looting, and killing, and raping as they torched all before them. As Charles' father Amasa's body laid smoldering in a hill somewhere near Mt. Greylock, young Charles was trying to take care of his siblings and mother as best as he could. They fled, and shortly after they left Boston, the Canadians burned down their house and all they owned. But through it all, through all the bloodshed, chaos, and mayhem, a young man was discovering himself. A man who could take care of an entire family at age 14. A man whose hard work and determination brought him from the bowels of wartime poverty and loss of everything he ever knew to the cusp of deification.

For it was Charles Goodyear who helped forge the Erie Canal with his own bare hands and grit, even when those lazy Inferior workers set his schedule back. It was Goodyear who fought tooth-and-nail through the kabuki theatre of the World Congresses, becoming a hero to Americans everywhere. It was he who built the greatest capitalist force the world had seen since the height of the British East India Company. Presidents came to him for advice, church leaders asked for his support, and charities asked for his piles of coins he could never spend in a thousand lifetimes. The world's first billionaire, Goodyear had donated left and right to all sorts of noble causes, from the Wounded Veterans Organization to the building the largest orphanage on the East Coast to bring up the next generation of great minds. Goodyear knew what it was like to be homeless and orphaned, and he never wished to see that pain inflicted on any Better child of society. Thousands of libraries stood across the Union, providing the gift of (government censored) knowledge to the next generation of Americans.

But the Inferiors... by good Jehovah above, the Inferiors.... It had largely been Goodyear who molded the public's perception of the "lecherous Inferior, incapable of Heaven" and as a "slothful buffoon, drenched in blood, alcohol, and with a disgusting desire to degenerate the Anglo-Saxon race with their inferior genes and foul fluids." Indeed, without ever having been elected to or named to any political office, Goodyear had molded the Union in his own image, equaled only by the Prophet Burr. In most ways, Charles Goodyear was the Union. A tall, strong Anglo-Saxon man of Pinnacle blood, rags-to-riches off the sweat of his brow. He had worked among the everyday laborers and rose to wear the whitest of white collars.

But now it was 1900, in that aerodreadnought over Boston in a stormy night. Now Charles Goodyear sat in a wheelchair, these epic events of his past playing on a loop in his head like a celluloid film strip from one of those motion picture shows that were all the rage. He breathed in the cold winter air. It was unseasonably warm for Boston in December, however, which was good for his trip, as ice caused far more problems with aeroships than rain. But the cold never bothered him anyway, as the cocaine lozenges he constantly had in his cheek gave him the energy he needed to still run the largest company in the world.

A figure strode across the above deck toward Goodyear. It was a dapper man in a bespoke tweed suit and two-tone shoes. His normally perfectly combed hair was plastered to his head as he desperately tried to use an umbrella to shield himself, to little effect. "Father!" Charles Goodyear's late-in-life son called out, "Do come in out of this rain, father! It's perfectly intolerable out here!"

The centenarian billionaire enjoyed watching his snot-nosed son endure the elements. Charles II never had felt the pain of poverty or not knowing where he would spend the next night. Charles I's much younger late-in-life wife Ethel had spoiled their boy. Indeed, the Colonel had spoiled his wife as well. Despite it all, he never believed she truly loved him. Rather, Goodyear suspected Ethel Eaton had always been after his money and the "good life." But this was perplexing, as she always adamantly claimed to adore him and the ground he walked on. She passed at just age 52 in 1895 after falling from a horse on their estate. Now the old man would never know if the love of his life truly loved him. He had no way to know. Instead he had a company to run and 35 year-old spoiled brat to keep in check. "Go back in, son!" ordered the billionaire in the wheelchair. "I'm perfectly fine. It's times like this I feel alive!"

The son finally arrived before his father and tried to stand under the awning with him while still attempting to use the umbrella. "Father! At this rate you won't make it to your 100th birthday! Please do come in! I have something of great import I need to discuss with you."

The old man turned his head away, again gazing out over the increasingly distant city of Boston. The rain let up a bit, ending the need for shouting. Then he said, "I have no desire to return inside at this moment, Junior. If you have something to discuss with me, you can do it out here."

"Father, it's a serious matter. Can't we at least go sit down like gentlemen?" his son whined.

The father replied, "Son, what is it? I'm trying to enjoy the majesty of God's creation in peace for once."

Junior looked down, shuffling his feet a bit nervously. "Well," he awkwardly began before pausing, "... Well, let's just say this news means you'll be able to relax finally and enjoy that majesty of our Eternal Creator more often."

"What do you mean?" spat his father, beginning to suspect what was coming next. His bony hand formed an angry fist as it clenched.

"Father, it is time for you to retire. I am more than capable of continuing the company into the next century. You have raised me well, and I hope I could possibly one day create an impact even half the size of yours."

The old man cackled before replying, "I am soon to be 100 years of age, but I'm just as capable as ever to run this company, boy. I enjoy peace and quiet sometimes, but I am nothing without Enterprises. I have no reason for existence without my job. Labor maketh a Christian man. I will not waste the last of my days sitting idly by while a whelp does my job for me so I can feed some damn birds in the park. I refuse to let you take my place until I either grow too ill to work or I die. That is final."

Junior looked incredibly upset and visibly angry at this matter-of-fact rejection. "Father, I am very sad that you are so hellbent on working yourself to death when you should be enjoying retirement and the fruits of your honest labor."

His father scoffed and waved his hand, saying, "Oh, please. Spare me your theatre, son. Now leave me alone and let me think."

His son grew more rigid, standing up straight. "Father, the board..." he trailed off, reluctant once again before, again, regaining composure. "The gentlemen of the board have elected me as the new Chief Executive of Colonel Goodyear Enterprises."

A century-old man suddenly filled with the rage of a young bull, smashing the arm of his wheelchair with his fist, demanding answers. "What? Is this some sick joke, you ninnyhammered guttersnipe? You dare organize a coup against me while taking me to my birthday party? You sick little deranged boy, I won't stand for this!"

His son's brows lowered in anger, his body tightening under the tweed. "Father, I mean no disrespect, but you need to retire. The company needs to transition into a new era. You have created something wonderful, and now the board has entrusted me to even greater heights."

"Bah!" spat the Colonel. "You little whelp. You lecherous traitor. Judas! I have created many, many things in this life of mine. I have created things which fly, which kill, which explode, which build... and the only thing I regret creating is you. Inform the gentlemen of the board that they are released from their positions with full pay and pensions. Tell them all to leave Colonel Goodyear Enterprises and never look back. Ever. And as for you, my precious little son, you may consider yourself disinherited. I shall make sure you never own or control a scrap of this company, do you hear?!"

Junior shoved his finger in the Colonel's face. "I hate you! All you have ever done is work, work, work, and work. I am done. This company is done. You're a constipated old man wracked with arthritis and barely able to stand. This company needs a Pinnacle Man upon which to build the new century! It needs a Strong Man! And according the Strong Man Theory, the strong shall destroy the weak. You are no longer strong, father. Though mighty you once were. This company is mine now. Billions of dollars are mine. One day, they shall build statues to me on the moon!"

Colonel Goodyear stood up from his wheelchair, standing to face his son eye-to-eye. Though he had shrunk over time, he was still as tall as his son. His wild white hair blew in the wind and his sunken eyes lit with fire unseen in decades. "You are no son of mine! All you ever wanted was power and money, instead of realizing a higher calling as I did. I built this entire damn country from the ground up! I built this damn freak of nature we are flying on now! I am a roman god! And you are a vapid ignoramus incapable of managing anything aside from your harem of whores. I should have snuffed you out in your cradle, you and that money-grubbing whore mother of yours!"

Hands flew. A railing snapped. A scream was heard through the din of the storm and machinery. The argument was over.

***​

The next day...

"This is urgent breaking news!" exclaimed the talkiebox man, Gregory Hightower. His voice was being heard by millions of talkiebox owners across the Union. "This is Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station and the time is nine am on the morning of December 11, 1900, and we are receiving a major alert from the government of our good Union. Oh the humanity! Woe be unto this our nation! Colonel Charles Goodyear has left this earthly realm! Oh! Bless us all and bless the Goodyear family during this time of agony and sorrow not in the Union since the passing of the Prophet! Again: Colonel Charles Goodyear, hero to millions of God-fearing Americans, has passed away! Once more: Colonel Goodyear has been taken from us! Too soon! Even at almost 100 years old he still had so much to give of himself for the Betterment of our nation! Stay tuned to Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station for more breaking news as it comes in! Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station, Keeping America Informed!"

9:30 AM:

"We interrupt our scheduled patriotic music for this important and tragic news update. I am your host, Gregory Hightower. FLASH! More news is coming in about the demise of our beloved hero, Colonel Charles Goodyear. The Good Colonel passed away on his private airship today after suffering a fall from 1500 feet. He was sitting on the deck in his wheelchair accompanied by his dapper young son Charles Goodyear II when, as Charles II, handsome and charismatic heir to the Goodyear Fortune reports to us, 'the Good Colonel's chair suddenly slipped toward the railing and crashed through a weak spot, sending him and the chair rolling off the nose of the ship.' He then plummeted a mile to his death. While it may seem horrifying and ghastly, Charles II comforts the nation by assuring us that the impact was so quick, Goodyear couldn't possibly have felt a thing. Remember this day, children! It is likely that one of you children listening will live to the year 2000, the New Millennium. Remember this day and be a link to the glorious days when Colonel Goodyear was alive and well. Be a link to history!"

11:00 AM:

"News flash! We interrupt this talkiebox documentary, The Story of Brutus the Younger, to bring you an update on the tragic death of beloved icon and philanthropist, Colonel Charles Goodyear. Charles II has announced he is now in full control of the company and business shall continue as usual. He also says not to mourn his father's passing, but to rejoice that he is now singing patriotic praises with all the Patriot-Saints in Heaven. 'My father is bedecked in heavenly red-white-and-blue robes and is sitting near the Throne of God, glorifying Him and asking for Him to smile fondly and bring about the Manifest Destiny of this Union, our earthly homeland's Holy Endeavor.' More breaking news as we have it. Stay tuned to Uncle Sam's Talkiebox Station! All the news that's fit for the Betters of Society to hear!"

2:00 PM:

"News alert, listeners! The nation mourns the passing of industrialist and philanthropist Colonel Charles Goodyear, who died last night by falling from his airship in a tragic and horrific accident. All flags in the country today have been lowered to half-staff to honor his passing. Black drapes and banners were hung from Independence Hall and the new Capitol Building in Philadelphia a short time ago as President Custer has declared a 30 day period of mourning. All government offices, with the exception of the Offices of Racial and Religious Affairs, police and fire departments, have been closed. Citizens are encouraged to wear black, and to pin on a Foot of Mercury badge on their lapels as a show of solidarity with the Goodyear Company and Family during this time of immeasurable sorrow. Charles II has announced he is in intense grief and is 'simply mortified' and 'will not be able to talk to the press or police for at least a month.' The prayers of a mighty nation are with you, Charles II! A mighty nation which your father forged out of the wilderness like Prometheus bringing light to the darkness. God bless you!"

***​

Goodyear's gristly remains (or what was left of them) were loaded into a pompously ornate coffin and sent to all of the Union's major cities by airship to "make sure all Americans can set eyes on their hero('s closed coffin) one more time." On February 1, 1901, Colonel Charles Goodyear, the seemingly immortal, tyrannical, industrialist task-master - and intensely racist and xenophobic stateman - was buried outside the Capitol Building in Philadelphia in a site known as Patriots' Rest. He joined the military and political dead that had been buried there for the past 100 years. His monument was ridiculously grand, largely because it had already been constructed and designed by the late colonel himself in the event of his own demise 20 years prior, and 50 Union troops from all branches were placed on permanent honor guard duty. It was the grandest funeral since Burr, and it would not be equaled until Custer's demise. The next century was upon the Union. Even more change was on the horizon. And the bloodiest war in the history of mankind was approaching....

Goodyear's Tomb at Patriot's Rest, Philadelphia

Goodyear's casket is taken to a hearse after a final service at Philadelphia in Aaron Burr's original AFC church

Mourners gather as soldiers and Manifest Destiny Party members march in the procession to Patriot's Rest

Charles Goodyear II, CEO of Colonel Goodyear Enterprises​