1814:
March:
Wellington marched his forces southwards from New Hampshire into Massachusetts by the end of the month. Knowing that supplies and reinforcements would be harder to come by, he waited for his army to be fully aligned before marching further south at the end of the month.
Jacob Brown had also been busy during this time as he quickly marched north as soon as the worst of winter passed and marched north east from New York City to catch Wellington on the hop and beat him back to Canada. Welling ironically considered the same option only from the opposite side so to speak. By eliminating Brown’s army, Wellington hoped to scare the American government into a peace treaty. At the end of the month, both forces are converging onto northern Connecticut, both aware of the others movements.
April:
The British and American forces met on the 15th seven miles north of the town of Waterbury. Meeting at a clearing by a nearby forest, Wellington assigned his forces so they spread out and over three miles. With infantry at 20,000, cavalry at 8000 and 120 pieces of artillery, Wellington felt more than equally matched to Brown’s despite the fact they both roughly had the same number of forces. At 10:30 AM, the battle commenced by a brave but futile attack upon the British position.
Brown’s plan to put pressure on the British centre while flanking the right was thwarted by the superior quality of the British troops, many of whom were Peninsula veterans. The battle continued for six hours as Brown tried to outflank either the British left or right but to no avail. After 5400 casualties, Brown called off the attack and ordered a retreat, leading the rearguard himself, Brown managed to prevent the orderly retreat from turning into a rout. Having suffered 3800 casualties, the British army paused and sent messengers to negotiate a cease fire and hopefully a general peace. This was accepted by Washington and negotiations followed.
By the end of the month, the Treaty of New York made the following points clear in the after war situation:
1: America would recognise British supremacy over the Oceans (This was mainly for show as RN activities decreased significantly as in OTL)
2: Britain would agree to evacuate all forts south of the boundaries agreed in the Treaty of Paris.
3: Indemnities to the total of $3,000,000 were to be paid to the British government.
4: America would now recognise the Republic of New England.
5: The dispute over Maine border was finally ended by settling it in the favour of Canada. Gratitude of giving them the chance to forge a new nation had allowed Britain some leeway from the NER. British North America was seceded all territory north of the Aroostook River.
6: The Great Lakes border was finally settled between three different factions. The big loser was the US as they lost all influence in the Western Great Lakes, keeping only a southern border on Lakes Erie and Ontario. For their part in the War, the Native American Tribes under Tecumseh were able to regain the land from the 1795 Greenville territory while also securing the Michigan territory and a border circling Lake Michigan all the way to the south side of Lake Superior. The British were to gain the Detroit area (Including the settlement itself) and dominance over the Great Lakes themselves.
The final clause finally destroyed the American influence over the Great Lakes completely and re-established the Shawnee as a force in the region. The American government believed that it would have gained the Shawnee land later on without too much hassle but reckoned without Tecumseh, who was looking to live up to the new statehood. To that aim, Tecumseh began to look for ways to bind his Confederation even tighter together and strengthen it.
The fourth clause came through negotiations between New England and Britain with Wellington being held to his promise by the New England government and speaking on their behalf. Realising the benefits of having an extra ally on the American Continent, the British Government recognised the fledging Republic and its President, DeWitt Clinton. With no alternative, The American government was forced to recognise the seceding states which soon became widely regarded as a nation of traitors.
The reaction in America over this Treaty was violent with reactions against both the British and New Englanders. Believing the Treaty had let the British start their Imperial ambitions in America once again and that the Republic of New England was nothing more than a British puppet state, public nationalism caught on quickly. One person who realised this was General Andrew Jackson who made his political ambitions known very quickly as advertising himself as the only man who won a battle for the Americans in the war. While untrue, he became very popular amongst the common voter. The Senate also began to look over the Constitution in an attempt to make a state virtually impossible to secede, ironically going to accomplish one of the Federalist’s ideals in the process.
New England on the other hand started its nationhood very well. Booming trade with England complimented the political system which was almost a copy and paste of the American system. The Federalist Party was the dominating force with the opposition being made up of the newly created Industrial Party, which was made up of people who were fighting for greater rights of the working class and less interested in trade like the Federalist Party. Though the Federalists dominated the political landscape for the next decade, the Industrial Party soon became the biggest opposition.
After the Treaty was signed Tecumseh settled into the region given to him and his people via the Treaty of New York. Grateful to the British though wary of their motives, resumed trade with Canada and Tecumseh set about organising his Confederation into a much greater cohesive force, centralising them into on large United movement. Supplied by Britain, he knew he needed to create a strong Shawnee Nation to resist the oncoming American settlers.
May:
Despite being offered a handsome sum along with a high position within the Canadian government, Wellington returned to England. Partly due with the feeling that his duty has been done and he should return home, partly because there was a real threat of assassination by an American patriot. Of all the hatred stirred from the War, most of it was directed straight at Wellington for being the man who broke the Union into two.By the 8th of May, Wellington got onto a ship to Britain with his staff and left the Americas without regret. He was joined by Picton and Uxbridge but Beresford remained temporarily in the Canadian military as a general, organising a new Canadian military.
After the political turmoil following the creation of the Republic of New England, a constitution was finally settled between all leading New Englanders. The Constitution of New England followed many protocols of the American Constitution only with exceptions in slavery (which at the behest of Britain, was outlawed) and secession issues where the Constitution made it virtually impossible to secede unless ‘under the most dire of circumstances’. Maine was finally allowed its statehood in the Republic and the lines were drawn between Maine and all the other states concerned. Finally, Boston was chosen as the Republic’s capital and work began on the construction of the seat of government which comprised of one major building to house the new House of Representatives and the new House of Congress.
June:
The loss of New England caused such an outcry within the American political structure that many call for the impeachment of James Madison. Despite that though, the actual Constitution didn’t actually allow impeachment for what had happened. Disheartened, Madison nevertheless made it known that he would retire from politics after his term as President was over. The lack of an opposition Party also began to be felt as the Federalists had gone north to New England to make that government work to their own ideals. Those who were left were made very uncomfortable as they were identified with the ‘traitor party’ as it was known.
Amongst those who eyed the vacuum of power with thoughts of opportunity, Andrew Jackson was one who began to plan his own nomination for the Presidency and gathered support amongst the Democratic-Republicans to do so.
August:
Wellington arrived back in Britain to a hero’s welcome. Seen as the man who won two wars for Britain, his prestige was through the roof and many people called for him to be made Commander in Chief of all British forces. The Duke of York, having never liked Wellington much in the first place, refused to even budge from his position despite enormous public pressure. Despite that though, Wellington was able to make enough pressure felt upon the Duke so that he has no choice but to reform the Army in some way.
It was agreed that a new Academy was to be set up to train officers above the rank of lieutenant. It was agreed that the Academy should be built in Yorkshire, it was unnamed as the Duke of York refused to call it the Wellington Academy and nobody else wanted it to be called the Duke of York Academy. The name was eventually agreed to be called The Yorkshire Academy of Warfare. Its purpose was to train the higher ranks of the British army in order to be better prepared for war.
The role of commissions was agreed to be gently phased out as the Academy would bring in new soldiers to take over the regiments. It soon became law that only officers that graduated from the Academy (Or others like it) were able to reach the top ranks of the army, because of the rather high fees for the Academy, the officer corps of the British Army continued to be held by aristocrats. This began change as the ‘new money’ of businessmen started to be felt in an increasing industrial Britain.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Treaty of Lyons, which bound America and France close together, was signed. Realising the potential of an ally in the US, Napoleon started to make movements towards the Republic in order to bind the two countries together and also balance against the threat of Britain. The Treaty made economic links between the two countries tighter and ideas came forth about using the resources of the US with the naval yards of France to create two great navies.
Napoleon himself by this time was worried, Britain was now undoubtedly the most powerful nation on Earth (Or at least, the one nation with the most prestige) and the French economy was taking a downturn due to the lack of plunder and a still huge military force. Looking for ways to improve the situation, Napoleon decided to complete his domination of Germany by taking out Prussia once and for all.
Prussia was by this time regaining it strength as its military had grown to be the strongest it had been in years and had been resisting French demands ever since mid 1813. Seeing an easy target because Prussia was isolated from the rest of Europe, Napoleon started to plan a campaign that would bring Prussia permanently to heel and regain the prestige of France once again. He chose March of 1815 to begin his campaign and Europe once again prepared for war.