A Glorious Union or America: the New Sparta
- Thread starter TheKnightIrish
- Start date
Something to keep in mind is that Gatling actually caused a bit of a 'stir' despite total misuse and mishandling OTL as a weapon. Between the end of the ACW and 1899-ish there was a sharp 'fad' for 'rotating barrel' weapons going from pistols to small cannon.
Randy
Sam is out west based out west as per the OTL but at this point in TTL he is afloat in the South China Sea reporting/sending letters to the Sacramento Union and intends to make some inquiries about the Tai-ping. He is not alone as his friend Charles Farrar Browne is travelling with him as well - also writing a series of articles for a broader spectrum of publications...
So the truth comes out, Santa is really an arms merchant who hides his deeds under the cloak of giving gifts to kids. The elves are probably slaves too.
A sword? They would need more than that. Can't Santa be accepting their surrender?
Ho, ho, ho. Attempting to perpetuate the enslavement of your fellow man, puts you on my NAUGHTY list! Unfortunately, Santa has determined that lumps of coal might be utilized by your government to further their war efforts.
As a result, at exactly 11:59 pm Eastern standard time, Santa has ordered his reindeer to begin aerial bombardment of key Confederate industries, and his helpers have begun to liberate the slaves of key plantations.
Ho ho ho. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
He’s giving the Confederates swords and the Union repeating cabines. Seems legit.
I’m glad we’ve all stayed away from the controversial subject of Elf-Emancipation...
It is clear to me that Santa is being offered the sword as a gesture of surrender. Aerial bombardments from his reindeer were just too much.
On the controversial subject of elf emancipation, the North Pole ended serfdom on Christmas Eve 1572. The current issue is working conditions in the factories of the North Pole.
KNI -
I just finished the TL and enjoyed it very much. I can't believe the amount of detail you researched and included in the TL. Very good writing, minimal typos, grammar errors and very little detection of Handwaivium and Unobtainium.
In the middle of the TL you were able to color code the names of the commanders and units. That was a good idea and too bad that's not supported anymore. That ability could be used in many TLs, especially ACW ones.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the future of TTL unfolds.
One question, where did General William Dorsey Pender end up? In OTL, he died of wounds received on the second day of Gettysburg. ITTL, he was last seen in the vicinity of Charlotte just before the surrender in that theater. Did he survive and surrender, if so what country did he go for exile? I ask because I know some of his decedents.
Thank You,
MrBill
I just finished the TL and enjoyed it very much. I can't believe the amount of detail you researched and included in the TL. Very good writing, minimal typos, grammar errors and very little detection of Handwaivium and Unobtainium.
In the middle of the TL you were able to color code the names of the commanders and units. That was a good idea and too bad that's not supported anymore. That ability could be used in many TLs, especially ACW ones.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the future of TTL unfolds.
One question, where did General William Dorsey Pender end up? In OTL, he died of wounds received on the second day of Gettysburg. ITTL, he was last seen in the vicinity of Charlotte just before the surrender in that theater. Did he survive and surrender, if so what country did he go for exile? I ask because I know some of his decedents.
Thank You,
MrBill
Thank you very much. I'm glad we can go back an unlimited period of time as authors and amend any errors we find (or fix the illustrations).
I don't have a biography of Pender yet to have a lot of detailed knowledge about him and his family. However I can say that he is well and with his family living in Coat'n'peg in the Mexican Confederate settlement. I suspect he is not much of a farmer so perhaps Magruder or Cleburne might tap him to assist the development of the Mexican artillery (Pender's original service branch)?
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Six An Expensive Affair
Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Six
An Expensive Affair
From “America in Abyssinia – a reassessment” by Dr. Luther K. PriceAn Expensive Affair
Buffalo 1991
"There has never been a colonial campaign quite like the Anglo-American expedition to Abyssinia in 1868. It proceeds from first to last with the decorum and heavy inevitability of a Victorian state banquet, complete with ponderous speeches at the end. And yet it was a fearsome undertaking; for hundreds of years the country had never been invaded, and the savage nature of the terrain alone was enough to promote failure...
The task was given to the Bombay Army, and Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Napier, was given command of the expeditionary force. This was a very unusual decision as it was the first time a campaign had been entrusted to an officer from the Corps of Royal Engineers, though it would not be the last. It was also a very sensible decision, as the whole campaign would rely on engineering skills to succeed.
The American contingent was commanded by Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock of Civil War fame. While his appointment may have had political motivations there was no question he was an exceptional soldier and leader of men. Crucially he had also spent much of his peacetime service in the post of Quartermaster. If Napier’s skill in engineering would get the army to its destination, Hancock’s would see it arrive well fed and watered...”
American standards of dress on the campaign did not always meet with British approval
From "Son of the Morning Star" by George A. Custer
Harper and Bros. 1885
“Encamped at Norfolk, awaiting our transports, we had all the appearance of a motley crew for we were the odds and ends of the army that could quickly be gathered upon the East Coast in any state for dispatch to Africa. Hancock the Superb, who had commanded a Corps in the War, was reduced to the command of a brigade. Only one of three regiments of infantry assembled had their colonel available, the venerable Robert Buchanan had the Old Guard, the 3rd Infantry. The 10th was commanded by Charles R. Woods and the 17th by Cleveland Winslow, both Lieutenant Colonels. Indeed Winslow, though a hero of the war, had been naught but a militiaman before it…
The cavalry I was to have was also a mixed command, with regiments parceled out in handfuls around the nation, no one regiment could be quickly mustered for service. I was to have one company of the 1st, two of the 7th under the able Major Merritt, and one of the 13th under Captain O.W. Gambell. E Company of the 13th was to prove something of a novelty to our English comrades and a terror to their sepoys. The Delaware, Shawnee and Choctaws would revel in their celebrity...”
From “An Account of the Recent Campaign in Abyssinia” by Captain J.F. Goodfellow
Macmillan & Co 1870
"It having been wisely noted that the sepoys of Bombay object less to the crossing of oceans than those of Bengal or Madras they were assigned the lion’s share of the task ahead…
The necessary preparations were legion. As Abyssinia has no seaboard the Foreign Office had obtained permission for disembarkation on Egyptian soil. As no coinage was current in Abyssinia except the Maria Theresa silver thaler of Austria, British influence had set the machinery of the mint at Vienna in motion. As water could be expected in short supply condensers were ordered to the Egyptian coast to supply the troops and animals on shore. The animals themselves were a menagerie dispatched from all corners of the Mediterranean and Near East. Forty-six of the finest trained elephants were to be sent from India to carry the heavy guns on the march, while hiring commissions were dispatched to obtain mules and camels to handle the lighter gear. A railway, complete with locomotives and some twenty miles of track, was to be laid across the coastal plain, and at the landing place large piers, lighthouses and warehouses were to be built. Thus did General Napier sow the seeds of victory before he had set a foot on an African shore...”
From "Son of the Morning Star" by George A. Custer
Harper and Bros. 1885
"To the majority of the civilized world looking on, the expedition seemed foolish and chimerical. The press drew ghastly pictures of the malaria of the coast and the insalubrity of the country. I was appalled to discover the insurance offices had raised their rates mercilessly to the officers volunteering for the service, who were regarded as rushing blindfold into suicide…
The one bright spot was that Hancock the Superb raced to request my service before Kearny the Magnificent could recommend me. It was deeply gratifying to be remembered by two such soldiers for my service in the war. Though a Colonel was too high a post for a mere wing of cavalry, I did not stand on rank but was happy to serve this great endeavor…
I was overjoyed upon arriving at the General’s headquarters in Norfolk to find such old friends gathered again in Hancock’s service: Captain Charles Hale Mason, long serving chief of staff to General Hancock; Captain William Galbraith Mitchell whose knowledge of civilian engineering would see him transferred to act as our liaison with General Napier; Captain Isaac Verplanck van Antwerp, whose name was of such amusement to the English officers; and Lieutenant Charles Henry Hoyt, who had led a seemingly charmed life as Hancock’s aide-de-camp..."
Captains William Galbraith Mitchell, Charles Hale Morgan, and Isaac Verplanck van Antwerp had all previously served as staff officers to General Hancock
From “America in Abyssinia – a reassessment” by Dr. Luther K. Price
Buffalo 1991
"The force consisted of 13,000 British and Indian soldiers, 3,100 American soldiers, 27,000 camp followers and over 48,000 animals, including elephants. The British force set sail from Bombay in upwards of 280 steam and sailing ships. The advance guard of engineers landed at Zula on the Red Sea, about 30 miles south of Massawa, and began to construct a port in mid-October 1867. By the end of the first month they had completed a pier, 700 yards long. They completed a second one by the first week of December and the railway was already reaching into the interior, with 8 iron girder bridges being built...
At the same time a reconnoitering party, under Colonel Sir William Lockyer Merewether, had pushed up the dry bed of the Kumayli River to the Suru Pass, where again the engineers were busy at work building a road to Senafe. It would be no mean feat of engineering being 63 miles long, rising to 7,400 feet (2,300m) and designed to serve the elephants, gun carriages, and carts…
The demand for water was enormous, the Zoola camp using 200 tons a day, which was created using condensation from steamship boilers in the harbor. As the force moved inland, wells had to be dug...
From Senafe, Merewether sent out three letters: one from Lord Stanley, one from General Napier and one from Secretary Seward. All demanded the release of the hostages. These were sent by Mr Rassam by whom they were destroyed for the effects they might have upon Theodore’s temper…"
American hired transports join Royal navy ships in the Gulf of Zula
From “An Account of the Recent Campaign in Abyssinia” by Captain J.F. Goodfellow
Macmillan & Co 1870
“Much to the surprise of all assembled the promised Americans did indeed begin to arrive, having landed at Alexandria, entrained to Suez, and embarked on privately hired transports of all kinds for Annesley Bay. As the first ships carrying the esteemed General Hancock and his staff arrived a missive was dispatched from headquarters to be heralded throughout the lands by which the army must march:
“To the Governors, the Chiefs, the Religious Orders, and the People of Abyssinia.
It is known that Theodorus, King of Abyssinia, detains in captivity the British Consul Cameron, the British Envoy Rassam, the American Missionary Hunter, and may others, in violation of the laws of all civilised nations.
All friendly persuasion having failed to obtain their release, my Sovereign has commanded me to lead an army to liberate them. We are joined in this by our American friends who have likewise been enjoined by their President.
All who befriend the prisoners or assist in their liberation shall be well rewarded, but those who may injure them shall be severely punished.
When the time shall arrive for the march of an army through your country, bear in mind, People of Abyssinia, that the Queen of England and President of America have no unfriendly feelings towards you, and no design against your country or your liberty.
Your Religious establishments, your persons, and property shall be carefully protected.
All supplies required for my soldiers shall be paid for.
No peaceable inhabitant shall be molested.
The sole object for which British and American forces have been sent to Abyssinia is the liberation of our fellow countrymen.
There is no intention to occupy permanently any portion of the Abyssinian Territory, or to interfere with the government of the county.
R.Napier, Lieut-General.
Commander in Chief, Bombay Army
October 1867"
From “America in Abyssinia – a reassessment” by Dr. Luther K. Price
Buffalo 1991
"It is largely to the credit of American influence that this new tone was struck in colonial warfare. It terms were remarkable for the era and heralded the intent of the President that General Hancock should "keep the English honest".
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