Wrapped in Flames: The Great American War and Beyond

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 88: Part 2​

June 4th, 1864

Winchester, Virginia,

The day was hellishly hot, the humidity clung to a man like a cloying woman. Swarms of flies and other terrors bracketed the soldiers, attracted by the dead and the filth of the battlefield beyond the entrenchments. The secesh had come in force the day before, and all indications said they planned on one more attack today. Captain Francis Choate, Battery B of the 2nd Regiment, United States Colored Light Artillery had seen their like before, and he dared say so had many of his men. Though less from the battlefield and more from the slave quarters of Old Virginia.

Battery B was organized from men recruited directly from the contraband camps that had fled the advance of the slavers the year prior, running like hell before the Confederates could catch them and ship them back to slavery. Choate had gone around with the recruiters seeing how many would like to give a little back to their old masters. They’d found hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers, and almost overnight they’d formed a new battery. The whole of the regiment consisted of black men, namely former slaves and some freedmen, who had been accepted into the ranks in independent batteries in 1863 and 1864, and a shocking number were slaves from Kentucky who had conveniently been recruited elsewhere. Good officers didn’t ask questions about that, and many clever officers had sent their men East to avoid scrutiny.

Choate was glad for it, but he was less glad about the quality of his battery.

His boys had trained on Napoleon guns, but found those unexpectedly taken away when the fighting had begun in earnest, and replacements had been needed for the much abused men of XII Corps. Choate couldn’t be too mad at the Dutchmen, they’d given Bobby Lee a sound thrashing at Whiskey Hill after all, but he could be damned mad they’d taken his guns and given him something that the War Department clearly didn’t know what the hell to do with.

His new guns resembled no cannon he’d ever seen. Only a pitifully thin barrel with a rifle front and a funnel and a damn crank his men ran spitting out - the guns' armorer had assured him - thousands of rounds per minute. Certainly in the pell mell process to train his men on these contraptions had seen an impressive quantity of ammunition discarded downwind at unfortunate targets, but so far not at a single slaver.

Choate had sent plenty of lead at Confederates, serving with Battery E of the First Pennsylvania Light Artillery and joining the fight against secession in 1861, seeing action at Dranesville in 1861, Centreville, and along the Rappahannock in 1862, and been savaged by the counterattack that year. He’d missed Chantilly while in garrison at Washington, and then in 1863 barely avoided capture by Jackson’s encroaching legions. He’d seen vile things done by the oncoming Confederates, and heard all the stories of their depredations against colored folk. So when the request for experienced gun captains had gone out for Colored Regiments, he’d offered himself up immediately.

While he’d been proud of his reliable old Napoleons, he’d gotten used to the rattle of these Ager Guns. Dreadful name, and one his lieutenants had quipped at the time ‘Looks more like a coffee mill than an artillery piece’ and so his brave and ever joyful former slaves had named them ‘Coffee Guns’ and referred delightedly to their battery as ‘The Coffee Battery’ to anyone who asked. While he’d initially tried to put a stop to it, the name had stuck and come with some wonderful admirers from Philadelphia and Boston society who’d visited the guns over the winter and early April. The one good thing about that was that those fine abolitionist families had reached into their larders and, in the spirit of Christian fellowship, sent bags of fresh coffee to he and his men. Considering the beans were worth their weight in gold thanks to the intolerable British blockade, Choate let the name stick.

Now, his coffee guns were pointed towards the enemy from their little point on the redoubts at Winchester. His one regret was that he’d been unable to put his guns into action as Strasburg, but being caught up in the army’s baggage train had given them the advantage of siting their guns first when Jackson’s slaver hordes had thrown the boys back, and he’d chosen a spot that couldn’t help put wipe out any secesh who came at them.

Choate slapped another encroaching insect, his hand came away bloody. “By God I hate Virginia,” he muttered.

“Reckon them Virginians hate you too, sir,” his sergeant, Josiah said laconically. The man may have been uneducated, but he had a keen grasp and wit that had rapidly advanced him to sergeant. Even back in training the former slave had shown an uncanny ability to inspire men to action and discipline those who made trouble.

“Don’t be too free with your words Sergeant Washington. I’d hate to court martial you,” Choate chided, but with a smile.

“Better than a whipping, sir,” he answered back with simple laconic spirit.

Trying not to laugh, Choate looked over the field south of Winchester, where the enemy would be coming from. It was rolling, given to little dips and rises like much of the Valley, but was on a remarkably flat piece of terrain. It gave his guns clear fields of fire, and meant that their limited range would be more than made up for by how much they could hit. Fortunately, much like a good old Napoleon gun, it was all a straight shot, but you never really could be sure if the bullets were flying right.

“Be a good field for these pieces,” Josiah patted the nearest gun fondly, like a man patting a favorite horse on the flank.

“I’m hoping Jackson’s willing to test our aim.”

“You think that old devil will come?” The sergeant almost whispered. Jackson had a reputation amongst the contrabands, deservedly so, as a devil who had hunted them. Men under his command showed no mercy, and had been fierce in the hunting of contrabands until an order from Bobby Lee himself had put a stop to the practice.

“We should sincerely hope so, I would hate for these guns to miss their baptism by fire.”

As if summoned like the devil from a story, the sudden far off BOOM of secesh guns echoed from the forest. It looked as though Jackson planned to try the defences at Winchester one more time after all.

“Stand to!” Choate barked. Men hurried in from where they had been lounging or doing duty in the works nearby, running to man the gun. Josiah harangued men who seemed to be moving too slow, and soon crates of the peculiar ammunition were being readied, and the gun crew were taking their positions.

The six Agar guns which made up Battery B were arranged in a slight zigzag pattern in the works on their sector of the line. One at both the height of an earthen line and another inside so that there was no place on this portion where an attack would not face the fury of their fire.

Leaving Josiah and the lieutenants in charge of individual guns to their work, Choate paced his guns and made damn sure each of them was ready. He needn’t have worried. Despite the bleating of some that ‘blacks would not fight’ Choate had always found his men to be hard workers, dedicated to their tasks. They manned their pieces with an alacrity which in Choate’s opinion would put dedicated white men to shame. Other than a few critiques and encouragements, his men were ready when the keening rebel wail came from the trees.

Soon, ranks of gray clad devils were streaming across the ground. Under flapping flags and banners, they advanced. Choate smiled at that, and hoped they’d get closer. His guns might not look like much, but of course, looks could be deceiving.

“Come on you bastards,” he snarled under his breath. “Got a barrel full of coffee right here.”

On the slavers came. It might have been admirable had they not been traitors and the sellers of flesh. Choate could abide neither, and so he only looked on them as he looked at targets, mere points to be made when training his men. Finally, they reached the range just as he stepped back on up to Josiah.

“My mother told me to always give guests a warm welcome,” Joisah remarked.

Choate grinned. “She taught you well,” then in his command voice: “Sergeant, roll out the hot beverages. Battery Coffee! Fire!”

It wasn’t a great booming roll like anyone was used to. Instead, it was a series of loud rattles and cracks that sounded more like a hail storm than artillery, it was not dissimilar from a very badly done volley of rifles. However, as his men cranked, the guns still fired their deadly shot.

Out in the enemy ranks, men were hit and fell, some blasted apart, the shot going through them and into the man behind them. Choate watched with military efficiency as the guns did their terrible work. Spurts of red were soon obscured by gun smoke as the rebels fired back at their tormentors. The first volley washed over the guns, and though he heard a man scream, he didn’t seen anyone in his vicinity go down and stood tall.

“Pour it on boys! Pour it on! Traitors like it hot!”

There were occasional silences as men cleared the none too infrequent jams, but his six guns fired as the rebels came on. Suddenly a man howled like a scalded cat, and Choate turned to see one of the gunners clutching his hand, he’d touched the barrel and it was red hot. Choate scowled, he didn’t think they’d fired nearly that much ammunition. The other five guns made up for his piece’s sudden silence, but still the rebels came. Hate them as he might, Choate knew they could advance into the worst artillery had to offer.

“Sergeant Washington!” Choate snapped. “Get that gun back in action!”

After a few moments fiddling with the ammunition, all he heard were some nasty clicking sounds.

Josiah shook his head. “It’s no good sir, guns too hot. It’s jamming up, and we have to pull the rounds out!”

Goddamit, Choate thought but kept the blasphemy to himself. The rebels were barely twenty yards off now. They’d be upon the battery soon. For every man who’d fallen on their advance, another had taken his place. He saw the fresh gleam of hatred in those men’s eyes as they advanced over their dead and wounded comrades. Another gun fell silent, clearly jammed or too hot. Soon the rebels were making for the gaps where the guns had stopped.

“Men, prepare to receive the enemy!” He raised his sword high, and the soldiers nearby picked up pistols or carbines, whatever came to hand, including ramrods and in one case an empty crate.

With a howl the rebels came, and Choate raised his sword with a snarl of defiance. But before he could do anything he was pushed aside and a blast of fire washed ahead, burying the rebels in smoke. Dozens of black men in blue uniforms were pushing past him, hollering. “Lincoln! Fort Lincoln!” Choate vaguely remembered that was where the Colored Brigade had seen off the rebel attack at Washington the year prior.

As suddenly as they had come, the rebels were turning back, and they were chased by fire from the black men around him.

“Damn fool,” a voice said from beside him. “Where the hell were your supports before now?”

Turning to vent his anger, he stopped as he saw the colonel's oak leaves on the man's uniform, and he saluted.

“Colonel, sir! We didn’t think the rebels would make it past our guns!”

The colonel regarded the guns skeptically. “They make a lot of racket Captain, I’ll give you that. Don’t think they’re as good as a regular cannon though. But I grant, they served their purpose. Perhaps you can see the rebels on their way?”

Rattling thunder was picked up again and Choate proudly knew his men were doing just that.

“Thank you for your timely intervention Colonel, to whom do I owe the honor?”

“To those brave Africans who saved your sorry behind, Captain. More specifically, the 52nd Massachusetts.” The man grinned ruefully. “We were supposed to be resting after the hard fighting the other day, but as you can see we have been sent to assist.”

“Colonel Shaw,” Choate said a bit in awe, the famous scion of the abolitionist family had earned a just fame in commanding his men. Wouldn’t this be a story for society back home? “I thank you for your timely assistance sir.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. We both know Jackson is stubborn as the devil tempting a man to sin, he’ll be back. See to your guns captain, we’ll support you.”

By the end of the afternoon, the rebels had retreated. Winchester remained firmly in Union hands, and Jackson’s men had once again suffered a painful reversal. The Colored Corps lived to vex the rebellion another day.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 89: A Walk in the Woods​

“With its cloud of skirmishers in advance,
With now the sound of a single shot snapping like a whip, and now an irregular volley,
The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades press on,
Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun—the dust-cover'd men,
In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,
With artillery interspers'd—the wheels rumble, the horses sweat,
As the army corps advances.” - An Army Corps on the March, Drum Taps, Walt Whitman, 1865

“Lee’s withdrawal was reasonably orderly, but Rosecrans, after driving the much battered Third Corps from its entrenchments, pursued Lee doggedly. His great turning movement began on the 9th of June with Stoneman taking the majority of his cavalry in a wide arc, aiming to sweep into the Confederate rear and destroy or disable Lee’s lines of communication and, most importantly, distract the Confederate cavalry leaving Lee blind to Rosecrans intentions.

However, this became Rosecrans’s first blunder of the campaign. With the majority of his cavalry gone, his scouting and flank defense was tenuous at best. He came to rely ever more on the abilities of Lowe’s aeronauts, which while useful, could not provide the same protection as cavalry, nor see into the dense woods south of the Rapidan.

Well known to the Virginia locals, but little known to the men of Rosecrans army, south of the river lay a vast, dense stretch of woodland known simply as The Wilderness of Spotsylvania which stretched out behind Fredericksberg. Once filled with tall and long limbed trees, the forest had been all but cut down in Colonial days to make charcoal for local pig iron furnaces. When the supply of wood was exhausted, the furnaces were abandoned and secondary forrest growth developed, creating a dense mass of brambles, thickets, vines, and low-lying vegetation more resembling a jungle than a forrest as most men were used to…

The early crossings achieved spectacular success, the main thrust crossing along the Rappahannock in good order, Hooker’s III Corps and Reynolds V Corps maneuvering almost unopposed. The movement was so swift that each corps was across by the 11th and Sickles’ XIV was moving promptly, with the force reaching the Rapidan by the 13th and crossing in good order to their proposed meeting place at Chancellorsville.

Union troops crossing the Germanna Ford​

All the while, the bloody fighting at Fredericksburg was underway. The unfortunate Ewell’s corps was fighting for its life on the 11th, as Rosecrans well timed maneuver was underway. Hancock’s men performed beyond expectations with Meagher’s division storming across the pontoons at Deep Run and driving straight up the hillside, nearly unhinging the whole Confederate line on the first day. Only a desperate counterattack by Ewell’s reserve checked the Irish charge, and Hancock reminded his officers that they ‘had some fighting yet’ and so urged caution as the day ended.

On the morning of the 12th, as Rosecrans had hoped and as Lee intended, Ewell’s men began withdrawing, and Lowe’s aeronauts reported long columns heading south and west in the direction of Chancellorsville. Buoyed by what he perceived to be his plans success, Rosecrans ordered the men in, pushing them hard into the waiting arms of his forces.

It was here where the nature of the Wilderness began to work against him. Lee. in his retreat, had left strong forces masking his flanks, and it was here some of Stuart’s men met the advancing columns of Pleasanton’s division of the XIV Corps as they advanced up the Germanna plank road on the 14th of June. The nature of the terrain made assessing the strength of either side difficult, and so the two groups engaged in a protracted battle which severely impeded the advance of XIV Corps, and eventually pushed Stuarts men all the way to the Wilderness Tavern, having come wildly off course…

In his reports, Stuart emphasized that it seemed as though the Federal army was ‘strung out’ and advancing in detail. Knowing the land better, Lee realized he could buy essential time for his men to fortify their new position and ordered Ewell’s men to “Make all haste to the Wilderness Tavern and there meet General Longstreet’s Corps, where you shall dig in as the General deems appropriate and do your level best to delay the Federal Army for as long as you deem possible.” The task of digging in would be left to impressed slaves and the men of the Fifth Corps.

Longstreet meanwhile, moved swiftly to meet with Ewell at his desired location…

As the II Corps and the leading elements of IV Corps met at Chancellorsville on the 15th, they were dismayed to find that, rather than bagging Lee’s army in a trap, they had instead closed a mighty pincer around empty air. Even then, the trap was not fully closed as rearguard actions and skirmishes from Ewell’s retreating men and the ‘furious ambushes’ (Sickels) of Stuart’s men. It was only on the 18th that the whole army was gathered, and a furious Rosecrans had to make a decision. Lowe’s aeronauts could not positively identify anything in the vast woods, while Rosecrans lack of cavalry meant he was almost blind.

Reasoning to himself that Lee must be withdrawing abruptly, Rosecrans ordered a pursuit should be mounted. He wanted to catch Lee and force his much inferior army to battle. His forces began moving on the 19th and at that evening the men of Hooker’s Corps made contact with the advance lines of Longstreet’s dug in men…” - At the Sign of Triumph: The Rapidan Campaign, Dylan Gordon, Boston University Press, 1982

A portion of the Wilderness Battlefield, photo circa 1865​

“The Battle of the Wilderness was an inauspicious second act in the Rapidan Campaign. Rosecrans, finding that his forces had failed to bag Lee, engaged in dogged pursuit, finally ‘catching’ Lee (really Longstreet) just south and west of the Wilderness Tavern. Longstreet had managed to build a somewhat serviceable line of breastworks or as one soldier described it “a tangle of brambles and twigs to make an engineer weep” which was incomplete thanks to the dense woods.

Rosecrans troops advancing found the dense forest and vegetation scarcely more to their liking. As Hooker drew up his men for battle, they became disoriented, and the woods caused brigade commanders to lose contact with their regiments, and division commanders to lose their brigades. On the first day of fighting, a series of confused and ineffectual attacks went forward, most getting lost, and a few firing on one another in sudden sharp firefights that were only ended when both sides could prove who they were. Hooker himself was lightly wounded when attempting to sort out a jam between Naglee and Kearny’s divisions.

His counterparts scarcely fared better. Sickles men advanced into dense woods, got stuck, and promptly withdrew under fire, with Sickles threatening to sack Couch for failing to advance. Hancock’s men managed to make contact with Longstreet’s troops but in in the woods could make no impact.

The only place where the two sides would meet was at the rough seam between Longstreet and Ewell’s corps in a place called Saunders Field. There the men of Reynolds corps would slug it out with their counterparts, hammering one another in a blizzard of lead. The most severe fighting of the day came there, but at nightfall was inconclusive.

On the 20th fighting resumed, but was again inconclusive with neither side making headway in the dense wood, and an attempted counterattack by Longstreet turned aside by stumbling upon a Union battery which had unlimbered its guns on the off chance it would find action. By the time night fell, over 3,000 men lay dead or wounded on both sides. The fighting had been so fierce, and the day so hot that as evening set in and men began to light cookfires, the woods around them burst into flames. One wounded soldier recalled: “Suddenly, to the horror of the living, fire was seen creeping over the ground, fed by dead leaves which were thick. All who could move tried to get beyond the Pike, which the fire could not cross. Some were overtaken by the flames....”

Such terrible scenes were repeated on the 21st, but on that date Lee finally gave the order that Longstreet and Ewell should withdraw to the new Mine Run fortifications. As night fell, Longstreet led the battered forces of the Second and Third Corps towards their new fortifications. In the morning, the Federal Army found them gone and a jubilant Rosecrans believed that he had “whipped Lee badly, so now comes the final blow” and ordered an immediate pursuit which would be delayed by the forest as much as enemy skirmishing.

So, when Rosecrans finally came into contact with Lee’s entrenchments on the 26th of June, he believed he had “Lee cornered in a hole” and so ordered his heavy guns brought forward as he began to reconnoiter the positions. The Battle of Mine Run had begun.” To Arms!: The Great American War, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 90: Mine Run​

“Today is the great test of this conflict. We have driven the enemy to their last redoubt and he has no escape from the position he has placed himself in. Today I am asking the soldiers of this mighty host to do their utmost for their nation. It shall be a bloody day, a red day, and surely a victory written in letters of blood. Yet this morning I encourage all men, on to triumph or to Judgement Day! - William Rosecrans, circular to the Army of the Potomac, June 29th, 1864

“The lead up to the battle came on slower than either side expected. Rosecrans heavy guns were far in the rear of his trains, and those had been slowed not only by the terrain, but by Stuart's incessant raiding. The absence of Stoneman’s cavalry, which had done little but a few weeks of raiding before retiring in their own wide turning movement back towards Washington via Yorktown, was of great detriment to Rosecrans. In truth the Cavalry Corps should have returned the way they had come but Stoneman, with no reliable access to new orders and being left in the rear without news of a major battle, had instead decided he would return and hopefully find orders waiting for him.

It was a gross misuse of a valuable resource, one which would most likely haunt Rosecrans for the rest of his days[1]…

The absence of Stoneman's cavalry left Rosecrans blind at a crucial juncture​

Rosecrans scouted the lines on the 27th, and determined that this was “Lee’s last bastion, his Masada” which was where he (playing the part of Lucius Flavius Silva) would envelop and crush the Army of Northern Virginia once and for all. This was in spite of some misgivings from his men. His Chief Engineer, Gouvenor K. Warren, believed that the position was too strong to assault, while Hancock cautioned against a frontal assault having seen the disastrous consequences even lightly fortified troops could inflict on men in the open. However, Hooker, Sickles, and Ord all clamored for an assault. Reynolds, more cautiously suggested that they hammer the Confederates like they had outside of Washington, then proceed and break any gaps in their lines.

With the Mine Run creek itself and the hills surrounding it presenting a formidable obstacle, Rosecrans agreed that he was not about to go half cocked into an engagement. He spent the next two days building pontoons to cross the creek and setting up his heavy guns to pound the Confederate entrenchments. His goal for the 29th was to force a crossing and a rupture in Lee’s lines which would allow him to isolate a portion of Lee’s army and destroy it. From there, his goal was a drive on Richmond…

In the days preceding the 29th, Lee had not been idle. While sure in the strength of his entrenchments, he wanted to do more than weather an assault. He wanted to strike back. He was increasingly confident in his ability to do so, especially now that Jackson was returning to the army, and discovering on his left that the Federal lines matched his…

How Rosecrans failed to detect Jackson’s return remains a matter of controversy to this day. The loss of Stoneman’s cavalry on his ineffective raids has long been cited as the root cause, but it was just as much a failure of Lowe’s aeronauts as it was of Sharpe’s military intelligence. No reports were made concerning Jackson’s retreat from the Shenandoah Valley, the remaining intelligence assets were unable to confirm their departure, and even when Jackson’s men were sliding into the far flank of Lee’s army no one seems to have fully noticed as the battle opened on the 29th of June…

By the morning of the 29th, Rosecrans had his forces laid out as such: On the Federal right closest to Raccoon Ford Road, Hancock’s II Corps held the hills with their flank anchored on Raccoon Creek. Reynold’s V Corps held the line to Snider’s Farm, Reynold’s himself headquartered in the farm in the titular hill itself. Immediately to his left was Ord’s IV Corps, his lines running to Rowe’s Ford where it met the flank of Sickle’s XIV Corps which held the pivotal left of the Federal line.

Rosecrans himself was headquartered at Locust Grove with his staff. Alongside him was the reserve of Hooker’s III Corps.

Lee’s army on the 29th was laid out from its left facing off against Hancock’s II Corps to its left facing Sickle’s XIV Corps. Holding the extreme end of the line was the Third Corps under Ewell, with a single division under Jones semi-independent of the main line covering Bartlett’s Ford. The remaining two divisions faced Hancock’s troops over the uneven ground along Mine Run and near Spruitt’s Farm. Longstreet’s Second Corps held the center, Lee trusting his old warhorse to hold in the face of the most strenuous attack. Meanwhile, A. P. Hill’s Fifth Corps held the right flank. Jackson’s First Corps was held near Zoah Church and Lee’s headquarters, waiting to be fed into the line that day.

Initial dispositions at Mine Run​

The day began with a Federal bombardment, and then Rosecrans moved to assault across the Post Office Road ford and Rowe’s Ford, Ord and Sickles leading the assault, while Reynold’s put pressure on the seam between Longstreet and Ewell’s Corps…

…the early assaults ran up against strong entrenchments, suffering heavy losses. However, by 11am Ord and Sickle’s had both managed lodgements on the far bank. Longstreet was hard pressed to keep his lines strong and was forced to commit his reserves early in the day. Ewell’s men, now less green and with formidable trenches to stiffen them, found themselves fighting well, but successively forced to give ground…

…by 12 o’clock, the surprise came. Reynold’s 1st Division under General Meade, managed to rupture the seam between Longstreet’s Second Corp’s and Ewell’s Third. It was hard to say who was more surprised as Meade’s troops slogged their way across the Mine Run against limited opposition only to find themselves in a natural bowl. In other circumstances, Meade may have marched himself into a killing field, but he had managed to find the seam between Longstreet and Ewell’s lines, with the forces of McClaw’s and Pickett’s divisions distracted between him. Marching further, he surprised a number of Confederate messengers, and established himself on spit of land in the run.

Here he needed support. Messengers flew back to Reynold’s headquarters at Sniders Farm. Reynold’s was incredulous, but upon riding up himself, he saw Meade was correct. He immediately sent word to both Rosecrans and Hancock. Meade was his only available force, with both Whipple and Reno’s divisions engaged, he needed support to exploit this potential breakthrough.

Lee meanwhile, was slow in learning about this sudden, near fatal weakening of his flank. The messengers Meade had captured had been running requests from Ewell to move Jone’s men back to the battle. The fatal threat to the Army of Northern Virginia thus went unnoticed for nearly two hours. That would lead to Lee’s fateful decision to reinforce his right flank over his left.

Lee had been made aware that the Federal left was potentially unsupported as it was matched to A. P. Hill’s flank. However, Lee also knew that Hooker had yet to be committed to the battle and did not wish to squander any advantage until he knew where the Federal blow would fall. Even when the battle was raging for most of the morning, he waited until he felt he was sure that the Union had committed itself to the center.

After their night of rest, Lee ordered Jackson to take his troops and move them to the extreme right of the army, where he would use them to inflict his much desired counterattack on Rosecrans forces. By 2pm Jackson had his troops moving. It was only at 3:30 that the news of Ewell’s potential envelopment reached him.

Lee was faced with the most difficult choice of his entire career. His only reserve was now moving south, while in the north an entire corps was soon going to be cut off as he had cut off and captured Mansfield’s corps in 1863. The only possible reserve was Jones’s division. Lee gave the order that Jones was to attack at once to fix Hancock in place, and Ewell was to hold. Meanwhile he wrote Longstreet that “you are to hold your positions at all hazards.” The die was cast…” - At the Sign of Triumph: The Rapidan Campaign, Dylan Gordon, Boston University Press, 1982

“The events of June 29th 1864 have cast a long shadow on Hancock’s otherwise superb military record. Despite being at the extreme right of the Union line, and holding the potential keys to enveloping Lee’s army completely, his performance has been characterized as lackluster, even shameful, in many accounts. Truthfully his forces had been much depleted since the army began moving south from Washington months prior, and he himself was tired and worn down from the campaigning[2].

However, it remains a mystery to this day why Hancock remained so passive in front of the enemy on the 29th of June. The effects of his indecision would have far reaching consequences…” - Hancock the Superb: The Life of Winfield Scott Hancock, Charles Rivers, Newton Publishing, 2012

“Hooker’s III Corps was ordered forward at 3:30pm to begin marching into the gap. Rosecrans had consulted his maps and Lower’s aeronauts had confirmed the ground could be used to exploit a breakthrough. Rosecrans was more confident at any point in the battle that he finally had Lee trapped, and was ready to inflict a heavy defeat. Cheerful and in an uncommonly loquacious mood, he accompanied Hooker’s troops north. Hooker, though still suffering from the wounds from the Wilderness, was equally talkative.

He would pause at Reynold’s headquarters to recconitor the battle, speaking with Reynolds and exhorting him to drive into Longstreet’s lines. By all indications he was in good cheer…

By 4 o’clock Lee now found himself in a far better understanding of the battlefield than Rosecrans. His defences held, and Ewell’s spirited counterattack in the north had thus far plugged the gap. Aware that he now had an advantage on his right, he meant to ruthlessly exploit it. At 4:41 exactly, he sent word that Jackson should begin his attack…

For his part, Sickles seems to not have realized he had left his flank hanging. Indeed it is excusable as his own left under Couch had been in contact with Hill’s flank for nearly three days. He had no reason to believe that his forces were in any danger. While many at the time have castigated Sickle’s for a ‘dangerous ignorance’ or ‘wreckless attack’ on Hill, it is important for those to remember that not only did Sickle’s have no intelligence that Jackson was present, but when Jackson’s men began moving across the creek, they were masked by Sickles attention being focused on the attack he was supposed to be carrying out at Rowe’s Ford.

So when Jackson’s troops made contact with Sickle’s flank, it was a complete surprise.

It was the advance brigades of Winder’s division, who had seen such bloody battle in the Valley, that crashed into Couch’s unprepared flank. Difficult fighting erupted, but Jackson’s veterans were more than a match for Couch’s men. Supported by Ewell’s counterattack they drove Sickles’s troops back to Rowe Farm where the sharpest action of the day would take place…

…in the midst of the fighting Sickels fell from his horse, gravely wounded. The sudden decapitation of XIV Corps’s command threw the whole flank into confusion. Couch’s division as already breaking, men fleeing as Jackson’s troops rolled them up, with hundreds running to Locust Grove, but hundreds more being pushed into neighboring units and the heavy woods along the shallow creek north of them.

By now Ord’s command was beginning to be caught up in the simultaneous fighting. King’s 2nd Division found itself trapped between Jackson’s advancing troopers and Longstreet’s entrenchments, and was soon fighting for its life…

It was only by 6:33pm that Rosecrans was learning of the unfolding disaster to his south. Having chosen to personally supervise Hooker’s assault, he had been out of communication at Locust Grove, and so messengers sent to request aid found themselves unsure of his location. By the time he was fully aware of the situation, Sickels’s men were unraveling with the general himself being transported to the rear. The IV Corps was being infected by a similar panic, and the only reserve was just preparing to attack into the breach made by Meade.

Rushing south, he found the line in complete disarray, with Ewell and Jackson’s corps having counterattacked across Mine Run. His left flank was collapsing, and Rosecrans issued a series of contradictory orders which began to have a positive unraveling effect on the Army of the Potomac. To Hooker’s confusion, he first counter ordered the assault, then issued orders for him to withdraw. Reynold’s was meanwhile ordered to do the same and form a new line on the little creek which had suddenly become the Union flank. To Hancock, he issued no orders at all.

Reynold’s and Hooker’s troops were now hopelessly intermingled, and the confused fighting both along Mine Run and its tributary creek was driving both officers to confusion, and Ewell’s pressure on their flanks was steadily moving them back. Rosecrans was in the thick of the fighting, dashing along the lines and shouting encouragement, and whacking men who tried to withdraw with the flat of his sword. It had both a moralizing effect on the men in his immediate vicinity, but a demoralizing effect on the army as he could issue no clear orders…

Under his own initiative, cut off from Rosecrans, Ord ordered his men to begin withdrawing to Locust Grove as the XIV Corps had completely disintegrated on his left…

By nightfall, though he had managed to stabilize the line, Rosecrans had lost hope. His positions were under constant pressure, V and III Corps were hopelessly intertwined, and his forces were demoralized. He now expected a larger Confederate attack come the dawn, and he had no idea of the dispositions of IV or XIV Corps, and had been informed that Jackson was in his rear. He ordered the retreat to Fredericksburg…

Mine Run has been called Lee’s Guagamela[3], and it is hard to dispute this assertion. Despite the casualties he incurred, Lee inflicted as close to a Cannae he would ever manage on a Northern army. The casualties inflicted on both sides were enormous. The Army of the Potomac had suffered 2,532 men dead, 12,986 wounded, and 8,667 captured. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had suffered no less crushing losses with 2,382 dead, 9,985 wounded, with another 859 captured or missing. All told the fighting had cost over 37,411 men, making it the bloodiest battle of the war, with only Bardstown in 1862 coming close in terms of casualties inflicted.

Rosecrans force had effectively been shattered, and retreated in a rout north of the Rappahannock. In the first week of July a further 2,000 stragglers would be rounded up by Stuart’s cavalry. The shock of the defeat, and subsequent near hysteria put in its commander rendered the army ineffective. The shock in Philadelphia was even greater.

Lincoln would despair, writing that Rosecrans was “confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.” and cast about for a replacement. The general was despondent. From his headquarters he wrote reports of a “great Southern host” descending on him, and he seemed blind to any advances he could make. In effect he was a psychologically beaten man. Lee meanwhile, had decisions of his own to consider. How was he to follow up his greatest victory?” - At the Sign of Triumph: The Rapidan Campaign, Dylan Gordon, Boston University Press, 1982

----
1] As laid out in Chapter 89. This is, essentially, what Stoneman did with his cavalry in the OTL Chancellorsville Campaign. Needless to say I do not have a high opinion of him.

2] Hancock’s sluggishness here can be seen as an indication of how exhausted he and his men are after the fighting at the opening of the campaigns. He himself has been rushing basically non-stop and like Jackson on the Peninsula, he’s just exhausted at the wrong time.

3] Thus ensuring every student of American military history will learn about that battle all too often.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 91: The Disloyal Opposition​

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. – Lincoln’s Lyceum Address, January 27th 1838

“While the great battles of May and June were raging, no less pivotal battles were being fought in the halls of old Congressional Hall and the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia[1]. By the end of April, the negotiators in Rotterdam had agreed to the terms and sent off the text to be ratified by their respective governments in early May. Though it was easily ratified in London, almost within a week of its receipt, the ratification in Philadelphia would take much longer. A bruising meeting to discuss the matter of the proposed terms of the Treaty of Rotterdam presented for consideration of the nation followed. Lincoln and his cabinet had accepted it, but there was dissension within the ranks of the Republican Party over what was to be done.

“The terms which Mr. Lincoln has agreed to are little more than a proverbial bending of the knee to Queen Victoria. It is akin to Washington bending the knee to George the Third after Trenton,” John P. Hale of New Hampshire would say. It was a similar idea shared amongst many of his colleagues. They felt that in spite of the setbacks in Canada, they had inflicted their own defeats on Britain. New York had been saved, and Farragut had delivered a bloody nose to the Royal Navy it would not soon forget. Why then, would the United States need to accept such terms?

Such questions certainly vexed Charles Sumner who, after his more open break with the administration, had been left out of the discussions of the treaty. He, with allies in Congress and the Senate, opposed the Treaty of Rotterdam on such patriotic grounds, but even they were unwilling to vote against it when the issue of secession and slavery was so important to them. This was, effectively, the position of Radical Republicans as they made public noises against the treaty, in private they acquiesced. While willing to critique Lincoln’s handling of the war with Britain, they were not willing to jeopardize the war against the Confederacy by endangering the treaty. Sumner and other Radicals would use this as a means to attempt to force Lincoln to adopt an amendment to end slavery to his 1864 platform.

This was not what endangered the treaty however.

It was the Democratic Party which staunchly opposed the first ratification. Though not overly desirous for war with Britain to continue, it was deemed practical to be seen as opposing the surrender of American territory in any treaty. As such, party discipline meant that no Democrat voted for it[2]. However, they were joined in lockstep by the Unconditional Unionists of Virginia and Missouri, who wanted to make their voices known in the critique of Lincoln's handling of the war. Casting their votes too, were the representatives from Maine, Lot P. Morrill and William P. Fessenden. Both men were outraged at the loss of territory their state would be forced to endure, and so opposed the treaty not merely on symbolic grounds, but actively in the interest of their state. Morrill was morally opposed as well since his friend Hannibal Hamlin had left Lincoln's administration in protest of the very move which would sacrifice much of Maine to the British.

Lincoln was at first irritated, and then seriously worried by the failure to get the first ratification passed...

A second vote in early June would fail again. This time, while the Unconditional Unionists from Virginia would be brought on board, the Republicans from Maine and the Missouri delegation would remain staunchly in the anti-treaty camp.

Entreating with Charles Sumner on "behalf of the nation and peace" Lincoln conducted a series of circuitous negotiations to secure the support necessary to pass the measure. The Unconditional Unionists in Missouri were not a unified force, with John Henderson being firmly in the Radical Camp, but Benjamin B. Brown sitting on the fence between the conservative wing of the Republican Party, while also agreeing with many of Lincoln's critics from the Democratic Party in his handling of the war. Both men disagreed with the treaty for patriotic reasons, but where Henderson was opposed to the treaty merely on principle, Brown thought it was emblematic of Lincoln's whole handling of the war. "We will trade away loyal men in exchange for a bloody peace which can only be a treaty lasting a decade before we must fight Imperial Britain again!" Brown thundered in an oration in early June.

Sumner could not move Brown, and the Democrats remained in lockstep opposing the treaty. The third vote failed by a single tally, with 26 for and 15 against. Lincoln thus had to invite many of the Senators he was required to court to Lemon Hill personally in order to sound out what might gain their support.

Both Fessenden and Morrill stated their opposition in patriotic, but also practical, terms. How could they keep Maine in the Republican camp in the 1864 election if they were willing to sell almost 20,000 square miles of the state to a foreign power? It would surely fall into the Democratic camp, and both men find themselves voted out of office by an angry electorate. While Lincoln sympathized with each, he reminded them that the treaty was agreed to, and so many more boys from Maine would die in the fighting simply to crush the Confederacy; was it sensible that they should then die fighting against Britain when they could be fighting to end slavery? Morrill stated categorically that he must vote against it, while Fessenden was, in the moment at least, persuaded that it was the right course of action...

...the last trouble came with Charles Sumner. Though he had largely broken with the administration, he broached to Lincoln the subject of uniting the factions with a promised amendment to end slavery once and for all in the United States. While Lincoln was receptive in light of his promise of 1863, he was skeptical he could run on such a platform in 1864.

"Would it not be better to defeat the South by force of arms, rebuild our strength, and use such victories to control both Houses in order to pass such legislation? The halls of power are filled with the same rats who will not vote for peace with Britain but may vote for peace with Jeff Davis[3], should we not send them packing like we sent Lee skedaddling south of the Rappahannock before going in for the kill?" Lincoln would write to Sumner on June 1st. Sumner was less than pleased by this, but would push for Lincoln to adopt at least an anti-slavery plank at the convention in the convention at Philadelphia in July. Lincoln was already aware that the Cleveland Convention[4] had passed such a plank in June, and saw it as both a potential blessing and a curse. With Kentucky still a battleground, he feared that an immediate act to end slavery would tip the scales in that state, further prolonging a war that threatened to drag on into the new year, and potentially well beyond.

Sumner was completely unsatisfied by this answer, and so were many other Radicals. However, Lincoln did manage to convince him at last that the passage of the Rotterdam treaty was just as important to ending the war and crushing the rebellion as after such "we should have such a reserve of men and ships we could later challenge Britain for her presumptions. Such would be our power she would have to negotiate...

Even with such passionate pleas, it was not until the night of June 30th that the final vote would take place. At last it would pass with 28 in favor, just over the two thirds majority required to ratify it. However, this was just as news of the disaster at Mine Run began seeping into Pennsylvania meant that the official news of the ratification would not be fully released until July 2nd and the telegraphs wiring the news north did not reach the lines until the very evening, with all the consequences that would entail…” - Snakes and Ladders: The Lincoln Administration and America’s Darkest Hour, Hillary Saunders, Scattershot Publishing, 2003

-----

1] In case anyone has forgotten, the Northern government is still firmly in Philadelphia because of the threat represented by Whiting’s Corps at Annapolis, the British fleet, and the generally wrecked condition of Washington after the siege in 1863.

2] OTL the two senators from Oregon voted for the 13th Amendment, the only ones to do so, but TTL they are in lockstep with their fellows. This is because they resent effectively being abandoned to the British out West, a small sign Lincoln has very little political capital to spend.

3] The Democrats, in case you're wondering.

4] But more on that later!

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 92: The Summer Sun of York
​

“The weary sun hath made a golden set, and by the bright track of his fiery car, gives signal of a goodly day to-morrow.” - Richard III, Act III

“As the armistice began to worry its way to a close with the Union in June of 1864, the British forces on the ground in Canada had come to an effective understanding. Monck wished that there be no more unnecessary loss of life in North America, especially with the combination of all the North American colonies into a single entity so close at hand. Below him his military commanders, both Williams and Dundas, saw that any further combat, unless absolutely necessary, would do little to materially change the facts on the ground in their respectives theaters of war. As such, they had all agreed that they would wait precisely one week after the expiry of the armistice before resuming operations, giving the United States the necessary breathing room to reach a reasonable agreement.

This was not supported by a large swathe of the Canadian populace who incorrectly believed that the Americans were merely stalling to launch another invasion. While this was far from the truth, it was reported in the presses at the time from most Canadian newspapers.

Most notably, many men of the Canadian militia did not support honoring the armistice a single day longer than they had to. In particular, the men of the York Brigade…” – Blood and Daring: The War of 1862 and how Canada forged a Nation, Raymond Green, University of Toronto Press, 2002

“After what I humbly note history has called “Denison’s Ride[1]” the Third Corps of the Army of Canada once again settled down in the trenches beyond Toronto…

…chiefly siegework is dull. With the resources eaten up by the campaigning in the east, little enough could be spared for attention beyond the vitales necessary to keep the army in shape. Shell, shot, and all the other portions of which we might have made a decisive engagement in 1863 were sent to the Army of Canada. In this I cannot fault the military or political logic, but it was painful to the men of York County who had been so long away from home.

My own role in the siege, beyond the ride, was chiefly that of advisor to General Williams on local matters and scouting. My troop was largely active around the enemy flank or in some patrol along the far edge of the line. The enemy himself seemed content with holding his own. The occasional bombardment or skirmish between pickets being the chief amusement of our forces…

…one note from the siege was the arrival of a curious Indian man in 1863. Corporal Peter Martin, or Burning Sky as I believe his people called him[2] had returned to Canada after studies abroad in Oxford in 1862. Having returned just in time to see the war break out he enlisted with the men of the Six Nations and served as a scout alongside those units which so ably assisted our fighting from Limestone Ridge to Mount Pelion. I can say that, upon observing him in action I am quite pleased he was on our side!

Corporal Martin became known to the officers as a crack shot. He was capable of dropping a man at remarkable distances. The rumor of his marksmanship spread through the ranks and I extended an invitation to him in order to see if he was indeed quite as remarkable as the rumors said. Upon appearing in our ranks he was well spoken, courteous and quite deferential to authority as any good soldier ought to be. When he asked why he had been invited, I informed him that the men wished to know if he shot as well as he said. Asking what we wanted to hunt, I invited him to the parapet near the York Brigades lines to shoot.

By this point we had all become used to a particularly irritating Yankee sharpshooter who wore a quite garish feathered hat as a calling card. He would periodically stick his head over the earthworks and call out a greeting before blasting away for a day and killing or wounding any unlucky man who tried to challenge him or do their sentry duty. We asked if he could politely rid us of the problem. Cheerfully, he obliged us.

I was patient enough to stay crouched with him alongside another officer from the Queen's Own Rifles. We watched and waited, and when one of our own men made the mistake of sticking his head too far above the parapet, the moment came. Quick as a lightning strike Martin fired and we all heard the scream float across the lines. Needless to say, the Yankee never took a shot at any of our men again![3]...

Oronhyatekha in later life
​

As summer 1864 approached the men were restless. Months of boredom, sickness, and then a winter bivouacked around Toronto added so much to the tension. News that we might all be one great united Canada of course raised some interest, but the military mind was dulled. This was especially true of the men from beyond Toronto whose homes had been in enemy hands for over two years now. To the York Brigade, so painfully close to home and yet so far, it was nearly unbearable torment.

Though I was never party to any discussions, it became apparent that many Canadian officers wished to strike the city. We were all assured that peace was around the corner, so why waste time planning an attack which would never go off? None of the Canadian officers trusted any American promises as such. Though there was no conspiracy, there was certainly a desire to do something when the Yankees broke the armistice as well all thought they must…” Soldiering In Canada, Recollections and Experiences of Brigadier General George T. Denison III, Toronto Press 1900

“The events leading to the Battle of Davenport Ridge are somewhat controversial to this day. While Williams would, after the fact, claim a hand in it, it seems from records at the time he was almost completely unaware of its planning and undertaking…

The marching through Canada, and then the rigors of the siege had forced Williams, ever short of officers, to allow the Canadians to come into their own. Brigades of militia were commanded by their own men, with only British advisors. This allowed for a number of brigades to be commanded by Canadian officers. The independent brigade of former staff officer Alfred Booker was one such formation, while through special favor Williams had placed the York Brigade under the command of George Denison II, the Torontonian colonel had family (including his elder brother) in the unit and many joked that the whole brigade was a family affair. That said, it provided the cover for the one, probably only, Canadian led action of the war…

Most Canadian officers did not believe Yankee politicians, and it was evidently not hard to convince the York Brigade officers and surrounding militia soldiers that some show of force should be made to “make the Yankees pay” for the occupation of their country. It may have been Denison himself who broached the subject, but among his immediate subordinates it may have been Col. William Durie of the 2nd Battalion who initiated the discussions. Nevertheless, Lt. Cols Frederic Cumberland of the 10th and Richard Denison[4] of the 12th were also attracted to the proposal. They also managed to get the chief commanders of Booker’s independent brigade on board with their colonel hungry for glory.

It seems that they agreed that should no word of an armistice come on the 1st of July, they would organize an attack along the American lines come July 2nd with or without their superiors consent…

Knowing the area they managed to find a seam in the American lines along the Davenport Ridge close to where the Yankee lines met the tributary of the Don River. While normally it might be a more formidable obstacle, nearly a year of constant inaction had made the soldiers manning this section of the line lethargic, and inspections by Canadian militia found the defences there not quite as strong as they may have otherwise been. The men manning the line were, while alert, not expecting a major attack and more often than not would fraternize with the Canadians (or Canucks as they often called them) across the no man’s land.

It was most likely the reliance on Canadians on his staff which allowed Williams to end up accidentally acquiescing to the movements which led to the attack itself. Having only received a single brigade of newly raised regulars from Britain, Williams did not intend to scatter them too thin and instead husbanded them as his reserve. This meant his brigades were made of almost wholly Canadian troops. As such, when one of his officers (long believed to be friend of George Denison II, John Stoughton Dennis who served on Williams staff) shuffled Booker’s brigade into the line, no comment was made…

Across from the Canadians on the fateful July morning was the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division XX Corps under Thomas W. Sweeney[5]. The one armed Irish officer was a veteran of many campaigns before the outbreak of the war, serving in Mexico, where he had his right arm amputated, and against various Native tribes in the interim. When the war had broken out with Britain he had been leading a brigade and participated in every action between Lime Ridge and Mount Pelion where he was further wounded. A Fenian sympathizer, he had been eager to take the fight to the British and so begged to stay on in spite of his injuries. When the division commander John McArthur had been invalidated out, Sweeney had been promoted to take his place. However, despite promoting Col. Joseph Woods to his old command, he maintained an affection for his old brigade and only happened to be there that fateful morning…

When no news of peace arrived on the 1st of July, the Canadians made the decision to go into action the next day. The men of the 2nd Battalion from picked companies waded as silently as they could to the Yankee lines to pre-selected positions. The 5th Company under Captain William Murray was designated the ‘grenadier company’ who would storm the position at a prearranged signal.

At dawn on July 2nd, the attack went off. Sentries were dispatched with the bayonet, and all at once the men of the 5th Company were among the advance companies of the 50th Illinois who had the singularly bad luck to be in those positions that morning. The initial chaos was fierce as Canadians dashed about with ‘rebel yells’ and caused havoc in the line. Once a breach had been made, two more companies advanced through the gulley and got in among the Union men.

Seeing red shirts waving from the parapet, Denison gave the order for the whole York Brigade to attack, and the men surged over their dugouts and into the lines. It was quite possible that this could have been the end of it, but the presence of Sweeney himself allowed the panicked lines to be sorted into some sense of order.

Bringing his old brigade to order, he managed to get men fighting for their trenches, and was rousing the rest of the brigade housed at Yorkville, or what is today Battleground[6]. By the time they were sorted out, Booker’s men were also attacking, making the whole attack along his section of the line general. Unsuspecting, the regiments to Sweeney’s left fell back in disorder as two Canadian brigades vented pent up fury on the Yankee occupiers…

The ferocity of the Canadian attack would surprise the Union forces in Toronto​

…learning of the attack Williams at first attempted to learn what was happening. His own officers seemed to think some sort of American attack was underway (certainly no Canadian officer was going to contradict them) and so Williams, reluctantly, ordered a general attack by 9am from the whole army…

…Prentiss was stunned to learn that a stubborn rearguard action was being fought at Yorkville, only a bare mile distant from his own headquarters in the Stanley Barracks. His forces were not quite ready to contest the whole city, and he soon learned the British attack was general. Asking his aides how long they could contest, he was informed it would depend on if the rail lines were held. Grimly he was soon told that the Anglo-Canadian forces were the ones advancing.

By noon he sadly realized his position was untenable and ordered that XX Corps should prepare to withdraw…

Come dawn on July 3rd, not a single Yankee soldier was in Toronto who was not a prisoner and Williams had, to his own surprise, complete control of the city. Unable to carry all his stores, Prentiss had burned much along the waterfront, and only a concentrated effort by the Canadian troops had stopped the fires from spreading. However, it had masked much of his corps retreat, and he would move himself to Hamilton, only to learn that peace had in fact broken out the day before he arrived. The people of Toronto would take great pride in believing they had liberated themselves before the Yankees officially acknowledged peace.

The liberation was greeted with jubilation, and the population turned out in droves to welcome the York Brigade home. Such was the matter of celebrations that most would not even realize the war was over until the 4th of July…

However, it was soon known to all that peace was at last at hand in Canada. The fine details would be made known soon, but as far as the Canadians were concerned, through blood and daring, the war had been won.” – Blood and Daring: The War of 1862 and how Canada forged a Nation, Raymond Green, University of Toronto Press, 2002

-----

1] As detailed in Chapter 83

2] Or more properly Oronhyatekha of the Six Nations Mohawk. A very fascinating individual who, despite perhaps some embellishment in his own story, really did achieve some remarkable things!

3] In real life he won nine marksmanship prizes for the Queen’s Own Rifles as part of a shooting team in 1871. Discovering his story made me think that with war to hone his skills he might earn the mention of someone like Denison in his memoirs during an extended siege like the one around Toronto from 1863-64.

4] Yup, he is also of the Denison clan. The elder brother in fact, but it seems he let George II really put a public spin on things, though he was no less involved in the military aspect, commanding an infantry and artillery company at one point or another.

5] A man to watch as they say.

6] A suburb of modern Toronto near the modern day Royal Ontario Museum. While today it holds the same name, when the suburb is eventually incorporated into Toronto TTL some sentimental veterans or sons of veterans decide that “Yorkville” in “York County” in the former City of York seems a bit much and successfully petition to have it called Battle Ground, abbreviated to one word over time.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 93: A Half Peace​

“A certain peace is better and safer than a victory in prospect; the former is at your own disposal, the latter depends upon the gods.” - Livy

“‘It is a strange feeling, to see the enemy so near and yet not join battle with him,’ one Canadian captain would write to his wife on the 5th of July 1864. The acknowledgement of the ratification of the Treaty of Rotterdam by the United States had, after two long years, brought peace to Canada. Per the terms of the treaty, the United States began withdrawing its forces from Canada on the 9th, observed by their Canadian counterparts.

The choreographed maneuvers and withdrawals, with protection of army property and then public property paramount, would take time. However, the American armies were at last leaving Canada. The same could not wholly be said of British armies in the United States…

British forces were retreating from the towns they occupied in northern New York, as well as organizing the withdrawal of their forces from Maine, save for those pieces which had been surrendered by the treaty. In those sparsely populated portions of Maine which Britain would now occupy, the difficult task of setting up a new administration, and properly settling the boundary would now follow. The people of this region would need to decide whether they would move overland to remain within the United States, or take oaths of loyalty to the Queen. In time this would yield 30,589 new citizens of Canada[1].

For some, who had been connected by economics and family before the war, the choice was not difficult. Their lives would not fundamentally change, and they would be even more connected with the main economic engine of the region. The construction of the St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad was about to change the whole economic pattern of the Maritime provinces, which the as yet unconnected area would benefit greatly from. Others, those who had taken up limited arms against the British, or those who could not reconcile their American identity with British politics, would need to find accommodation elsewhere by January of 1865…” - The World on Fire: The Third Anlgo-American War, Ashley Grimes, 2009, Random House Publishing

“With the official news the Treaty of Rotterdam had been ratified, the Pacific Division began its own muster for return to their assignments across the Pacific. Cunyngham received the confirmed receipt via the Union delegation under a flag of truce. It would still be over a month before his forces had commenced an orderly withdrawal from California, and the last British soldiers would not leave the American side of the Pacific until September when the remaining four companies of the 99th Foot were ferried back to British Columbia.

While many of the 99th Foot would remain engaged in British Columbia until 1865, the Royal Engineers would have their tour of duty extended into 1866 to help with the general maintenance of the Colony which had suffered during the war years. This would help with the construction of the Cariboo Road as well as surveying the interior for future settlement. It was by no means an unpleasant task for the soldiers. Many men, knowing of the Fraser Gold Rush, would be enticed away from their posts, something which earned the ire of the government in London, but not the Hudson’s Bay Company bosses who had some ire left over the failure to claim the desired stretch of land on the Columbia River. Though pleased about dominance in navigation, they would forever look south and wonder what might have been.

London however, had more need of men to deal with the King Movement in New Zealand which had erupted into open conflict in late 1864 rather than an expanded presence on the West Coast of North America. However, that shall be dealt with in the following chapter…” – Empire and Blood: British Military Operations in the 19th Century Volume IV

“The final terms of the Treaty of Rotterdam[2] set out the conditions for British peace. After much wrangling, the final indemnity was agreed upon to be set at only 66 million pounds, which would be paid in installments over the next five years. Britain would not place any other economic sanction on the United States, and the blockade of the United States would be, as soon as possible, lifted. This was of immense relief to the merchants of the United States, but also in London who were eager for normal trade to resume and predations upon global shipping to cease…

In Quebec, the treaty was a triumph, and the generous terms meant that the hoped for project of unifying all the Canadian provinces was now a reality. The corollary to the treaty which would allow some 21 million in reparation money to go towards paying for the economic damage inflicted on Canada was extremely popular with the province, which had suffered widespread economic destruction, especially in the more populous Canada West. There numerous farms had been destroyed, hamlets burned, and men made destitute by the war. Many would seek to remain in the ranks of the Volunteers simply to find some means of economic relief.

The coming economic recession would be painful, but many eager settlers, workers, and laborers turned out by the declaration of peace would soon be finding their way into a market which was hungry for labor. The Canadians had many plans for the post war economy and hoped to expand upon the wreck of the war[3]…” - Blood and Daring: The War of 1862 and how Canada forged a Nation, Raymond Green, University of Toronto Press, 2002

“Lincoln had ratified the peace, but at significant political cost. The Radicals demanded a plank for the 1864 election on ending slavery, but moderate Republicans, many incensed over the surrender of territory in Maine, were openly opposed to such a plank. The same held true for many War Democrats who might otherwise have supported the party.

While greatly aggrieved that he had sold territory to the enemy, he was of course aware that the consequences of a continued war may have been more than the nation could bear…

Unable to move the capital back to Washington, Lincoln maintained a vigil in Philadelphia and so looked to the seas to know whether his policy had worked. By mid August, not a single British vessel remained in sight and the blockade had at last been lifted. At this, he did at last breathe a sigh of relief. This was reflected in the economic mood of the nation as inflation fell for the first time since 1862, if only slightly, while confidence in shipping and trade seemed to be the talk of the city.

“It is well that one war should end and our trade be unimpeded,” Welles would write, “as the hurdles presently facing us are considerable. The seas and coasts are not yet free of enemies, and we find ourselves still confronting a foe who is if not our equal, then at least a contender. How we may wish for those halcyon days of ‘61 when it seemed we would reign supreme along the coasts of North America. For all its misery, we may miss the summer of that year now.” – Snakes and Ladders: The Lincoln Administration and America’s Darkest Hour, Hillary Saunders, Scattershot Publishing, 2003

“Peace was at last upon this unhappy domain of Her Majesty. With the Army of Canada withdrawing from northern New York, I found much of my time simply undertaking the removal of our army from American soil. However, even once that task was complete, the work to be done in Canada was not yet finished.

The Army would not yet be leaving, the potential for mischief south of the border was too great, even though there were other demands on our forces elsewhere, London was firmly focused on finishing what had started in North America. Diplomatic pressure had to be applied to ensure that the Americans left without destroying anything of great economic value, and assessment of the damages had to be made.

For myself, I was intimately involved in the goings on of our army, but alas my own wounds would force me from Canada for a time. My old war wounds had troubled me for some years and I would return for an operation in England in the fall of 1864, but it was not a total loss. My promotion to a full colonel was confirmed, as an officer it meant I could marry at last, and so in the winter of 1864 I formally had the hand of Louisa Erskine[4]. However, as soon as I was healed, my orders once again carried me to North America for the security of that loyal people was not yet ensured…” – The Story of a Soldiers Life, Volume II, Field-Marshal Viscount Garnet Wolseley, Westminster 1903

-x-x-x-x-​

Hotel Hasey, Houlton, Occupied Maine/Province of New Brunswick, July 15th 1864

It was hot in the parlor of the grandiosely named Hotel Hasey in Houlton. A small fire burned in the kitchen adding to the heat, but doing nothing to ward off the ever present blackflies. Not that it bothered Lt. Colonel William Teele Baird of the 1st Carleton Light Infantry[5]. Scratching at his beard he took a deep draught of the cider available to him which abated the heat somewhat. Unfortunately it didn’t settle his nerves as he watched the party of horsemen crest the hill where his earthworks sat overlooking the village.

The town itself was a mile long collection of buildings which housed roughly two thousand inhabitants, or slightly less since the war had begun. Surrounding them was a rough wilderness of trees which stretched as far as the eye could see. Baird had watched those trees change from season to season, and near as he could tell they were the greatest wealth in the area at the moment. Besides its connection to New Brunswick, it offered little else of value. He had been there on business meetings before the war, and he knew for a fact it was more connected to New Brunswick than elsewhere. Not that this fact made the locals particularly happy at the moment.

Houlton had been the site of the first official combat on land between British and American forces when the war had broken out in February of 1862. The short skirmish had been rather bloodless, only two of the poorly armed Volunteers in the village had been wounded before the rather perfunctory surrender. However it, and the “battle” at Fort Fairfield had inflamed American opinion against Britain. Unfortunately for any red blooded patriots in the region who swore rabid loyalty to Washington, the ability of the American government to reinforce them had been limited by both the onset of the British blockade, and that the railroad only reached as far as Bangor. No reinforcements or relief had been forthcoming and so the locals had settled in for a grudging occupation. The fact that there had been so little death in the early fight had meant there was little overt ill will. With many others being related to or descendants of those living on one side of the border or another, life had gone on. The major difference had come when Baird and his regiment had moved in to replace the 62nd Regiment of Foot in the summer of 1862. He had personally known some people in the region, and so through a combination of good will and a light hand, the people had been fairly passive.

That was not to say there had been no resistance. The Temiscouata Road had seen the occasional sniper deciding to vent their anger at the British with a gunshot, while fistfights and assault had occasionally taken place between the men from New Brunswick and the people of Maine. However, he could count on two hands the number of people who had died from violence since the war had started. Now that the proclamation that the territory would be under British rule had begun to be promulgated, he hoped he could continue to do so.

Since the summer of 1862 Baird had worn two hats, first as the commander of his battalion, secondly as the de facto administrator of the occupied territory in Maine. He’d overseen the construction of fortified posts, patrols, and guard parties to halt deserters from Her Majesty’s forces that might have been of a mind to slip away on their overland travel. That had made the Hotel Hasey his headquarters for over two years unless he was travelling to Fredericton or Saint John. Usually though, he was here overseeing the administration of what most had assumed would be a temporary occupation. Now his men would be working to incorporate that territory into what was soon going to be a grouping of all Britain’s North American colonies.

“The party is here sir,” Lt. John Clark, one of his most able aides, announced.

“Thank you Lieutenant, please see them to the sitting room.” Baird said. Though there was no one likely to be mad at him, he was afraid of all that came next. The region would need a new government, new administration, and he was a soldier at heart, not a politician.

A few minutes later the men from Fredericton and Halifax were seated around the table in the parlor of the building. Colonel Charles H. Doyle who had effectively run all of the Maritime colonies sat near the head of the table, while Major General Charles H. Windham, who had been in charge of the “Reserve Division” in Halifax, was at the head. He was ostensibly the new governor general of the region, for now, but the secretaries from the governors of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had made an appearance as well to grant civilian legitimacy.

“I trust the journey was not too arduous, sir?” Baird asked. Windham snorted.

“The railroad doesn’t reach here, and the road itself is rough at best. I had hoped my own arse wouldn’t feel so much horse after Crimea, but I was alas mistaken.” Polite laughter followed and Windham continued. “You’ve done well welcoming us Lt. Colonel Baird, but let’s not mince words, we’re here to consider the military situation in absorbing this region into Her Majesty’s domains.”

Baird nodded. “The situation as it stands is, well, very quiet sir. Lt. Colonel Saunders and his New Brunswick Yeomanry[6] have kept the road well patrolled and open, while my own men and the other Volunteer regiments have been able to police the area with little incident.”

“But not without any incident?” Doyle asked.

“There have been some.” Baird replied. “The occasional sniper or disgruntled local. That said, most have decided discretion is the better part of valor.” That earned a few chuckles around the table. Though Baird thought that the remoteness of the region meant that, naturally, it should have fallen into British hands long ago. Evidently London meant to fix that.

“Do we know how many new subjects of the Queen we should be expecting?” Windham asked.

“The locals have been kind enough to provide us with their 1860 census data. There are 22,000 people living in this region. A rather small number considering the whole area is 20,000 miles in size. Most of them live along the border here,” Baird replied.

“A reasonable number then, hardly like attempting to absorb the whole state,” Windham said. “Do you have any recommendations regarding people of the region who could govern for us?”

Baird shook his head. “It will take time for these people to reconcile themselves to British rule, so for now a civilian from our side ought to administer, while the militia have a light hand. That said, sir, I do believe the people will come around more easily than many suspect. The commerce and trade of this region was well linked to New Brunswick before the war.”

The building of the St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad, which in two years of fevered construction had attracted thousands of workers and immigrants, had already reached Madawaska[7]. It was projected to either reach Riviere de Loup by the end of fall, or by early next year. It would do wonders for the region, and Baird questioned whether enough people really understood that. Opening Quebec to the sea from Canadian soil would be an enormous boon to the people of Canada, and New Brunswick in particular.

“And so it shall be again,” Windham declared. “I have no desire to rule over these people as a conqueror however, we will have to ensure this area is pacific and amenable towards Her Majesty’s rule.”

Though all were in agreement, Baird could not stop himself from asking one important question.

“While I believe we may accomplish that, sir, I must ask, shall this region be administered from Fredericton or Quebec?”

Windham chuckled without mirth. “That Lt. Colonel Baird, is indeed a very good question.”


Windsor, Canada West, August 1st, 1864

Major George Denison III watched the last of the retreating Yankee columns from atop his horse. The long and painstakingly choreographed series of maneuvers was almost at its end. He’d coordinated with Yankee officers, largely a ferocious little man named Sheridan, who’d kept him notified of the comings and goings of the Yankee army. The two had sized one another up as well, and Denison had come away with the impression he could probably have bested the man in a sword fight, though he certainly wouldn’t have wanted to grapple with him!

His troop had followed the withdrawal alongside an oversized brigade of Canadians, largely men who had lived in this western district before the invasion in 1862, with Col. Shanly from the London District overseeing the whole ordeal under General Napier. Many men had, along the way, returned to their homes, leaving the already dangerously understrength battalions severely understrength. Denison personally cursed them for it, but many of their officers seemed to find it understandable. How could men see to their duties if the status of their families was still unknown? In Denison’s eyes, duty was first and all else secondary, wife or no[8].

Now though, the remaining twenty-nine men of his troop fit for duty, including one man who was wounded but could still ride a horse, were seated with him as they watched the last American troops crossing the river to Detroit. In a mere few moments, Canada would at last be free from Yankee occupation.

“We could have ridden the shorter distance to the Niagara frontier, you know. Better for all our behinds,” his friend and confidant Orlando Dunn observed.

“Careful Sergeant Major, I wouldn’t want the war to end on a sour note with you brought up on charges of insubordination,” Denison said with a smile.

“Perish the thought, what would you do without me?” The former militia officer from Devonshire said.

It was true. Denison was now the de facto commander of the 1st Canadian Volunteer Dragoons as well as his own little cavalry troop. That was why Dunn was so useful to him throughout the whole war. Having taken command, he was riding herd on the Yankee forces retreating, as the other troops were all badly attired. Only his father’s own well maintained horse stocks had allowed him to go on operating, and even then they needed to be generously reimbursed by the government for their services.

“Colonel Booker deserved the honor of liberating Hamilton, for all the work he put in at Davenport Ridge.”

“Too true,” he agreed. “I hope we may have the honor of riding the rails back to Toronto though.”

Dunn’s comment provoked a soreness in his rear which Denison had not realized was bothering him. He was only turning twenty-five in a month dammit, he shouldn’t have such aches. Nevertheless, he would also be grateful for even the uncomfortable seat one generally got on the Grand Trunk Railway carriages.

“Yes, I would not object, and I don’t think the railroads will either. God knows we had to put some pressure on the Yankees to fix the lines. It certainly got them moving home faster though.”

There had been plenty of destruction across Canada, from the infamous Burning of Brampton, to the more insidious case of arson against poor old Allan MacNab’s Dundurn Castle. However, much of the damage had simply come from ‘foraging’ or otherwise requisitioning supplies from many locals. Families had fled their farms, fields had fallen into disuse, and rolling stock and railroads had been damaged by the nasty little guerrilla war waged by loyal Canadians against the occupiers. It would take years to rebuild, and in a few cases, repopulate some areas. However, the destruction had been mercifully spread out, not turning Canada West into anything like what was happening to parts of the Southern states Denison read about in the newspapers.

Watching the Americans march away Denison shook his head. “We can’t let something like this happen again.”

“I agree with you there, but that’s why we enjoy Her Majesty’s protection,” Dunn said.

“No, something more than that. There were barely any Regulars in all of Canada West before the war, no wonder we looked like such an inviting target! Soon many will be going home, or elsewhere in the Empire after a while. No, we must make sure we no longer look inviting to any invader. It’s about time we think seriously about defending ourselves. When their war ends, how many thousands of men will be thrown out of work but have weapons and experience? How many of them will have a grudge against Britain or Canada?” Denison declared, looking across the border and the peril it would represent.

“An ominous question George,” Dunn replied, nodding in appreciation.

“Something will have to change Orlando, something will have to change.”

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1] The populations of Aroostook County and Washington County in 1860 were 22,479 and 42,534 respectively. My rough guess is that the number of people in the borderline traced by the British would include, opposite everyone in the Aroostook, roughly 15,000 people from Washington County would fall under this new border. I doubt all of them would leave, but enough would go on principle to arrive at this number.

2] See Appendix

3] The full economic effects of the war will be explored later. However, there has been a recession and lots of destruction in Canada West and it has also delayed a lot of the building projects historically underway in the country (amusingly, the Parliament of Canada is now delayed quite a bit, as is the County Jail and Town Hall of my own hometown, both completed 1862 and 1863 respectively, here, much later).

4] Historically Wolseley actually left Canada for an operation in 1863 as his old war wound was troubling him. Here, I think you’d have to physically drag him away from the war so he stays on duty in Canada until September 1864, returns home for his operation and a promotion, and at long last marries his love Louisa Erskine three years earlier than OTL because he feels that his promotion to full colonel will allow him to support her.

5] Baird is one of those figures who I had hoped I could introduce in another way, but alas must give you his story here. One of perhaps the most able and competent militia officers in Canadian history, he worked hard to leave his name but without a war is largely forgotten. Here, because he serves on a quiet front, alas that is still mostly the case but he goes down in history as an able administrator and peacemaker TTL.

6] The New Brunswick Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry were first incorporated in 1848, but by the 1860s had grown to seven troops of cavalry, largely from around Saint John. In Wrapped in Flames they are, naturally, shuttled to the border to provide security for the Temiscouata Road and to protect the district. Another unit that, while serving a very useful purpose, would probably be largely forgotten about alas.

7] Or Edmundston.

8] Ironically he would have been married to his first wife already TTL, getting together in 1863, perhaps changing his opinion. However, war and separation means he’s well away from any real ability to marry just yet. I expect his nuptials will come in 1864 though.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Treaty of Peace and Amity between Her Britannic Majesty and the United States of America.​

Her Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, desirous of terminating the war which has unhappily subsisted between the two Countries, and of restoring upon principles of perfect reciprocity, Peace, Friendship, and good Understanding between them, have for that purpose appointed their respective Plenipotentiaries:

The Representatives of Her Britannic Majesty:

George Villiers, George Robinson, John Hay, Edward Lugard, Joseph Howe, John Ross

The Representatives of the United States:

Charles Adams, Winfield Scott, Joseph Smith, Caleb Cushing, Thurlow Weed

Article I

There shall be a firm and universal Peace between Her Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their respective Countries, Territories, Cities, Towns, and People of every degree without exception of places or persons. All hostilities both by sea and land shall cease as soon as this Treaty shall have been ratified by both parties as hereinafter mentioned. All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this Treaty, excepting only the territories hereafter mentioned in Article V and VI, shall be restored without delay and without causing any destruction or carrying away any of the Artillery or other public property originally captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the Exchange of the Ratifications of this Treaty, or other private property; And all Archives, Records, Deeds, and Papers, either of a public nature or belonging to private persons, which in the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of the Officers of either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable, forthwith restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to whom they respectively belong.

Article II

Immediately after the ratifications of this Treaty by both parties as hereinafter mentioned, orders shall be sent to the Armies, Squadrons, Officers, Subjects, and Citizens of the two Powers to cease from all hostilities: and to prevent all causes of complaint which might arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at sea after the said Ratifications of this Treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve days from the said Ratifications upon all parts of the Coast of North America from the Latitude of twenty three degrees North to the Latitude of fifty degrees North, and as far Eastward in the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty sixth degree of West Longitude from the Meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side:-that the time shall be thirty days in all other parts of the Atlantic Ocean North of the Equinoctial Line or Equator:-and the same time for the British and Irish Channels, for the Gulf of Mexico, and all parts of the West Indies:-forty days for the North Seas for the Baltic, and for all parts of the Mediterranean-sixty days for the Atlantic Ocean South of the Equator as far as the Latitude of the Cape of Good Hope.- ninety days for every other part of the world South of the Equator, and one hundred and twenty days for all other parts of the world without exception.

Article III

All Prisoners of war taken on either side as well by land as by sea shall be restored as soon as practicable after the Ratifications of this Treaty as hereinafter mentioned on their paying the debts which they may have contracted during their captivity. The two Contracting Parties respectively engage to discharge in specie the advances which may have been made by the other for the sustenance and maintenance of such prisoners.

Article IV

The Government of the United States shall acknowledge the damages subjected to the Citizens of Her Britannic Majesty’s realm committed in the month of November 1861 having been carried out in international waters; but perpetuated on the decks of Her Britannic Majesty’s vessels causing the unjustifiable loss of life of Her Majesty’s Citizens on sovereign British shipping. In doing so the United States concedes liability for the loss of life and property in these instances and these alone. The subject of damages for these losses shall be hereafter incorporated into Article VII.

Article V

The United States shall, in perpetuity, renounce all claims upon the San Juan Islands and the Rosario Strait, settling the dispute which had been yet unsolved by the Boundary Commission of 1856. Henceforth, upon the Ratification of this Treaty, the national boundary line between the Washington Territory of the United States and the Colony of Vancouver of her Majesty’s Government shall be defined by the Rosario Straight.

All persons and Citizens of the islands who do not wish to take the Oath of Loyalty to Her Britannic Majesty’s government shall be given six months to settle their properties and affairs and depart these territories unmolested.

Article VI

The United States shall agree to cede the County of Aroostook Maine in its entirety to Her Britannic Majesty’s Government. The United States shall also cede the territory of Washington County, Maine, to the east of the St. Croix River to the Bay of Machias to Her Britannic Majesty’s Government. The partition of this territory will be overseen by four commissioners appointed by the Government of the United States and Her Britannic Majesty’s Government, who shall properly define this border no later than the 16th of January 1865. The Commissioners shall agree to meet in Woodstock, New Brunswick for the purposes of such consultations so that the terms of the treaty may be met in full.

All persons and Citizens of these territories who do not wish to take the Oath of Loyalty to Her Britannic Majesty’s government shall be given six months to settle their properties and affairs and depart these territories unmolested.

Article VII

The Government of the United States has, by way of acknowledgement of the damages suffered by the Citizens of Her Britannic Majesty and Government, agreed that an indemnity for those damages be paid by way of restitution. This sum, as determined by Her Britannic Majesty’s Government shall be held at a total of no less than 66,000,000 pounds sterling. The value of this indemnity shall not be increased according to inflation beyond the time of the Ratification of these articles. The period of payment shall not exceed five years, with a date beginning on the 30th of March 1865, and proceeding yearly thereafter until the full balance of the indemnity has been paid.

• The Government of Her Britannic Majesty, in acknowledgement of the sufferings of Her Subjects in Canada hereby declares that one third of this indemnity, 21,000,000 pounds sterling, shall be paid to the Government of Canada on the same conditions as those outlined in Article VII.

Article VIII

In acknowledgement of previous agreements made by The Government of the United States and Her Britannic Majesty’s Government in the years 1817 and 1842 on the matters of judicial extradition regarding murder, or assault with intent to commit murder, or piracy, or arson, or robbery, or forgery, or the utterance of forged paper, and the demilitarization of the Great Lakes and international waterways of the interior, the two governments shall agree to the following; Until such time as another body of commissioners can be gathered to address the legal consequences of the post-war boundaries the two contracting parties shall honor the agreements binding them on judicial extradition in the interests if international harmony. The governments shall agree to delegate commissioners to discuss the contracting parties’ mutual interests in military activity on the Great Lakes and interior waterways regarding their respective borders and international trade.

Article IX

Immediately upon the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty, the naval forces of Her Britannic Government shall henceforth issue orders to lift the naval blockade imposed upon the United States on February 19, 1862. Permission shall be given for such orders to travel to the Pacific Coast as laid out in accordance with Article II of this Treaty. The naval forces of Her Britannic Majesty shall not linger longer than is necessary upon American shores to take on provisions or make repairs necessary to the swift transportation of vessels away from the waters of the United States.

Article X

This Treaty when the same shall have been ratified on both sides without alteration by either of the contracting parties, and the Ratifications mutually exchanged, shall be binding on both parties, and the Ratifications shall be exchanged at Philadelphia in the space of four months from this day or sooner if practicable. In faith whereof, We the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty, and have hereunto affixed our Seals.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 93: Half a Peace Part II​

“While it is not the goal of a historian to engage in the realm of the counterfactual, one does find themselves asking, could the United States have won their conflict against Britain? It is a question which has vexed historians and analysts for some time. Some, looking only to the example of 1775-83 or 1812-15 have said that it is unthinkable that the United States should have lost the conflict. After all, had not Washington and his forces fought a bloody and bitter campaign that ended in victory against Britain? While the leadership of James Madison and the legion of less than stellar commanders in 1812 had not performed as expected, even they had stalemated the forces of Britain to the point that a white peace could be signed.

These examples though, often overlook two important facts in each of those conflicts. In the first, a sizable peace party had already existed in Britain when the rebellion broke out in 1775. Then a mere two years later, the other premier powers of Europe had leapt in to take on Britain as she struggled for success in North America, widening the war and stretching Britain’s resources significantly. That the war went from one of a nation fighting a conflict against an internal rebellion to a more general European war overseas had a decisive effect on the victory of that conflict. For it was with French, guns, money and ships that the original Continental Congress was able to fight against the British.

In 1812 the North American war was little more than a sideshow. The titanic struggle against Napoleon occupied all of Britain’s resources and attention, and it was only in 1814 that major energies were turned to the war which ended in peace not long after a stalemate developed. Even today many argue whether the war might have gone longer, but neither party had a reason to continue the war itself. Defining the European balance of power was more important than defining borders in North America for British politicians in 1814. So long as Britain did not lose face, the conflict was of little major importance.

Though one can only speculate, an astute observer in 1861 would be hard pressed to say that a whole Union unsundered by Civil War would not have been a much greater foe for Great Britain, the United States found itself in the unfortunate circumstances of fighting a civil war combined with a foreign war. That Britain was herself undistracted, as she had been in the Revolution and the War of 1812, also lends a certain balance to the scale. Had another European power been willing to aid the United States then the question was more open, but in the 1860s as great wars forged the fates of nations and empires, Europe as a whole could pay little attention to matters in North America. From the start then, the United States was fighting on her own, without even incidental help from Europe.

Even a whole United States would have found the prospect challenging. The economy of Britain and her empire was three times greater than that of the whole of the United States. Her army was larger than the whole American army in 1861 by a factor of fifteen, and the naval establishment of the British Empire was simply astronomical as compared to its American counterpart. From the first day of the war then Britain held an industrial and military advantage the United States would have found difficult to overcome. With the Union then distracted by fighting an internal rebellion, this issue was merely amplified despite the existing military preparations that had been carried out beforehand.

Though half a million men were under arms in early 1862, they were faced by a quarter million Confederate soldiers in the same period. The outbreak of war with Britain meant that men and material which would have been better spent fighting the Confederacy was then shipped North to either protect the Union’s coasts or to invade Canada. In that same period Britain had mobilized some 147,000 Canadians and British troops in North America proper. While the Union Army would balloon to 600,000 men by the middle of 1862, they were still spread across the breadth of North America, unable to be concentrated at a decisive point to inflict a defeat on one foe or the other.

Some historians, though, have merely assessed the number of soldiers available to the Union and assumed that was all that mattered. Worse, some used it to draw an already miscellaneous conclusion; they assume that the American leadership was simply to incompetent to win such a war despite an overwhelming advantage in numbers. While some of these commentators are American, an unfortunate number are also English who cite the example of the more numerous, but overall incompetent, Russian commanders in the Crimean War as instructive of why this is. The theory goes that American commanders, unused to commanding large armies and large formations, simply broke down under the pressure and buckled with the strain, so too did her political leaders.

This analysis is unsatisfactory, not just because of the bigotry inherent in it, but because there are so many examples of American leaders performing feats of military genius in the war. The sadly unsung General Grant in the West may have faced many defeats, but he kept his army going well into the Overland Campaign of 1864 despite many terrible setbacks. General Burnside outfought the British Army of Canada at Saratoga despite being battered for months by General Dundas’s forces. On the seas Admiral Farragut proved the most dogged opponent of the Royal Navy in the time period. So foolish generalship or incompetence simply does not tell us why the United States had to sign an unfavorable peace.

The other analysis this suggests is simply a lack of political will. The theory goes that, had the United States been willing to be more draconian, more willing to enforce unity at home and accept horrendous losses in the field, then the war would have been won even if it had lasted longer. By 1864 they note, despite rising inflation, the United States was at last making returns on its great nitre farms to supply the army with powder and shot. Weapons were, to an extent, being manufactured at scale to keep the army and navy in the fight. It had a great drain on the economy yes, but nations had fought on through worse. A longer struggle may have been ruinous, but it would have brought ultimate victory. Some historians have looked at the numbers and suggested that had the United States been willing to accept the same crushing economic burdens the Entente powers did in the early 20th century then they would have ultimately prevailed. This ignores that Lincoln’s government had already taken many unprecedented acts to keep the nation afloat, from income taxes, social welfare, to an enormous national draft. That all these measures, unprecedented for the time, did not win the war against Britain alone suggest it was not a lack of will at all.

Even then, in later 1864…

From there, others have said the United States pursued the wrong strategy. There is some merit in this, but some critiques hold more weight than others. For instance, some have suggested that the United States could have passively sat on the defensive while Britain attacked and wasted her strength. These commentators forget that the British strategy of blockade would have been just as much a millstone around the neck of the United States in this scenario as in our own. Conversely, could Lincoln have survived the outrage of refusing to fight in Canada when, as was said at the time “American blood had been shed on American soil by Perfidious Albion” when the early invasion of Maine took place? Considering the criticism of his wartime handling of the war with Britain, it is doubtful he could have taken any other strategy than to attack.

That leaves the more reasonable explanation that the United States chose the wrong strategy in attacking Canada. Since the end of the war many had pointed out that the United States spread its forces too thin to accomplish much in Canada, citing similar problems to the strategy in the War of 1812. While attempts to invade across the St. Lawrence River ended after 1862 in favor of concentrating forces to hold what had been taken in Canada West, not enough forces were ever sent to be decisive in the one theater where it may have mattered, the capture of Montreal.

Many commentators have suggested merely masking Canada West while concentrating the greatest numbers of men possible against Canada East. Certainly General Halleck and General McClellan said as much after the war, convinced that it would have paved the way for a capture of Quebec, and thus forced Britain to the negotiating table. In hindsight of course, that may have been a war winning strategy, but no one may say so for sure. However, the same forces which could have turned the tide in Canada were so necessary for turning the tide on the Chesapeake in 1863 or blunting the Confederate invasions of Kentucky that same year.

With the political and military angles examined, this suggests to the author, as it has to other commentators, that the war was not unwinnable, but it was lost in the field where many military histories fear to tread, economics. As mentioned, the British Empire outstripped the economy of the United States by three to one. She was the workshop of the world in this period and, undistracted by other matters, she could turn her full energies to the war with the United States. And Britain did just that, using her overwhelming advantage at sea to great effect. Certainly many believed that this was where the war was lost, from Farragut himself, to later Alfred Thayer Maham and Theodore Roosevelt…” - The World on Fire: The Third Anlgo-American War, Ashley Grimes, 2009, Random House Publishing

Admiral Milne's abilities as a logistician were ultimately more important than the 'Nelson touch'​

“The thalassocracy has been seen, first by the ancient maritime powers, then the Dutch, then Britain, then Japan, as the true power that runs the world. Ultimately, that conclusion is what won the American War for Britain. Control of global sea lanes means that a nation can trade with and inhibit the trade of others with impunity. The Pax Britannica which persisted for nearly one hundred years from 1815-1912 showed the great boon that trade guaranteed or aided by a great naval power presented. It was a lesson which was not forgotten after the war, and it is exactly why the United States failed to deliver a great blow to Britain which might have won them the conflict.

Before the war Britain had a global naval presence that saw ships under the Union Jack stretching from the Baltic, to Cape Horn and the Straits of Malacca. There was not a place in the world where the guns of a British warship did not reach the coasts, even including the inland waters of North America! It was that mastery of the St. Lawrence River and then the Richelieu which made British dominance in Canada East so effective, and the United States was unable to effectively challenge that.

On the seas of course, the problem was much greater. Britain’s global presence meant she could track American commerce raiders and shut them out of her most valuable trade networks. That same global network of harbors and coaling bases meant her ships had the global reach, while those of the United States were forced to husband their resources and generally dampened the effectiveness of the Navy’s commerce raiding campaign[1]. Without coaling bases of her own, the United States was effectively tied to the Atlantic and the Caribbean, which was jointly contested at the time…

Ultimately however, Britain’s greatest weapon against the United States was not even her global naval presence, but the blockade. British leaders had believed that even if the United States occupied all of Canada, so long as they could not contest control of the seas they would have to hand over any territory taken at the peace table. Strangling American trade cut them off from foreign markets to buy or sell goods, and from supplies and capital which would have been greatly beneficial to the war effort.

The bottling up of the United States Navy also had an effect not dissimilar to the French Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Stuck in port, unable to properly train as squadrons, the ability of the United States Navy to mount effective action against the Royal Navy was greatly diminished. The lack of experience in doing so before the war, demonstrated at the Battle of Key West in early 1862, and the lackluster performance of the general naval offensive in August of that year, showed squadrons not used to operating in tandem were not going to best the Royal Navy. An exceptional commander like Farragut could certainly manage it, but even his victories at Little Gull Island and Sandy Hook did little to change the strategic situation.

Fundamentally, the United States was unable to free itself from the shackles of the naval blockade which only became stronger as time went on. Britain devoted more ships and material to sealing up the American coasts which placed strain on the American economy and drove trade to a standstill, worsening the economic inflation that beset the country. For all that has been written about climactic battles like Sandy Hook or Snake Island, or the daring of individual ships commanders like those of Mohican and Kearsarge, the final calculus was that the Navy could not defeat Britain’s greatest weapon. Its inability to do so meant that the Confederacy, with uninterrupted access to the seas, could become stronger, while the United States, bogged down in campaigns in Maine and Canada, would grow correspondingly weaker.

It was Admiral Milne’s efficiency in coordinating these blockading squadrons, the supplies necessary to maintain them, and the rotation of men and ships that kept it strong which won the war. His strategy, while not the Nelson touch in battle some may have hoped for, proved effective in bringing the United States to the negotiating table. Coupled with the Confederate efforts on land, it was what drove the war to its ultimate conclusion…

While dull, it is an inescapable conclusion that British naval dominance is what helped drive the American economy under to the point it had to cease its war with Britain if it hoped to win its war against the Confederacy. The Third Anglo-American War was won at sea.” – Troubled Waters: The Anglo-American War at Sea, Michael Tielhard, Aurora Publishing, 2002

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1] This is, I think, a greatly overlooked point. The advent of the steam age meant that the same commerce raiding tactics the United States used in 1775-83 and 1812-15 were outdated and would have ultimately been ineffective even compared to their Confederate counterparts in the same period. The Confederates got the advantage of calling on neutral British ports, the Union don’t have that luxury, something I wrote about last year. Conversely, the British coaling bases the world over would OTL remain an advantage into the early 20th century, impacting the movement of Russian ships to Asia in 1905, while also constricting the movement of Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet” in 1907 which had to hire British colliers to allow itself to make its global tour! It wasn’t until warships switched to oil burning that Britain’s dominance of the seaways came under serious threat from anyone who wasn’t France.

----

Though I’ve couched the ideas in this chapter from TTL historians, this does ultimately match up with how I think such a war would end. It is British naval dominance which allowed for the audacious Chesapeake Campaign leading to the Siege of Washington, and that was something an Anglo-Confederate force could absolutely have attempted in such a conflict. The naval aspect, I think, would have been decisive in how the campaigns were fought and the way the conflict with Britain would have shifted.

Of course, this isn’t to say that’s the only way it would end. The United States could have gotten some lucky breaks in 1862 or fought on well into 1865. There’s other ways it could go, but I do believe the macro advantages lay with Britain at this time.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 94: Colonial Matters​

“While it is often considered that Canada was the only British colony at risk from the United States, many of Britain’s far flung outposts also lived in fear of retaliation from, if not the armies of America, her commerce raiders.

This was the primary concern of the six different Australian colonies of Britain. Though Britain maintained units of Royal Artillery at important ports and had companies of infantry scattered across the continent, these were insufficient to do more than deal with occasional civil unrest and the odd skirmish with the Aboriginal peoples. The threat, or at least fear of, an American attack on Australian coasts prompted a flurry of calls for more forces from Britain. However, the colonial governors were all rebuffed by London who informed them that forces were already destined for North America or China and nothing could be spared beyond artillery detachments and guns.

While there had been some organization and spending in response to the Crimean War, the various responsible governments in the colonies were passing motions for an expansion of Volunteer formations. Only the memory of the Eureka Stockade years prior prevented the adoption of conscription. Instead, they pushed for the arming of “the proper classes” (Lord Lisgar) to discourage unrest and to properly protect the colony in case of attack. New South Wales managed to raise a force of 4,000 Volunteers by the winter of 1863. However, over three quarters of those would eventually be tempted away by land deals during the New Zealand war in 1864 leaving the defence of the colony in doubt during 1865. It was this which prompted discussions with Victoria, who had maintained a solid core of urban Volunteers for a small semi-professional force of 1,500 about matters of a coordinated defence policy. However, it also created conversations between the two colonies regarding whether some sort of united front might be presented outside the military sphere…

In New Zealand, while the threat of American raiders was assessed as real, there was a sense of security from the Royal Navy, and the brigade of troops dispatched to help police the troublesome Maori King Movement in the Waikato. The real threat in the minds of most New Zealanders was the Maori…

From a naval perspective Seymour’s Australian Station was charged with policing the waters around Australasia. Despite some raids, and one significant action with the converted American mail steamer California, the station was largely quiet throughout the war. Maitland chiefly concerned himself with commerce protection and convoying men to New Zealand when the outbreak of war there came…

Only in China, oddly, did any real conflict occur between forces of either side. While the United States had withdrawn its forces from overseas at the outbreak of the Civil War, they had left a token presence in Asian waters to show the flag and enforce American policy. By the outbreak of war in February 1862 the American presence consisted solely of the gunboat Saginaw under James F. Schenck laid up at Whampoa. His opponent, Admiral James Hope, had a much more significant command to draw upon.

Upon the confirmation of the outbreak of war in March, Hope acted quickly to seize American ships and property at Hong Kong and Shanghai. Schenck and many of his subordinates were taken into custody. Despite blistering complaints to the nominal Qing overlords of Shanghai, the opinion of the local merchants, and far away Beijing, was that it was a foreign problem for foreigners. Certainly the reports of barbarians fighting barbarians did not cause Qing courtiers to lose a night of sleep.

Brief fights were experienced in mid-March between some Americans and then British troops, largely tavern brawls. By and large however, the conflict was contained to confiscations and occasional disputes between British and American consuls over who owned what. The dispatch of the 99th Regiment of Foot caused much comment, but played little into the events at Hong Kong. The Taiping proved more easy to repel than expected, and the loss of the 99th made no impact on the eventual campaigns.” - The Third Anglo-American War Abroad, Jonathan Hemsworth, Glasgow Press, 1981

\
An Australian Volunteer Gun Battery, 1869​

“Though it was a diminished fleet and force which eventually again settled at Honolulu, King Kamehameha would personally take the time to interview the British officers who landed. Inviting them to the ʻIolani Palace, he would speak with British officers regarding events in the United States.

Was it true, the King asked, that Britain had humbled the United States at home? He was told this was confirmed. Was it also true that they had destroyed American power in the Pacific. Proudly the Royal Navy officers confirmed that, apart from American raiders, they had cleared the Pacific of American warships leaving “nothing greater than a clipper waving the American flag from China to California” he was told.

The matter deeply intrigued the King, and he began taking many lunches with British Consul William Synge who he knew well, as he had stood in as Queen Victoria’s representative at the now six year old Prince Albert’s christening. There was, as usual, talk of trade, the improvement of the Anglican Church on the islands, and at last the might of the Royal Navy. The King was interested in whether it could protect his home from encroachment of a foreign power. Synge, in perhaps a bout of patriotic overstatement proclaimed “Your Majesty, no ship could sail in these waters if Her Majesty’s Navy did not wish it. Brittania rules the waves of all the Earth.”

While perhaps not imparting the meaning in quite the way he thought, Synge did give the King pause. He had hoped to leverage British support economically as a mean to ward off American political and economic encroachment. But perhaps he could do more…” - The House of Kamehameha, Brandon Somers, Oxford Press, 1987

Diplomat William Synge may have had an outsized effect on Hawaiian history​

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 95: The Grey Ships​

“Nor must Uncle Sam’s webbed feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks.” - Abraham Lincoln in a speech to Unconditional Union supporters in August 1863.

“It was the climactic Battle of Columbus on March 17th of 1864 which saw the final duel between the CSS Arkansas and the USS Cincinnati. The two ships had, under their commanders, always managed to lock themselves in combat. In their prior duels, as testimonials from the crews of each would later state, the battle itself had seemed to push them towards each other. In this final engagement, the two ships would actively seek one another out upon commencing the engagement…

When word arrived in Columbus that the Confederate River Flotilla was advancing, Commodore Charles Davis immediately prepared his ships for action, casting off their moorings and heading to confront the Confederates head on. Though he knew this was a risky maneuver, falling back on the defences of Columbus was just as difficult. The armies operating on both sides of the Mississippi would be at risk if he could not drive the Confederate forces back. He brought all his strength with him.

Little did Davis know, as he led his flotilla south to confront the rebel fleet, but he was playing into the hands of Commodore Hollins. Though Hollins had suffered reverses in the last year, the arming of his fortifications, and now finally his ships, with British Armstrong guns gave him an edge in firepower that his Union opponents could not hope to match. This had been demonstrated early in 1863 with the death of Commodore Foote. Davis had, not unreasonably, assumed that heavy guns ashore were more a threat than anything the Confederate flotilla could produce. Had this even been late 1863, he would have been correct. However, the workshops of New Orleans, and quickly fabricated docks at Memphis, had allowed Hollins to re-arm his vessels late in the year, and by February, each of his ships, even those originally built by the Confederacy, was carrying at least a single Armstrong.

Davis vessels, primarily armed with 32 pder cannon and 8 inch Columbiad or Parrot rifles were matched against the indigenous Confederate ships armor. However, Hollins now had a much more simplified ammunition reserve, and one that he knew had a proven record of being able to penetrate Union ironclads…

The battle was joined two miles downstream from Columbus itself. Davis led his ships into the teeth of the advancing Confederate flotilla. Both sides opened fire at long range, aiming to obscure movement and knock out the opposing bow guns…

As the two sides joined in a naval melee, Lt. George Bache, commander of the Cincinnati was alerted to the presence of his now old foe, the Arkansas. Captain Isaac Brown, commander of the Arkansas, noticed the presence of the Cinicinnati at roughly the same time. He steered his ship cautiously in his foe’s direction. The two ships proceeded to fire recklessly at one another, making the first pass, with Cincinatti having the advantage of the river to speed her progress, allowing for a punishing broadside to rake Arkansas armor, causing several casualties in her crew.

Brown would maneuver his ship around, running through his own lines to do so. In the next pass Arkansas would have the advantage while Cincinnati would, even with her superior engine, claw for every burst of speed fighting up river. The next pass saw near pointblank broadsides exchanged, as Brown attempted to maneuver his ship to ram the Union vessel. Bache however, was far too clever to let that pass and deftly steered his ship away from Brown’s attack.

Two more passes would follow as the battle raged around them. Many would describe the fight between the two as “jousting on the waters in an exchange of nautical chivalry” with the two commanders after the fact stating that they merely “wished to see the deed done” and fought hard to best their opponent.

In the third pass, Brown finally managed to allow his two bow mounted Armstrongs to send their piercing shot into Cincinnati's bow. The two shots ripped into the ship, killing three men and wounding a dozen others. The attack also crashed into the bridge, temporarily blinding Bache as he suffered a forehead wound which leaked blood. This crucial blindness would mean that on the fourth pass, his crew were distracted, and Brown could at last steer Arkansas without Bache’s clever leadership. This time, the ram struck home, the impact wounding men on both vessels, and locking each side into the fight. Pointblank fire was exchanged, disastrous for both ships, but the Armstrong guns on Arkansas ripping deep into Cincinnati.

This was the final pass which would leave the Union ironclad listing. The two ships struggled to disengage, and when Arkansas did disengage, it left the Cincinnati reeling and taking on water. Worse, she would float through the combat of the battle, taking fire from further enemy vessels. Bache was forced to order the crew to attempt to beach the ship. Unfortunately, they would wreck on a sandbar. Bache ordered his crew to do their best to burn the vessel and then abandon ship as the battle raged. As the Arkansas came calling on its old foe, they discovered the ship burning and Brown ordered his men to try and save her.

Brown’s crew barely managed to extinguish the flames, but it would be days before they could organize to drag the Cincinnati back to Memphis…

Hollins won the Battle of Columbus through superior firepower, but at great cost. While his opponent lost not only the Cincinnati, but the Benton as well. Hollins however, had also lost the ironclad Tennessee alongside three smaller gunboats. His opponent Davis however, had also lost three gunboats of his own. It was a devastating loss for the Union Mississippi Squadron. To conserve his squadron he was forced to fall back on the city, lest he retreat all the way to Cairo. With no ground force strong enough, yet, to assault Columbus, Hollins fell back sure in his victory…

Brown would tend his ship’s wounds, while also personally taking charge of the mission to salvage the Cincinnati. He had been curious of the fate of her crew and made many inquiries over any captured men. It turned out that of the Union ship’s 241 crew who had gone to battle that day, seventeen had been killed, two dozen wounded, with another one hundred captured by Confederate cavalry when they washed up on shore. Among them was the wounded Bache who had wanted to directly observe the fate of his ship.

Immediately Brown sent that Bache should be transported to Memphis, inadvertently saving his life as most of his men ended up in Andersonville. The two former rivals would spend the remainder of 1864 engaging in conversations about command style, how a proper ironclad should function, and Brown doing his best to ensure Bache could reach his relatives in the North to assure them of his care. The two would develop an unlikely friendship which would last to the end of the war. Bache would, oddly enough, even toast his rival on his promotion to Captain in the Confederate Navy that spring…

Thus ended the duels of the Cincinatti and Arkansas and their illustrious rivalry along the Mississippi. – Knights of the Mississippi: The Duels of the Arkansas and Cincinnati Part Three, Alexander Dumfries, The American Naval Gazette, March 1988 issue.

Lt. George Bache and Captain Isaac Brown, two of the most storied officers from the Mississippi River​

“...On the Atlantic the demands were different. The Confederacy had begun the war much poorer than the North when it came to naval forces. Almost all the major naval yards, ships, and infrastructure was in Northern states, and only the naval yards in New Orleans and at Norfolk would fall into Confederate hands unscathed to lead the nascent Confederate Navy. In the beginning there was some hope as of the 1,200 officers in the United States Navy at the start of the war, roughly one quarter of them, 373, would resign their commissions to join the Confederate Navy, giving it at least a small cadre of trained leaders.

Unlike the North however, no true coastal industry existed outside key cities. As such, the manpower needs of the navy were difficult to meet. By the end of 1862 there would be some 4,500 sailors augmented by 400 officers. But in comparison to the vast growth of the Union Navy, even this respectable size was small. Slave labor could fill some gaps but it was not enough.

The construction and acquisition of warships was another matter altogether…

The diplomatic efforts of the Confederacy had not all been in vain. The dispatch of officers and agents to London and Paris had not just been for diplomatic purposes, but also to purchase vessels of war for the Confederate Navy. This had borne fruit in 1863 when ironclads were constructed in Britain, knocked down, and shipped across the Atlantic to New Orleans where they were reconstructed and manned by Confederate forces on the Mississippi River. It was these ironclads which played a vital role in forcing the Union out of Memphis and driving them back up the river, undoing a year of progress by General Grant…

Of all the efforts to secure warships for the Confederacy, none was more successful than those undertaken by John Slidell in France. When the New Yorker turned Louisiana patriot had entered France amongst much celebrity in the aftermath of the Trent affair, he had initially had access to many levels of government, even a meeting with the Emperor in March of 1862. It had however, been his meetings with the business class of France which proved the most fruitful.

While his daughter Marguerite’s engagement to the financier Baron Friedrich Erlanger had netted the Confederacy a loan of thirty million dollars, it was the acquaintance struck with shipbuilder Lucien Arman and his company which would pay richer dividends. The Arman brothers had been successfully contracted to construct warships for both Italy and Russia, and he had eagerly made the acquaintance of Slidell looking for new work. It was his work with ironclad vessels meant for Italy which had caught Slidell’s attention and they had many conversations regarding them and whether they could be built for his nation. With the blessing of the Emperor, he began the construction of four ironclad warships for the Confederacy.

The first were two ram vessels designed to break any attempted blockade of Southern ports. They were built in partial secrecy, the Emperor did not want his overt support for the Confederacy to be known while his Mexican expedition was underway, and in order to give some time to the Confederate navy to train with the vessels. The two ships, the ironclad rams CSS Leonidas Polk(3) and the CSS Lafayette(3)[1] would be cleared for action in August of 1864 and proceed to North America to join the litany of other warships from foreign providers. His later construction, modeled on the ironclad vessels provided for Italy, the CSS Georgia(26) and the Kentucky(26) would remain tied up in contracting arguments until 1866 and as such had no effect on North American arrangements, despite many modern discussions to the contrary.

By September of 1864 the Confederate Chesapeake Squadron, in addition to the indigenously built ironclads, would include the ironclad rams North Carolina(2) and Missouri(2) on order from Britain. These would add a total of six ironclad warships to the Chesapeake Squadron which were, in theory, more than a match for any of the existing or planned ironclads in Union service. These vessels, or the threat of them, concerned the Union government to no end. However, in the aftermath of the Battle of Sandy Hook, Farragut had few ironclads of his own.

That the Confederate squadron contained four ironclad rams, while Farragut had only his ironclad flagship New York and the slow, unwieldy little vessels like Monitor, Catskill, Montauk, Graves and Little Gull. These ships, with the memory of the unfortunate fate of the USS Maine in mind, Farragut did not consider capable of fighting the Confederate rams head on. Though he included them in his arranged squadron for operations in the Chesapeake, he believed that he would be at a severe disadvantage in the enclosed waters.

Worse from the Union perspective was the joining of this squadron by the regular steam warships CSS Alabama(8), CSS Texas(9)[2] alongside the CSS Rappahannock(6) and the CSS Monocacy(6), creating an extremely formidable squadron. The mere existence was a continued threat to Washington and allowed for Whiting’s Corps to be maintained in the field, threatening the tenuous overland route from Philadelphia…” - Gray Ships on a Blue Sea: The History of the Navy of the Confederate States, Rear Admiral Theodore Roosevelt IV (ret.), United States Naval Academy, 1991

The CSS Leonidas Polk at anchor, 1865​

August 3rd, 1864
Lemon Hill, Philadelphia

The warm breeze coming through the windows masked the smell of rain on the air. It had been a wet day, but little enough to stifle the heat or dust of one of America’s greatest cities. Far beyond the good views of Lemon Hill and the city itself, following the course of the Delaware River and into Delaware Bay, the city was beginning to, after three years, open itself to the outside world. Ships that had sat idle in port were sailing, warehouses which had sat empty or filled with goods which could not be sold were opening up and trying to make up for years of lost commerce. At last, for the first time since February of 1862, British ships no longer prowled the waters waiting for American merchants to deposit their wares into Admiralty Courts.

Now though, the United States Navy faced a new challenge.

Seward couldn’t help but reflect on that as their guest was shown into the room. Admiral David Farragut was a tall man, his skin looking winburnt and sharp eyes meant for the sea. Born of the South he had not cast in his allegiance with his own state and instead stood firmly by the Federal government. He had faced considerable prejudice, but had not allowed it to interfere with his duties as commander of the most powerful squadron of American warships ever assembled. That had led to two of the greatest naval victories in United States history and none could now dare question his duty to the Union.

For all that, he still seemed to have a restless energy about him. It was one that Seward wished all the commanders of the United States Navy had, and perhaps the war at sea against Britain would have gone better. There was no time for such thoughts now he knew. The problems they faced were much greater.

“Admiral,” Lincoln said standing. While the man saluted, Lincoln quickly shook his hand which looked to make the officer mildly uncomfortable. “It is a pleasure to have you here at Lemon Hill.”

“The pleasure is mine sir,” he said. “How may the navy serve you today?”

“Unfortunately, Admiral, it falls to us to look to you for solutions.” Lincoln indicated the large map currently pinned to the far wall. It marked the known dispositions of Confederates around Annapolis and its environs, as well as the estimated ship strengths of the Confederate Squadron. It made for a certain depressing reading.

“As of last week, our scouts and agents report that the Confederate squadron now has six ironclad rams, four regular steam warships, and over a dozen smaller gunboats,” Welles said. “Of greatest concern of course are the ironclad rams.”

Farragut nodded. “Yes, we have nothing at present in our fleet which can match them. I have kept up with the work at Mare Island Navy Yard, but it seems our own rams will be many months away from completion.”

The new ironclads the USS Erie and the USS Sandy Hook were being laid down as direct counters to the Confederate fleet. They had only been ordered in November, and then only laid down as slips had freed up after the badly needed repairs to Farragut's squadron after the epic battle last year. Even then, it was estimated they would take over nine months to build. And that was the optimistic estimate.

“Is there any option to defeat these ships?” Lincoln said.

Farragut considered for a long time. He had clearly been thinking on the problem, so when he shook his head Seward knew he had much to say.

“Immediately? No Mr. President, there is not. I could take all our assembled ships to battle, and even if I defeated them I might lose over half my fleet. There would still be Confederate squadrons assembling at Wilmington and New Orleans. And with the loss of my ships how could we begin to blockade the South again?”

“An excellent point,” Welles said.

“Indeed, sir. My squadron is by far the strongest, both in guns and ironclads. My little monitors though, are not fit for the service required of them there. Those rams would swamp them and send them to the bottom. They can serve as deterrents, but I am loathe to risk it all in one great battle.”

“We have considered strategy going forward, Admiral. I would ask you to weigh in as Welles lays out his ideas.”

Welles nodded thanks and gestured to a map which had, until recently, laid out the dispositions of American squadrons against the British and their perceived cooperation with the South. Now, it showed the American squadrons, but also the perceived squadrons the South operated on. Unlike the fearful reading of only four months prior, the map now showed a healthy superiority in United States vessels, but a worrying lack of clarity on Confederate naval estimates.

“For our own purposes, we now have powerful squadrons at every port in the Union, save the destroyed Portsmouth Naval Yard and Portland Maine where we have but a single sloop now operating.” He grimaced. “And of course on the Pacific, but that is not pertinent at present.” Tapping a finger he indicated Norfolk and the Chesapeake. “The South has assembled a powerful squadron here, one we know presents many dangers, especially to the capital. However, we know they are also assembling powerful forces at Wilmington, Charleston and New Orleans. The squadron at Wilmington at present consists of single ironclad, named after the city itself, and a dozen gunboats. At Charleston we have little more than rumors. There may be a squadron of steam sloops, or a squadron of ironclads. I am inclined towards the former myself. However at New Orleans, we can only guess. We know Britain has shipped ironclads to the South, the number and their specifics for a large part are unknown to us.”

“The Southern vessels have caused much embarrassment on the Mississippi of late,” Seward said. “I am not a naval man but I may guess that they have sent most ships to fight south of Cairo.”

Everyone nodded. The importance of the Mississippi River could not be understated.

“Precisely Seward,” Welles continued. “With such little knowledge, I am loathe to recommend anything like a large attack on any Southern port. However, I believe it is time we return to the strategy that we had believed held so much merit at the start of the war, we shall blockade the South and crush their cotton economy like Britain did to us.” He traced an imaginary line around the Southern coasts and tapped each major port in turn.

“Just as important, there are reports that the South is even now preparing to assemble squadrons of raiders to assault our already battered commerce. I believe that we must resume the blockade strategy we began in 1861 in order to prevent just such an occurence. From there we can bottle up these dangerous squadrons long enough for us to marshal forces for a major assault. Then we could slowly choke the life out of the traitors while our armies drove the knife into their heart,” he vigorously tapped Richmond with a finger.

“What say you, Admiral?” Lincoln asked.

Again, the admiral paused for thought. He traced a finger along Welles imaginary line, nodded, but then vigorously shook his head. Pacing back and forth he didn’t take an eye off the map for many minutes, stretching to the point that Seward felt awkward watching this great naval leader think. It was almost like intruding on an intimate moment. Finally he stood ramrod straight and turned.

“Mr. Secretary, I absolutely agree that we must resume the blockade. The boot must return to the neck of the snake. However, I believe that your proposed plan requires more vigorous tactics. The secesh must be made to feel war as we felt it. How many troops were required to protect our cities when the Royal Navy showed up off our shores? Tens of thousands! Once we show up off Southern ports they will send men home, but that is not enough! An entire army was required to protect New England! How many men must Lee send home if we attack Georgia, Louisiana? Their governors, like ours, will be screaming for men to defend them! Especially from their slaves.”

Seward nodded. It made good sense. How many tens of thousands who might have been useful in Virginia, Tennessee, Maine or Canada had been tied up defending New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore? How many men would Jefferson Davis have to send home if they began to attack the Southern ports again?

“Where ought this blow to fall do you believe, Admiral?” Lincoln asked, his attention entirely transfixed on the man.

Farragut slammed his finger into one point on the map. Port Royal, South Carolina.

“Our forces captured this point early in the war and put fear into the heart of the slavers. Then the Royal Navy came and the secesh felt safe again. By God we ought to put the fear into them. We can establish blockading squadrons, but allow me, sirs, to lead the first attack onto the soil of the heart of treason since 1861, let me put the fear of God and the Union into them again!”

They were all so entranced by the visions of panicking traitors and the thought of Jefferson Davis in conniptions that at first no one noticed the polite knocking on the chamber door. Finally John Nicolay tentatively entered and cut off whatever Farragut had been about to say next, Seward rounded roughly on the man.

“What the hell is it Nicolay? Can’t you see we’re busy?”

“Yes sir, but there was a telegraph from the War Department, I thought it couldn’t wait.”

“Go on,” Lincoln said gently.

“It’s Lee’s army sir, our scouts have confirmed it's on the move once again.”

That news cooled any thoughts of glorious victory in the room.

“Where?” Lincoln asked.

“That’s just it sir, our scout’s aren’t sure.”

-----

1] These are the “Sphinx” and “Cheops” built OTL in much more secrecy for the Confederacy that for various reasons got locked up in negotiation and maneuvering by the American and French governments that Arman had to sell at a loss to Denmark and Prussia respectively.

2] The infamous raider Alabama and what was supposed to be her sister Texas as historial. The real Texas became the Spanish ship Tornado which had such a hand in provoking OTL’s Virginius affair in 1873.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 96: Overland​

Head Qrs. in the Field, Ky
8 am June 15th 1864.

Hon. E. M. Stanton, Sec. of War. Washington D. C.

We have engaged the enemy in very heavy fighting. The result to this time is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We have taken over three thousand prisoners, in battle, while he has taken from us but few except stragglers. I propose to fight it out on this trail if it takes all summer. We will break the Rebellion in two.

U. S. Grant,
Commander, Combined Armies of the West

“In the spring of 1864 both the Union and the Confederacy faced difficult military choices. The desired axis of campaign between Paducah and Memphis had been picked clean by over two years of campaigning and foraging. The area was so barren Grant was said to acidly comment “a crow would have to carry its own provisions,” in part because he had ordered a scorched earth policy during his retreat in 1863…

The Confederate army in the West was paralyzed partially by indecision, but partially by its early shakeup in command. With the reluctant resignation of Albert Sidney Johnston, there had been no man officially appointed to lead the Army of Tennessee. As the senior officer present, Beauregard had assumed he would be placed in command, but the rivalry between Beauregard and Davis was legendary, and the Creole general had little support from the new Secretary of War, Breckinridge, who also demured on appointing a replacement. As January had given way to February and February to March, no decision was made and it began to infect the morale of the army. Finally, Davis decided he would solve the matter himself, traveling west by rail in early March 1864.

His trip took him from Virginia through to Chattanooga by train, and then out and north to Nashville. He was accompanied by Breckinridge and a small staff to meet his commanding Western officers. He would meet them at the as yet unfinished Maxwell House Hotel which had, for a time, served as headquarters for the Union garrison and did so now for the Confederate soldiers…

The meeting was contentious from the beginning. Ego and pride was on the line for some of the most powerful men in the Confederacy, with Beauregard barely managing to conceal his distaste for Davis behind a facade of icy civility, with Davis doing the same. Somewhat paradoxically, only the stormy Bragg would seem at ease in the conference. The other commanders present were Patrick Cleburne and William Hardee, each of rank that the President might make use of them, but by all accounts they endured most of the conference in silence…

After many hours of conversation, Davis finally asked whether the men present would serve under Hardee, who demured the idea of commanding the army, claiming he was not of sufficient experience to lead. While Davis mooted Cleburne’s name, the Irish general refused on issue of rank. Naming the lower ranks generals first, Davis had most likely intended to pique the pride of General Beauregard who would hotly declare that he ‘would not serve under anyone of lesser rank than himself, and he was aware of no man who outranked him west of Appalachia,’ which trapped him.

Davis astutely agreed that Beauregard was of too sufficient rank to be placed under any commander, and instead offered him the task of commanding Confederate efforts beyond the Mississippi. Beauregard could either refuse and resign, or he could accept this effective exile beyond the main theaters of war. Grimly, Beauregard accepted the dubious honor of commanding a theater which stretched from Arkansas to the base of the Rocky Mountains, and by April was commanding the troops beyond the Mississippi, away from true military glory or political intrigue.

In a stroke Davis placed his man in command of the Confederate forces in the West, Braxton Bragg…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

“Bragg was a disciplinarian, and he believed that what his army needed was a firm whipping in order for it to know who was in charge. As one Confederate lieutenant would write, within a week of Bragg’s securing command “He [Bragg] has determined that if the men do not fear the enemy, then by God they will fear him. The incessant roll of the drum and the rattle of the firing line for even modest infractions reverberates through the camp like the thunder of the Almighty. Yet even those who seek to intercede with President Davis, and even God Himself, find themselves deferred to the dubious mercy of Bragg.”

While many of Bragg’s own officers would object to the treatment of their soldiers, in particular the Kentuckians who had taken up the Confederate cause, Bragg would show no leniency. When Confederate Governor of Tennessee, Isham G. Harris parlayed with Bragg to spare a Tennessee private from execution Bragg is alleged to have responded “I see you still maintain a commission with the Confederate Army. I caution you, Governor, so long as you hold rank under my command I am not afraid to order a governor shot for insubordination.” That Bragg commanded the respect of the president made this no idle threat…

Even despite all the harsh methods Bragg instituted to secure control, his penchant for organization was a definite boon to the Army of Tennessee. With the appointment of the far more qualified Isaac St. John at the head of the Confederate Commissary Department, Bragg was able to secure better supplies of food, munitions and other necessary items to keep his army moving. For men who had endured a hard winter after the terrible siege at Corinth, Bragg’s penchant to punish on one hand but reward with better food on the other, was seen as an endurable storm. That the army truly began to take on its best succor in 1864 showed that they had truly not yet begun to fight…” - The Cannon and the Lash: Braxton Bragg and the Confederacy, William Hozier, New York University Press, 1999

Braxton Bragg, Commander of the Army of Tennessee​

“By April, Grant had at last decided on the action he would take to fight the Confederacy. Leaving as many men as he could to defend the approaches to Kentucky, he began moving his forces into Louisville, and from there to staging position along the Salt River aiming to advance overland and into Kentucky.

The decision to invade Kentucky again was almost as political as it was tactical. With the perilous position of the naval flotilla on the Mississippi, Grant dared not rely on their supremacy to launch his campaign. However, he could rely on a numerical supremacy in men, and his proposed strategy found great appreciation in Philadelphia. Its purpose was simple: the pro-Union region of eastern Tennessee had been under Confederate occupation since 1861, and in aiming to liberate it, Grant would be showing the resolve to deliver Union men to the protection of the United States once again. In doing so he would have to pass through Kentucky itself and liberate the state capital, thus ending the pretension of Confederate rule there, while also severing the one rail connection which kept Confederate east and west connected at Knoxville, and thence to Chattanooga, and perhaps, Nashville.

Lincoln was an enthusiastic supporter of the plan, and threw all he could behind it. Men and material were his, much to the detriment of the trans-Mississippi theater, but that was now a naval matter. Steele would have to part with some brigades, and even in April of 1864 Grant was hedging his bets on receiving soldiers from Canada, but made plans that would not necessarily include them.

His central plan for the campaign was to move south across his positions from the Salt River, assaulting through the now pitifully weak Confederate pickets there. Immediately following he would move along a two pronged attack. A portion of the army under General Thomas would advance across the Salt River, moving through Bardstown and Perryville to Harrodsburg. The second prong under Grant would advance through Frankfort to Lexington and then move south. Both forces were intended to meet at Rock Castle, and from there move south to the Cumberland Gap and East Tennessee.

…The first thorn in Grant’s plan came with the news of the defeat of the Union squadron at Columbus. Grant was forced to detach yet more men to defend his rear against a possible assault up the Mississippi towards Cairo. Men who he had otherwise planned to attach to his forces were thus held back to guard the important supply base. The second thorn came when news of Sterling Price’s invasion of Missouri began. Though Grant himself was not worried, the commanders of the trans-Mississippi were concerned that Price had gathered such a force. Grant refused requests for more men from his command, and said that the forces at present were enough to deter the rogue Missourian. It did, however, mean he had no choice but to relinquish Steele and Curtis’s commands back to the trans-Mississippi.

Come the end of April, Grant had the VIII Corps under John Schofield, the IX Corps, once again under Thomas, the XIX Corps under James B. MacPherson, the XI under John Logan, finally was the cavalry under Grierson. With new recruits, men returned from the fighting in the East, and draftees, Grant commanded 68,000 men for the coming campaign.

He could move so many men, even with the threat of Confederate cavalry raids, thanks to troops raised through the draft, colored volunteers to free up men from service along the Mississippi, and loyalist militias who still chose to serve under the stars and stripes. If the whole of Grant’s command is accounted for, he had 95,000 men, not just on the front lines, but guarding his lines of communication and garrisoning posts as he moved forwards.

With men returning to his command from the East however, especially Thomas and his men, Grant felt he would be capable of pressing the attack again. All the failures of 1863 could capitalize on the successes of 1864.

On April 29th, he began his march overland into the South…

Bragg was initially surprised, and then alarmed at the news of a “massive Federal army” moving into Kirby Smith’s area of operations. Though the wily Smith still had some 21,000 men available to him, he had them spread out to defend the state. That made the initial Second Battle of Bardstown something of a debacle, as Logan’s XI Corps made short work of the single Confederate division defending against it. In short order Thomas’s men were advancing towards Perryville, the site of such embarrassment the year prior.

Grant’s advance through Kentucky met one great cork at Frankfort. Governor Johnson had refused to evacuate the state capital alongside the majority of Bragg’s forces and, reluctantly, Bragg had left Roger Hanson’s brigade, The Orphans, to support the 2,000 man garrison. That most of the men defending the city were “Galvanized Kentuckians” who had either previously served under the Union flag or taken up arms in response to the actions of “Butcher” Burbridge meant that when Grant’s forces assaulted the city, they were thrown back with heavy casualties.

A frustrated Grant realized he had no time to besiege the city, and instead attempted to parlay with the Confederate Governor. Though he demanded unconditional surrender citing “the meritorious defence of these works by able men, I must beg that your forces surrender before any unnecessary shedding of blood.” The response by Governor Johnson was polite, but incredibly curt. “I thank you for the praise of my men. If you wish to avoid any other profusion of blood, stay out of range of our guns.”

While furious, Grant had no time to devote to a siege of a site so relatively unimportant. He left from Richard W. Johnson’s division from XIX Corps to take the city, and at last moved on. The Siege of Frankfort had cost him time and men he could ill afford, and the loss of Johnson’s divisions would be a drain on his manpower…

Bragg, as soon as he was certain that Grant really was moving through Kentucky, immediately began running men from Nashville to Knoxville by rail in order to relieve Kirby Smith’s forces. He sent desperate messages that Smith should hold his ground and concentrate his forces to join with his so that they might turn Grant’s advance back. Smith, ever his own worst enemy, did concentrate his men, but moved to strike back at Grant near London. There, he gathered his remaining 18,000 men for their full strength on May 30th to face off against Thomas…

Thomas deftly outmaneuvered Smith’s outnumbered and outgunned forces, and with only two hours of fighting sent them running in disarray back towards Raccoon Spring where, by sheer chance, they met with Bragg’s vanguard under Hindman.

Hindman carried written instructions for Smith to combine his troops with Bragg and hold a new position in front of Little Laurel Creek. Smith, smarting from defeat, at first argued, but finally accepted the necessity to serve under Bragg…

Grant combined his own forces with Thomas’s at London after sweeping through Manchester. Reports were at last reaching his ears that Bragg’s army had arrived and would be combining with Smith’s troops. Wishing to inflict a punishing blow on the Confederate forces in Kentucky, he would uncharacteristically spend a week resting and provisioning his forces, seemingly abandoning the rapid pace with which he had rushed across the territory of Kentucky for the last month. That rest was indeed necessary as moving over the rough terrain of eastern Kentucky without access to the railheads like Bragg had left his forces tired and strung out. Grant would also use that opportunity to reconnoiter Bragg’s lines. Seeing him martialling his forces, the Union general confirmed that this was where he wanted to fight Bragg…

On June 10th Grant began to move his men south to Raccoon Spring, reaching the outskirts of Bragg’s lines on the 13th, he drew his forces up into battle order. Thomas manned the left flank, Logan next to him, MacPherson and finally Schofield on the right flank. As he lined up, the weather began to change, with rain and showers driving through the lines…

The Battle of Raccoon Spring began in earnest on the 14th, Thomas driving hard into Bragg’s lines…

Logan upended Hardee’s formations with a devastating volley movement, which Hardee barely held off. Hindman was only just hanging on as Thomas savaged his flanks. Grant, sensing the end, moving Schofield’s troops to attempt to envelop Bragg.

With reports of both flanks crumbling, Bragg ordered his forces to withdraw themselves south…

By the 15th it was clear Grant was uncontested on the field. He had lost 7,000 men killed, wounded, or captured. Bragg meanwhile had lost close to 10,000 killed or wounded, with 3,000 of those captured as Grant had relentlessly hammered him…

Despite hard fighting and terrible weather, Bragg could not check Grant's advance at Racoon Spring​

After the Battle of Raccoon Spring there was no choice but for Bragg to withdraw to Barbourville, and Grant pursued with a reckless ferocity. The only thing which slowed him was the need to guard his flanks and long supply lines. The movements from Louisville, to Lexington, to Harrodsburg to Raccoon Spring had taken two months, and now the movement south to the Cumberland Gap would take another month of hard marching, and in all likelihood, hard fighting. Grant was fine with either situation. His casualties had been light compared to Bragg’s, and he had more manpower returning from Canada he was now assured. There would be nothing keeping him from driving deep into the Confederacy.

Bragg for his part, was desperate. He needed reinforcements, and with troops being called and begged away for duty on the coasts, he did the only thing he could. He begged Richmond for support to “reverse the blue tide which threatens to drive us from the soil of Kentucky.” For sentimental, as well as strategic reasons, Breckinridge urged Davis to detach soldiers to support Bragg’s forces. None could be spared from the fighting along the Mississippi, but surely something from the east could go west? Davis was nervous, but finally relented in mid July. He ordered Lee to detach a force which might go west and aid Bragg…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 97: Lee’s Left Hook​

We're the boys that rode around McClellan(ian),
Rode around McClellan(ian), Rode around McClellan(ian)!
We're the boys that rode around McClellan(ian),
Bully boys, hey! Bully boys, ho!

If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry!
Jine the cavalry! Jine the cavalry!
If you want to catch the Devil, if you want to have fun,
If you want to smell Hell, jine the cavalry!

Ol' Rosey, won't you come out of The Wilderness?
Come out of The Wilderness, come out of The Wilderness?
Ol' Rosey, won't you come out of The Wilderness?

Bully boys, hey! Bully boys, ho!
If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry!
Jine the cavalry! Jine the cavalry!
If you want to catch the Devil, if you want to have fun,
If you want to smell Hell, jine the cavalry!” - Jine the Cavalry, original composition 1864

“By the first week of August the Army of Northern Virginia had recovered from the wounds it had suffered at Mine Run. Though they had taken losses less galling than those inflicted on the Army of the Potomac, Lee’s troops had fought hard, but the Union had inflicted much damage in return. Lee’s troops now numbered a mere 67,000 men, minus the men still detached at Annapolis[1]. However, the emergency emerging out West would force him to detach men to fight.

In mid July, Davis demanded Lee to send a force to “relieve the crisis in Kentucky, lest such stalwart sons of our new nation be driven from their homes as they have been in Missouri.” Lee was reluctant to do so, but with Breckinridge and Davis reminding him that they had little choice. Lee thus decided to part with one of his corps, or at least most of it.

Jackson’s First Corps was still Lee’s strongest remaining single corps. However, in the fighting in the Valley that spring, one of its four divisions had been so badly savaged that Heth’s men had been reduced to guarding Lee’s supply lines. Trimble had been replaced by William D. Pender after the latter had taken ill in the month following Mine Run, leaving D. H. Hill as the most seasoned commander remaining in Jackson’s corps. Jackson’s men, described as “fiery eyed fanatics, forged in the heat of war into grim veterans” were supremely loyal to their eccentric commander. Where he went, so did they.

Lee however, did not wish to move them all west. His vision was for them to leave Heth’s troops to support his rear, while detaching Pender’s men to Fifth Corps to season the relatively fresh troops with a veteran division. Jackson, upon receiving these orders, protested that he could not take so few men West. Lee said that this was necessary to staunch the wound out West while he needed just enough to keep his momentum in the East. Reluctantly, Jackson agreed, and began organizing his men to move through Virginia to support Bragg’s floundering army.

It was imperative, Lee believed, that such movements to weaken his army be masked by an offensive. He believed that it was necessary to continue to harass and embarrass the Army of the Potomac, especially as he learned of the shakeup in command following Rosecrans disastrous loss the month prior. Therefore, he alighted on a strategy which was “less than an invasion and more than a raid” to continue to harass the Federal government and leave them in fear for Washington’s safety.

Therefore, as Jackson was moving West, Lee left his own defensive lines south of Fredericksburg and began to move the army west, with only a thin line of men as a screen. This was at first unnoticed by the Army of the Potomac thanks to bad weather grounding balloon reconnaissance and Stuart’s cavalry remaining ahead of their sluggish Union counterparts. However, none were able to infer where Lee was headed…

In Philadelphia there was considerable consternation in the aftermath of Mine Run, with blame being hurled around at every angle. Rosecrans blamed the response of Hooker for the disaster, while Hooker bristled at such accusations, and Hancock was raked over the coals for inactivity. Rosecrans though, did not emerge unscathed and found himself dragged before the Joint Senate Committee on the Conduct of the War, under the threat of charges, and Lincoln had to gently relieve him of command with the promise of some leniency.

Finding a new commander proved difficult. Many generals were named, Hancock and Reynolds at the forefront, but even moderate Republicans bristled with outrage over the idea that “yet another Democrat” would lead the army. Lincoln had some difficulty disagreeing, and only knew that many of his options were limited. Though Burnside had been suggested, his task in reorganizing the XVI Corps and the new XXI Corps into the Army of the Severn was seen as critical. The most prominent generals in the army were Democrats. It was only through pressure from his political allies that he turned to one man, John Pope.

Pope’s command record was mixed. He had performed poorly out West, often bungling attacks through ambition. However, he had commanded successful actions against many of the premier Confederate commanders, and his independent command in the Valley had turned back Jackson’s thrust in June. Lincoln saw merit in that, and despite some misgivings, the Radicals lauded a man as committed to the Republican cause as Pope.

Pope’s elevation was not without irritation. The prominent men like Reynolds and Hooker were disappointed when not offered command of the army. Reynolds at least was mollified by being placed in command of the Army of the Valley, leaving V Corps in Meade’s capable hands. Hooker and Sickles both disliked Pope, while Hancock gave him outward respect. However, Pope’s newfound confidence from confounding Stonewall Jackson meant he approached the command with his usual hauteur and a great deal of arrogance. He then began changing the commands.

In response to the terrible performance of the cavalry leading to Mine Run, Stoneman and division commander Averell were summarily sacked at the start of July. Only the hard work of John C. Buford had kept the corps alive and well. In Stoneman’s place David M. Gregg was placed in command, while Pleasonton was promoted to command the 2nd Division and a new 3rd Division was created from forces moving from New England under Judson Kilpatrick. This larger cavalry corps had great things expected of it and Gregg, a classmate of Stuart's, aimed to finally bring the Knight of the Golden Spurs to heel.

In XIV Corps, he ‘promoted’ Daniel Sickles by reassigning him to Burnside’s emerging army. Sickles was at first enraged and threatened to resign before his friend Hooker talked him down and encouraged him to take the command, especially as he had not fully recovered from his wounds. In his place Darius Couch was given the command of XIV Corps, largely in spite of his performance at Locust Grove.

This last promotion came only a day before Lee’s absence was noted in the lines. Orders from Philadelphia were quickly dispatched, sending him north to shield Washington as Lee’s movements became more clear…” - Pipe Creek: The Bloody Days, William Westmorland, Philadelphia Press, 1989

“The early movements of Lee’s army were through the west of the Shenandoah Valley. That such a large force was maneuvering into his new area of operations caused extreme disquiet in Reynolds command. Unsure if it was Jackson coming in force again, or the whole rebel army, he drew his men back towards Harper’s Ferry and the rail terminus there, conscious of the need to shield Washington. Other than minor skirmishing, Lee was happy to move beyond the Valley, harassing the soldiers along his path. Stuart’s raiders were much in evidence, and local partisans gave the Confederates guides to aid them in their march.

Lee grouped his forces at Hagerstown and then crossed into Pennsylvania on August 19th. Stuart’s troopers, who had rode and raided across this region of Pennsylvania the year before, knew the region well. They found new forage and plenty of supplies to be requisitioned from the local population. Lee had his men pay in graybacks, which many locals had hoarded from the year before, much to the astonishment of more than a few Confederate quartermasters. One sullen Pennsylvanian clerk would grimly joke “Mr. Davis dollar is worth more than Mr. Lincoln’s now,” which gave Lee some thought on the war.

However, his men would not sit idle long, as over three weeks of rough marching, he had carried his men into Pennsylvania in another invasion of the North. His two forces split in that moment; the Fourth Corps under Hill heading towards Harrisburg to threaten the crossing of the Susquehanna while Second and Third Corps moved south towards the town of Gettysburg after marching through Carlisle.

Pope meanwhile was rushing north through Baltimore, hoping to reach Pennsylvania before Lee. However, he moved his forces through Frederick, wondering if Lee would repeat his drive on Washington like the year before. As Lee’s forces moved towards Harrisburg, the panicked cry of the Pennsylvania government went out, raising concerns in Philadelphia, and Pope immediately kicked his forces into action.

His men moved through Union Mills, through Hanover and Hanover Junction, and came just in time to see the backs of Hill’s men as they retreated from the crossing of Harrisburg. Pope, believing that this was Lee retreating before his army, sent his cavalry in pursuit and to lock Lee in place, leading to the largest cavalry action of the Great American War…” To Arms!: The Great American War, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.

General J. E. B. Stuart,​

“Stuart’s men had been riding hard since the campaign had begun earlier in August. They had provided the screen which prevented the Union from divining Lee’s intentions. Riding up and down the Valley they had raided and captured Union outposts and signal stations, leaving Reynolds effectively blind, and kept Pope from launching any immediate pursuit.

His division and brigade leaders, familiar with the country, had broken up to search for fodder, forage and horses during harvest season. Farmers fleeing their homes had taken many livestock which had been hidden in 1863, but there was always more to be found, and Stuart’s captains did so with aplomb. In particular, the town of Gettysburg served as a rally point for Stuart’s raiders, where they gathered their plunder and prepared to return to Lee’s army.

On the 25th of August, Stuart was moving south with two of his divisions under Fitzhugh Lee and Wade Hampton. Moving south however, they soon ran into the merging divisions of John Buford and Judson Kilpatrick. The leading elements of Buford’s division under Wesley Merritt. They began skirmishing with elements of Stuart’s command, with the South Carolina cavalry taking the lead…

The two sides would assemble for the largest cavalry battle of the war. Between the two sides there were over 15,000 cavalrymen present on the field…

By 3pm the two sides had formed up, Stuart’s two divisions formed up on Cress Ridge, while Burford and Kilpatrick had formed on the lower ground. The Union men were flanked by Little’s Run, with Stallsmith’s Lane acting as a slight dividing line between the flanks. Buford, closer to the Run with Kilpatrick by the Lane, both were looking towards the Confederate cavalry on the high ground. Kilpatrick believed that he could use the ‘unhinged’ flank of Stuart’s cavalry to drive them back into the town. Buford cautioned him that the Confederates had the high ground, and so they should try and goad them into attacking. Kilpatrick wanted to attack head on.

Stuart ended up obliging at 3:30 by ordering both divisions downhill in a full charge. Kilpatrick ordered a countercharge, while Buford, against expectations, ordered his men to hold firm. Kilpatrick thundered towards the men of Hampton’s division. The resulting collision of horseflesh was the heaviest of the whole Great American War, driving eight thousand horsemen together in a contest of steel and shot.

Unfortunately for the men of Fitzhugh Lee’s division, Buford’s calculated maneuver to stay in a single location paid off. As the Confederate charge thundered within 100 paces, Buford’s men fired their carbines from the saddle, unsettling the whole of Lee’s charge. With some regiments armed with repeaters, the volley was devastating. As Lee’s men milled about and tried to reform, the carbines thundered again, and after a third volley, Burford at last ordered his men to attack with cold steel. The resulting counter charge routed Lee’s whole division, with Stuart himself barely escaping unscathed.

"The Old Dragoon" John Buford in 1864​

For all the brilliance of Burford’s attack, he was nearly killed himself as Kilpatrick’s men proved unequal with the saber compared to those of Wade Hampton. Kilpatrick led his men from the front in a reckless charge that did not have enough momentum to overcome the downslope charge from the South Carolinian general. The single highlight of Kilpatrick’s movement was the Michigan brigade under Brigadier General George Custer, whose men thundered into their opponents with carbines and then sabers, and the energy of their young general leading them through this proverbial valley of death…

Kilpatrick, at least, perished leading his command. Shot down by a Southern revolver, he died trying to rally his men. Only the fast thinking of Custer saved the division, and they performed a fighting retreat to cover Buford’s flank.

Buford realized that he was pursuing an enemy who intended to reform on the ridge, and at last seeing the coming wave of death promised by Hampton’s men, rolled back to join the now leaderless division. Instead, he led the retreat toward Pope’s army…

While the outcome of the Battle of Cress Ridge is still debated by modern historians for leadership, it showed that at long last the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry could meet the men of Virginia and the Carolinas on equal footing. Stuart had, by the custom of battle, driven the Union cavalrymen away, but he had failed to inflict the same level of defeat and embarrassment he had inflicted in 1862 and 1863, and much to his chagrin, he realized that the Union cavalry might prove more formidable than he had ever wanted to suspect. However, he had prevented the Union men from discovering Lee’s true plans.” – Cavalry in the Great American War, MG Amos Morrell (Retired), 1978, USMA

Cress Ridge would see the Union cavalry finally give as good as it got to their Confederate counterparts​

“Hill’s withdrawal from Harrisburg was not the retreat Pope believed it to be. Lee had, cleverly in his opinion, believed Pope would be riding hard to chase him and gambled he would choose the most direct route of rail or march. This gamble had paid off well, and Pope turned to pursue Hill’s troops south again.

Lee had found suitable ground thanks to his foragers at Union Mills along the Pipe Creek. Longstreet had suggested the ground for a fight, and though Lee had wanted to inflict a defeat on a Northern force on unquestionably Northern soil, he calculated that an enormous defeat in Maryland might also drive that state into the Confederacy as well. So on August 27th the Army of Northern Virginia began moving to take up positions along Pipe Creek.” - Pipe Creek: The Bloody Day, William Westmorland, Philadelphia Press, 1989

----

1] Whiting’s Corps, two divisions strong, remains there. Lee is losing about 10,000 men on this deal, while Davis gains a political bargaining chip and a base to shelter the Confederacy's most powerful naval squadron.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 98: Two Victories, Two Defeats Part I ​

“The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so.” - Ennius

“The Army of North Virginia was not the same force which had marched into the North in 1863. Now numbering barely 46,000 men, Lee’s invasion was a gamble of the highest order. While he was able to, for a time, conceal his true strength through his cavalry, it would only be a matter of time before Pope’s army, still significantly stronger with over 80,000 men[1], could bring itself to bear on his small force.

Lee’s goal then had been to find suitable ground and then goad his opponent into battle. Pope had been too eager to oblige…

The ground Lee found at Pipe Creek was a dream come true. A long line of naturally defensible ground which any Union army wishing to engage him had to cross. Even if an army did not want to attack, it would be enticed by the uncomfortable geography. By intersposing his army along this line of advance, Lee cut off Baltimore by road, sitting squarely on the major outlets which could reach it. The Hanover Pike which ran directly from Hanover in Pennsylvania to Baltimore cut one avenue, while the Taneytown Pike ran straight through the center of the line. To his great advantage, supporting roads ran all through his rear, allowing him to exploit his inferior numbers with mutual support. All of these routes were eminently defensible, and Lee sought to exploit the ground to the fullest. Just as importantly, the position left him the option to retire on Winchester and then Catoctin Mountain towards Virginia should the battle go against him.

Despite his appreciation for the ground, the whole Pipe Creek position was roughly twenty miles in length from Middleburg to Manchester, and Lee had to man all the points he possibly could.

On his left, near the village of Middleburg, the ground was funneled by rivers and slopes, which made approaching it difficult and Lee’s left wing would be easily defended. As such he detached only McClaw’s division to hold it, confident in the ground’s inherent defensibility. The remainder of Ewell’s corps was spread thin from there to the Taneytown Pike where it met Longstreet’s flank.

It was along that section of Pipe Creek, near Union Mills, that the ground changed. The landscape broadened out, and the hills were not as steep making the terrain more favourable to large scale maneuvers of the sort that could break Lee’s army. Across the creek an advancing Union army could easily meet at Taneytown where it could attempt to force a crossing and maneuver to split the Confederate army. It was here he concentrated Longstreet’s corps and the reserves, Hood’s division alongside that most famous of brigadiers Chatham R. Wheat.

The far right of Lee’s line was anchored at Manchester, where the line rested against Parr’s Ridge. However, this position was vulnerable in its rear. Lee did not have the strength to man the whole line, and with only two divisions of Hill’s fifth corps to cover this section, Lee asked Stuart to do the unthinkable, detach Fitzhugh Lee’s division and dismount half of them to serve as infantry. They would be the extreme right of his line of battle. Though he established lookouts and a signal section to watch for a flanking force, he knew he was gambling on such a small force to hold the less defensible flank…

Lee's Pipe Creek Line, August 30th, 1864​

…Lee once again went to work earning his name “The King of Spades” and his men, almost overnight, threw up earthworks which would have done any regular proud four years earlier. Chest high breastworks were established, sheltered gun positions, and field hospitals were thrown up to provide for the wounded, with a wagon train waiting to withdraw in case of disaster…

When Pope’s first units began massing at Taneytown on the 29th of August, his forward scouts from III Corps began to come into contact with the Confederate lines. It was the 3rd Division under Kearny which first made contact near Union Mills. Kearny was depressingly unsurprised by the discovery of Lee’s fortified position. He wrote to Hooker saying “...the speed with which Lee has made this position similar to the Mine Run line is a credit to the foe. We must not attack head on lest all the embarrassments of the action of June be repeated.”

When Hooker himself rode forth to inspect the positions alongside Hancock the next morning, the two generals despaired of a frontal assault. Hancock, remembering well the carnage inflicted upon British forces maneuvering through New York the year prior, all but pressed for the army to try and maneuver around Lee. “General, for God’s sake let us not pay a price in blood for this position.”

Pope did take these demands seriously, having suffered enough reversals in the West. He would spend the 30th and the 31st of August recconitoring the enemy lines as he maneuvered into position. Gregg’s cavalry proved its worth as it rode around Parr’s ridge, with a too small cavalry screen to prevent them from finding the extreme end of the Confederate position. Intrigued, Pope would ride out on the evening of the 31st to see for himself. Upon finding the edge of the Lee’s great works he became excited. There could be no repeat of Mine Run, instead he would flank Lee and route his forces. To do so, Hancock’s II Corps and a division of cavalry would maneuver to Lee’s flank and roll it up, crushed against the remainder of the Army of the Potomac.

To that end he planned that a vast attack should fall on the center of Lee’s army where the ground was suitable. Hooker’s III and Couch’s XIV corps would fall on the Confederate center like a sledgehammer. To prevent Lee from concentrating his forces, Meade’s V Corps would pin the Confederate left and act as the right flank of the army. Ord’s IV Corps would press the Confederates in the center and near Manchester. He believed this would ensure that no forces could support one another.

What drove Pope’s purpose home was the capture of a Confederate deserter who was interrogated by Bureau of Military Intelligence agents the night of the 30th. He said Lee’s forces had been engaged in a raid, and were now tired and footworn. They were only hoping to delay Pope, not fight a battle. This information all in hand, Pope ordered the attack begin at 7am on September 1st…

The one flaw in Pope’s plan was, thanks to Lee’s higher elevation, his men had been reporting on the Union movements all morning. Thus, when Hooker and Couch’s men went in, their attack was well anticipated and the bulk of Longstreet’s corps was prepared to meet them as they converged at Union Mills…

Even with a flanking force from Slocum’s division attempting to tie down Longstreet, he needed only a brigade to spare before he moved the bulk of his three divisions to Union Mills. The lines at this position were strong as the crossing over could be compelled by a large force. As such, Early and Anderson’s divisions stood shoulder to shoulder, well supported by guns on the higher ground to their rear. However, his line was focused on two positions known as Perry Hill and Mahone’s Hill, just across Pipe Creek from Union Mills. Dug in ahead of them, Longstreet had prioritized Early with defending Mahone’s Hill, and Anderson with Perry Hill, with odds and sods acting as reserves in his rear.

Despite a definite numeric superiority, Hooker knew he was sending his men into a death trap. The rebel artillery had received ample time to site their guns, and it was Kearny’s opinion that “it was a killing field…the first regiment across is sure to be decimated.” The rebel gunners held a similar view stating “Once we open up, we cover that ground now so well that we will comb it as with a fine-tooth comb. A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it.”

This was to be proven unfortunately true for the men of John Martindale’s division. The leading regiments struggled waterlogged across the creek, blasted by rebel artillery, only to then be “scalded” (Hooker) by rebel fire from the trenches. Though they pushed on, egged on by Martindale, conspicuous in his bravery for riding behind the lines to urge the men forward, the attempt to force the ground ahead of Perry Hill at first ended in bloody repulse.

Kearny’s 3rd Division fared little better. The opening attack managed to make it across Pipe Creek intact, but petered out much to Kearny’s displeasure. He railed at the soldiers who would not go, but by 9am, he too was forced to admit that he would require the full force of the corps to cross…

On the extreme left of the Confederate lines, Meade advanced cautiously against the rebel works. The ground was unfavorable to a full advance, so he probed with Whipple’s division cautiously, and was stung for his efforts. The cautious maneuvering turned up “bad terrain, good earthworks, and rebel bullets,” as Meade would later write. His attacks were not pressed in earnest, something which would earn him the great ire of his fellow commanders…

On Longstreet’s right, Ord’s men made surprising advances up the rocky ground near the Hanover Pike. King’s division pressed French’s troops in, but they held tenaciously, and soon the terrain told in their favor. The presence of Pender’s division held the line and Ord’s attacks came to naught. By 12pm the fighting would peter out, it would all be in the center and the flank…

In retrospect, the day may have been won there at 12pm had the coordinated assault by Couch and Hooker gone as intended. Striking up the Littletown Pike, it had the possibility of breaking the Confederate army in two as Pope had hoped. However, Longstreet had sited his defences skillfully, and such an attack had been observed and anticipated. Lee was granted an unexpected reprieve by the lackluster performance of Meade on the flank, and so detached Jones’s division to support the center.

Hooker and Couch’s six divisions would organize and then launch a full assault across the creek. The men of III Corps under Grover, Naglee, and Kearny, alongside Couch’s divisions under Martindale, Sturgis and Howe, would maneuver to launch an assault en masse, with the goal of pinning the Confederate center in place and, if practical, divide the Confederate army in two. This grand attack formed up in full view of the Confederate artillery, and the whole army knew hell would soon follow…

Kearny’s 3rd Division again led the charge, his men pounding across the creek into the teeth of Confederate entrenchments. Kearny, leading from horseback, had a horse shot out from under him, remounted, and promptly lost a second. When an aide asked him if he would rather walk, Kearny simply replied “It would be unchivalrous to the enemy to deprive them of such a splendid target, and discourteous to the men to invite them to take the fire instead.” However, leading by sheer determination, they took the first Confederate line with the bayonet. Following this, they charged straight for Mahone’s Hill. Supported by Naglee’s men, they broke through, only to be repulsed, but again surmount the hill and place their banners on top…

Couch’s men, though slightly less zealous, hammered their way through the lines toward Perry Hill…

In the hinge between the two corps across at Union Mills, the divisions of Sturgis and Grover plunged into the Confederate line. In spite of shot and shell they maneuvered forwards, charging across the creek and managing to break the line between Early and Pickett’s divisions. The battle might have ended here with the Confederate army split were it not for the Louisiana Brigade.

Brigadier General Chatham Roberdeau Wheat had raised the 1st Special Battalion upon returning to America after serving with filibusters abroad. Largely street toughs, Irish and German immigrants, they were a hard fighting and hard living unit which respected Wheat’s tough but fair leadership. His men had performed well in 1862 and again during the Siege of Washington, but had often been under various administrative punishments for fighting with other men in the army. Wheat himself quarreled with every commander placed over him, which many speculated had cost him divisional command.

On September 1st 1864 however, Lee knew he would need fighters, and so the ever quarrelsome Louisiana brigade was part of the army reserve. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 14th Louisiana and the “Special Battalion” of Wheat’s original fame[2] formed up in the rear of Longstreet’s lines. Only 1,800 strong they were the seam that was meant to hold the army together.

When Sturgis’s troops forced their way through Longstreet’s lines, instead of finding themselves in the open, they found the Louisiana Brigade formed and ready to meet them in their zouave uniforms. Firing a volley, they advanced steadily under the stern leadership of Wheat. Though taking the brunt of the emerging Federal fire they advanced forward “like a machine” in the words of one awed Tennessee captain. Though they, effectively, faced two divisions, they advanced into the teeth of enemy fire until Pickett was able to reorganize his men and countercharged.

Sturgis was gravely wounded reorganizing his flank, and his division fell into disorder. Grover’s men were forced to fall back ingloriously from the Confederate earthworks…

By 2pm, once the lines had stabilized, the whole Louisiana brigade had suffered 746 men killed or wounded, taking 40% casualties with Wheat himself suffering his third wound of the war. The heaviest casualties of any brigade engaged on that day, but the line held…” - Pipe Creek: The Bloody Day, William Westmorland, Philadelphia Press, 1989

The stand of the Louisiana Tigers was the only thing which held Lee's army together at Pipe Creek​

“Hancock had led the men in a flanking march beginning early in the day, supported by Pleasanton’s cavalry in full expectation that he would be able to move unobserved on the Confederate flank. However, unknown to the whole of the Union army, Lee’s scouts and lookouts were able to confirm the movement early in the morning, and support was moving to the right flank even as Hancock marched.

Blissfully unaware of this development, Hancock marched up Hanover Pike towards Manchester, his infantry leading, with the cavalry in the rear ready to exploit a breakthrough. Hancock was pleased to be leading his men against the extreme end of Lee’s line, pleased to not be thrown against earthworks like he had been in June. “I was pleased to not order the boys in and over once again. I hoped to face them on equal ground.”

Coming on the Confederate lines at Dug Hill near Manchester, Hancock found, as expected, the thin line manned only by dismounted infantry. However, as he maneuvered his men into position, he was unaware that Hood’s division was maneuvering to meet him.” - Hancock the Superb: The Life of Winfield Scott Hancock, Charles Rivers, Newton Publishing, 2012

“Pope’s great flanking attack, perceived as the great strategic end, was stymied as Hancock’s men deployed for battle. Initially buoyed by the apparent lack of Confederate forces, the two infantry divisions marched for the hill making the Confederate flank.

Stoughton’s 1st Division would be on the receiving end of Hood’s initial assault. Hood, his beloved Texans leading, brought his forces to bear just as the men of 1st Division came to grapple with the Confederate line. The shock of this unexpected contact briefly unnerved the Union men, but they pitched in again with aplomb, but they could not move the now one armed Texan general. Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalrymen, mounted and dismounted, supported with their rifles and carbines, stymying Hancock’s attack. The mounted men skirmished with his flank, forcing Pleasonton’s division out of the line of battle…

At 2pm Hancock rallied his men, sending them in once more, but they failed to drive home the attack. His divisions were “used up” he would opine to his wife. The men had fought too hard for too long, and could not drive the attack home.

This phenomenon was happening all across the Union lines. Men would rush to the attack and hurl themselves down, engaging in pointless firefights. Though their officers would drive them on, the sight of the entrenchments seemed to have a queer effect on the men. Even Kearny’s brave soldiers, instead of continuing their attack, fought tenaciously to hold their ground on Mahone’s Hill. Though Kearny fought hard, the failure of the grand attack up the center, coupled with Meade’s indecisive push on the flank, allowed Lee to free up Jones’s division to help drive the Federals back.

In a hard fought action, the Confederates at last drove Kearny off the hill, and he would withdraw ingloriously across Pipe Creek at 4pm…

With the day drawing on, and Pope learning of the failure on his left from Hancock’s attacks, he hesitated. Hooker and Meade all advised a withdrawal, each convinced that Lee would attack on the morrow. It had been what had happened at Island No. 10 in 1862, and in his advance on Grenada in 1863. Fatally, Pope hesitated. He did not know enough of Lee’s dispositions, and he was now afraid he had been misled. Had Jackson really left? Or was he making his way back, even now, to Lee’s lines. That indecision kept him awake the night of September 1st, but at 1am, he gathered his commanders in a council of war.

Did they believe Lee could counterattack come the morning? All save Hancock believed this to be so, and even Hancock went on record stating he disagreed with the consensus. Hooker, Ord, and Couch agreed that Lee would most likely counterattack first thing in the morning. Meade was the only general not to proffer his opinion, which would be further used against him in later life.

Pope took these counsels to heart, and ordered that the army begin withdrawing, leaving the wounded who could not be moved easily…

On the morning of September 2nd, Lee’s battered forces braced for another day of fighting. As the day wore on however, they looked out across the creek and saw, not a vast Union host ready to fight, but the signs of a hasty withdrawal. The only men left were the wounded and some soldiers so exhausted they had slept through the whole night and awoken to Confederate captivity.

Lee removed his hat and, at least according to one Lt. Peterkin, praised God for victory that day…

In the Battle of Pipe Creek, Lee had lost 9,717 men killed wounded or captured. Nearly a quarter of the force he had brought to the field that day. Pope meanwhile, had lost 15,462 men killed or wounded. It was a victory, but a victory of a sort. Lee sardonically noted “Many more victories such as these, and our army is ruined!”

The next day, he would begin his withdrawal towards Virginia, while Pope’s forces would shadow his retreat beginning September 6th, giving Lee three days to move unmolested. Lee had won his victory, not where he had liked, but the Army of the Potomac had once again come away with a bloody nose…” - Pipe Creek: The Bloody Day, William Westmorland, Philadelphia Press, 1989

-x-x-x-x-

Annapolis and environs​

“Through the end of 1863 and well into 1864, the presence of Confederate troops at Annapolis and Annapolis Junction presented a direct threat to Washington. The fear that the Confederates could or would cut the only rail line to the capital and the battlefields south of it kept Union officers up at night. Lincoln himself realized that it was a national embarrassment for the Confederacy to not only occupy a state capital, but to present such a clear and present danger to the national capital itself despite the breaking of the siege.

Lincoln was well aware that he needed to show a strong political front in 1864, and with the conventions of summer giving away to the general campaigning of fall, Lincoln was under immense pressure to prove to the whole of the nation the Republican resolve to win the war. The Confederate threat to the capital had to be extinguished.

To that end, the troops streaming south from Canada and New England were to be formed into a new army whose task was to crush the Confederate toehold in Maryland.

Leading this new Army of Severn would be the same man who had won such acclaim last fall in the victory at Saratoga, Ambrose Burnside. His now much reduced Army of the Hudson (in reality only the XVII Corps) would be augmented by Erasmus D. Keyes XXI Corps or the former Army of New England. These forces had cut their teeth against British regulars, and Burnside considered his own troops at least to be the equal of anything the Confederacy - or any European army in his estimation - could throw at them. In total, he had been given command of 28,000 men to protect the capital from any threat, and just as importantly, hem in a major Confederate force.

Army of the Severn: Ambrose Burnside

XVII Corps (Silas Casey)

1st Division William Wallace Burns, 2nd Division, Francis C. Barlow

XXI Corps (Daniel Sickles)

1st Division John J. Peck, 2nd Division Erasmus D. Keyes

Siege Artillery (Henry L. Abbot)

Whiting’s Fourth Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, had been installed in Annapolis for just over a year. From its lofty beginnings with four divisions strong and a strength of 36,000 men as the “Army of the Chesapeake” in the heady days of 1863, it had dwindled to a mere 14,000 men in two divisions. With artillery and a cavalry brigade, the whole enterprise numbered just over 16,000 men.

Fourth Corps: Army of Northern Virginia: William H. C. Whiting

Holmes Division

Branch’s, Wise’s and Manning’s brigades

Ransoms’s Division

Ransom’s, Evan’s and Hagood’s brigades

Beverly H. Robertson’s Cavalry Brigade[3]

1st Maryland, 4th North Carolina, 5th North Carolina

Whiting however, had not been idle. He had been meticulous in constructing fortifications for his men just north of Annapolis. Digging into the rough and rocky country of the Anne Arundel, he extended his pickets as far as Crownsville, making it a focal point for raids against the rail line. His men secured their lines on the Saltworks Creek and Gingerville Creek well supported by heavy guns and the naval guns of Buchanan’s Home Squadron[4]. Stretching four miles, the double lines of trenches, abatis, and rifle pits covered all conceivable approaches to Annapolis, bristling with guns. It was on these lines he would make his stand…

The weakness of the Army of Severn was that it had never before worked together. While Burnside’s former corps was all veterans of the hard and often desperate fighting against the British, Sickle’s men - formerly Keyes[5] - had not seen combat beyond skirmishes since August of 1862, and by 1864 many suspected they had “lost their edge” having instead sat in fortified posts and observed their British foes. The men of XVII had fought in Canada and New York, well earning their veteran status, but with regiments in many instances reduced to a mere 200 or 300 men. The smaller corps was aided by Keyes larger formations, but this was not apparent.

Sickles made matters no better, and quarreled with Casey over seniority. Burnside, to his credit, squashed any attempt by his subordinates to whip up discord. “We are fighting here for a national redemption,” he would admonish the proud Sickles. “The eyes of the nation are upon us, and we had best play our parts.”

To that end he prepared his men as best he could, engaging in running attacks that drove the Confederate forces back from Crownsville and into their lines north of Annapolis. However, Whiting simply dug in and dared Burnside to attack him. Burnside, having learned much from his time fighting in New York, knew he would incur terrible casualties attacking the Confederate lines, and intended to develop a regular siege of Annapolis, and he set about doing so on September 2nd…

While the Siege of Annapolis was ongoing, with Whiting’s forces blocked up in the state capital, Lincoln at last began to move the machinery of the nation back to Washington. With the Confederate threat locked up tight, or in Lee’s case, far away, he felt secure in the knowledge Washington could hold against any threat.

It was the knowledge that Washington was secure which would lead Lincoln to issue one of the most cutthroat orders of his career. Needing a victory, he demanded Burnside attack Annapolis. When Burnside protested, claiming a siege would eventually starve the Confederates out, he was reminded that the Confederate fleet was providing all the supplies Whiting’s men would need. Burnside continued a correspondence from September 5th to 11th begging Lincoln not to order an attack, until he was bluntly informed the attack must go in for good or for ill, or the command would be handed over to someone who would order the assault.

Unwilling to die on that particular hill, Burnside ordered his men to assault Annapolis on September 17th.

As the sun rose, a cool ocean breeze flowing through the sky, Burnside had a great bombardment of siege guns commence. Lasting from 6am to 8am, he hoped that such an attack would keep Confederate heads down and, at the very least, provide some relief to the men charging into the prepared works ahead. Unfortunately, the Confederate guns were just as well shielded, and they answered back, engaging in a general artillery duel. The significance of which could not be missed to the defending Confederates.

Waiting until the bugles and drums of the approaching Union columns sounded, the Confederates had huddled in their trenches. At that signal, captains shouted and sergeants hurried men forward, and they braced themselves for the coming attack.

The unfortunate victims of this preparedness would be the men of Barlow’s division. Barlow had, to the best of his ability, prepared his men. In a great mass of regiments, he led them forward at the double quick, not a man firing as they charged. The Confederates replied with shot and shell, shredding Barlow’s men, and wounding Barlow himself, but on they came. It was a testament to discipline that the attack did not break, but they surged into the first Confederate lines, and to the surprise of all, managed a toehold.

Two bloody hours of fighting followed as Peck’s men attempted to exploit this breakthrough. However, the Confederates under Hagood soon counterattacked, and despite Peck’s intervention, Barlow’s men were driven back, suffering twenty percent casualties, but having earned the praise of the army by making a toehold in the first place…

Burnside would write of the days events, praising the men, but informing Lincoln that absent more men, and more naval support, he could not budge the Confederate line. Buchanan’s mortar rafts had extracted as steep a toll as Whiting’s guns…

Despite this bloody repulse, Lincoln was pleased with the demonstration. The nation now knew that the Confederates in Annapolis posed no threat to either Washington or Baltimore. Lincoln reasoned that “corking them up” at Annapolis would serve as much purpose as forcing their surrender. However, the partisan press portrayed it as either a strategic victory, or a great failure. The New York World would lament “800 dead and 2,000 crippled to satisfy Lincoln’s ambition!” inflating the casualties by over a thousand. The election was going to influence the fighting as much as the facts on the ground…” - Annapolis in the Great American War, Phillp Mifflin, United States Naval Academy, 1989

-----

1] The exact strength of Pope’s army at Pipe Creek will be hotly debated by historians TTL.

2] After three years of both hard fighting and hard living, this “Special Battalion” is more a series of companies/penal battalion than a proper battalion. “An Army of Thieves and Worse” would about describe them.

3] This was originally Imboden’s brigade, but he was removed to the Valley in early 1864 to command the cavalry there.

4] The Virginia(10)[F], South Carolina(10), CSS Leonidas Polk(3), CSS Lafayette(3), North Carolina(2), Missouri(2), Florida(9), CSS Alabama(8), CSS Texas(9), CSS Rappahannock(6), CSS Monocacy(6), Shenandoah(11), Raleigh(2), Beaufort(1), Teaser(2), Hampton(2) and a dozen mortar boats.

5] Keyes force was, essentially, the VI Corps of the Union Army. That formation was dissolved to create the new force for the Army of the Severn.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 98: Two Victories, Two Defeats Part II

Knox County, Kentucky​

“The two armies would meet again at Barbourville. Bragg, seeing it as the major crossroads, formed up his men outside the sleepy town of barely 300 souls. It was at one of the few good roads along the Mountain Pike which led to the Cumberland Gap. From there, Grant would be able to threaten the extreme end of Virginia, access pro-Union East Tennessee, and of course, drive much of the Confederate army from Kentucky. This could not be allowed to happen, and nor could Bragg let Grant come much closer to the major east-west railroad artery he protected.

Grant, for his part, was more than happy to force a battle. The need to drive the Confederate armies further south and liberate East Tennessee, while cutting the main east-west Confederate rail line, was the overriding goal for 1864…

When the two armies met again on August 3rd, Bragg had now been reinforced by two divisions from the West under Jackson. Charles Winder and D. H. Hill’s divisions had rapidly been shipped west in mid-July, much to Jackson’s distaste. His first meeting with Bragg as a commander was equally distasteful, and Bragg found Jackson to be “queer, belligerent, and full of fire and brimstone” which put the ever prideful commander of the Army of the Tennessee on edge. Jackson found Bragg to be, if not incompetent, at least too eager to withdraw.

The positions that the Army of Tennessee found itself in at Barbourville were, at least, securable. The two was a natural crossroads connecting the Cumberland Turnpike and the Manchester Pike. Bragg’s position was made secure by the headwaters of the Cumberland River, and the Ford Creek at the head of his encampment meant he had a secure left flank, only leaving the route from Manchester open to attack.

Bragg positioned Jackson at the most secure location, but only after Jackson objected that his 9,000 men were better placed on the more dubious left. Predictably, Bragg ignored this, instead placing Hardee in the center, with Hindman and Cleburne’s corps holding the right and Smith’s battered Army of Kentucky in reserve. Bragg was, for now, confident that he held an edge as with reinforcement his army numbered 70,000 men.

Grant had, by nature of the terrain, been forced into a slow pursuit. The overland nature meant long supply trains and fitful stops and starts for his army. Not wanting to end up in a position which had cost him the advance up the Mississippi the year before, he was fastidious about not living off the land. The rugged country could hardly have supported such a venture, and he instead wanted to show the people of Kentucky the United States was there not as conquerors, but the imposition of proper government. Any goods requisitioned were scrupulously paid for, and Grant spent at least an hour a day with his quartermasters ensuring that every item needed was available. “The Army’s business was war, but war began to look like a business,” one colonel would later wryly note.

However, even with casualties suffered at Raccoon Spring, Grant brought his 63,000 men to battle on August 3rd. That day he brought Schofield’s VIII, Thomas’s IX and MacPherson’s XIX Corps, with John Logan’s XI Corps trickling in as a reserve. Grant was happy to observe that, poor terrain aside, Bragg had not fortified the region well, with only rudimentary earthworks present.

The first attacks came on the evening of the 3rd, with flanking maneuvers around Bragg’s exposed flanks. Though Thomas would maneuver, he would not find Bragg’s flank and the fighting on the first day would peter out by sundown…

Bragg felt his lines secure and proudly told his commanders that “At last, we have found ourselves the ground where we will bury Grant.”

Grant, blissfully unaware of his intended funeral, that he was outnumbered, or that the enemy should have had the better position, bulled on anyways.

The morning of the 14th dawned overcast, hot, and muggy. Soldiers in their rifle pits and those advancing against them were irritable, and most Union men were driven on by the smell of coffee in the Confederate lines rather than the promise of victory. However, that morning, Thomas would execute his finest attack of the war. He had stolen a march that night, and was only two hundred yards from the Confederate works as the sun rose. With Robert McCook’s division leading the charge, Thomas found the exposed flanks of Stewart’s division in Cleburne’s corps. The wily Irish general wheeled his men about, but found the whole weight of IX Corps crashing into his lines.

On his flank, MacPherson’s XIX Corps was pounding into Hindman’s center. Much to the shock of the rebel defenders, their works did not deter the Union men in the first wave, and sleepy pickets were scooped up and it was ironically another McCook, Robert McCook, whose brigade led the charge into the rebel lines, aping the success of his relative…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

“Hindman and Cleburne fought hard, but the extremely aggressive attacks by the Bastard of Bardstown and the rejuvenated Union troops in the center pressed the Confederate line inwards. Jackson seemed to be the only commander to sense the trap that threatened to spring upon them. If Thomas took command of the Cumberland Pike, the whole army might be squeezed against the foothills feeding the Cumberland River.

Making Bragg aware of this fact, Bragg would demure for a crucial hour until the committal of Grant’s own reserve began to bow in the center of the line. Belatedly, Bragg would realize Jackson was right, and sent orders for him to remove his troops to the rear to “hold open the Pike for our forces against all enemies” which Jackson, used to the fast movement of men, promptly did.

Smith’s men maneuvered into line, and Jackson’s troops fell back through Barbourville, smoothly filing in as they had at Mine Run. It was here Bragg finally had to acknowledge Jackson’s value as his hard fighting men, at the cost of a quarter of his command killed or wounded, fought Thomas to a bloody standstill. Even better from Bragg’s perspective, as Thomas moved to rally the troops, he was struck by a stray shell, wounding him severely enough he had to be removed from the field…

In a hard fought rear action, Bragg’s army would retreat from Barbourville to fight another day. Though he had lost another 6,000 men, a quarter of them from Jackson’s command, he would move himself to protect the last entrance to Tennessee…” - The Cannon and the Lash: Braxton Bragg and the Confederacy, William Hozier, New York University Press, 1999

“Even in the aftermath of Grant’s victory at Barbourville, the difficulties facing his overland campaign were not over. The morning after such a victory, he was greeted by news that another wagon train carrying much needed supplies had been burned and looted by Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest. Something would have to be done…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

​

September 10th, 1864
Headquarters in the Field,
Barbourville, Kentucky

The scars of the battle nearly a month ago were still present under the warm September sky. Houses burned to their foundations, ruts in the ground, and the churned earth where the dead had been buried in their mass graves. The field hospitals had discharged many of the wounded, but dozens more were still recuperating, complaining endlessly that indeed their wounds were sufficient to get them sent back to hospitals in Louisville. However, if they had known of the rough, bumpy, and agonizing wagon ride which awaited them, infested with rebel partisans, they might have stayed quiet.

The army itself had not been completely idle. Even now he was testing Bragg’s defenses in the mountains, but he had not found Bragg idle either. In defeat Bragg had still proved capable of delivering a sting to the Union army. He had withdrawn rapidly through the Cumberland Gap, but fortified it equally as rapidly, bloodying the nose of the first Union probe on August 15th. A long probing maneuver by Macpherson had also found the passes securely locked against any infiltration. It seemed Bragg meant to wait Grant out through the winter. Grant could not allow that.

Even worse from his perspective, the army was now stalled due to chronic supply problems.

In the County Courthouse that was without major damage, Grant pondered those problems. Fragrant smoke curled from an ever present cigar that he puffed away on, curious over the future of his campaign. Despite the best efforts of his transportation chief, Joseph D. Webster, the supplies making their way south were getting burned, lost, or simply worn out well before he could make use of them. Much as he would have liked to live off the land, the fact that this little flyspeck town had served as the county seat before the battle gave lie to that possibility! Grimacing, he smoked away trying not to let his irritation show.

He was interrupted by his chief of staff. “General, the men have arrived,” Rawlins said.

“Thank you, send them in.”

With three more men tramping in, the room seemed claustrophobic as Rawlins moved to seat them and bawled at an orderly for refreshments. After the long ride two of them had taken, Grant did not doubt they’d need it. When some fortified coffee - honest to God coffee - had been poured, Grant formally welcomed his guests.

First came Colonel Webster, with the latest reports on his supplies. The second was a tall, broad chested man with a beard which was in need of combing and long hair under a Major Generals rank insignia on his hat which he dutifully doffed. The third was a short, long armed and barrel chested man with a well groomed mustache and an unruly shovel beard along his chin with a colonel's rank on his kepi. The first was the leader of the Cavalry Corps for Grant’s army, William P. Sanders. The second was the leader of what had become known as the “Special Brigade” under Phillip Sheridan. Grant offered each a cigar, and at last got down to business.

“Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to have you here, despite the small space,” Grant said wryly.

“I’ve camped in smaller, my stature permits it,” Sheridan replied, getting a chuckle from his fellows.

“You’ll get a chance to stretch your legs soon enough,” Grant said. He gestured to the map of their area of operations, a long highlighted series of paths leading back to Louisville. “As we are all unfortunately aware, without the Mississippi River to succor our forces, all our supplies and material must come from the Ohio River, primarily Louisville.”

Grant tapped the map unhappily. “The last semi-reliable railroad available runs from Louisville to Lexington. And it’s getting cut too often for my liking. That leaves long vulnerable wagon trains from Louisville here to Barbourville, all too open to attack.”

Rawlins and Sheridan nodded in understanding. The army’s supplies were tenuous, and with the rebel cavalry and partisans active in their rear, the whole expedition might end in disaster. Grant was too aware of how costly such a disaster could be.

“Bragg, seemingly, has gone into winter quarters. He believes he can stymie my efforts to break through the mountains and into East Tennessee, and I am chagrined to say, so far he has been right. He’s fortified all the passes leading through the mountains, and I can barely fit a division at a time through, let alone the whole army. So far my efforts to find a weak point have been for naught, but there is always a hole in any fence, as the weasel can attest.”

He continued on. “For me to find such a hole, I need to keep this army supplied. Doing so has proven difficult, all your valiant efforts notwithstanding General Sanders,” Grant nodded in recognition of work done as well as could be expected. “However, in combination with the work of local partisans, Nathan Bedford Forrest, that devil, has been raiding, burning, and butchering his way across Kentucky, and we haven’t been able to stop him. My blockhouses burn, patrols are scattered, and small forces ambushed and destroyed. Its maddening as he commands not only his own horsemen, but whatever rebel partisans he can scrounge to his cause by the day. With Wheelers command screening the rebel positions directly ahead of us, I’m hard pressed to detach any more men.”

“And, if I may presume, sir, this is where I come in?” Sheridan asked.

“Absolutely, Colonel, ah, I almost forgot,” fishing in his pocket for a moment he pulled out an envelope and passed it to the shorter man, who pulled out the single star tabs. “As of the end of August, you’re a brigadier general now. Wear ‘em with pride. For all your hard work in Canada and now Kentucky it's the least you deserve.”

“Thank you, General,” Sheridan said with a small look of pride.

“Don’t thank me just yet, General Sheridan. I’m asking a great task of you.” He looked to Sanders. “I don’t mean to step on your toes Will, but Sheridan is to be given all the support you can spare in this endeavor while keeping the army supported.”

“The Special Brigade will have everything I can give,” Sanders nodded.

“Good, because, Sheridan, I’m asking you to do all in your power to find and destroy Forrest. Burn half the state if you have to, but I’m demanding you run that rogue to ground.”

Sheridan nodded. “I think General, you’ll find I’m well suited to running down rogues. I won’t let you down. I'll burn Kentucky if I have to."

-x-x-x-x-​

“In the aftermath of the Federal evacuation of its Port Royal lodgement in early 1862, the last official act of the South Carolina garrison had been accepting the surrender of the 1,400 men who manned the last redoubt after the British had driven the United States Navy from the seas, leaving them with no hope of rescue. From then on, all the men who could be spared had been sent north to fight with the army in Virginia, leaving only a reduced garrison of 8,000 men in South Carolina, primarily in Charleston and its environs.

The mainstay of the Charleston garrison was a rough division of South Carolina militia commanded by the influential planter Wilmot G. de Saussure, with two brigades of proud Palmetto State soldiers whose last combat had come at Fort Sumter in 1861, supported by the 5th South Carolina Cavalry and a legion of gunners. Their main duty, aside from protecting Charleston, was responding to reports of raids, runaways, and easing South Carolina’s ever present fears of a slave uprising…

Overall command for the whole of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida was Joseph E. Johnston, effectively sent south as an exile after the Second Battle of Centreville in 1862. Though he fumed at the posting, Johnston had not been idle. He had, however, been frustrated. The whole of the department, with the British entry into the war, had allowed its guard to relax. Florida only maintained a single overstrength brigade and cavalry regiment, while Georgia concentrated its primary forces in Savannah, with a brigade of troops acting as a reserve in Atlanta. Under his whole command Johnston could theoretically call on 22,000 men from the three states.

Joseph E. Johnston had the thankless task of trying to defend three states.​

The state governors, however, were difficult. While Johnston and Georgia Governor Joseph Brown would bond over a shared distaste for President Davis, the two men did not see eye to eye on most military matters. Brown pledged any and all assets to defend Georgia, but declined to send men out of state, and sent many letters explaining why such a move would be “poor for morale and the people of this state” which vexed Johnson to no end. Florida Governor John Milton, whose small state had already put significant expenditure into taking over the coastal forts surrendered by the United States, was asking for more aid and more ships to protect Florida’s long and vulnerable coasts, and refused to part with a single soldier.

Johnston then found an unlikely ally in South Carolina Governor Milledge L. Bonham. At the outbreak of war, Bonham had enlisted, serving at the Battle of Bull Run, but in 1862 resigned his commission to take up his posting in the Confederate Congress before being elected by the South Carolina legislature as governor in a secret ballot. His loyalty to the South could not be doubted, but he found his time in office exasperated by a legislature that was more concerned with making money than defending themselves. With Britain in the war, so far as many South Carolinians were concerned, the fight was as good as won. Though they kept many men under arms for fear of slave uprisings with so many white men gone off to fight, they were broadly confident in their ability to defend the state. With a heavy heart Lt. Governor Plowden Weston would write “The people are overconfident in their arms, and the ironclad that bears the name of their great city. This belief has led to a fearful want of preparations.”

Bonham agreed, and tried everything to encourage the martial spirit. However, with money flowing in and cotton flowing out, few were inclined to listen. Bonham argued passionately with the legislature over not diverting funds from defence into building the new state capital at Columbia which had languished in 1862, but gotten a fitful start again as it seemed the war would pass the state by. He argued that forces were too dispersed, and the Federals were sure to once again come now that the British had left the war. His warnings fell on mostly deaf ears, save those of Johnston.

In a plea to Richmond, and personal letters to Lee, he reminded the leaders of the Confederacy that the state had been open to attack in 1861, and without a naval squadron proper, he could not hope to properly defend the whole state. While Lee did not object to a move to protect South Carolina, Davis, if merely on principle, desired to do nothing to support Johnston. He would, however, be convinced by Lee that some men could be spared, if only for political expediency.

Shaking loose six regiments, mostly South Carolinians and a pair of understrength Georgia regiments, Lee sent them south, but also used the excuse to pass off a number of less than desirable officers from his command. William B. Talliaferro, a well connected Virginia legislator who quarreled with every commander placed over him, was sent to command a new division in Johnston’s department. Lee had also transferred Nathan G. Evans, a man just as quarrelsome and irksome to Lee. Both men would find no favor under Johnston, but he would set them to some use…

The planned expedition to South Carolina had come together at the start of August, rapidly assembled from forces across New England and gathered at New York. Farragut had put together a respectable squadron which would follow the first blockading squadron moving in early September under Commodore Samuel P. Lee, a cousin of the infamous rebel general Robert E. Lee, which would bring war again to the city of Charleston.

Farragut had assembled a squadron for the invasion consisting of his old flagship Hartford, again serving as his floating command, and the vessels Monongahela, Pensacola, Richmond, and Ticonderoga, in the main gunline and as escorts. These were supported by the gunboats Aroostook, Cayuga, Chocura, Huron, Katahdin, Ottawa, Octorora, Port Royal and Seneca. These escorted a further 68 supply and transport ships with two divisions totalling 11,000 men under Nathaniel P. Banks, with the brigades under Godfrey Weitzel and Charles Paine. Weitzel’s brigade was much of what remained of the former Army of New England, while Charles Paine’s division was two brigades of colored troops sent to “promote palpitations in the heart of secession” Frederick Douglas’s words. It was these troops he intended to drive the fear of God into South Carolina…

…Despite having reconnoitered the coasts since late August, Farragut was surprised upon the appearance of his fleet to find the situation less intense than he feared. The Port Royal Sound, recaptured two years previous, had not been a serious concern for South Carolina. Though the two forts, the rebuilt Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard, had been refurbished with heavy guns, they were in an equally miserable condition as they had been two years prior.

That such complacency was possible can be directly laid on the feet of the government of South Carolina, whose priorities had been skewed for too many years to change. The overall command of the two forts was under Colonel Charles H. Simonton, a lawyer before the war, he had commanded a brigade of infantry through 1862-63 before being given the relative “light” posting to rest in 1864. His command included Companies B, I, and K of the 2nd South Carolina Artillery, 5th South Carolina State Troops, and three companies of local militia rotated in to serve their time of duty, in total the garrison did not mount more than 1,100 men, facing ten times their number of infantry and guns.

Rudely awakened by the sound of Federal guns on October 2nd, Simonton was horrified to see “every ship in the Union” off the coasts. He hurriedly sent messengers to Charleston pleading for help, but none could arrive in time.

An absurdly stylized painting of the Second Battle of Port Royal from 1885, in reality most defenders scored few hits.​

The action was opened by Hartford, her guns ringing out at 7am, pounding Fort Beauregard. The Union gun line followed, hammering away for a full hour. Despite new guns, better embrasures, and a will to fight, the Confederate gunners could do little but stand and die at the hands of Farragut’s vengeful fleet…

The firing continued until 1pm, when the last Confederate guns fell silent, and the forts themselves were reduced to “rubble and ruin” as Farragut would write in his post-action report. The two divisions would then row ashore and begin landing on South Carolina’s soil for the first time in over two years. Paine’s division would be granted the honor of raising the Stars and Stripes over the heart of secession once again…

…The next day, soldiers were advancing on Beaufort and occupying it. For miles around the people fled, many taking their property and slaves with them. Farmers and plantation owners scattered as rumors of “black janissaries” were shouted by fleeing coastal folk. Soon, much of the county would be rushing away from the coast, and the government in Columbia would be struggling to respond. Things would become infinitely worse only a month later when a prophet and her Moses would step off the boats at Beaufort.” - Abortive Freedom: The Port Royal Campaign, 1864-65, Isaiah Devlin, University of Boston, 2007

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 99: An October Surprise​

I looked to the South and I looked to the West,
And I saw old Slavery a coming,
With four Northern dough facers hitched up in the front,
Driving freedom to the other side of Jordan.

CHORUS:
Then take off coats and roll up sleeves,
Slavery is a hard foe to battle;
Then take off coats and roll up sleeves,
O, Slavery is a hard foe to battle.
I believe.

Slavery and Freedom they both had a fight,
And the whole North came up behind 'em;
Hit Slavery a few knocks with a free ballot box,
Sent it stagering to the other side of Jordan.
Then rouse up the North, the sword unsheath,
Slavery is a hard foe to battle!” - Slavery is a Hard Foe to Battle, Hutchinson Family, 1855

“Forrest’s depredations in Kentucky had, for months then, been a thorn in Grant’s side. Between the opening of Grant’s campaign in late April and up to the Battle of Barbourville, it was estimated Forrest had burned 346 wagons, carried off over 1,000 head of cattle, 900 horses, killed, wounded or captured 1,677 men, and burned half a dozen supply depots that Grant’s forces depended on, forcing Grant to halt often so his forces could allow more supplies to catch up. These delays considerably extended Grant’s campaign, much to the general’s annoyance.

With the success at Barbourville, Grant extended his army to attempt a forced crossing of the passes through the mountains. Bragg, anticipating such a move, had dispersed his own forces to forestall any easy access. The now widely dispersed army was even more dependent on Grant’s extended supply lines. No commander had thus far proven capable of riding the Union rear of Forrest’s troopers who were, by that point, regarded as some of the best light cavalry in the world for their wide ranging attacks on the Union rear.

The world had not yet met Phillip Sheridan.

Sheridan was a career military officer. Enlisting in 1848 much of his pre-war career had been spent on the frontier. His duties had involved small skirmishes against Indians, making him well suited to the kind of riding and raiding that he would take on. In 1863 he had been appointed to lead a “Special Brigade” in Canada, keeping a lid on the smouldering guerilla movement in what would become Ontario. He had been well suited to the task, destroying a number of guerilla bands and making the area safer for American troops.

When peace between the United States and Great Britain had been signed in 1864, he had spent two months organizing the withdrawal of troops and stores from the country, earning his promotion to colonel. When Grant’s Overland Campaign had started, his troops had been quickly re-routed to take control of the rear areas, which were under constant attack by cavalry and Confederate partisans. Sheridan had worked hard to crush these groups, engaging in dozens of skirmishes across the state, and leading cavalry raids of his own into Tennessee, earning his promotion to brigadier general.

When Grant had called on him to take Forrest to task, he was the right man for the job…

Forrest’s raids had peaked in intensity by October 9th. His forces had ridden north through Bowling Green, causing general uproar in central Kentucky, before turning north and east towards the dense railroad network south of Louisville. The burning of trains and locomotives had continued at such a pace that by early September the railroad became all but unusable…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

Phillip Sheridan, circa 1865​

“That sublime summer of 1864 was a cavalryman’s paradise. Mr. Lincoln’s horsemen were for sure improving their skills, but the best of theirs was not a match for a single man of ours.

When General Grant launched his campaign down to the Cumberland, we were ordered by Bragg to turn about and play a merry game of cat and mouse with our Federal counterparts. The people of Kentucky were, at this time, much excited against the Federal government. Years of brutality, executions, and ‘requisitioning’ had taken their toll. Not a man or woman had not felt privation from the strict rules imposed by Burbridge, and many who had simply wanted to sit the whole war out were compelled by Federal cruelty to take up arms[1].

So when we went riding in August of ‘64, we had guides and outriders from the Bluegrass State who gave us their all…

…Word reached us in Jamestown that there was a great wagon train leaving Lexington, more fiercely guarded than any before it. General Forrest felt it would be fine sport to gather the command and prove that no Federal train, no matter how well guarded, could deter him…

We shadowed this train as it went south. I think that the commander was, at first, greatly pleased to have received such little harassment through his journey. No doubt he thought that the great guard he had brought with him was going to keep old Forrest at bay. Poor fool! A hunter seeks the fat game not the skinny. The General was pleased by the slow pace, and for a long time we passed many tempting targets tracking our quarry…

By the time the train had reached Cuba, the plan was set in motion. We had camped at Mt. Gilead, and prepared to strike as the train reached the lowland on the morrow. Forrest would lead a force through the treacherous lands to get behind the train, while General Chalmers would take the second division up the main pike and take the guards head on in the most dangerous of charges to seal their fate.” - I Rode With Forrest, Ephraim S. Dodd, Houston, 1899

“The Battle of Cuba was one of the largest cavalry actions in the Western theater. Forrest had brought the bulk of his command, almost 3,000 men, to attack the Federal train. The defenders numbered 1,500, counting armed drivers, guards, and the sizable force of cavalry detached with them. It was a tempting lure, and one Forrest simply could not ignore.

Showing admirable restraint, Forrest had spent time simply monitoring this great mass of wagons. On the 4th of October 1864, he decided the column was advanced enough that engagement was warranted, and maneuvered his force to cut off the train and destroy it completely. By the 5th he was in position to do so, and he maneuvered to the fight.

What Forrest had failed to discern, was that the whole column was followed closely by the 1,500 men of Sheridan’s “Special Brigade” which he had meticulously kept behind the column. Forrest, either from overconfidence or a lack of proper reconnaissance, did not notice this second column until it was too late. However, some evidence suggests he was aware of its existence, and merely hoped to trap the whole force in battle. Whatever the case, when the fighting began on the 5th, Sheridan’s men were riding over the proverbial hill to the battle…

…the exact nature of the duel lies shrouded in the fog of war. In the telling, many tales have emerged regarding the resultant clash between Forrest and Sheridan. Through the chaos of battle there is no way that the two men would have known one another, let alone actively sought out such a contest. Both Northern and Southern accounts exaggerate the lead up, to the degree that no truly reliable account of those fifteen minutes exist.

However, an objective historian may say three things. Firstly, Forrest, as was usual, had galloped into the thick of the frey, laying about with pistol and saber. It is known Forrest had, before this point, killed nearly thirty men in single combat. That day he added two further, but was taken by surprise when his command party was countercharged by another group. Secondly, we may say that Phil Sheridan galloped into the fight. In the aftermath, Sheridan himself merely claimed that he had charged in order to “rally flagging morale” and that he hoped his men would turn the tide of battle. That his charge took Forrest by surprise is certainly true. The third thing historians now agree on is that Phillip Sheridan killed Nathan Bedfort Forrest…” – Cavalry in the Great American War, MG Amos Morrell (Retired), 1978, USMA

“It can be universally attested that no man bested Forrest. Despite pernicious propaganda and slander from north of the Mason-Dixon line that continues to this day defame that brave horseman, Forrest was never bested in single combat. He had killed two further men that day, and witnesses attest that it was a gunshot, not a saber, that took Forrest’s life.

Sure, we might hear yearly that some braggart from West Point laid Forrest low in a duel, but such lies ought not to be believed. I do not give the notion a short ape bested Forrest. In dash and bravado, only Stuart came close to matching the true skill of Forrest, but that this Sheridan did? Preposterous. Yes, Forrest was killed in a melee, but it was by bullet and not blade.” - I Rode With Forrest, Ephraim S. Dodd, Houston, 1899[2]

“Forrest’s death had an immediate impact on his command. As word spread, the troops he commanded steadily backed away from the battle. Without his personal command, the action devolved into a serious of burnings and pursuits, with his men riding over 40 miles before regrouping.

Sheridan’s actions that day drove not only a physical, but psychological blow that the previously unmatched Confederate cavalry in the West would not recover from. Until the end of the war, Sheridan’s command would overcome every Confederate cavalry force they came against. Sheridan himself was reputed to have ordered that when engaging units of Forrest’s cavalry a black flag was to be raised, which would signal this was the man who killed Nathan Bedford Forrest. Even the normally brave Confederate horsemen would not engage on equal terms with this unit to the war's end.” – Cavalry in the Great American War, MG Amos Morrell (Retired), 1978, USMA

Nathan Bedford Forrest 1821 - 1864

-x-x-x-x-​

“For over a month Grant prodded and pushed at Bragg’s mountain defences to no avail. Numerous small actions, ranging from brigade to divisional were fought along the mountains and mountain passes in August and September 1864, with limited gains, but a strong and stubborn defence by the Confederate forces always managing to hold the line. Frustrated, but not deterred, Grant determined to do by subterfuge what he could not accomplish by brute force.

The whole of Logan’s XI Corps maneuvered in full view of the Confederate scouts towards Jonestown in Central Tennessee, leading Bragg to believe that Union forces were shifting the campaign to that theater. However, he could not be certain, and merely detached Hindman’s Corps to cover that section of the theater, which while helping secure his flanks, weakened his already shrunken forces. It did however, show he understood at last to not underestimate Grant.

Grant himself had concentrated his forces for a blow. The IX Corps, now under John Palmer, a hero of the early war in Canada and a capable division commander in his own right, was concentrated against the Cumberland Gap, looking for all the world like it was about to try and breach the vital passage by force. Instead, he surreptitiously gathered the strength of VIII and XIX Corps near the border with Virginia from east to west at Pennington’s Gap, Cranke Gap, and the Murray Pike.

The region was defended by Cleburne’s Corps, protecting the region between the Cumberland Gap and in garrison through Powell’s Valley. Hardee’s troops were concentrated in the defence of the Cumberland Gap itself, with Smith’s troops guarding lesser passes in conjunction with Wheeler’s cavalry screen. Jackson’s troops had spent a month recuperating in reserve at Tazewell. Bragg believed he had matched the best Grant could do to him before the onset of winter. Once again, he would be proven wrong…

The forces which forced Pennington’s and Cranke Gap were simply too numerous for the Confederate forces to stop. At the extreme end of their lines, Grant had emphasized that they must “conquer or die” in their efforts to rupture the Confederate lines themselves. MacPherson did not disappoint, and the lines were breached…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

Grant's army breaches the Cumberland Gap​

“Bragg once again found himself caught off guard by Grant’s offensive. Having learned enough to not send off his entire force, Bragg could send Jackson to Murray’s Gap along the Tennessee-Virginia Border, allowing him, he hoped, time to regroup and fall on Grant’s forces before they could consolidate. However, his dispositions meant he was calling Cleburne’s troops back while leaving Hardee firmly in place to protect his flank.

Instead of facing a consolidated attack, he found troops streaming through gaps and mountain passes as he maneuvered Cleburne to join Jackson. The VIII and XIX Corps joined at the crossroads of Jonesville, before moving south, joined in fits and starts by independent columns…

The sharp action at Murray’s Gap drove Bragg back once again, necessitating a retreat towards Knoxville. The goal of Grant’s campaign at last became clear…” - The Cannon and the Lash: Braxton Bragg and the Confederacy, William Hozier, New York University Press, 1999

“With this masterful maneuver, Grant forced the Cumberland Gap without a shot being fired. He now entered an area of Union support, much different from his experiences in Kentucky and Mississippi. The men of East Tennessee turned out in droves to cheer the advancing Union columns, much to Grant and the army’s pleasure. He found reliable guides and a surprisingly sophisticated underground network of spies and informants who could tell him the exact maneuvers of the Confederate army. Buoyed by such success he would write to his wife that “I will have Christmas in Knoxville or Hell!”

Grant became aware of Bragg’s moves seemingly even as Bragg was telegraphing them. Indeed, Grant had spies who were “tapped in” to the telegraph network, and with almost mystical clarity he could chart Bragg’s retreat from Murray’s Gap to Tazewell, and then further south towards Knoxville…

Disdaining another mountainous march, Grant moved the army south to the flatter land along the Holston River. He was bolstered by being able to keep much of Palmer’s IX Corps with him, having gathered 3,000 Ninety Day Man who were charged with guarding his rear, alongside a further 2,000 men spared from garrison duty in Louisville. With the death of Forrest, and Sheridan’s ascendancy in his rear, Grant gambled he could keep his supplies following at a reasonable pace through the Cumberland Gap, and use Tazewell as a base of operations…

Through the actions at Bean’s Station and Newmarket, Grant combined his forces, preparing to again move with unified purpose. Reaching the outskirts of Knox County, he began sounding out Bragg’s forces.

Here, Grant came to an unenviable position. On the north bank of the Holston River, the army was naturally funneled towards the Grassy Valley, constricting Grant’s freedom of movement. Hoping to instead draw Bragg to yet another field battle, Grant moved further inland, coming to the base of McNally’s Ridge.

Bragg determined, at last, to meet Grant in battle. This time, he managed to make the right of it. Instead of passively falling back on Knoxville, he was determined to make a stand north of the city. Despite poor morale, Bragg used every means at his disposal to create a position Grant “would not soon desire to attack” which began to take shape even as Grant was advancing. Slaves dug entrenchments along the Tazewell and Washington road, entrenching firmly into the rocky ground.

Placing his headquarters at Maloneyville, Bragg planned for the attack. Establishing his lines, Bragg created a series of deep defensive works which stretched from Copper Ridge on his left, to an anchored flank at House Mountain which dominated the ground approaching Nashville. Cleburne’s forces stood on that summit, preparing to meet any flank movement, while the center was held by Kirby Smith’s battered men. The left was held by Hardee’s relatively fresh troops who were to hold against any attack. Predictably, Jackson was left as the reserve, but Jackson for once had no complaints, merely his own plans…

When Grant came upon these positions on October 24th, he pushed the corps out to meet the enemy. Palmer’s troops were deployed against Hardee, with the strong forces of MacPherson in the center and Schofield on the right to mask the Confederate works on House Mountain. He had brought 48,000 men to battle, facing Bragg’s slightly numerically superior 50,000 men.

The Battle of House Mountain[3] opened with Palmer’s men advancing up Copper Ridge, brushing aside the early fire. Hardee’s men fought tenaciously on the heights, not giving an inch despite the skillful deployment of Palmer’s divisions…

MacPherson’s center assault gradually pushed Smith’s troops back. Bragg, fearing an attritional destruction of his forces, ordered Jackson in. Jackson however, complied, but not exactly how Bragg desired. Pulling his troops around an imposing hill named Squire’s Mound, he left Winder’s division there, pushing D. H. Hill into the line, but he also signaled that Cleburne’s troops should attack. This was, however, not Bragg’s intent, but without his knowledge, Cleburne accepted the orders as genuine, and his corps surged down House Mountain.

Initially, Bragg saw Cleburne charging down the mountain and was furious. The Irish general’s men had left their positions, now his flank was in serious danger. Demanding to know who had given the order, initially he could find no one who would take responsibility. However, as one aide said of Cleburne’s men "When those fellows get started, all hell can't stop them." However, as the messages became clear, Jackson’s own counterattack put the Union left in serious danger…

Winder’s division, initially in reserve, was finally called to join the assault. This fresh influx of troops turned what might have been a stalemate, into a Union defeat. Schofield, despite a good handling of his forces, now held no reserve to block another attack and the fighting began to open a gap between his lines and those of MacPherson’s in the center…

Grant watched the whole potential envelopment of the XIX Corps at first with concern, and then general alarm. The whole right flank of the Confederate line was effectively creating a separate battle. Taking a risk, he pulled Newton's division from Palmer’s corps, but as the day wore on, Hardee’s own men began advancing, moving down Copper Ridge. Seeing this, Grant, grudgingly, gave the order for Macpherson to begin withdrawing…

A hard night’s fighting saw Grant “slip the noose” as Hardee would later write. With his base of supply far back at Tazewell, he was forced to begin withdrawing his force. Logan was recalled to bolster his army in case of Confederate pursuit. This news reached Bragg on November 1st, and instead of withdrawing Hindman, he ordered Smith’s troops to move to join Hindman in another invasion of Kentucky, aiming to capture Bowling Gree and force Grant to retire from East Tennessee…” - On the Bleeding Edge: The Overland Campaign of 1864, Micheal Burgess, Lexington University, 1992

The Battle of House Mountain was Grant's darkest day of the war​

“Despite winning a signal victory at House Mountain, Bragg could not help but continue feuding with his subordinates. Rather than be pleased at Jackson’s battle saving initiative, he castigated the brilliant general for insubordination. Cleburne was only spared Bragg’s wrath because of the firm disavowal of Jackson.

Davis, despite being pleased by the victory, had to call back Jackson’s battered 6,000 men to the east regardless. He needed them to bolster Lee’s army in the face of any attack in the east come the spring of 1865. Bragg was only too happy to see him go. The remainder of the winter would be spent coordinating his forces, keeping Smith from exceeding his instructions, and using numerous grudges to keep himself warm. However, with Hardee and Cleburne to support him, Bragg thought he could make a quick campaign in the winter to drive Grant back across the Cumberland Gap.” - The Cannon and the Lash: Braxton Bragg and the Confederacy, William Hozier, New York University Press, 1999

-----

1] Let it be declared that Dodd does his best to minimize his involvement in this telling of how much “requisitioning” his own men did. Much like the book this telling is based off.

2] There is a lot of mythologizing how Forrest dies TTL. Sheridan kills him in single combat which Forrest's troopers - and future Southern propogandists - simply refuse to accept. The Wizard of the Saddle couldn't be taken down by a stocky little guy from New York! And yet he was.

3] As you can see, the battle doesn’t just take place there, but it's probably the most convenient placeholder considering.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 100: The Election of 1864 Part 1 - The Contentious Conventions​

“No democracy can exist unless each of its citizens is as capable of outrage at injustice to another as he is of outrage at unjustice to himself.” - Aristotle

“The election which would define a nation was entered into in a national moment of soul searching. In the aftermath of the pivotal election of 1860, the two parties were struggling to define themselves in the four years in between…

It was the Democratic Party which had struggled to make an identity in the immediate aftermath of the 1860 Charleston Convention. There the party had schismed on roughly north-south lines, with the vast majority of the Southern delegates walking out of the convention, leaving a confused remainder to rally around Stephen Douglas. This had, over time, coalesced into two factions within Democratic Party ranks.

The Peace Democrats had been a formation of the 1862 campaigning season where the lessons of the Black Month[1]. The cost in blood and treasure, they reasoned, was too high, and the war simply could not be won against two enemies, and even then, the war against the Confederacy was unjust. The War Democrats on the other hand, believed the war could be won, but that Lincoln’s mismanagement was the root of all military problems. A change in leadership might then benefit the military performance of the nation.

Over 1863 and 1864, with the many disasters that unfolded and the terms of the Treaty of Rotterdam, both sides gained adherents, and the two planks did not seem so irreconcilable. The Peace Democrats, Clement Valladingham most vocal among them, insisted that the only way forward to victory was a “negotiated conference of all the states” with no strings attached to an armistice. After three years of bloody war, many in the nation felt that anything which got their sons, brothers and fathers home was worth trying. The War Democrats, while believing that reunion was the only goal of any conflict and so the war could, and must, be won, did not disagree on principle with negotiations. In exchange they demanded that there be stringent terms attached to negotiations. Many in the Peace Democrat wing of the party, deemed Copperheads, were men who believed in “peace at any cost” which was anathema to the War Democrats…

The only resolution seemed to come in the aftermath of the Albany Conference. The Democratic leadership there, it may be assumed, resolved that the goal of the party was to seek a negotiated settlement to the war, but that if one could not be found, then the war must unfortunately continue. Though this is not known for certain, as no Copperheads made any stringent efforts to reign in the peace at any price rhetoric, letters and discussions between the two wings of the party seem to have grown less acrimonious leading up to the Chicago Convention…

Held at The Amphitheater, it hosted the delegates from every state and every ideological stripe. There, the factions of the party would debate on the future of the nation and choose their own candidate…

By August, the Democratic Party had largely settled on the only possible candidate. George B. McClellan…” - The Decision: 1864, Amos Parnell, Boston University, 1994

“After being dismissed from the of the Army of the Potomac, McClellan had first been held in Washington before being brought to Philadelphia to deliver his testimony on matters relating to the siege to the President. From there he had been given a face saving command in the Department of New York with the retirement of General Wool. However, it was a gesture meant to try and mollify the general, and came with no significant responsibilities.

It did however, allow McClellan to mingle with some of the most influential Democrats in the country. There he would remake his acquaintance with men like William Aspinwall and Samuel Barlow whom he had known before the war. Taking his command at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, he hosted soldiers, journalists, and many prominent Democrats. One of the most important, but perhaps ill advised, was New York Governor Milliard Fillmore who who dined with many times in 1863. The most important of these dinners coming hard on the heels of the Albany Conference, it is known that Fillmore approached McClellan on whether he might consider running for president in 1864. In his conversation he demured, but he did write to his father in law after the fact that he “would consider the position most carefully as the war unfolds.”

That shortly thereafter the New York newspapers began printing articles with “McClellan’s Movements” tracking his inspections of the defences of New York, troop parades, grand balls, attendance at the theater and other minutia can hardly be a coincidence. He also met powerful Democratic politicians who courted and flattered him. William Aspinwall, John J. Astor and William B. Duncan all called on him. Seeing as he was employed in command at the time, his later biographic protestations that he was “seeking future employment opportunities” have tended to fall on deaf ears.

…McClellan was not naïve to these implications. He had been corresponding with Barlow and Aspinwall on the army’s movements, and his own distaste for the president, since 1862. Their cause was his cause. He truly did not believe that the nation could be reunited, or the war against Britain or the Confederacy, won under Lincoln and the Republicans. As he had written to Barlow he could not find it in himself to support “a party & policy which I conscientiously believe will bring ruin upon us all.”

His opposition to the radical wing of the party, and the Emancipation Proclamation, was well known in political circles. Though he took pains to never publicly make overtly critical comments to the press, he had no such compunctions in either his private letters or when discussing matters with fellow Democrats. Slavery, in his opinion, should not be an issue decided by the war, and only reunion was the basis for a “just and lasting peace” as he believed. As such, he had no fundamental quarrel with the overall Democratic slogan of “The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was.”

…McClellan had watched the elections in 1863 with interest. The gubernatorial successes of Peace Democrats in Ohio, Connecticut and Pennsylvania made clear to him that there was a rise in peace sentiment. He had added his own words to each, making public comments in the newspapers regarding the desirability of “the Union one and indivisible” but couching that in veiled critique of the “thus far unhappy course of the conflict.” While small, none could miss the obvious criticism of Lincoln’s handling of the war.

Though Stanton itched to remove the general, the great sympathy his embarrassing dismissal during the Siege of Washington had created made Lincoln cautious of creating a political martyr. So he suffered the criticism in silence, but ensured McClellan was far away from an active command…

…While McClellan did not actively pursue the candidacy for the Democratic nomination, he did nothing to dissuade anyone from trumpeting him as the frontrunner. Samuel Cox would write that McClellan’s ascendancy was a “necessity” to fold both factions of the party together. McClellan for his part remained the firm supporter of the War Democrats, and often ignored certain entreaties from the Copperhead faction of the party, once going so far as to put off Clement Valladingham from calling on him. It was a political maneuver which would mark much of his future attitude…

Samuel Barlow served, without title but in all but name, as McClellan’s political manager in the 1864 election cycle. On McClellan’s directives he travelled the country, ran patriotic advertisements endorsing the general in the New York World, and broadly spoke on the General’s behalf, or so the public would come to believe…” - I Can Do It All: The Trials of George B. McClellan, Alfred White, 1992, Aurora Publishing

“At the Chicago Convention McClellan was amply represented by political veterans such as Cox and Tilden. He commanded the delegates from New Jersey and Kentucky firmly, however, as Barlow would discover to his dismay, the Peace Faction was firmly entrenched in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, where Valladingham held all the political power for the party. Some compromise would have to be made.

What further compounded a fundamental error of judgement in planning for the 1864 platform, was the last minute need to defuse the challenge that Thomas Seymour’s desire to run placed before them. McClellan had erred in giving none of his men the ability to make promises on his behalf, and so there was a long series of telegrams and discussions going back and forth between the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Amphitheater, which left the drafting of the 1864 platform chiefly to Tilden and Horatio Seymour.

Seymour was a peace Democrat of the Copperhead bent, while Tilden was a conservative. Both men were well positioned to iron out a compromise, but it was one which would be shaped without the input of their potential candidate. As such, the platform of 1864 was designed absent any major input of either of the two candidates who were frontrunners. That meant that men like George Pendleton and Clement Valladingham could have a great deal of influence[2]. In doing so, they would bind McClellan to a platform of their choosing.

The debate over the exact wording of the platform was long and arduous. While some of the resolutions were easily adopted, such as condemning the the overreach of the Federal government, the trampling of liberties, and the support for the soldiers, were easily reached, the precise wording on the nature of the Democratic view of the war's outcome was difficult.

Valladingham and the Copperheads desired that a blanket peace platform should be adopted. Their belief was that a Democratic victory should have meant the immediate cessation of hostilities and the opening of negotiations to end the war with no exceptions. The War Democrats were opposed to such a move. The wording needed to be precise, but not so alienating as to split the party. Words such as “immediate cessation” were eventually struck and the more peaceable “immediate cessation of hostilities for the purposes of negotiation” were instead changed to the long winded “efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities with a view of an ultimate convention of the states” intending then to make the potential peace talks a discussion between all states, and not rival governments. However, at the last minute, the Copperheads snuck a concession line in with the wording “or other peaceable means” in exchange for a high handed demand to resist military interference in the electoral process which was desired by all, and concessions regarding the “dispute of territory” plank for the Treaty of Rotterdam[3]

In the end, a semi-solution was adopted with the “peace plank” reading thus:

“Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of a military necessity of war-power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired with the surrender of honor and prestige; justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that all efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view of an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.”[4]

The platform was accepted unanimously. The vote for president, less so.

With McClellan as the obvious frontrunner, Seymour’s intention to run, with the backing of the Connecticut delegation and the threat of the powerful Copperhead lobby backing him, meant that the first vote did not carry enough weight to unanimously select McClellan for the nomination. Backroom dealing saw this eventually solved by the promise of a Copperhead as a vice president, and the second vote saw McClellan carried unanimously as the party’s candidate. His Vice President would be George Pendleton of Ohio, securing the powerful Copperhead vote for McClellan…

McClellan and Pendleton 1864​

The young Republican Party was riven by its own internal debates. That Lincoln was to be the nominee was in serious doubt at the time the party sat, but with no one to take his place, it was soon realized that, as little as some like him, the party would back Lincoln.

Meeting in Philadelphia in June, the convention sat to debate the matter of how they would decide the platform going forward. The easiest concession was a declaration that they would continue the war to maintain the Union.

The most contentious nature was that of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation, backed to the hilt by Radicals, was divisive. Not only in the party, but to the nation at large. Lincoln faced immense pressure to include a plank declaring the desire to destroy it, but with the real threat of Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky going into the Democratic camp, conservatives believed that the matter should be pursued only after the election had been won. “It is better to present the nation with a fait accompli in the face of an unqualified victory and national resurgence than to trot out such a desperate measure at this stage” Blair would write to Lincoln.

Lincoln himself did not fully agree. He knew the limitations of the Emancipation Proclamation as a war time act. Earnestly believing that slavery was evil, he desired that it should be destroyed, but also reasoned that with the war won, it would be functionally destroyed and force the remaining slave states in the Union to acquiesce to its abandonment. Whether they would do so in the face of a war still far from being won, was a different question entirely.

However much Lincoln wished to see the matter pursued, he understood that the nation had an uphill battle in 1865. To begin with, his agents at the Philadelphia Convention tested the mood of the delegates. The party machines from the most embattled states, Maine, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois, were all firmly against both the Emancipation Proclamation, and to a certain extent, how Lincoln had handled the Treaty of Rotterdam. Those in favor of continued war were animated against a plank which would push for the outlawing of slavery, and delegates from California and Oregon were firm in the conservative Republican camp. The dangerous states were Kentucky and Missouri, whose citizens were embattled and embittered over years of war and the very real trampling of civil liberties. Kentucky delegates viewed Lincoln as personally responsible for much of the calamity which had visited their states, and it was their work which pushed for alternate names for the nomination.

In the initial round of balloting, the names of Chase, Seward, and Charles Sumner were all thrown forward as alternatives. Seward and Sumner would publicly refuse the call, but Chase, ever hopeful, declined to do the same. In the first round of ballots Kentucky, Missouri, and New York put forward Chase, but on the second ballot, only the Kentucky protest vote continued, and Lincoln was unanimously chosen as the candidate on the third ballot.

Lincoln’s vacant vice president role had to be filled. There was some discussion of choosing a man from New England, but this was quickly abandoned. A Southernor was suspected as being a better choice, and after rounds of negotiations, Lincoln’s running mate was chosen to be Major General Lovell Rosseau of Kentucky…

The platform the Republican Party would run on in 1864 was not as contentious as that of the Democratic platform, but one which still required a deft handling through the party clashes. The Radicals were disappointed to discover that Lincoln and his agents would not support an outright promise to end slavery, instead the platform adopted a position that it would be “Resolved, to recognize slavery as the chief cause and source of strength to the rebellion and… pursue with vigor the battle against this strength, we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defence, has aimed at this gigantic evil within these United States.”

While satisfying the conservative lobby and the more passive Radicals, it infuriated the most hardcore members of the Radical Party…

Lincoln and Rosseau​

The Radical Democracy Party had held its convention in Cleveland, earlier than all the others. It was a gathering of the most Radical abolitionists and uncompromising War Democrats who desired a change of leadership. Many prominent Radicals wrote in, while men like Thaddeus Stephens, Ira Davis and Benjamin Wade directly sat in. Personages such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany and Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended as well, alongside many prominent abolitionists who saw the “soft running” of the mainstream Republican message on slavery as not enough to win abolition.

There was little speculation on who the presidential candidate would be. Though once again Chase’s name was considered for the slot, John Fremont, noted soldier and abolitionist commanded the entire ballot for president. As a sop to the War Democrats, they selected John Cochrane as his running mate…

There they had put forward a much more radical platform than either party. They resolved that the war was a war to defeat and extinguish slavery, the unconditional surrender of the Confederate states and return to the Union, a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery, the rigid enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine - even against nations which had colonies in the Americas[5], equal rights for freedmen, and an expansion of the vote to all free black men regardless of property.

This was, naturally, a double edged sword. While it appealed to Radicals, it turned off many War Democrats who might have otherwise looked favorably at this third party, and instead drove them grudgingly into Lincoln or McClellan’s arms. Though the novel platform attracted much attention, especially with reference to the Monroe Doctrine, it was commented on only briefly by Republican leaning newspapers, while receiving outsized attention in the Democratic press.

Lincoln’s agents had observed that, while popular in Radical circles and having vocal support in the House, it did not generate excitement in the public. True, Lincoln would have to fear vote splitting, but Lincoln made the gamble that, were he to approach these men behind the scenes, he might sway many powerful orators to his cause going in to the election in November…” - The Decision: 1864, Amos Parnell, Boston University, 1994

Fremont and Corchane poster for the Radical Democracy Party
​

“The final acts of the conventions would take place in Washington, well away from crowds of delegates and journalists. Lincoln made many overtures to Radicals in his offices, but having only passed a motion to support the existing Emancipation Proclamation, and not endorsing a constitutional amendment to end slavery, he found no ringing endorsement from the Radicals in Washington, who supposed that they now had a chance to wrest the presidency from his grasp.

It was not all lost, as Lincoln would reshuffle his cabinet in an effort to at least mollify some of his critics. Montgomery Blair was replaced by the Ohio man William Dennison in order to use the power of the spoils system to energize the Republicans in that state. In October, just before the election, Lincoln informed Chase that he could not see him running in two conventions, and Chase offered his resignation, which Lincoln duly accepted. He was replaced by the financier Hugh McCulloch, who Lincoln hoped would be able to continue the financial genius Chase had shown in saving the Union economy until then…

…as election day neared, Lincoln could only stare out over the recently occupied Washington and wonder whether he would be in the same office that time next year, ready to continue the war against the Confederacy.” - Snakes and Ladders: The Lincoln Administration and America’s Darkest Hour, Hillary Saunders, Scattershot Publishing, 2003

----
As a general note, more regarding the politicking in 1862 and 1863 can be found in chapters 75, 84 and 91. I also apologize as my lack of photoshop skills means I can't really make a good Republican 1864 poster!

1] See Chapters 28 and 29 for the military disasters of August 1862.

2] One of the problems OTL for the Democratic Party was that Valladingham had almost free reign to write the platform, which meant the original platform was a pure peace document. Here you have two men who are from both sides doing their best to hammer out a compromise solution.

3] "Resolved, the ultimate surrender of land, through no fault of the American people, must be disputed and resisted in full scope by the choice of patriotic and honorable men, with the ultimate end of surrendering as little advantage to the nation as possible, and that proud Americans will remain under the flag of their birth by virtue of negotiation and good surveyance."

4] The biggest change here is the removal of the word “immediate” in exchange for “all efforts” which sounds less peace grabbing as agreed by the delegates. The addition of “surrender of honor and prestige” is an obvious rejoinder to the Treaty of Rotterdam. They have no intention of repudiating the treaty, but they want to dispute the Maine boundary as much as possible.

5] Also true historically! No guesses for who that is aimed against. The Radical Democracy Party also proposed a single term limit on presidents, but they don’t do so here to soften their more radical ideas in the platform. Quite the outlier for the era in terms of what they proposed in fact!

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 100: The Election of 1864 Part 2 - The Ballot is Cast​

“When the platforms had been adopted by the fall, as was custom, none of the presidential hopefuls took to campaign trail to stump for themselves as was common at the time. McClellan, until the 4th of November, would remain in command at New York before tendering his resignation. Fremont, by contrast, had resigned from the army to take up the nomination, and would spend much of his time in Massachusetts entertaining well wishers while writing letters that would cross the continent. Lincoln meanwhile remained in Washington, trusting his agents to do the work needed as he would run the war effort.

Speeches, campaign drives, and outright corruption, were the typical mark of politics in the 1860s. The state party machines used the promise of patronage and control over various offices to help run the campaigns. Republican and Democratic agents had much more power than the completely new Radical Democracy Party, which depended on letters and speakers who traversed the nation on its behalf. This lack of existing political machinery meant that, effectively, the Radical Democracy advocates would only serve as spoilers and vote splitters in the campaign.

This explains why Democratic newspapers would often tout its influence, while Republican newspapers would only occasionally mention it. For instance, the Democratic New York World would devote nearly three dozen articles to the Radical Democracy party during the election, while the Republican leaning New York Times would devote a scant three.

However, this was not the only weapon the Democratic presses would use against the Republican Party, and by extension the Radical Democracy Party. The Democratic leaning presses of all stripes tended to launch into wild claims that Lincoln and Fremont support miscegenation to win the war. Lurid tales of plans to marry white women to black soldiers, or solve the racial problem by marrying immigrant women to freed slaves[1]. Though it is doubtful any but the most committed ideologues believed such talk, the scandalous claims were often enough to implant a moral panic to already existing fears of “millions of free negroes” coming north to take jobs from soldiers and other white men in an already struggling economy…” - The Era of Hard Feelings, William Avery, Random House, 1989

“That the election of 1864 was a referendum on the war itself cannot be overstated.

The nation, after first a civil war, then a trans-Atlantic war, was reeling after almost four years of conflict. The people were poorer than they had been in 1860. International trade, the lifeblood of the economy, had been ground to a halt for two years, beggaring sailors, ship builders and prosperous merchants. Hundreds of thousands of men had fought, died, or been crippled in fields from Virginia to Canada and Oregon. Taxes were higher than ever, and many families were made destitute.

Coupled with a series of stinging defeats across the summer and fall of 1864, the national mood was depressed. Many increasingly believed that, even if the war could be won, it could only be won by a new leader. Others who even wished to fight still believed that, after so much bloodletting, some attempt at a negotiated settlement should be made. The Democrats, divided still by peace and war, still believed that an effort at reunion should be made. Only the most avowed Copperheads seemed to believe the South should simply be let go.

Even so, the belief that peace might be given a chance, galled many in both camps. August Belmont, one of McClellan’s chief advocates and a War Democrat, had confided in McClellan that he believed if the nation sat down to negotiate, the war could not be started up again. Lincoln himself believed that to be true as well. In the infamous Blind Memorandum of August 1864 he had stated “” It was a sad indictment of what Lincoln believed the nation might choose after a year barren of meaningful victories…

Lincoln, through his supporters, was portrayed as the man who had fought hard to save the Union. He was willing to reunite the nation by any means necessary. He had fought to save the United States from its oldest enemy, and against treason within. The new Republican Party promised a new birth of freedom and victory over treason. The United States one and indivisible. Republicans portrayed McClellan as the man willing to bend the knee to traitors and someone who had “not shown a hint of military genius” in his fight against treason.

McClellan meanwhile, was the handsome martyr of the Democratic cause, on whose shoulders the whole nation (and not coincidentally the Democratic Party) rested. Young, well liked, and charismatic, it was hoped his previous war record would help support his bid. He had commanded the largest army the United States had put together, and it was insisted that only through Republican connivance that he had not saved the capital from the rebel siege.

Though his association with Copperhead politicians would cost him some support, his unflinching indictment of Richmond won him support in the patriotic press. Unfailingly correct in his language, and an opponent of secession, none could charge him as a traitor…

McClellan was portrayed as the only man wanting to save the Union[2]​

Despite the pessimism, Lincoln and his administration would pull out every trick, legal or quasi-legal, to win the contest. Nevada was fast tracked to statehood, putting a secure two electoral votes in Lincoln’s camp. West Virginia was sure to vote Republican. Meanwhile a pro-Republican state government, admittedly under partial military rule, had been installed in Missouri, neutering any pro-Confederate sentiment. While Maryland remained equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, he could still count on voters in the rest of the nation to make an even vote.

That only left the thorny problem of Kentucky.

Despite Grant having recaptured the state capital (and the Confederate pretender government with it), the state was, in essence, without any government. Burbridge’s rule extended only as far as his soldiers marched from Louisville, the government at the county level, where it existed at all, was sporadic in its ability to organize. Bragg’s decision to send Kirby Smith in through the Confederate lines, while attempting a pursuit of Grant through the Cumberland Gap, put another third of the state back directly under Confederate military control.

Even had it not been in Confederate hands, it was believed the state would vote Democrat. That there was no way to accurately assess the desires of many of the populace, situated as they were on the front lines or behind them. No one in Washington trusted the Confederate government to provide an accurate assessment of the vote in rebel territory. “Jefferson Davis would not tie the noose meant to hang him,” Stanton would declare in his own counsel to the President on what must be done with Kentucky.

Given that Grant’s forces were fighting across the breadth of the state, Lincoln would reluctantly declare: “Kentucky, being without organized government within, and a state of invasion from rebel held territory, is held to be in a state of insurrection. With no assurance the rebel armies will allow for a fair and unmolested vote, it is the reluctant decision of the President to declare Kentucky to be in a state of insurrection. The government shall do all it is able in order to faithfully attempt to assess the wishes of the people of the Commonwealth, and shall duly record votes received and the electoral ballots cast, but must invalidate them for the sake of the nation.”

Declaring the state in insurrection removed what was almost guaranteed to be 11 electoral votes for McClellan, and instead narrowed the number of electoral votes needed to win to 112 out of 223.

This would prompt outrage in the Democratic press, and amongst Unionists in Kentucky.

“In Maine, a state which must most assuredly vote for Mr. Lincoln, the Queen’s troops hold sway over twenty-thousand miles of territory and tens of thousands of voters. Is Maine then to be declared under occupation and her people deprived of their God given rights under the Constitution?” The New York World would ask. “Is Kentucky any less deserving of representation, or are her people to be treated like the slaves of Lincoln Africanus?” The Detroit Free Press would demand of its readers. The Kentucky papers were even more virulent in their outrage.

“Damn Lincoln,” a Kentucky Unionist would write his brother from the ranks. “He says we cannot vote for President, so we may as well vote for President Davis!”

While legal, many then and many now saw the move as one designed to undercut any lead McClellan may have been able to gain with the advantage in the powerful Democrat leaning states. And as the votes rolled in through early November, it seemed that such a move might pay off…” - The Decision: 1864, Amos Parnell, Boston University, 1994

“Barlow would receive a letter from an unlikely source which would ultimately change the outcome of the election. On the 29th of September, he took a letter delivered by a courier, with information he was assured was secret and ultimately to his benefactors' cause. The letter was short, but contained opening lines which would be impossible to ignore. “It being clear now that this war must be handled by a more capable master, I believe that General McClellan is the only man who may husband the nation to such a victory. To accomplish this, I propose to deliver the states of New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island into McClellan’s hands.”

In time it would be confirmed that this letter came from the commander of the Department of New England, General Benjamin Butler. Though this revelation was not fully known until half a century after the letter was penned, it was one of the most explosive pieces of correspondence ever to be written. How any piece survived can only be attributed to the lack of trust between the two parties proposing such a deal. Even then, these opening lines are only confirmed long after the fact in second hand sources, and one single apparent confirmation by Barlow himself before his death.

It can hardly be surprising that Butler had chosen to throw his lot in with the Democratic Party in 1864. Before the war he had cheerfully served the Whig, and then Democratic Party in Massachusetts politics. He had been against the abolition of slavery, and supported the Compromise of 1850 as a solution to the sectional crisis. In 1860 he had endorsed the Confederate Secretary of War, Kentuckian John C. Breckinridge, as the Democratic candidate. It was only in response to the secession that he had angled for a military command, stating “I was always a friend of southern rights but an enemy of southern wrongs.”[3]

During the war however, Butler had seemed to lean in the direction of the Republican Party. He had wholeheartedly supported taking “contrabands” as spoils of war, and during the war had been sparring in any criticism of the Lincoln administration. However, he had reserved his hottest rhetoric against Great Britain, and had spoken often of disappointment in the failed invasion of Canada. He was known to have angled to secure command of one portion of the Canadian expedition, but had been overlooked and instead relegated to the position commanding the Department of New England, where he had often been overshadowed by talented subordinates…

…that he was facing a Congressional investigation may have also played a role in his desire to secure the support of what he perceived to be an incoming investigation. During the blockade, his brother Andrew had run a blockade running cartel, using his brothers military powers to secure preferential treatment of his ships and, as often as not, using those ships to smuggle more profitable luxury goods over needed war supplies.

This had stepped on the toes of the local commander, Commodore Wilkes, the man who had helped start the war with Britain through the seizure of the Trent. He had lobbied Washington often on the “crooked conduct and enrichment of villains” he alleged the Butler’s had undertaken during the war. There were those in Congress who were angling to investigate him. Certainly the later Boston Ring would be found to have some of Butler’s fingerprints, but the “crooked dealings” during the war were never conclusively proven.

In the fall of 1864 Butler himself could not have known that, and so giving an olive branch to the incoming administration would certainly find a favorable reception…

Barlow eagerly accepted this offer, and discretely communicated it to McClellan. Though we have no record of McClellan’s reaction, the usually punctilious general declining to even write the matter to his wife or discuss it in his memoirs, the results perhaps speak for themselves.

While the War Department would lean heavily on the scales to furlough soldiers home to vote, which bore fruit in Indiana, Butler would use his own influence to ensure that only soldiers who were shown to be McClellanites would be allowed to vote. Judicious questioning of officers - and allegedly outright bribes - were applied to learn a regiments loyalties. If they proved friendly to Lincoln, furloughs were denied or some other duty invented elsewhere. If the regiment proved loyal to McClellan, it was allowed to vote. The single exception was shuttling of Massachusetts regiments who eagerly voted for Fremont, threatening to split the vote in that otherwise staunchly Republican state.

While future research would show that over 68% of soldiers voted for Lincoln, it may be assumed that a higher proportion would have without interference in New England. However, even if only 30% of soldiers voted for McClellan, it must be assumed that this showed not an inconsiderable number of men in uniform believed a change must be made in the war. How many wanted peace versus new leadership, is impossible to ascertain…” - The Era of Hard Feelings, William Avery, Random House, 1989

General Benjamin Butler​

“As the votes were tallied, Lincoln seemed to be maintaining a comfortable lead. Though New York, New Jersey and Connecticut all declared for McClellan, these had been expected. Much of New England, even Massachusetts where Fremont came the closest to winning any state, still produced a slim lead for Lincoln’s party…” - The Decision: 1864, Amos Parnell, Boston University, 1994

“What spelled the doom of the Lincoln administration, was the wholesale bolting of the Pacific states from the Republican cause. Though the Republican Party had commanded a slim majority over its opponents in both Oregon and California in 1860, and secured Republican Governors in each state, the vote of 1864 would swing in the opposite direction.

Voters on the Pacific seemed to resonate with McClellan’s message of peace. The British invasions, while not particularly militarily devastating, had been economically ruinous and embarrassing to the Pacific coast. The Pacific Fleet destroyed, and the city of San Francisco occupied, it had put the local economy into extreme stress, and sent hundreds of men to early graves. The resumption of trade, and the ending of the war which sapped funds necessary for recovery in the West appealed to the majority of the population.

61,000 Californians and 10,000 Oregonians would cast their vote for McClellan, putting another eight votes in the Democratic tally…” - The Era of Hard Feelings, William Avery, Random House, 1989

“When the final ballots were counted, it was one of the closest elections in American history. McClellan had claimed 121 electoral votes to Lincoln’s 102. The popular vote tallies would give Lincoln 1.8 million votes to McClellan’s 1.9 million, with Fremont in a distant third with 300,000 votes…

The nation had decided on a new course for the war, and all willed, for the eventual peace.” - The Decision: 1864, Amos Parnell, Boston University, 1994

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1] Unfortunately real. It's vile stuff I am not going to reprint. The Democrats leaned heavily on racist campaigns slogans in their campaigns in the Civil War political sphere, and again during the Reconstruction era.

2] Honestly the political cartoons for this election are amazing. I had to restrict myself to one, and this one I chose.

3] Butler's historical political affiliations are pretty much historical.

 

[GDIS Pathe]

Haven't been keeping with the TL as much as I'd like, but here's an election wikibox for the 1864 Presidential election. (Pedantic note, Nevada had 3 electoral votes in 1864, but one elector was snowbound and couldn't make the vote)

While losing the Pacific hurt, the West Coast wouldn't have been enough for little Mac to win had it not been for Fremont's splinter. McClellan does gain support compared to OTL, picking up about a 100,000 votes and 2 points in vote share. Against a united Republican ticket, he'd have lost 47-53 in the popular vote (PV) and 49 to 173 in the electoral college, picking up only New York (33 Electoral Votes) and Connecticut (6 EV) for what is still a veritable landslide for Lincoln.

It's a testament to the electoral advantage Republicans hold in the North that despite a splinter that siphons off 300,000 votes (nearly 8 percentage points!) from the Republican ticket, Lincoln only barely comes up short.

This probably translates down ballot as well, Little Mac likely doesn't have to deal with a pro-peace majority in Congress. Republicans likely have strengthened majorities in both Houses, probably picking 20-30 seats in the House and expanding their majority in the Senate (Nevada functioning as a virtual rotten borough for the Republicans in this regard).

edit: fixed %s

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 101: Military Matters Across the Continent​

“Come late 1863 it had become clear to the hostile tribes of the Plains that there was very little to stop them from raiding as they pleased. The soldiers had been replaced by largely inexperienced and untested local militias led by officers who shirked their duty to their respective nations. The need for both sides to fight in the East, and the already existing paucity of resources in the West, meant that there was very little which could turn back these raids. The Comanche quickly caught on to this fact and began raiding not only their fellow Indian foes, but white settlements as far north as Colorado and Kansas with impunity pouring from the Llano Estacado…

By 1864 Comanche raiding had severed the Sante Fe Trail and driven the line of settlement back over one hundred and fifty miles in either direction of what was considered Comanche territory. Denver was felt to exist in “a state of siege” and flour, which had dropped in cost thanks to the war, rose dramatically in price to 50$ a bag. The post stations were shut down for fear of burning, and Comanche and Kiowa riders dominated the area running from the headwaters of the Brazos in the south to the banks of the Arkansas in the far north. The commanders there, both worried about the other on the Arizona line stretching from Texas to California across inhospitable territory containing Indian warriors every bit as hostile as the Comanche, while also having to worry about one another, could do little. No further resources could be sent, and the war itself took precedence over all.

Emblematic of the situation that these borderlands now faced was the raid by Little Buffalo, with a combined seven hundred Comanche and Kiowa warriors, plus three hundred camp followers, who rode towards the settlement of Elm Creek on October 13th 1864. They burned and killed with impunity, slaying eleven settlers, kidnapping six others, and driving them into a local stockade called Fort Murrah. Some hours later, a militia troop under Lt. N. Carson rode after the fleeing column. Falling for a tactic older than the Parthians, his men rode after the enemy, only to come under a terrible shock as the Comanche turned and riddled them with arrows and bullets, turning back with five of their number killed[1]. Such events would be repeated all along the line of settlement for the next two years.

The borderlands of the frontier were emptying out…” - Empire of the Summer Moon, the Comancheria and Settling of the West, Robin Parks, University of Houston, 1980.

Col. John Chivington​

“Chivington’s tenure at Fort McRae had largely been one of annoyance to the local Mormon population. Though technically in command of the Federal soldiers, he was under the official authority of the governor and Thomas Kane who was a friend to the Mormons. Chivington saw the Mormons as little better than traitors and apostates, and considered them a potential Kentucky Column in the Union rear. “Where a Mormon goes, treason follows,” he would tell his men.

This led to many incidents which could likely have been avoided across 1863. Chivington’s men harassed Mormon women, and when men intervened they would be arrested on the pretext of ‘rebellion’ or some other ginned up charge. The only real bloodshed however came in September of 1863 when one of Chivington’s men, Lt. George Eayre, arrested two Mormon farmers for allegedly taking government horses. The farmers protested as they had bought the horses legally, Eayre and his men would claim that they had been reported for rustling.

The subsequent commotion led to local members of the Nauvoo Legion gathering their arms and intercepting the small file of men led by Lt. Earye. When confronted by the Mormon militia who demanded that Earye produce a warrant for the men’s arrest, Earye instead threatened all assembled with charges of treason if they did not disperse. In response a shot was fired, and both sides would claim the other fired first. In the end two Mormons and one federal soldier lay dead, with several wounded on either side. Earye was compelled to surrender the two farmers, but vowed to return.

Before any punitive expedition could be launched, Kane ordered Chivington’s men to halt any harassment of the Mormons and instead produce evidence of the theft. Chivington told Kane he did not answer to his authority, threatening another row which was only solved by news from Washington.

Chivington was to command a new cavalry formation in Colorado, while a composite unit of Colorado and California infantry was to be assembled to guard Federal property in Utah. The unit, consisting of two cavalry squadrons and four companies of infantry, was to replace Chivington’s First Colorado who were to march back to their home territory. Chivington was only too glad to leave, and the Mormons just as much so…” - The Great American War: The Mormon Experience, Kenneth Stuart, Brigham Young University, Deseret Press, 1983

Refugees from Indian Raids, circa 1862​

“The Colorado War was a series of raids, massacres, and attacks both by Indians against settlers and settlers against Indians. In 1864 there were 34 Indian attacks on record. These resulted in the death of 107 settlers, 29 being wounded, and eight being captured. Between 250 and 300 head of livestock were stolen, 12 wagon trains and stagecoaches were attacked, robbed, or destroyed, and nine ranches and settlements were raided. The Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux of the region resisted fiercely when approached by white settlers or US soldiers.

Though who started the war in 1864 is chronically debated by historians to this day, it was almost certainly not helped by the arrival of John Chivington and his Colorado soldiers. Within a month of their arrival, a company of the Colorado Infantry, under the command of Lt. George Eayre, led a raid on an otherwise peaceful group of Cheyenne under Chief Lean Bear. These were a group of buffalo hunters, roughly a dozen families, and they were attacked and massacred, leaving 36 dead as Eayre accused them of “cattle rustling” as a justification.

Lean Bear, assuming this was a misunderstanding, took himself and a few elders to find the 1st Colorado on July 5th 1864. He found their camp where 500 of them were out tracking “hostiles” out of Fort Larned. When Lean Bear introduced himself and claimed he desired compensation for what had happened, Chivington refused. Lean Bear proudly said he had gone east to speak with President Lincoln in Philadelphia and had proposed peace between their peoples. Chivington said that compensation could only come if it was proved no cattle had been stolen. Naively, Lean Bear offered to lead the soldiers back to his camp so they could inspect it…

Upon arrival, Chivington ordered the 300 men he had brought with him to search the camp. They employed brutal methods, and eventually Lean Bear intervened. In doing so, he was shot dead by Chivington’s aide, and from there a general attack began.

Unprepared, the Dog Soldiers under Lean Bear’s brother, Bull Bear, could only evacuate their families and fight hard to make sure they could get away. In an hour of what could only be charitably called fighting, Chivington’s men killed an estimated 124 Cheyenne, mostly women and children, but also killing roughly a dozen warriors in exchange for the loss of 5 men and a dozen wounded…

Bull Bear, furious over the death of his brother, swore revenge and brought his people north and east to inform other groups of what had happened. In a meeting of tribal chiefs and elders at Cherry Creek in September of 1864 the various chiefs, according to the testimony of George Bent, agreed that if even chiefs who wanted peace with the US were to be attacked, then they had no choice but to go on the warpath. War was declared on the white settlers…

The attacks began small, as war bands attacked stage coaches, isolated farms, and across September and October of 1864 added another 22 settlers killed with another 7 wounded and 3 captured, culminating in a violent raid that destroyed the settlement of Julesburg. As the Nebraska Republican would mournfully report “The plains, from Julesburg west, for more than one hundred miles, are red with the blood of murdered men, women, and children – ranches are in ashes – stock all driven off – the country utterly desolate.” And hundreds of settlers would flee their homesteads.

The Colorado Volunteers responded with indiscriminate violence as Chivington ordered “kill Indians whenever and wherever found. We have come to kill Indians gentlemen, and I believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill them!” His men continued the indiscriminate murder of any Indians they came across, becoming so vicious and bloodthirsty that many men under their command, notably Captain Silas Soule, who often would meander away from Indian settlements when he saw them, and wrote many letters to the governor regarding the barbarism of Chivington’s men. This violence however, only increased the bloody nature of the raiding.

It was estimated that by November 1864, the aligned tribes had over 5,000 people in a large war party, including over 1,200 warriors…

The retreat of the “Great Indian Host” to winter camps led Chivington to believe that this was the perfect time to pursue them. He gathered two battalions, his old First Colorado Infantry, and the First Colorado Cavalry under his command, four companies of the infantry and all six of the cavalry with two howitzers attached for a force of 770 men. He believed that with this force he could “pursue and destroy this scourge which has vexed the Territory.”

Despite some warnings from more experienced Indian fighters like Kit Carson and Edward Wynkoop, Chivington led his men into a winter campaign without proper reconnaissance. His trackers followed the Indian host, which could hardly keep itself secret, towards the North Platte River, where near its confluence with Rush Creek, Chivington came across the host.

In his haste to end the Indian threat, he did not realize that the host had yet to completely break before winter…

…Chivington split his men into three columns, the main thrust of three infantry companies and the howitzers would move straight towards the large village and draw out the warriors, while the cavalry would split around the flanks and prevent the great mass of civilians from fleeing. It was universally accepted that with their greater firepower the enemy would flee.

This might have been true had there not been such a desire for revenge among the host itself. Though in the early stages the Indians behaved as expected, there were two divergences from the plan. Firstly, Captain Soule’s men became disoriented in the terrain and missed their turning movement, secondly, the 90 men under Captain Jack Howland rode directly into a skinning party, and while the women fled, the men took up weapons and began attacking the riders, bringing more warriors to the scene. This divided the attention of the warriors, so that when the 300 men Chivington had marched up the creek towards the camp were spotted, only some 700 warriors initially rode out to meet them.

In the chaos of the early battle, it seemed Chivington’s men would make short work of the attackers who rode in, fired, and promptly fled. However, when Howland’s 90 men were met by a furious charge of Dog Soldiers led by Bull Bear who had sworn personal vengeance, they struck with an unusual ferocity. This unexpected full on attack took the soldiers completely by surprise, and in the space of fifteen minutes, the 90 men were slaughtered by over 300 mounted warriors scattering them, and the survivors would only be the fastest riders…

Chivington advanced, using the howitzers to drive off any attackers who came too close. However, the wanting marksmanship of his own men, and the relentless charges by the Indians under George Bent and Spotted Tail, slowed his progress. They did however, succeed in killing or wounding over 50 warriors in exchange for the loss of only twenty men…

This was when “Bull Bear’s Death Ride” took place. His warriors, fresh from massacring Captain Petrie’s unfortunate command, rode straight into the flank of the advancing infantry. Again, the full on attack took the infantry by surprise as they had, for the past two hours, skirmished as expected with Indians who did not deviate from expected tactics. The European style cavalry charge took the flank of the infantry who had no idea this was coming. Worse, the howitzer crews abandoned their guns and fled back to the encampment protected by infantry…

The exact nature of the melee is unclear, but over 100 men would be killed and wounded in the charge. The previously feinting warriors turned and launched a deadly attack of their own, though not closing to immediately grapple with the Colorado men. It did lead to a general rout however, as the men fled back towards the perceived safety of the wagons. It was trying to rally his men that Chivington was struck by an arrow and seen to fall from his horse…

Survivors from the charge would huddle in a protective coral formed by the wagons and dig firing pits. They held off a dozen charges by the warriors, before spotting a dust cloud on the horizon, both sides were unsure as to what it meant, but the warriors withdrew, and it fortuitously proved to be Soule’s 100 cavalrymen…

Withdrawing without even making an effort to search for their dead, the final outcome of the Battle of Rush River would only be satisfactorily established in 1867 when the Crook Expedition explored the region in force.

Though Chivington’s body was never specifically recovered, later Cheyenne accounts do confirm that a white man matching his description was seen to fall from a horse, be stabbed by a warrior, and later killed by women moving through the wounded and taking anything of value from them. Whether this was Chivington’s true fate remains unknown…

Though the Battle of Rush Creek was an unequivocal victory for the ad hoc alliance, becoming one of the deadliest losses for the United States in all the Indian Wars, the oncoming of winter and the need to partition food supplies meant such a large host could not stay together. Consequently, the groups broke into winter camps. The deaths of 198 white men were celebrated, but it demanded a response from the Federal Government. Unfortunately, the response would wait until 1866, and the raids would continue…” - The Colorado War, Alfred Hicks, University of Denver Press, 1997

-x-x-x-x-​

“The arrival of Federal forces had, already, set off spasms of panic in the ranks of plantation owners in the direct Union line of advance. The landings near Beaufort had seen, effectively, thousands of slaves freed as their masters fled, or simply could not force all their slaves away with them into the interior of South Carolina. However, for some made of more stubborn material, they chose to form militia companies, rely on promises of protection from Charleston, and heed their own sense of superiority.

On November 3rd, 1864, two figures who loomed large in the liberation of the enslaved stepped off the boats at Beaufort. Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave and direct conductor of the Underground Railroad who had led countless to freedom from their bondage, and Martin Delany, the chief ranking officer of all Colored Troops in the United States Army.

When they approached General Banks with their “suggestion” of leading a force up into the riverland to liberate plantations, Banks responded enthusiastically. His own forces had already added over one-thousand new recruits in the newly minted 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers, who under Delany’s supervision, raised the stars and stripes to accept their formation to great cheers…

Tubman and Delany wanted nothing less than a broad movement to liberate as many slaves as possible[2]. Both Admiral Farragut and Commodore Lee agreed with such a plan, using some shallow draft gunboats to force their way up river and deprive the planters of slave labor to build fortifications which might block a larger force which Banks hoped would be shuttled to him in the new year. Controversially, they would allow Delany - supported by white officers - to lead the raid. Though some suggested it was because they saw little chance of success, others believe it was because this was the greatest possibility to stir up servile insurrection in South Carolina. A Black officer leading black troops? The Radicals in the ranks saw this as nothing less than the proof which could bring the barbaric institution crumbling down.

Three gunboats were detached to support the raid, and freedmen familiar with the area were recruited as guides, while four companies of Colored Volunteers were detached to act as muscle for the movement, with a company of white artillery manning the ships guns…

Lithograph of the raid, 1864​

As it was the winter months, the Confederate officers were less worried about the diseases endemic to the area in summer. Once the strength of the Union forces had been ascertained, they cautiously moved companies along the rivers to scout Union movements. When the raiding column was spotted, Confederate troops moved to block the gunboats with obstructions and a light battery as they came up the Combahee River on November 7th…

The first engagement was a resounding success as the gunboats made short work of the small company, and moving further up the banks. As they moved along the river the slaves there were, at first, distrustful of these large armed parties, wondering if it were a ruse. Knowing nothing of the Emancipation Proclamation they initially attempted to ignore them. However, once it was explained to many they the force had come to liberate them, hundreds came from across the region hoping to make a dash for safety. Despite the efforts of soldiers and overseers to stop them, the slaves ran hard for freedom. Many coming straight from tasks at plantations after seeing both the white masters flee and hearing the news from other fleeing slaves.

Tubman would later say “I nebber see such a sight. We laughed, an' laughed, an' laughed. Here you'd see a woman wid a pail on her head, rice a smokin' in it jus' as she'd taken it from de fire, young one hangin' on behind, one han' roun' her forehead to hold on, t'other han' diggin' into de rice-pot, eatin' wid all its might; hold of her dress two or three more; down her back a bag with a pig in it. One woman brought two pigs, a white one an' a black one; we took 'em all on board; named de white pig Johnston, and the black pig Jeff Davis. Sometimes de women would come wid twins hangin' roun' der necks; 'pears like I never see so many twins in my life; bags on der shoulders, baskets on der heads, and young ones taggin' behin', all loaded; pigs squealin', chickens screamin', young ones squallin.”

…finally the Confederate garrison responded in force. Col. Breeden, initially believing it to be a slave uprising, had come with 1,000 men and 4 guns. In his force he also had a singularly odd unit composed over overseers and almost one hundred hounds who chased slaves, assuming he would need them to mop up the stragglers.

Upon arrival, he instead found thousands of slaves fleeing, and roughly six hundred black men in blue formed up across the road to Combahee Ferry to stop their progress. Breeden, having no respect for the black troops, initially ordered that the dogs be unleashed as “the negro is frightened of hounds, and he will not fight with them baying for their blood.” This spectacularly ill advised idea resulted mostly in a great deal of unfortunate animal cruelty as the black soldiers gunned down this sign of oppression and the remaining dogs fled in terror[3]. Infuriated, Breeden ordered his men forward into general action.

The black soldiers, under Delany’s first truly independent command, responded coolly. Some were veterans of the fighting at Washington, and the men of South Carolina were simply no match for their veteran fire… in half an hour the fighting was over as Breeden was forced to drag his guns away once Delany ordered a bayonet charge which sent the South Carolina soldiers reeling. He would be forced to request support from Charleston…

When Tubman and Delany departed on November 9th, they took with the over 1,100 men, women and children freed from bondage. Alongside this they had burned over a dozen plantations and carried off 20,000 bushels of rice. It was both a great moral and material victory of Union arms.” – The Colored Troops, Isaiah Devlin, University of Boston, 2003

----

1] This is pretty much OTL, save the line of settlement has been driven further back. The Comanche have been more successful as the war has drawn off more from both sides, making this region quite interesting in the years to come.

2] Historically it was based on existing raids and plans, but who am I to deny Harriet Tubman a very cool role in history here? Its an event that deserves more recognition!

3] Believe it or not this is based on real occurrences where white soldiers thought black soldiers would be too afraid of the dogs to fight. They were always wrong.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 102: New Beginnings ​

December 3rd, 1864
Cambridge House, London

Downstairs, the party was in full swing. Emily, Palmerston’s long time paramour had outdone herself again. Palmerston beamed with his guests, cheerfully chatting with nobles and ladies alike. Though his philandering days were long behind him, he still prided himself on his ability to work a crowd, especially one with many fine ladies of society. He had bid a farewell to Emily Charlotte de Burgh, Countess of Cork, whose company had been quite charming. Her husband had a place in the Liberal government if he played his cards right. Then he had been quietly taken aside by John Russell and George Grey. That of course meant only one thing and he had quietly led them aside.

“I take it we have news?” Palmerston asked pleasantly.

“Unfortunately,” Grey sighed. “It’s going to be in the papers tomorrow, but Gladstone has made another speech.”

Palmerston grunted. “He’s mad. You’re the Foreign Secretary, John, and might I add the man who I believe ought to succeed me leading the Liberal Party. Gladstone will ruin everything if he keeps this up.”

Ever since the Treaty of Rotterdam had been signed in July, Palmerston had hoped that the rancor surrounding the war in America would die down. Instead, much to his great displeasure, the Southern Independence Association had continued to make noise. There had been a blessed reprieve when the war in Denmark had broken out, but that had brought on its own complications.

The Austrians turning the North Sea into a battleground had not been looked on favorably. What had the emperor been thinking, sending his fleet to engage in a battle far from the Adriatic? It hadn’t induced the Italians to fight, but from all reports they had watched the action with undisguised interest. It was only logical. Italy still hungered after Rome and Lombardy-Venetia, among other territories. There was, thankfully, no general European war this year. Britain would not have been prepared. Now however, with tens of thousands of battle hardened troops and their commanders returning home, accompanied by a fleet to match, they had to consider other problems which might require them on the Continent.

The late victory in America was little consolation to the public with battles on their doorstep. The public sympathy had been with Denmark, and Britain had been found wanting. Not, Palmerston thought irritably, that London could have done anything. But that hadn’t mattered to men like Disraeli or Derby, eager to knock the Liberals down a peg. Nor unfortunately, did it matter to Gladstone.

In May he had spoken in favor of a reform bill to expand the franchise. Palmerston thought it unnecessary. The mob was ruled well by its betters, men of experience. However, the middle classes were making noise, and the warm afterglow of victory was bringing out domestic strife. The men who had turned out from the Volunteer movement to man Britain’s defenses as necessary when the regulars had gone to America seemed to think they needed a voice in government. Gladstone was inclined to support them, and he was threatening to make a public break with the party to do it.

“What has he said now?”

“Currently, Gladstone is encouraging a more open franchise. He made it only a small part of his speech at Guildhall however, but instead declared that Britain must do more to support, and I quote from a source ‘those nations whom the Goliaths and Pharaohs of the Earth seek to subsume into their devouring maw’ and said England was the only power on Earth who could do so.”

Palmerston sighed heavily. It was one thing to speak out against a war already decided, but when he might make reference to the war still raging in America, Palmerston knew exactly what he meant. The Southern Independence Association continued to loudly denounce the North, no matter that Lincoln had lost the election to this General McClellan. There was no indication McClellan intended to end the war, and that startled many in the merchant class who, desirous of a normal economy, feared the continued war in America would create another ripple at home.

From all reports, the United States had borne the worst of the economic burden. Britain had suffered too, ships lost, men and women thrown out of work, and a rise in bread prices and new taxes. It had not been unbearable, and even now there was talk of once again lowering taxes next year before the election. However, the vulnerable textile industry feared a true cotton famine in 1865. That set many merchants on edge.

Then worst of all, in Palmerston’s opinion, there was a certain class of Liberals who simply could not overlook the desire to see a new nation gain its independence against a larger aggressor. Nevermind that nation was a slave holding republic! Palmerston had been canny enough to sidestep that issue for a few weeks. Now however, there were more cries that Britain ought to step in and offer to mediate. Roebuck’s French scheme from the year previous had soured the option, but with the memory of Denmark and Sweden fighting heroically against Prussia and Austria fresh in the public’s mind, the David and Goliath story was going to stir up passions again. Infuriating!

“And I assume, John, that the French are up to something?”

“Unfortunately,” Russell chuckled without humour. “Napoleon’s Foreign Minister, de Lhuys, has sent me a note. There are rumours circulating about Paris that we plan to make an offer of mediation. He is intimating that the Emperor would be pleased to issue a joint statement on the matter. He is also saying that Franz Josef has expressed approval for the project.”

“You’re joking!” Palmerston was taken aback. The arch conservative Austrian Emperor was highly unlikely to stick his nose into North American affairs. His brother was fighting to claim the throne of Mexico, but that was hardly Vienna’s concern considering reports Maximillian had inherited his right to the Hapsburg throne in Austria. Though if this was correct, that might have changed.

“I wish I were! However, Napoleon seems to be making noise in the diplomatic community to gin up support for the Confederate cause.”

“If the public sees us again out of step with these affairs, it may have consequences in the election next year,” Grey said looking unhappy. “Worse, Gladstone might continue making these inflammatory speeches and stir the public up anyways.”

“Of course. Damn the man,” Palmerston rubbed his temple irritably. “If he keeps this up, it will make us all look bad, and if this Southern Confederacy wins he’ll be right. That, I assure you gentlemen, he won’t allow us to forget. Neither will the public.”

“Then how ought we to proceed?” Russell said.

“Much as I don’t want to give Gladstone the satisfaction, we may need to humour him in the cabinet. Let us entertain this French notion, but we won’t commit to anything. I have no desire to dance to Napoleon’s tune on this. Let him run about in Mexico to stay out of trouble in Europe, but let’s not have him forcing us into another American war so soon.”

“Then we will have to make some sort of public statement.” Grey said.

“Not necessarily,” Russell replied, rubbing his chin. “I can make some noncommittal gestures to Paris, and we can avoid censuring those rabble rousers in the Southern Independence Association, let people see something that isn’t there. All the while we can watch events in America and wait to see what happens.”

“If the Americans sit down to treat with the Southern states, fine,” Palmerston said, warming to the idea. “Then we will not be the ones to initiate any recognition of the South. Let the United States acknowledge it, and then we will graciously swoop in and add legitimacy. All without having to do anything ourselves.”

“Precisely,” Russell grinned.

“Thinking like a Prime Minister already John,” Palmerston chuckled. “Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, I’m far from the grave. But it's a good idea. We will run it by cabinet, and then hopefully it will keep Gladstone from ruining the party and the nation!”


December 30th, 1864
Richmond, Virginia

“A new year, a new president, and soon, a new nation!” Davis toasted the cabinet. They cheerfully raised full glasses back. Not one to normally imbibe, Davis was thrilled that he was celebrating the last of the year with the men who had helped successfully prosecute the war thus far. And to many, the war seemed to be successful.

The election of McClellan, with a vice president who was an avowed Peace Democrat, had sent a shock through Southern society. There was, at last, a sense that the country was on the cusp of greatness. The end of the war was in sight for so many, it would only be one more harsh winter.

It was, at least, the hope.

“I, for one, am expecting great things from this new year!” George Trenholm, the new Secretary of the Treasury exclaimed.

“More money in your pockets?” John Reagan, the affable Texan post master teased, well into his drinks by that point. Trenholm laughed with the others.

“In all our pockets I suspect!” That got him a cheer. “Truthfully gentlemen, despite the Yankees angling to blockade our coasts, the state of our economy prior to this awful event has never been better! We have merchants along the whole North Sea coast and agents operating from Havana to Constantinople. Ships waving the Confederate flag can be found the world over now, in greater abundance than those flying the flag of the United States!” A toast to the brave men of the navy followed that. No one was eager to mention the Royal Navy's part in such a turn of events at that moment.

“I trust the news is still good?” Davis asked.

“Oh yes, sir! The Yankee attacks on the coast may have actually worked in our favor for all the blatant property damage and theft. The price of cotton shot up in Europe, while the banking houses of France and England have moved to secure more loans for our cause. Barrings and Erlanger & Co. have all offered loans to the tune of fifty-million to support the war effort.”

“Fifty million each?” Breckinridge said.

“Cumulatively,” Trenholm corrected. “They have been impressed with the money to be made in speculating on the cotton trade, and so are attempting to get ahead of competitors by using the cotton bonds. Other banking houses have followed their lead, and I am sure the news of General McClellan’s election will only help drive up speculation.”

“Also, it will help us avoid raising taxes to begin the New Year,” Davis said appreciatively. Already the high taxes the war had imposed, alongside import duties on trade, was beginning to sour many in the nation. The war was expensive however, and the South had not started the war with a surplus of hard currency.

“Then that, sir, will make you extremely popular as the Treasury Secretary! A Christmas gift to the nation if you will,” Judah Benjamin replied cheerily.

“I do hate to put a sour mood on things,” Breckinridge said. “But we must still discuss the draft measures for the new year.”

Davis grimaced, as did several other cabinet members. Though this was supposed to be a festive occasion, the main reason for the meeting was the discussion of how to get more men in the army. The fighting of 1864, despite many victories, had been costly for the Confederate armies. Both Bragg and Lee were practically begging for more men, but there were very few to spare. Some creative deployments had seen another thousand men shipped from Texas to Bragg’s army, while garrisons in Mississippi and Alabama had been stripped to the bone. Lee’s army was the most pressing matter however, and everyone in the room knew if he did not get any new men then the year might begin very poorly indeed.

The Confederacy had only been forced to resort to the draft in 1863 after the battles of 1862 had used up so many proud regiments. Many men had, in ‘62, felt the war was as good as won with British intervention and felt that staying in their regiment until the expected soon end was a story to tell their children. As the war had dragged into the new year however, and the grim realities of war took hold, finding volunteers to join the ranks had proven difficult. The First Conscription Act passed in 1863 had made all white men from seventeen to thirty-five eligible for conscription. The next year, with the Second Conscription Act, had raised the age to forty-five. It had, so far, kept the ranks full, and rounded up over thirty-thousand men for the army. Now they needed more, and that would be problematic.

Even worse, Davis knew, was the “Twenty Slave Law” which had exempted anyone owning twenty slaves or more from conscription. It had been furiously denounced in all the presses (outside South Carolina) and the slogan “Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight” had been taken up by many anti-administration agitators. There had been a small civil war in some Mississippi counties over enforcing it. Even more predictably, some governors were passing legislation to avoid the draft entirely. Davis meant to teach such men a lesson in the new year[1].

“Whether anyone likes it or not, we need men. If they won’t volunteer they will be made to volunteer,” Reagan said bluntly. “How could anyone not see that it is their patriotic duty to do the utmost to defend the nation? Especially when we are so close to victory?”

“Is the army not patriotic enough?” Attorney General George Davis grumbled. “Is there no respect for the rule of law?”

“Men in the army are not who should worry us,” said Breckinridge. “I’ve toured the lines extensively now and despite the harshness of war the soldiers in the ranks now have an esprit de corps which would do any army of Europe proud! Those regiments are their families, so close knit they’ve become. However, we cannot let them shrivel up and die. Most of them are well below strength, and any men raised must heal these healthy regiments, not form new mobs of green boys.”

“I would think a larger battalion would have more utility,” Trenholm said.

“No, that is what people may think if they haven’t seen war, and I mean no offense George. However, when the war broke out in ‘61 most men were green as grass and that’s what led to Bull Run. Now so many men have been under arms for so long they’re veterans of one stripe or another. But you cobble together a new regiment of men who never saw action and send them against men who’ve fought it out at Corinth, Union City, Pipe Creek or Mine Run, well, they’d be routed by even an understrength battalion of veterans. We can’t let that valuable resource slip away.”

“I thought we’d already been doing that?” Benjamin said.

“To an extent,” Breckinridge conceded. “However, a few states have simply built new regiments and we can’t have that. I mean to ensure the new draft sends all the men to regiments who need them. That will take time, but it will also probably take some of the sting out of it with men knowing they’re going to be fighting along their brothers from their home states. I won’t let the governors get all jumbled up this time if I can help it.”

“And you’ll have my full support,” Davis said emphatically.

“How many men will we need to conscript?” Trenholm asked.

“At minimum I would like fifty thousand,” Breckinridge said. “Though if we could even take some men from Annapolis…”

“No,” Davis said flatly, his countenance changing from supporting to mulish in an instant.

“I know we’ve dickered on this subject before, sir, but the gains to Lee’s army…”

“No. I am sorry John but I will not budge. Annapolis must be held at all costs. With it is the key to Maryland. Whether at the negotiating table or from a referendum we must have legitimacy. Besides, it is still a potential threat to Washington.”

Despite over a year arguing the matter, Davis believed that he must have Annapolis in Confederate hands. He knew some disagreed, but those men were potentially holding their ability to demand a plebiscite in Maryland at wars end. That was something he could not simply give up.

“Of course, sir, I shall not broach the topic again today.”

“Thank you. Let us hear more about conscription then.”

“Well, with a need for more men we may need to raise the age as high as fifty. Difficult yes, but we will need every man in the line if McClellan does not see sense.”

“I think he will,” Benjamin said.

“What makes you so sure?” Trenholm asked.

“If I may, McClellan is a man very concerned with his image. He has, by all accounts, been forced on to a peace platform by a not inconsiderable portion of his party. He has not committed himself to peace at all costs, but the words of his acceptance are quite illuminating.”

“I hardly think speeches for the masses dictate policy,” Trenholm scoffed.

“Ah but consider this Mr. Trenholm,” Judah beamed. “In his acceptance he states ‘Among all civilized nations it is customary during the progress of war for the combatants now and then to suspend hostilities temporarily for the purposes of negotiation and mutual explanations. Such suspensions have sometimes resulted in satisfactory settlements and returns to peace and in other times renewal of the contests.’[2]”

“There we have it then,” Breckinridge said. “He says perhaps it will lead to a renewal of the contest.”

“Forgive me, I did not serve the position of Secretary of War long, John, but if the armies did cease to fight one another for, oh say, seven months, what might happen?”

Breckinridge mulled the thought over. “In truth many might get tired of the war, and some would no doubt desert and go home. At least, I can say that for our side. I’m sure the same is true north of the Potomac.”

“Certainly! If we can drag these negotiations on, then the nation will become mad for peace, what parts are not mad already! Once the war stops, McClellan shall find it hard to resume it, no matter the outcome of negotiations.”

“But Judah, he says at the very end that should negotiations fail on terms of Union and Constitution, then ‘we shall be obliged to appeal again to the God of Battles, and leave the issue to the abritraiment of the sword.[3]’”

“This will entirely depend on the manner of our refusal. But, it must be made clear, he intends to negotiate. How he chooses to do so will be of vital importance, and we may steer those events in our favor gentlemen. I cannot emphasize enough however that, in the eyes of the world, even deigning to negotiate with us is enough. We will trumpet this to every capital in Europe, and perhaps, it will be enough.”

Davis looked at the snowy world outside the window and wondered. When negotiations commenced, could they steer events in their favor? Otherwise the God of battles would indeed be invoked to settle the contest once and for all.


December 31st, 1864
Quebec City, Canada East

The New Years Festivities were in full swing as the elite of Canada toasted an end to the year 1864 and welcomed the new year in with style. Viscount Monck and his wife were in evidence, as was General Dundas and General Williams, each man feted in their military splendor. The prizes of victory too were on display, with a captured American regimental color - bullet holes included - hanging on a far wall. The population was toasting victory and, unlike some years prior, now men from the Maritimes were present as well.

Charles Tupper chatted amiably with Alexander Galt regarding the financing of the St. Andrews and Quebec Line, while the fiery George Coles of PEI spoke with George Brown, each man locked in heated discussion and seemingly enjoying it. John Hamilton Gray of New Brunswick joked with John Hamilton Gray of PEI about their shared names. The members of each section mixing agreeably, but John A. Macdonald could detect some tensions under the surface.

He was well into his cups, but not so well that he couldn’t comment on it.

“Well, we’ve done it!” A hearty hand slammed Macdonald on the back and Thomas D’Arcy McGee strode up beside him a great glass of Madeira in hand.

“Done it, why my dear McGee we’ve hardly begun!” Macdonald quipped, leaning onto the other man.

“John, don’t tell me you’re thinking politics at a time like this! We ought to be ringing in the New Year in carousal style! Not grinding our knives on the whetstone for an election no one knows will be held!”

Macdonald laughed. The election was both too far away and too close. He eyed his old enemy Brown across the floor and gestured with his drink, sloshing a great deal of it over the cup rim.

“Ah but my enemies are already doing the same! Brown is speaking with noted Liberal, Coles from Prince Edward Island! What possible conversation might they have rather than some principled opposition to everything I stand for?”

“Grousing for the sake of grousing?” McGee offered between sips.

“No, no, this ‘Great Coalition’ of ours was always destined to be temporary. How temporary it may prove! We have Howe agitating in Nova Scotia, and of course Brown slithering through the weeds here at home! Coles jumping into bed with that lot would be just unfortunate! Enough to give me a serious headache.”

“They’re from different sections with too many differences, what could they do?”

“Confound this damn boundary dispute for one!” Macdonald growled. The territory taken from Maine, still administered by the British, was already causing rumblings in Quebec and New Brunswick. How that land should be administered, or under whose authority it ought to fall, was an open question. So far he’d headed off any major trouble by promising to deal with it after the first election, but every other day someone from one province or the other came sniffing at his door looking for answers.

It was going to be a problem, that much he knew. So much would depend on the boundary commission appointed when the new American president came to office. No doubt he would wish to drag the issue out as long as possible. That was fine for Macdonald, since he would then be able to convince each section that it was Yankee instrangience delaying things. Then he might be able to sit down, look at a map, and make the right decision. For now, he simply had to let the issue hang.

“Oh perhaps, but why should we worry now? The London Conference next year will distract everyone for a time. I know we can haul Howe across the Atlantic again before he can cause any great stir. Then the Nova Scotians can be bought off for a time with a promise of their own railway.”

“Let’s not promise too many railways,” Macdonald cautioned. “Already New Brunswick has one, PEI wants one, and God knows what might happen if we connect to the Pacific!”

McGee chortled and slapped Macdonald on the back again, both men swaying as the alcohol hit them so late in the evening.

“Then we build another railroad, then another and then another! Face it John! The future is in steam engines, railroads, and telegraphs. Or did the war teach you nothing?”

“The war taught me not to trust a Yankee, the love of the mob, or to let the military get too much say in civil governance[4].”

“All wise lessons, but you must realize that building this new nation of ours will not be cheap? We can’t go back to the parish politics of United Canada, we have to look forward! There’s no putting this genie back in the bottle! We’re a new experiment in British rule, and it's up to us to drive it forward!”

“Go home McGee, you’re drunk!” Macdonald laughed. “I’ll drink to that though!”

“Then let us drink together to a new nation, a new year, and of course, God save the Queen!” The cry got taken up, and 1865 was wrung in with a boisterous rendition of Hail Britannia as the Canadians contemplated a future for themselves in the shadow of a broken giant.

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1] I once again find myself playing a bit of catch up on Confederate politics. I will make less of that mistake chronicling in 1865!
2] Real words from the first draft of his acceptance speech at the 1864 Democratic Convention.
3] Also real words.
4] These are largely things he believed in real life too. Macdonald did not much care for military service OTL and an entire war has not shifted his position TTL.