The whip is always cracking and lashing on someone's back, even today. You can so abolish slavery from polite conversation, and find it in the material constitution of the world, at so many levels, from outright exploitation, robbing and torture of prisoner migrants in northern Africa or forced Asian seamen on clandestine trawlers on high seas to the more and more refined hypocrisy of wage slavery in the West...
Wrapped in Flames: The Great American War and Beyond
- Thread starter EnglishCanuck
- Start date
This is honestly where I thought you were going to go with this. I thought McClellan would continue the war only to have a stronger CSA be able to just about hold them off until '66 midterms came around and a strong Copperhead victory forced him to have peace.
Really? That would be very cool!
Out of curiosity but given that you have done a decade of research for this TL, have you ever considered writing a research paper?
Many thanks!
The compliments are too kind! I was so glad I could provide some insight and interesting looks at the period and the characters who populate it! I'm so glad it could become a great read for so many people!
The novel idea goes slowly, but surely! Very slowly sometimes alas.
I'm glad to have so many people interested in the future of Wrapped in Flames and I'll be glad to tell it!
I'm always glad I can keep people guessing!
Then it shall be done! I've had a few ideas on "what if from a what if" so I'll get that written!
Why do I get the feeling that this TL's gonna end with the Stars and Stripes waving atop Buckingham Palace?
Until the last couple of years, no. Mostly because writing a research paper on a "what if" would not over really well. However, I am surprised that I did think of something for a research paper about how the "political revolutions of 1860" from Mexico, the US and Canada did all influence each other. Now that would be an interesting research paper.
However, given time I probably could do a whole fact based essay on why I think the war's first six months might go as I outline!
The Great American War 1861-1865
The Great American War 1861-1865
"Though now commonly known as the Great American War (as distinguished from the Great War of the 20th Century) the conflict which would involve the United States, Confederate States and the British Empire erupted in 1861 over the election of Abraham Lincoln originally began as a civil war. The Sectional Crisis following the long simmering tensions of the Antebellum Era between the industrializing North and the primarily agrarian South, whose economy relied on slavery, finally came to a head when the Slave Power of the Southern Democrats schismed rather than even work with a potential abolitionist in the White House.
The Confederate States declared independence on February 8th, 1861. The war did not begin in earnest until the Confederate States fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. From there a series of battles followed, the most spectacular was the Battle of Bull Run in June 1861 which saw the professionalism of both sides found wanting. Each side largely settled in to train and equip their armies, but the Confederacy did not sit idle. A troop of Confederate soldiers, officers and sympathizers slipped north to neutral Canada where they used the nominal defense of the border to launch a raid on the town of St. Albans Vermont, following with further raids days later. The Canadian militia were mobilized in response, but the chase of the raiders led to Canadian soil where a tense standoff ensued. However, both sides dispersed, trusting the courts to see justice done.
Barely a week later another international incident would toss a match into the tinder. Anglo-American relations, already at a low point as Britain had recognized the belligerent status of the Confederacy, were made worse when the USS San Jacinto seized the mail packet RMS Trent in order to apprehend two Confederate diplomats onboard. In a series of events still contentious, the Royal Navy man in charge of the mails onboard, Richard Williams, was shot dead. The US proceeded to take the diplomats as contraband, inciting the Trent Crisis. In an almost unbelievable turn of bad luck, days later the USS Dacotah and the HMS Terror would engage in an accidental gun duel off of St. Thomas, with the Dacotah being badly damaged by the British vessel.
Alone one of these crises might have instigated hostilities, but combined they added a belligerent tone to each nation’s dealings. British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, decided to adopt a belligerent tone, and sent what became known as the December Ultimatum to their American counterparts, demanding it be accepted in full or face war. The Lincoln administration for its part scrambled to find some face saving concessions which could be made that would both mollify the British and the American public. Lincoln attempted to submit the dispute for international arbitration, and in doing so caused the British ambassador to leave the United States in the hopes he could convince his superiors to acquiesce to a negotiated settlement.
1862
Instead, when the news reached London, Britain believed it was merely a tactic designed to stall for time in order to allow for an American invasion of Canada. So on February 6th 1862, the British Empire declared war on the United States. What might even than have been a limited conflict became unavoidable with the British occupation of Houlton and Fort Fairfield in Maine on February 22nd, a battle with few deaths, but enough blood spilt on American soil to incense the public. This was closely followed by the Royal Navy destroying the American “Key West Flotilla” on February 28th at the Battle of the Keys, and soon thereafter instituting a blockade of the United States.
As the spring of 1862 dawned, the three sides of the conflict, the United States, the Confederate States, and Britain would carry out simultaneous campaigns to gain an advantage over the other. In the north, an abortive American invasion of Canada East (Quebec) with the aim of capturing Montreal was turned back at the bloody Battle of Lacolle. In Canada West (Ontario), despite some setbacks, the United States managed to capture Toronto by July of 1862. Britain followed their successful defenses up with a descent on the city of Portland Maine where, despite a skillful landing, tenacious American resistance resulted in the British having to settle in to a siege of the city after the naval and landing forces failed to coordinate.
On the Potomac front, the Army of the Potomac under General McClellan managed to push the Confederacy out of Centreville. However, his forces were weakened by the crushing defeat of the Union army in the Shenandoah Valley under Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson at the Battle of Winchester in early 1862, drawing off forces that could have been useful elsewhere. Pushing the Confederate forces back to the Rappahannock, he aimed to drive overland to force the Confederate army to battle. However, despite the victory at Centreville and numerous small skirmishes in between, he dawdled, allowing the Confederate forces time to regroup.
In the West, General Grant’s triumphal drives through Tennessee were interrupted by the outbreak of war with Britain. This allowed the Confederate armies under A. S. Johnston to regroup, launching a counterattack of their own. However, Johnston’s army stalled around the defenses of Nashville, not wishing to become bogged down in a siege, his forces soon executed an invasion of Kentucky.
August of 1862 would be a month of unmitigated disasters for the United States. At the very beginning of August the city of Portland fell to the British siege, her defenses having finally been overcome, with 4,000 casualties and 6,000 soldiers surrendering to the British. On August 9th the titanic Battle of Bardstown was fought in Kentucky, which though a Confederate victory, badly mauled both armies with 23,000 casualties on either side, the battle did weaken the Union forces enough that the Confederacy could reoccupy Nashville. Three days later on August 12th, McClellan’s drive into Virginia was ended bloodily at the Rappahannock with his army being thrown back by Joseph Johnston’s, leaving 10,400 for either side casualties in the wake of the Rappahannock Campaign. The Union invasion of Canada met a similar bloody repulse at Mount Pelion, stalling the campaign in Canada West and leaving 7,700 casualties on either side. August would end in a series of further embarrassing naval defeats from Massachusetts Bay to Cape Henlopen. It became known as the Black Month for American Arms.
On the seas and inland waters, yet more bad naval news followed. The Royal Navy’s Inshore Squadron bombarded Portsmouth, destroying the naval yard and defending squadron. On Lake Ontario, an audacious movement to try and open up the flanks of the Canadians at Kingston was defeated at the Battle of Snake Island, severely weakening the American Lake Ontario Squadron.
The one bright side of the summer fighting was the victory of Admiral Farragut’s squadron at Little Gull Island, delivering the Royal Navy a bloody nose in June whereas they had previously swept the USN before them.
In the far west, Confederate victories in Indian Territory and Arizona Territory allowed them to carve out claims on the Trans-Mississippi, while the British invasion of Washington Territory saw them occupying Olympia and making their colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver safe.
September brought some relief for the United States. The British counter invasion of New York ended in a repulse at the Battle of Rouses Point while their small naval squadron was turned back in a bloody duel on Lake Champlain. The Confederate effort to invade northern Virginia bogged down in the Second Battle of Centreville, resulting in Joseph Johnston’s replacement by Jefferson Davis with his military advisor Robert E. Lee.
The spate of fresh victories allowed Lincoln to deliver his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on October 21st 1862, which declared all those held in bondage in the rebel states to be free. Though seen as a step in the right direction for the nation, it was not enough for many abolitionists and many in Britain felt it was a matter of little interest to them. It did nothing to stop the British from discussing a joint strategy for 1863 with their Confederate counterparts.
1862 would end in Virginia with Lee launching an invasion that caught the Federal army off guard, but both sides battered one another to a standstill at Chantilly from November 23-24, with McClellan withdrawing from the battlefield. Lee’s army, no less battered, soon withdrew to Virginia. The final victory of 1862 would be the capture of Island No. 10 by General Grant’s forces in December, leaving the way to Memphis open on the Mississippi.
1863
Both sides began 1863 reconsidering their strategies and plans for the coming year. In Richmond and London, the two co-belligerents, largely at the insistence of Admiral Milne and General Lee, had decided on a joint offensive against Washington, with the hope to quickly end the war that year. For the United States, there was the hope for another northern offensive into Canada to capture Montreal and bisect the eastern and western halves of the country. In the West, Grant and Thomas were determined to push further south, Grant towards Corinth, and Thomas towards Knoxville.
The need for speedy military success was made clear that winter in Canada with anti-draft riots in Montreal, while the United States, as a consequence of its own draft laws and fears over masses of freedmen coming north to compete for work, saw massive draft riots break out in nearly every major city in the east except New York that summer.
On April 29th, 1863, Lee opened up his great Maryland Campaign by bursting from his winter camps and invading the Shenandoah Valley in force. Maneuvering north, he brought McClellan’s forces into the Battle of Frederick and from the 14th-17th of May pinned them in place and finally pushed them back, breaking out towards Washington. This prompted the evacuation of the Federal government towards Philadelphia, while worse news emerged in the rear. On May 9th, a strong force of Confederates landed at Annapolis under the protection of British guns and began marching north to invest the capital. This prompted the swift flight of McClellan’s forces back to the city. By the 24th of May, Washington was besieged by the Confederates.
From the northern frontier, ice on the inland waterways and the death of General Sumner delayed both armies from their prospective campaigns. In early May, Field Marshal Henry Dundas and the Army of Canada began their campaign first, launching a wide arc invasion into New York. Twin victories at Mooer’s Junction and Second Rouses Point meant that the early invasion of New York was a smashing success for the British forces, quickly pushing Ambrose Burnside’s forces south towards Ticonderoga. The following battles at Chazy and on Lake Champlain crushed the Union naval squadron, and further pushed Burnside into the interior. Burnside used every piece of terrain to his advantage and bled the British in assaults as they moved towards the lynchpin to Albany. Eventually however, the British would lay siege to Ticonderoga.
In Canada West, a determined guerilla campaign had weakened the Union supply lines, forcing them to retreat to Toronto, and by the spring of 1863, the 3rd Corps of the Army of Canada had marched west and settled down into an open ended “siege” of the city.
In the Western theater, the year began well with the capture of Memphis, but Grant’s efforts to coordinate with the naval squadrons on the lower Mississippi ended in fiasco at the Battle of Fort Johnson in March 1863 with the sinking of the Cairo and the death of Commodore Foote, severely weakening the Mississippi Flotilla just as the Confederate flotilla under Hollins was becoming stronger. Realizing he could either attempt a do or die naval battle, or proceed overland to Corinth, Grant chose to attack Corinth.
Between April and May, Grant successfully overran Confederate pickets and all attempts to slow his attacks were in vain. Johnston fell back on the now strong defenses at Corinth and Grant obliged in attacking them. However, despite a numerical superiority, Grant was unable to completely encircle the city, and the fighting fell into desultory siege work. The great attacks on May 3rd and 4th led to catastrophe for the army, and the death of the capable General William Tecumseh Sherman. The siege would settle into a mire of blood and mud.
In Kentucky, despite a brilliant opening campaign by Thomas against Kirby Smith, the gains would be unceremoniously abandoned as the need to protect Washington suddenly overrode all other concerns and Thomas, along with thousands of his men, were called east to relieve the capital.
On the Pacific slope, further campaigning saw Britain capture more territory in Oregon and Washington, but the greatest strategic blow landed as Britain amassed a force to capture the great city of San Francisco. On August 27th the British Pacific Squadron and Pacific Division landed to attack the city. The Battle of the Golden Gate destroyed the American Pacific Squadron and left the city completely at the mercy of the British forces, leading to its surrender to Britain. It was a devastating loss, and a blow to national moral and the hopes of those on the Pacific slope for a speedy conclusion of the war.
The month of July 1863 was defined by three sieges. The Siege of Corinth, the Siege of Ticonderoga and the Siege of Washington.
At Washington, General McClellan would be relieved of command as intrigue amongst the generals of the Army of the Potomac convinced Secretary of War Stanton that the general planned to surrender the city. In his place, William Rosecrans was selected to head the Army of the Potomac.
By the end of July, the weight of British metal had ended the Siege of Ticonderoga and sent the Army of the Hudson south once more.
At Corinth, the army was wasting away from disease, a terrible supply situation, and Grant’s increasing concern meant that the siege was lifted on August 1st. The wastage had been terrible for both sides, and even Albert Sidney Johnston would find himself ill for the rest of his life as he struggled with disease. He did however follow up with a counter offensive of his own, attempting to defeat Grant on the Kentucky/Tennessee border, only to batter his army against skillfully dug entrenchments. On the Mississippi however, the Confederacy won a great naval victory at the Battle of Memphis as their squadron routed its Union counterpart. Further Confederate victories came in Kentucky as the soldiers of Kirby Smith hammered their foes under Granger at Perryville, leading to fears the whole state may fall into Confederate hands.
The high points for Union morale in 1863 came in late August as Thomas and Rosecrans broke the Siege of Washington at the Battle of Savage’s Station, with Lee’s forces being broken on strong Federal resistance. At Whiskey Hill the whole war was decided as Lee’s men failed to break the determined resistance of the “Dutchmen” and failed to cut Thomas’s forces in two. Finally, the charge of Sandford’s New York division routed Lee and sent him retreating through Maryland to restore the two halves of his now shattered army.
Finally, the Burnside managed to stall the British invasion of New York at Saratoga, battering the British to a standstill in the bloodiest battle of the Northern theater, leaving 13,000 casualties on both sides. However, British raids and attacks showed that they were not yet defeated, and 1864 promised to open a new campaign against Albany.
The one great reversal on the seas came again in New York where Admiral Farragut dealt the British their worst defeat between Grand Port and the Battle of the Falklands at the Battle of Sandy Hook, raising American morale enough that Lincoln felt he could find a solution to the war.
However, the defeats of 1863 had political consequences far beyond Washington. In Canada, the threat of the war and any future invasion prompted the otherwise loose collection of British colonies to unite, with debates around creating the Kingdom of Canada stretching into 1864 and finally being ratified by Parliament in 1866. In the United States, the Democratic opposition, despite being divided by pro-war and pro-peace parties, finally rallied around one another after the Albany Conference into a single bloc determined to turn Lincoln out of office and had a martyr in George B. McClellan.
In October 1863, Lincoln finally decided that peace with Britain was necessary to finish the civil war at home. The two sides approached one another on the matter of an armistice, and prepared to commence negotiations.
One final campaign against Union City ended 1863 and stretched into 1864, but would eventually see the resignation of A. S. Johnston and his replacement with Braxton Bragg. Most infamously, the campaign led to the notorious “Fort Sherman Massacre” which would have terrible consequences in the years to come.
1864
At the beginning of 1864, the United States and Britain met at Rotterdam in Europe. The two sides hammered out an agreement and, despite not liking the terms, the United States would reluctantly acquiesce to the Treaty of Rotterdam, ending the war between the United States and Great Britain. Despite not losing much territory, the treaty was a blow to national pride and added significant costs to the American treasury for little gain, while leaving lingering resentments and issues to be resolved. In particular, the state of Maine would be furious with the outcome, having lost a substantial chunk of territory.
In an election year for Lincoln, this was an inauspicious beginning.
However, the year’s campaigning began well. Rosecrans led his army south, breaking the Confederate lines south of the Potomac and driving them back. From May to June he pushed Lee’s army back to the Rappahannock where both armies would briefly pause. Lee once again attempted to draw soldiers off by sending Jackson on another invasion of the Shenandoah Valley where brutal fighting between John Pope and Jackson’s corps would lead to heavy casualties and no quarter between the men of the African American XX Corps. The Battle of Strasburg was a mutual blood letting with appalling casualties on either side, while Jackson’s attempt to turn Pope out at Second Winchester also failed thanks to the bravery of the Colored Volunteers.
Rosecrans, meanwhile, moved south again, pushing Lee deeper into Virginia. Lee moved to reorient his forces to a defensive position at Mine Run. For that, he needed time, and both armies would maneuver in a vicious skirmish in the Battle of the Wilderness that was a successful delaying action for Lee. However, Rosecrans would still arrive outside Lee’s entrenchments at Mine Run. The brutal battle was akin to trench warfare from a later age, but the surprising arrival of Jackson’s troops left Rosecrans flank dangling in the air, and on June 29th a flanking attack completely shattered the Army of the Potomac. The battle was a lopsided defeat, with 37,000 dead wounded and captured on each side, crushing the Army of the Potomac’s morale, but with far higher casualties for the Union. It was Lee’s perfect battle, his Gaugamela.
No less dispiriting to Union morale was the last battle in Canada, the Battle of Davenport Ridge on July 2nd, which came merely days after the delayed ratification of the Treaty of Rotterdam due to miscommunication. It saw the Union army driven from Toronto and the Canadians have one last morale building victory, and a final humiliation for the United States in Canada.
In the West, no less embarrassing reversals followed. The Union Mississippi Squadron was soundly defeated by its Confederate counterpart at the Battle of Columbus on March 14th, forcing Grant to detach strong forces to defend the Union outposts on the Mississippi. He was then forced into an overland campaign against Kentucky, aiming to capture Knoxville. Though difficult, Grant’s Overland Campaign began well, driving the Confederates south, and at the Battle of Raccoon Spring he set the stage for the Battle of Barbourville in August, which pushed Bragg from Kentucky entirely.
In the east, Lee followed up his victory at Mine Run with another invasion of the North. Hoping to get as far as Harrisburg, he moved northwards through the Valley with his whole army, discomforting Reynolds Army of the Valley which moved to shield Washington. However, Lee wanted to take the fighting out of Virginia for a time, and Pope, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac soon realized his intentions and turned to follow. The campaign saw the largest cavalry battle of the war at the Battle of Cress Ridge on August 25th with 15,000 cavalry present, and it saw the Union give as good as they got to their, until then, more powerful Confederate counterparts.
The campaign culminated at the Battle of Pipe Creek from August 31st to September 1st. In a lopsided battle, Lee had some 9,000 casualties to Pope’s 15,000. Lee’s army was too battered to follow up as it had some months earlier, and when Rosecrans did not counter attack, Lee withdrew unmolested to Virginia.
September was bookended by a bloody repulse during the Siege of Annapolis, which though it bottled up the Confederate forces and made Washington safe to reoccupy, it did little to appease a Northern public weary of blood.
October opened with an audacious landing in South Carolina at the Second Battle of Port Royal, seeing a Union army land on the South Carolina coast once again creating a lodgement it was hoped would drive a dagger into the heart of secession.
Though Grant managed to hammer his way overland into Kentucky, he had some bloody but notable victories. At the Battle of Cuba on October 4th Phillip Sheridan defeated and killed Nathan Bedford Forest “The Wizard of the Saddle” in battle and severely curbed his otherwise debilitating raids on Grant’s supply lines. Grant, now encouraged, moved south into Tennessee to attack Knoxville. Lee had detached Jackson’s corps west to attempt to support Bragg, and though the two men did not get along, they cooperated just enough to engage Grant at the Battle of House Mountain (otherwise known as the Battle of Knoxville) on October 24th. Grant, caught by surprise, was defeated and pushed back into Kentucky lest he face a harsh winter in the barren landscape of East Tennessee.
This was followed by Kirby Smith’s counter invasion of Kentucky which, although small, captured Bowling Green and points in central Kentucky.
With the litany of defeats across the summer and fall of 1864 and the lingering anger over the Treaty of Rotterdam, Lincoln went to the polls against his old general, George McClellan. The Radical Republicans split from the party, leading to vote splitting, allowing McClellan to sweep into the White House winning the 1864 election.
Lincoln’s last acts in office were to try and set up a favorable campaigning season for 1865 and pass legislation that would further his Emancipation Proclamation. A lame duck congress manned by a small majority of Democrats did not support him, and the harsh winter of 1864-65 meant few campaigns could be undertaken, with only a small victory at Little Rock in Arkansas and a heroic raid into South Carolina being the Union victories of late 1864 and early 1865.
1865
Taking office in March 1865, McClellan found himself at an impasse. His administration was split between Copperhead peace Democrats who wanted to end the war, and loyal men who would fight the war, but desired to try and negotiate first. Showing his political immaturity, McClellan offered talks between the Confederacy and the United States. The two sides met at Louisville where the cracks between the major parties showed. Making no efforts to steer the outcome, certain his subordinates were doing what he wanted, he allowed a Copperhead faction to gain sway over enough of the Union delegation to pass a narrow vote in favor of peace and separation. Compounding his error, McClellan had publicly sworn to abide by the results of this Conference of the States.
Dithering for a time, McClellan finally relented and began organizing his government on the basis of peace and separation. He would end the war by decree on July 25th 1865. This was made more palatable as the news of the Louisville Convention reached Europe and a diplomatic initiative led by France saw a swathe of European powers recognize the Confederate States, with an implicit threat that there may be intervention if their wishes were not respected. Reluctantly, the United States would accept this state of affairs.
The two sides would finally meet at Havana and there hammer out the treaty ending the war. The Treaty of Havana was agreed to in late 1865 and ratified by the two nations in early 1866. It stipulated the Confederacy was a sovereign nation, and spelled out the territorial claims to each, while firmly resolving that slaves who set foot on Union soil were not to be turned back. The treaty satisfied almost no one, and it left lingering questions which would take time to answer.
However, the Great American War was, at last, over. The map of North America was forever changed and the United States with it." - The Pocket Guide to American History
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After so many years, I figured the "cliff notes" version of the war would be useful. So a marathon reread allowed me to redo all the highlights of the war, the most important battles, and get the gist off as we go to round out 1865!
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That Harrison novel is probably the most implausible other than BROS ever writtenMuch as I've said no Turtledove, no Harry Harrison either
I'm just hoping we can see how the Alt Paraguay War will turn out, I wonder how the butterflies will affect there.
While the latter was mostly obnoxious, the former was just pants on head bonkers!
That will definitely be sorted out in my "Year in Review" sections as time goes by that's for sure!
Reading throught the war's summary, I realized the Royal Navy has lengthened its list of... taunting ship names.
I wouldn't be surprise to soon hear about
HMS Keys
HMS Portland
HMS Lake Champlain
HMS Golden Gate
and my personal favourite:
HMS Ticonderoga
I wouldn't be surprise to soon hear about
HMS Keys
HMS Portland
HMS Lake Champlain
HMS Golden Gate
and my personal favourite:
HMS Ticonderoga
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Very true, but the US will have a few of their own:
USS Sandy Hook (already in use)
USS Farragut
USS Saratoga
USS Toronto
I think from here I can already hear the duel between the armoured cruisers USS Toronto and HMS Saratoga off Sable Island in 1906...
Now that would be worth seeing, though undoubtedly the Admiralty would be twitching nervously as they would be debating if it was either the American Atlantic Fleet or German Hochseeflotte that was the greater danger...