It's called the New Sparta for a reason, I should think. Said reason is about to become readily apparent.
A Glorious Union or America: the New Sparta
- Thread starter TheKnightIrish
- Start date
You can bet on two things - a larger army and concerns why more than half the officer corp rebeled.
I think that it would seem clear to contemporaries that the majority of the officer corps had their primary loyalty to their state rather than the nation. This would be true for officers from the north as well. I think the army would be looking at ways of ensuring that in the future the army would look to the nation as their primary loyalty.
was their oath (soldier's/officers oath) at the time (if they had one) professing loyalty to the united states?
Suppose they make the oath stronger. It's a start.
The vast majority of the officer corps stayed with the Union. Even among men from Confederate states, 40% of the officers stayed with the Union.
Well there's a misconception busted. Sources say its about 2 to 1 in favour of the Union for West Point graduates. I couldnt find a source for active army officers. I suppose it must stem from my impression of the senior officers - of Scott's pick to potentially replace him both Johnsons and Lee went South and only Smith went North.
Josiah Gorgas is another northern officer who joined the Confederacy because of his southern wife's influence.
Thanks. OTL's Powell broke his gun cracking open the head of one man, then fought off two more men and a woman to attack Seward, after which he escaped. BTW, this is one of the best and most detailed ATL I've seen - you should have won the Turtledove.
Gorgas was the one that mattered most, but this site lists 33 northern born Confederate generals, including the highest ranking Confederate general, Samuel Cooper. There were also 35 southern born Union generals. The most important of those are Winfield Scott, Montgomery Meigs, and George Thomas. I haven't found a listing of southern born Union admirals, but it included David Farragut and Samuel Lee, a cousin of Robert E Lee.
Interesting. The North seemed to get the better bunch regardless of numbers with Gorgias being the notable exception. Quite by chance two of the Confederate Northerners play important roles in my TL - William McComb in the Union Mills/Pipe Creek Campaign and Danville Leadbetter, creator of the Leadbetter line in Georgia during the Atlanta Campaign.
I have nearly finished my next chapter so it should be up tomorrow.
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Eight Black Days
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Eight
Black Days
Black Days
From “Kearny the Magnificent” by Roger Galton
NorthWestern
“It was not for Kearny, this gaggle of spectators to the First Lady’s agony. Within two hours General Kearny had set himself up in the War Department Telegraph Office. He was quickly joined by Secretary Stanton, for whom Kearny had sent an armed guard formed of the first 12 uniformed men General Kearny had met on the road to the Department. The two would organize an investigation that quickly became a massive manhunt…
General Kearny relieved Colonel Chauncey McKeever of all his duties on the staff and assigned him to the task of questioning the primary witnesses…”
Brevet Brigadier General Chauncey McKeever
From “The Booth Conspiracy” by Dr. Guthrie Jameson
New England Press 1981
“The manhunt for Booth’s closest accomplices though epic in scale was not particularly taxing for the Union Authorities. Edward Spangler was quickly identified by Theatre staff, and particularly by Edwin Booth, as “a runner of errands” for John Wilkes Booth…
Edwin and Junius Booth would remain under house arrest for several days. Only their complete co-operation and Edwin’s reputation as a firm Union man protected them from the ensuing witch hunt…
Spangler’s complicity in the conspiracy itself remains open to question. That he was pro-rebel in sympathy appears to have been established over time. That he was devoted to John Wilkes Booth is incontrovertible. Certainly he remains guilty in the popular imagination. However the question of whether Spangler knew of Booth’s intentions or the contents of the notes he delivered remains, at least in academic circles, controversial…
Under questioning from Kearny’s own Chief of Staff, Chauncey McKeever, Spangler quickly divulged the address of O’Laughlen’s lodgings to which he had delivered a note from Booth on the day of the attacks…
Samuel Arnold had returned to McKeever’s lodgings to recover fresh clothes and ready money. Foolishly (and perhaps still under the influence of the alcohol consumed at the Willard Hotel, Arnold had left a note for the other conspirators that he was “Going to China”. Chaos reigned in Washington that night as the hue and cry was raised; perhaps further alarming the already traumatized Arnold…”
From “A History of the United States Office of Military Intelligence” by General (Rt) Roger McKee
MacArthur University 2001
“Though it was more likely a co-incidence than a widely used 'codeword' (for what purpose is served by a widely known code), the reference to “China” was a simple code already known to the War Department or, more particularly, the Office of Military Intelligence. The reference to China had been discovered in correspondence in the Confederate War Department Building in Richmond and was used in relation to payments to the leader of the Confederate Secret Service spy ring in Baltimore. The individual was believed to be David Preston Parr though he was not mentioned by name. Parr, who had been loud in his support for the rebellion at the commencement of the war, was notable in Baltimore for the family business that he ran – the nation’s leading China shop…
Parr had been briefly arrested in early 1864, against the advice of the General Stone. However without evidence to convict him, General Stone suggested he be released and kept “under close observation so that, by his acts and associations, he might condemn himself and his fellow traitors”…”
From “The Booth Conspiracy” by Dr. Guthrie Jameson
New England Press 1981
“It was three days after the attacks that the reference to China finally triggered the arrest of David Preston Parr in Baltimore for questioning. It was established that Parr had received and dispatched a flurry of messages and telegrams on September 12 and 13 but Parr protested his innocence and the messages seemed innocent enough. His initial questioner, Chauncey McKeever had arrived from Washington and subjected him to intense scrutiny…
McKeever was convinced that Parr was the Rebel spymaster in Baltimore and furthermore he believed Parr was somehow involved in the attacks. He reported as much to Kearny and Stanton…
Parr had what was perhaps a unique experience in United States criminal investigations. A new inquisitor arrived in Baltimore on September 16. He bore with him news that would shake the nation – Mary Todd Lincoln had died. Parr now faced the very angry Commanding General of the United States Army himself. General Philip Kearny had arrived in person to test McKeever’s suspicions…
The man who had, one armed, horse whipped the leader of New York’s River Pirates into submission, had little difficultly breaking Parr. Parr admitted to renting a small farm near Cambridge on Chesapeake Bay. Union troops would capture both Samuel Arnold and David Herold there…
Parr repeatedly claimed that he had not been involved in the planning of the attacks. He had only provided very small sums of money to Booth for propaganda purposes and had only assisted Arnold and Herold after the attacks. It was a claim that was not deemed plausible at the time either by the authorities or public opinion, though in the intervening years there has been a growing consensus that Parr’s involvement may have been limited to just that…”
From “A History of the United States Office of Military Intelligence” by General (Rt) Roger McKee
MacArthur University 2001
“It is likely, though not proven, that David Preston Parr was subjected to primitive enhanced interrogation techniques to elicit his confession. Assuming that was the case, it would illustrate an example of weaknesses of such an approach. Although vital intelligence was obtained (the location of Arnold and Herold) the other information obtained about Parr’s contacts and his couriers subsequently proved to be extremely suspect…”
From “The Booth Conspiracy” by Dr. Guthrie Jameson
New England Press 1981
“Parr’s admission of his role as a Confederate agent and his subsequent revelations would result in a wave of arrests in Maryland and Washington…
Attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of the Irish mountebank, Francis Tumblety, continue to this day. Identified by Parr as a courier who had once transported messages and funds between Baltimore and Parr’s confederates in Canada, Tumblety seems to have embarked on a suicidal course when arrested. He played up his own role as an agent. A relentless self-publicist with a history of instability it appears Tumblety exaggerated his role to increase his notoriety…
Tumblety overplayed his hand and would succeed only in talking himself into a hangman’s noose…”
From “An Uncivil War” by Dr Guy Burchett
LSU 1998
“Reaction to the attacks on the President’s party, on the Vice President and Secretary Seward was one of shock across the country. For several days wild rumours permeated the country, particularly in the South…
Initially the nation’s attention was held by reports of the manhunt for the surviving conspirators. People seemed comforted that, while the President stood vigil at the bedside of his wife, General Kearny and Secretary Stanton had the pursuit of the conspirators well in hand…
The news that Mary Todd Lincoln had died was announced at 5.30pm on September 16. It quickly spread around the country. The nation’s responses were markedly mixed…
Benjamin Stouffer lived in Poughkeepsie, New York at the time of Mrs. Lincoln’s death. In a letter back to his family in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, he described the town, which had an atmosphere similar to many northern towns at the time. He wrote that nearly everyone wore black, and that the streets were filled with crape. He also noted that flags were flown at half mast, and were trimmed in black. He also wrote that many could still not understand how anyone could be so cruel as to murder a woman over politics…
Stouffer and Poughkeepsie reacted first with shock and then entered mourning. Other Northerners would experience anger. In Lebanon, Ohio Union veterans and others would mob a hotel in which Clement Vallandigham was believed to be lodging (he was not) and it was burned to the ground, lucky with no loss of life. Attacks on notorious Copperheads occurred in Ohio and Indiana. There were even isolated attacks in New York, Maryland and Delaware...
Riots occurred where vocal Copperheads still lived amongst Union men
A prayer meeting in Boston on September 19 would quickly transform into a protest and then a riot. The US Navy would intercept 11 boats of various sizes (their inhabitants in various states of inebriation) attempting to reach the Confederate prisoners held at Fort Warren. The decision to hold most rebel prisoners away from major population centres proved a wise one…
Northern Whites were not the only group of Americans to mourn Mary Todd Lincoln. Recently freed blacks saw Lincoln as their savior from slavery. They knew little of his wife. Few would have been aware she was “a southern lady”. Nonetheless historian James Quarles described the black population as taking an immense blow, "Strong men cried without shame," in Quarles’ words…
Although there was an intense mourning of Mrs. Lincoln's death, not everyone in the country felt remorse over the assassination. Many southerners saw President Lincoln as the cause for their most of their problems. They blamed him for the war and extreme destruction of their land and livelihoods. They viewed his wife as “a supreme traitor…to the land of her birth…to her class”. Some southern towns held meetings to endorse the attacks on the Union government, though almost without exception expressly ignoring the death of Mary Todd Lincoln. One Texan described the attempted assassination as, "though unfortunate in its consequences...a heroic, hopeless attempt to rid the world of a monster that disgraced the form of humanity"...
One such meeting, in Charleston, which occurred in clear contravention of General Rodman’s standing orders for the city, resulted in near catastrophe for the protestors. The city garrison was called out to confront and disperse the illegal gathering. The men were from the II Division, X Corps and former slaves almost to a man. It was only on confronting the Southerners that the white officers realized their own troops were out for blood. Their were isolated incidents of shootings and bayoneting protesters but before a general slaughter commenced General Rodman appeared in person, mounted before the main body of troops and protesters. He calmed his own troops while convincing the Charlestonians that they were not long for this world if they did not disperse immediately…
Rodman allowed all the protestors to return home that night, only arresting the ringleaders the next morning when tempers had cooled…
One unexplained tragedy which occurred at this time is often put down as a deliberate response to the death of Mrs. Lincoln. On September 21 the SS. Imperial was carrying Confederate prisoners North. It had docked at Memphis to pick up further prisoners and supplies. At approximately 11.45pm a fire was seen burning on a landward deck of the vessel. Attempts to extinguish the fire failed. Attempts to remove the prisoners were haphazard, there being insufficient Union troops on hand to guard them once unloaded. Of the crew, only 6 were killed. However of the 853 prisoners, 512 died aboard the Imperial…
SS Imperial
The cause of fire remains unknown. Its primary location on deck seems to suggest it was not an engine/boiler explosion. At the time many southerners believed Union sympathizers or freed slaves were responsible for starting the fire. In the absence of any forensic evidence we can only speculate at this distance in time…”
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The Confederate Generals, both in and out of captivity, will be heard from shortly (its half written but I wanted to post something today as its been awhile)...
Dagnab it. I missed that. I kept thinking to myself, why does the name Francis Tumblety sound familiar to me. Now I know.
Thats one of the things I like about this TL. Its full of little Easter Eggs like thtat.
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