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Chapters
This lists all the chapters posted so far in the Story of a Party. Be warned, though; this page contains heavy spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Chapter I: The Fall of the Old Order
“I think I am a Whig, but others say there are no Whigs” - Abraham Lincoln
Chaos reigns in the United States. The nation is sharply divided over slavery, and in the frontier territory of Kansas, open civil war is breaking out between the settlers. At this point, an election is held, and its winner will change the course of history.
Chapter II: The Seeds of Discord
“Henceforth, the watchword of every uncompromising abolitionist, of every friend of God and liberty, must be, in a religious as well as political sense - 'NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS'” - William Lloyd Garrison
President Fremont has barely settled into his new office before the chaos begins. The new bill proposed by the Republicans in Congress threatens to start a war between the states, and a mysterious man arrives with a dangerous proposition…
Chapter III: The House Divides
“A thousand years may scare form a state. An hour may lay it in ruins.” - Lord Byron
The South seethes with discontent over the reorganisation of the West into all free territories. The idea of secession gains more and more adherents by the day. New alliances are made, deals struck, speeches held, and ultimatums drawn up. In December of 1860, finally, a meeting is held in Montgomery, Alabama, and at this meeting, a momentous decision is made.
Chapter IV: The Dogs Let to Slip
“…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” - Abraham Lincoln
The Union has fallen. The war has begun, and as the two great armies meet in battle, no one knows how the day will end. Meanwhile, in Hannibal, Missouri, an adventurous young man signs up for naval service.
Chapter V: Old Armies, New Battles
“Generals may win campaigns, but people win wars.” - Donald Porter
General Lee finally routs Beauregard's forces at Nashville, but as he does so, his home state splits as the Union has done.
“If ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack them; if double, be able to divide them; if equal,engage them; if fewer, be able to evade them; if weaker, be able to avoid them.” - The Art of War, chapter III
Lee marches through Georgia, McClellan heads for Montgomery, and Grant moves down the Mississippi to put an end to Confederate supply along the great river.
Chapter VII: Nullified Property
“I breathe, and lo! the chattel is a man.” - Frederick Douglass
You can't shoot an idea with a gun, as someone once quipped. However, you can shoot a gun with an idea, and this is what the new Union commander realises. He recruits a ragtag group of free blacks, equipped only with guns and ideas, to spread those guns and those ideas among the slaves of Alabama.
Chapter VIII: Our Flag is Still There
“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.” - William Tecumseh Sherman
The Navy, which has been sidelined for much of the war, now gets its fifteen minutes of fame, as Pensacola is retaken by the Union, and the Confederate-friendly president of Nicaragua is toppled by a squadron of Union gunboats.
Chapter IX: L'Italia s'è Desta
“I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor food; I offer only hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart, and not merely with his lips, follow me.” - Giuseppe Garibaldi
In Italy, the situation is at least as problematic as it is across the Atlantic. A war is breaking out between Sardinia, seeking to take Lombardy and Venetia for the purpose of uniting all Italians under a single nation, and Austria, who seek to keep the same lands for themselves. The French Emperor has sided with Sardinia, and any side looks poised to strike. Who will win? Let us find out…
Chapter X: Virginia Delenda Est
“Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!” - Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great)
Sherman finally breaks through in Virginia, and his army is able to capture most of the Atlantic seaboard within short time. The Confederacy will soon fall, but one thing is preventing that…
Chapter XI: The Reunited States
“What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.” - The Art of War, chapter II
The Confederate President, after a long struggle with his own mind, dies, and the new President surrenders to the Union. However, the Secretary of State refuses to comply, and flees to Florida with most of the treasury before the Union troops around the capital can stop him.
Chapter XII: Amending Past Wrongs
“I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would excite them in the first dance of their freedom.” - Thaddeus Stevens
The Union is saved. The war is over. Now, the business of rebuilding the broken South can begin. This is done in many ways, the most prominent of which is amending the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, according to the wishes of the new governing powers.
“Whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly.” - William Henry Seward
The South, after two and a half years of total war, is not a nice place. Armed bands of freedmen battle with armed bands of whites, radicalised by the fight against the “Black Republicans”. The Union army of occupation that is still in place can hardly maintain order, and further squabbling over the land of the expropriated ex-Confederates threatens to create infighting between the freedmen as well. Against this chaotic backdrop, a presidential election is held, the first since the war. The winner is a man who promises only to bring more destruction to the South.
Chapter XIV: Borderline Insanity
“What we wanted to do, the reason why we fought, was always to free the Negro. Fremont saw that already then, and I see that now. His freedom, not the mending of the Union, was always our ultimate goal, but then I did not see that. Sometimes I wonder how things would have gone if I had been President in Fremont's stead.” - Abraham Lincoln, in an interview for the Illinois State Journal, 1878
The “border states” in the upper South, which didn't secede with the rest of the South, are now at least as chaotic, only that there is no occupying army to maintain order. They each react differently to the freeing of their slaves, and none accept it readily…
Chapter XV: Expanding Concerns
“Give me only this assurance, that there never be an unlawful resistance by an armed force to the United States, and give me fifty, forty, thirty more years of life, and I will engage to give you the possession of the American continent and the control of the world.” - William Henry Seward
The new President sets out to provide a distraction from the inflamed situation in the South, as well as to promote his own goals of expansion, and an opportunity quickly comes along. Its name is the CSS Alabama…
Chapter XVI: Dov'è la Vittoria?
“I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats; I tell them the truth, and they never believe me.” - Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Though the Sardinians won their bout with the Austrian behemoth, the struggle to unify Italy is far from complete. Giuseppe Garibaldi, the charismatic wartime leader of the Sardinian mountain troops, sets out of Genoa one spring day in 1860, along with a thousand volunteers, aiming to overthrow the Bourbon kings of the Two Sicilies.
Chapter XVII: Now is the Summer of our Discontent
“The constitution regulates our stewardship; the constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes.” - William Henry Seward
Seward's expansionist adventures did nothing to unify the nation, and the situation in the South continues to deteriorate. Far from helping to mend the rift, Seward's radical policies only exacerbate the violence.
Chapter XVIII: The Bismarck Gambit
“All treaties between great states cease to be binding when they come in conflict with the struggle for existence.” - Otto von Bismarck
Bismarck comes to power in Prussia, and uses the Danish crisis to recover Schleswig and Holstein, as well as to create feelings of unity among the German states. However, when a Spanish succession crisis comes along, he may be in over his head…
“A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.” - Otto von Bismarck
A great war breaks out. Battles are fought, treaties are made, backs stabbed, men killed. Now is the time to make history.
Chapter XX: The Trial of Trier
“It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it.”
The French attack across the Hunsrück, aiming for Trier and the Mosel Valley. The Prussians are getting badly overextended, causing problems on all sides…