Wrapped In Flames
Chapter I
"We will wrap the whole world in flames." United States Secretary of State William H. Seward as overheard at a diplomatic function by William H. Russell in 1862 during the Trent Crisis.
"To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order…” – Confucius
“…when on the 1st of October Albert was riding alone in his carriage in Coburg tragedy struck. On his way to a meeting the carriage, drawn by four horses, bolted with sudden alarm. The driver attempted to reign them in to no avail. The carriage struck the rear of another at a railway crossing in a terrific crash. The driver fell into the seething mass of braying horseflesh but managed to escape relatively unharmed. The Prince Consort was not so lucky.
It is believed that due to the pain from stomach cramps his attempt to jump clear ended with him tumbling from a sudden cramp which meant he fell into the worst possible position as upon impact the carriage crashed and flipped sending Albert hurtling from his seat. He landed two feet away at an unfortunate angle breaking an arm and suffering a serious head wound which rendered him unconscious. He failed to awake an hour later, and at 9pm he was pronounced dead.
Victoria almost immediately went into grieving, and all of Britain joined her…” A Biography of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Nigel Loring, Oxford University, 2011[1]
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In raiding and plundering be like fire – Sun Tsu
“…When the American Civil War broke out in April of 1861 the British government in London adopted a policy of neutrality. However, events would transpire which would end up testing that neutrality to the limits. Starting in September 1861 with the St. Albans Raid and continuing up to January 30th 1862 the normally friendly relations between Great Britain and the United States would deteriorate…” To Arms!: America at War 1861-1864, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.
The Border Crisis:
“On the morning of October 10th 1861 three men checked themselves into a local hotel in St. Albans Vermont. They claimed they were from Saint John’s in Canada (East) and had come to Vermont to have a ‘hunting trip’ which was not unusual for men of middling wealth as they appeared to be. However over the next several days they rarely left the hotel and were steadily joined by nineteen more men. Finally the group struck on the morning of the 19th of October.
The men proclaimed themselves to be in service to the government of the Confederate States of America and acting under orders to collect funds for the war effort. They acted quickly, rounding up the villagers at gun point. Several tried to resist as shouted orders to assemble and Confederate proclamations were called. Two men were killed, one wounded, and a woman injured in the first crossfire but the Confederates seized the town with little difficulty. Nine men held the villagers while the others separated the bank tellers and forced them to open the vaults of the three banks in town. Before they did this they were compelled to swear allegiance to the Confederate States of America, therefore making them accomplices to the robbery (or so the raiders claimed). That done they managed to seize a total of 209,000$ from the three banks, all of the towns horses and over a dozen bottles of liquor. Before they left they tossed incendiary devices at three buildings but these failed to ignite and only burnt down one shed while badly damaging one homes porch.
The men rode like hell for the border and pursuit was not joined for over six hours allowing a clean escape.
These raiders, not being mere bandits, were actually a band of some twenty five Confederate soldiers selected for special service along the British North American frontier with the intent of both pulling Union forces away from the war to the South, and by violating British neutrality they hoped to pull Great Britain into the internecine warfare raging through the United States. It was hoped this would both alleviate the pressure on the Confederacy while also securing foreign recognition thus achieving a fait accompli in diplomatic negotiations with the other nations of the world and thereby dealing fatal blow to Union diplomacy.
The men were led by the daring Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan, and organized into a quick raiding force meant to cause terror and panic while wreaking havoc behind Union lines. Here he also hoped to steal enough money to fund further campaigns
The raiders next struck six days later, raiding Franklin Vermont on the 23rd in a morning raid seizing the bank teller while starting several fires to distract the townsfolk. They made off with a further 45,000$ but suffered one killed in a gun fight with armed villagers. They again escaped across the border. This time though they were closely pursued by a militia posse.
However, the raiders had split into two groups at this point. The other, under the energetic young lieutenant Bennet H. Young, had split off to deposit their winnings while the others were to lead the posse to the nearest Canadian settlement then disperse. The first thing they found however was a Canadian militia patrol which arrested them immediately. The militia met up with their Americans counterparts who began demanding immediate custody of the fugitives, while the Canadians refused, insisting they be tried in local courts. There was a tense standoff over the next hour while the two sides negotiated.
There was a reluctant agreement and the American militia returned home to inform their government of these events. Meanwhile Young and his men were captured in St. John in an ironic turn of events, and soon all the raiders were held there awaiting trial…” A History of Special Forces, James Rawles, University of Moscow, Idaho, 2001[2]
The raiders force bank tellers to swear allegiance to the Confederacy
“…the trial was a sensational event both north and south of the border. Newspapers from Maine to Delaware reported on the actions of the raiders as bandits and highwaymen, while in Richmond the men were lauded as heroes. In the Canadian papers the more conservative elements tended to brand them as dashing rebels being a burr in the Union saddle while liberal papers insisted they were nothing but the lowest of criminals beholden to no one but themselves. The trial was held in St John (or Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu) with local lawyer Bernard Devlin speaking on behalf of the prosecution for the Lincoln government and Charles-Joseph Coursol for the defence. However sensational it might be it was soon overshadowed by events further south…
…the trial concluded on December 3rd with Coursol successfully arguing that since the men were acting under orders from their government they could not be extradited as the neutral British nation was not entitled to extradite them. This reading of the law was based on an error in understanding not easily ratified in the courts at this time. Coursol based his arguments on the fact that the Canadian extradition act of 1861 had not been proclaimed by the British parliament (in actuality it had been proclaimed nearly a month before). Still the technicality passed and the raiders were released. The news caused much uproar both within Canada and without and Coursol was soon scapegoated in an attempt to ease the pressure on the government...” To Arms!: America at War 1861-1864, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.
The Trent Crisis:
“On November 7th 1862 the British mail steamer R.M.S Trent left Havana harbor bound for St. Thomas and then England. She was carrying the usual dispatches and passengers, but she had two last minute passengers as well. James Mason and John Slidell had recently made a dash to Cuba in order to board a steamer bound for England. They were the representatives chosen by the Confederate States government in Richmond to act as envoys to France and England. The government in Washington had been tracking them and was anxious to capture them in order to prevent any possible recognition of the rebel states. Thankfully these two men would steam almost directly into the hands of USN captain Charles Wilkes…
…Aboard the deck of the USS San Jacinto Wilkes held an impromptu prize court. This was not unusual of Wilkes’s brash and aggressive style of command. It had often been said that had a reputation as a stubborn, overzealous, impulsive, and sometimes insubordinate officer, with Treasury Officer George Harrington writing so Seward saying"He will give us trouble. He has a superabundance of self-esteem and a deficiency of judgment. When he commanded his great exploring mission he court-martialed nearly all his officers; he alone was right, everybody else was wrong." So the quick and abrupt nature of his decision was not unusual for his command style and he needed to make the best of a potentially bad situation. He announced his intention to take the Trent as a prize so he could justify seizing the dispatches of the two envoys. Amazingly none of his officers disagreed with his decision and he proceeded to steam alongside the Trent and fired a warning shot. The Trent had the Union Jack raised high and at first ignored the shot. The second shot however was something which could not be safely ignored and she slowed to allow herself to communicate with a launch party from the San Jacinto…
…almost immediately Lieutenant Fairfax ran into trouble. The crew and passengers of the ship were belligerent and when he announced his intention to seize the ship as a prize a fight broke out between two of the crew and his marines. Though it was quelled almost immediately the passengers proved utterly unwilling to cooperate with Fairfax’s instructions and did everything they could to hamper the search of the ship. Finally events came to a head when Richard Williams (a Royal Navy officer in charge of the ships dispatches) bluntly refused to allow the Confederate envoys bags to be searched. Although it is unclear what happened it is known a fight ensued between Williams and Fairfax which ended in Williams shot dead. Since only Williams, Fairfax and two marine escorts were present at the time of the altercation the truth of the matter will almost certainly never be known, however all present asserted that Fairfax shot in self defence after Williams verbally lashed out and Fairfax produced his pistol in order to make Williams more compliant the marines reported a scuffle ensued in which Fairfax fired his pistol, not intending to kill Williams. The news of the death spread quickly and the remaining passengers and crew settled into reluctant compliance as the Trent was towed back towards Union waters…” A History of Diplomatic Blunders, Friedrich Kaufmann, Imperial University, Moscow, 1969[3]
The San Jacinto's marines prepare to board the Trent
“…news of the event reached Ottawa and Quebec long before it reached London. At the time most Canadians were still grappling with the court battle in St. Jean and the news of the seizure merely served to add to an alarmist tendency present in much of Canada West. The militia had already been called out on October 25th upon news of the border raid, but now there was a renewed call for volunteers as it was feared the news meant immediate war. Along the border men from Sarnia to Kingston prepared for battle and began drilling with whatever came to hand. Though not encouraged by Ottawa or Quebec it was not discouraged either. From the perspective of Her Majesties Government in Quebec it was a potential way to finally force the colonials to begin adopting some of the expense relating to their defence. From Ottawa’s perspective it gave ammunition to John A. MacDonald’s government with which to browbeat their opponents under John. S. MacDonald to pass a bill relating to the colonies defence. For both parties it seemed like the crisis served an immediate goal of furthering a political agenda.
The news mostly caused outrage in Canada West, one reason the usually the less than enthusiastic militia companies seemed to find their ranks suddenly filled to bursting with new recruits. Petitions to the government to enroll more militia battalions to accommodate the sudden influx of volunteers were written by nearly every community. Requests were made to begin work on a new fort at Sarnia to protect the frontier while in Kingston the volunteer rifles exceeded their authority by expanding their ranks to accommodate an entirely new battalion…
…in Canada East however, not a single shovel was raised to dig earthworks, in many regions militia enrollment remained the same, while others it dwindled as many realized they might be called to die for the crown. Montreal and some surrounding towns had large turnouts, but in the regions where the very old Catholic Francophone population held sway there was one overwhelming feeling, resentment. They felt as though they were being pulled along into an Anglophone’s war they had no stake in. Many south of Montreal were especially bitter as they realized they would be right in the path of the fighting no matter what they did.
The great feeling of many Frenchmen in the farms and villages was that they simply wanted to be left alone. The governments in Ottawa and Quebec were usually far away and other than tax collectors, railroad workers, and constables they rarely made themselves known. Any sort of intrusion into their quiet lives was almost universally unwelcome. The rural French had only poor memories of the English from either side of the border and were more than content to let them kill each other, but they sullenly realized that eventually the fighting would come to their door steps. Some reckoned it was better to fight and defend their homes, others said it was folly to get involved in English business. Why should they fight when at last they had a say in governing? They had men to speak for them, and men who were wise enough to realize they wanted to be left out of English problems.
While in the taverns of Canada West the Anglophones cursed the Yankees who dishonored the Queen, in the taverns of Quebec the Francophones cursed all English speakers and put dark bets on when the shooting would start. If there was one universal feeling amongst the people of the Canadas, it was that war was inevitable…” The Myth of a United Canada, Isabelle Williams, McGill University, 2009
A company of Canadian militia volunteers at Elora, Canada West 1862
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[1] The accident is real, but the Prince survived with a few minor bruises. Coincidentally after the accident he decided he wasn’t long for this world.
[2] This is of course the infamous St. Albans raid, but moved up earlier at the request of a particular Kentuckian.
[3] Yes the cliché Trent affair! While reading about it I was fairly surprised by how belligerent the crew of the Trent was with the marines of the San Jacinto, and OTL Fairfax did have an altercation with the Royal Navy officer over the dispatches. Here it just gets a little out of hand for reasons unknown. This is more than enough, coupled with the border incident to get the blood of the British politicians up to start acting belligerent, especially when one considers how Palmerston was never the sort of ‘military action as a last resort’ as a prime minister.
However, it of course won't lead to war by itself...
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Well here's my shot at the Anglo-American war idea. I'm writing this to explore the effects on North America specifically, but also the effects it would have on Canada as well since it would probably be the definitive moment of 'Canadian' history at this point.
I'm also going to examine the effects on the broader world as well. Mind you we first have to set the stage then continue on to the meat of the story, with some narrative which I hope won't be too awful Anyways the second chapter will be up come the weekend I think with a narrative bit just after.