You know I was just thinking about this time line today. Looks like I won't be waiting much longer to get my fix for this story!
Quite a list of characters there. I'm looking forward to how this all progresses.
A Glorious Union or America: the New Sparta
- Thread starter TheKnightIrish
- Start date
You know I was just thinking about this time line today. Looks like I won't be waiting much longer to get my fix for this story!
Quite a list of characters there. I'm looking forward to how this all progresses.
Its funny, I was just thinking about it as well. Glad to have this timeline back!
Sooner or later, the day will come whne Phillip J Kearney will become President of the United States.
Bump!
That said, I've some questions.
As I started to reread the entire TL, I've some difficulty to imagine the battlefield of Mont Vernon, Kentucky. I tried to find on maps of the region elements of topography mentionned in the chapter 8, but I can't find anything speaking aside of vague guesses. If you does have one map of the battlefield, even handcrafted of the battlefield, it would help greatly.
This makes me also wondering how you could find so much intel about topographic elements of ATL battlefields while there weren't fights of import I know of happening nearby; I understand for Virginia, that's not the case since any area must have been visited some time during the war with so many armies and battles on such a restricted region, but that's less evident for regions such as Kentucky or even North Carolina such as later in the TL.
I'm also impatient to see how you will deal with the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 as we're not far from it, especially if a French intervention is in the air.
That said, I've some questions.
As I started to reread the entire TL, I've some difficulty to imagine the battlefield of Mont Vernon, Kentucky. I tried to find on maps of the region elements of topography mentionned in the chapter 8, but I can't find anything speaking aside of vague guesses. If you does have one map of the battlefield, even handcrafted of the battlefield, it would help greatly.
This makes me also wondering how you could find so much intel about topographic elements of ATL battlefields while there weren't fights of import I know of happening nearby; I understand for Virginia, that's not the case since any area must have been visited some time during the war with so many armies and battles on such a restricted region, but that's less evident for regions such as Kentucky or even North Carolina such as later in the TL.
I'm also impatient to see how you will deal with the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 as we're not far from it, especially if a French intervention is in the air.
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Two Military Odds and Sods Part I
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Two
Military Odds and Sods
Part I
From "Kearny's Army - The United States Army from the Civil War to the Emperors' War"Military Odds and Sods
Part I
MacArthur University 2007
"Humphreys would be the grateful recipient of the assistance of the West Texas Jaegers, more popularly known to history as the German Rangers, made up primarily but not exclusively of first and second generation German and Polish immigrants to Texas. The Texas Rangers had been thoroughly discredited by its actions against Unionist sympathizers during the Civil War...
...of course the battle in which the German Rangers and a handful of regular cavalry would bring Myles Keogh's name into the public consciousness did not occur until 1869..."
A trooper of the West Texas Jaegers
From "Kearny's Army - The United States Army from the Civil War to the Emperors' War"
MacArthur University 2007
"In the West the Tribes had taken the war as an opportunity to strike back at unguarded settlers. From Oregon to Minnesota there had been running fights with regulars, volunteers, militia and settlers. With the war over there seemed little likelihood the raiding and fighting would stop. The Tribes' efforts were only encouraged when it became clear the guarding of the West would play second fiddle to the garrisoning of the South...
During the Snake River War Fitzjohn Porter had so few cavalry he resorted to training his infantry to ride in an attempt to compensate. With his Mounted Infantry Porter had the first stirrings of a force capable to striking out against the lightening raids of the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock. He was considerably more successful than either Halleck's or Burnside's attempts to protect Northern California..."
Brigadier-General Fitzjohn Porter
From "The Plains Wars" by Marcus Tamboro
Burlingame 1985
"The Dakota and Montana Territories were a powder keg. Memories of the Dakota War and the brutal execution of the 44 "unpardonable prisoners" were still fresh...
Colonel George Stoneman had been sent by Buford to secure the Bozeman Trail. To do it Buford only had two regiments of under strength infantry to spare and a handful of engineers. Having reinforced Fort Reno, Stoneman sought to establish two additional forts farther north: Forts C.F. Smith and George Meade. Once the construction work began it was obvious what the soldiers purpose was. Realizing that they could not successfully take a fully manned fort a number of the local chiefs resolved to attack Stoneman before he could finish his work. A huge number of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho had gathered as Stoneman's troops worked on Fort George Meade...
After several days of very intermittent and ineffective sniping and raiding Stoneman's troops had a workable system for responding. However the Tribes feeble attempts had been a ruse to lure the hated soldiers into a false sense of their superiority. On 19th November Stoneman received word of an attack on the wood train. He assumed it was another minor raid. It was in fact a full scale attack led by They Fear His Horses of the Oglala Lakota. Stoneman was slow to realize the scale of the attack and fed his infantry piecemeal up the trial to assist the wood train. The reinforcements were in their turn ambushed by more warriors under the command of Hump of the Miniconjou Lakotas...
3000 poorly armed warriors should not have been able to defeat four companies of US regulars and in one sense they did not. Instead they cut up in turn four separated companies of the 19th United States Infantry over 5 hours...
Burlingame 1985
"The Dakota and Montana Territories were a powder keg. Memories of the Dakota War and the brutal execution of the 44 "unpardonable prisoners" were still fresh...
Colonel George Stoneman had been sent by Buford to secure the Bozeman Trail. To do it Buford only had two regiments of under strength infantry to spare and a handful of engineers. Having reinforced Fort Reno, Stoneman sought to establish two additional forts farther north: Forts C.F. Smith and George Meade. Once the construction work began it was obvious what the soldiers purpose was. Realizing that they could not successfully take a fully manned fort a number of the local chiefs resolved to attack Stoneman before he could finish his work. A huge number of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho had gathered as Stoneman's troops worked on Fort George Meade...
After several days of very intermittent and ineffective sniping and raiding Stoneman's troops had a workable system for responding. However the Tribes feeble attempts had been a ruse to lure the hated soldiers into a false sense of their superiority. On 19th November Stoneman received word of an attack on the wood train. He assumed it was another minor raid. It was in fact a full scale attack led by They Fear His Horses of the Oglala Lakota. Stoneman was slow to realize the scale of the attack and fed his infantry piecemeal up the trial to assist the wood train. The reinforcements were in their turn ambushed by more warriors under the command of Hump of the Miniconjou Lakotas...
3000 poorly armed warriors should not have been able to defeat four companies of US regulars and in one sense they did not. Instead they cut up in turn four separated companies of the 19th United States Infantry over 5 hours...
Stoneman dug in overnight at the site of what would eventually become Fort George Meade with about 70 men of Company D and 26 engineers, surveyors and sappers. They Fear His Horses and Hump withdrew in the night secure in the knowledge that the soldiers would likely flee come the morning. In truth as soon as Stoneman was reasonably sure the Tribes had withdrawn he and his men "lit off outta there" (Private Woodes Mitchell, 19th Infantry)...
Though Stoneman would be cashiered from the service in disgrace for his handling of the Battle of the Bozeman (after, it is rumored, General Kearny sent an aide to present Stoneman with one of his own pistols, a single round, and a blunt suggestion) there were more immediate concerns for the army. With almost 230 soldiers killed (the worst defeat in the history of the Plains Wars) an immediate response was required. General Buford's response was swift and would become known as the Bozeman War. By the end of that war the Lakota name for Buford, Ikíčhize or War Horse, would be forever burned into the history of the Plains..."
"The Reconstruction Era" by Michael Baylor
Grosvenor 2006
"While Isaac Stevens may have been a good choice for the post of commander of the military district of the Missouri, he had barely arrived in St. Louis before leaving again to join General Kearny in Europe. The stop gap appointment was William Rosecrans. Rosecrans however did not prove a politic choice. He quickly established a reputation for openly showing his contempt for both factions - Republican and Democrat. Such was the hostility towards Rosecrans that Lincoln would press for his replacement before he had held the post for 8 months. The War Office's eye fell on General Chauncey McKeever. Quiet, unassuming, yet practical and very politically savvy, McKeever was known to be extremely close to his old chief, Phil Kearny, and this alone seemed to give him sufficient authority to mediate between the factions in the district. President Lincoln would note that when faced with a raging house fire he would rather have "a cup full of Chauncey McKeever than a bucket full of water"...
Brigadier General Chauncey McKeever
There were several other significant changes at the top of the military districts. Lew Wallace had lost patience with the competing factions in Tennessee and unlike many volunteer generals under Kearny, Wallace had lost his appetite for soldiering. He tendered his resignation from the volunteer service in early 1867, with more than one eye on running for office in his native state of Indiana. Briefly threatened with the imposition of Israel Richardson after the Memphis Riot, a relieved Tennessee received Albion P. Howe with a renewed sense of co-operation...
Winfield S. Hancock would be relieved of his North Carolina command. It was known amongst the Cabinet that a few senior Democrats had begun to sound Hancock out about running for office in 1868. This rumors reached Hancock's own ears and he wrote to both the President and to General Kearny to confirm that, as a serving officer, he would never engage in "dishonorable politicking" and in any event both men could expected "his devotion and unquestioning loyalty". Nonetheless Hancocks' presence in North Carolina was "an itch I just had to scratch" (Secretary Seward quoting President Lincoln). The most unexpected opportunity arose to send Hancock on, what the President considered, a wild goose chase. In practice the assignment of Hancock to an exotic campaign in support of an eccentric cause would forever keep his name on the lips of the Democratic pooh-bahs..."
Winfield S. Hancock would be relieved of his North Carolina command. It was known amongst the Cabinet that a few senior Democrats had begun to sound Hancock out about running for office in 1868. This rumors reached Hancock's own ears and he wrote to both the President and to General Kearny to confirm that, as a serving officer, he would never engage in "dishonorable politicking" and in any event both men could expected "his devotion and unquestioning loyalty". Nonetheless Hancocks' presence in North Carolina was "an itch I just had to scratch" (Secretary Seward quoting President Lincoln). The most unexpected opportunity arose to send Hancock on, what the President considered, a wild goose chase. In practice the assignment of Hancock to an exotic campaign in support of an eccentric cause would forever keep his name on the lips of the Democratic pooh-bahs..."
Bust of General Hancock from the British National Army Museum
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I'm back!!!
Soon - Part II: Grierson and the Buffalo soldiers; Carr and the 13th Cavalry; the fate of the Fenians; The Davis Scandal; Kearny's plans for Post-War West Point; and I may even touch on the navy (maybe).
Then 153: No One Is Above The Law - The Supreme Court during Lincoln's Second Term.
And then 154: Back To War - The Abyssinian Campaign...
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A nice take on a plains victory that isn't Little Bighorn.
"Stoneman, Stoneman, give me back my infantry..."
"Stoneman, Stoneman, give me back my infantry..."
Huzzah! Great to have you back Ser Irish!
Poor Stoneman though, an inglorious fate. Interesting alternate Plains War we have going on here. I liked the mix of Fetterman's Fight in this with the piecemeal destruction of the force on the Bozeman Trail at Fort Phi- I mean Fort George Meade! Nicely done.
Really looking forward to Hancock's adventures...
Really can't wait for these chapters!
Ok, now i know who this guy is.....Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses. Figured it was, just had to be sure. Never heard of Hump before though.
William? You mean Winfield Scott Hancock, right?
the Indian American names are fantastic.
I mean, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse. Red Cloud
Kicking Bear. Old Chief Smoke, Iron Tail. Big Mouth....
StephenColbert27
Banned
Look forward to seeing what Old Indian Fighter Buford has planned. I always liked Buford. He was such a tough old bastard in the Civil War. I much preferred his understated professionalism to Stuart's razzle dazzle.
They Fear His Horses is a more accurate translation though, I guess butterflies resulted in TTL's historians not mucking his name up so badly as to change the meaning.