Hancock only made Major-General after the war's end in 66/67 when Sherman moved up to replace Grant. He is about on a par. Buford was only a regular major in OTL when he died. Sherman has made his rank of BG almost on schedule but his injury kept him out of the latter stages of the war. Thomas likewise has had little opportunity to shine in independent command and has suffered as a westerner in an army of prospering easterners...
A Glorious Union or America: the New Sparta
- Thread starter TheKnightIrish
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Hancock only made Major-General after the war's end in 66/67 when Sherman moved up to replace Grant. He is about on a par. Buford was only a regular major in OTL when he died. Sherman has made his rank of BG almost on schedule but his injury kept him out of the latter stages of the war. Thomas likewise has had little opportunity to shine in independent command and has suffered as a westerner in an army of prospering easterners...
Chapter One Hundred and Forty Three The Trials that United a Nation – Part II
Chapter One Hundred and Forty Three
The Trials that United a Nation – Part II
The Trials that United a Nation – Part II
From “A Day That Will Live in Infamy - the Hunter Controversy” by Prof. J. K. Lang
LSU 2003
"With a sentence of death already imposed on Jefferson Davis there was some reluctance about whether he should be tried for the murder of David Hunter. The President and most of the cabinet recognized that the nation demanded he stand trial alongside Robert Barnwell Rhett. Indeed the Radicals in Congress had privately made it known that there would be political open warfare on the President unless Davis stood trial...
The President himself believed that, while any trial which permitted Davis to testify came with obvious risks, a trial of both Davis and Rhett on the national stage might provide the final catharsis the country needed to draw a line under this long dark period of civil strife...
With the work of the Boston and Columbus Military Commissions largely completed a new nine man tribunal was impaneled at Washington for the trial. Davis and Rhett would be tried for the murder of Major General David Hunter and 35 United States Volunteer Pioneers...
The Commission consisted of Major Generals John A. McClernand, Robert H. Milroy, John Wynn Davidson, Richard J. Oglesby, Brigadier Generals James Shields, William B. Hazen, William Birney, Adelbert Ames, and Colonel David R. Clendenin..."
From “The Rivals – Lincoln and his Cabinet” by Amelia Doggett
Grosvenor 2008
"It is astonishing to note that the President, and to a lesser degree Attorney General Speed, were very active in ensuring that Davis and Rhett had adequate legal counsel. Both Davis and Rhett had struggled to appoint satisfactory counsel for their defense. "Had the charge been that of treason a flood of lawyers would have rushed to their defense. Yet what man would willingly abandon his good name to argue the execution [of David Hunter] was a righteous deed..." (Thaddeus Stevens)."
From “A Day That Will Live in Infamy - the Hunter Controversy” by Prof. J. K. Lang
LSU 2003
"As theatre the trial met all expectations. Colonel Henry John Madill, acting for the prosecution focused on Jeff Davis' culpability, for it was from convicting Davis that fame would spring. All involved firmly believed Robert Barnwell Rhett could be relied upon to convict himself...
Colonel Henry John Madill
As the widowed Mrs Maria Indiana Hunter looked on Davis was forced to recount his first meeting with David Hunter. A young Lieutenant Hunter, while stationed at Fort Dearborn, had found and rescued a starving Lieutenant Jefferson Davis...
From Fort Winnebego in 1829 Davis had been sent off to round up deserters and had gotten lost and run out of rations. His party had gone without food for 10 days and 3 without water. Being found by Hunter and led to Fort Dearborn had saved Davis' life. What a transformation 34 years had wrought in their relationship...
Davis described his disappointment that his former friend had become "a felon...bent on inciting servile insurrection...a staunch supporter of the unconstitutional acts of the National Power"...
Davis' Orders 60 and 111 were read to the Court. Brigadier John W. Phelps, named alongside Hunter, testified he had no doubt Jefferson Davis meant to have them executed on the field in the event of their capture and had resolved himself not to be taken alive for that reason...
Madill then gave a moving reading of David Hunter's letters written directly to Davis in response [see Post 143]. "I can never recall being so overcome in any Court of Law before or since" (William Birney). "Hunter's nobility of spirit pervaded every corner of the Court as his words rang out from another's lips..." (Harpers Weekly)...
The New England papers lauded the treatment of the 35 pioneers who were not forgotten by the prosecution. Colonel Stewart Lyndon Woodford, himself formerly a commander of a negro regiment in the Army of the James now part of the prosecution, read out each name, with the man's place of origin if known and movingly (if somewhat manipulatively) each man's family situation.
"George Uncle. Savannah Georgia. Father of four. Amos Smith. Fredericksburg Virginia. Father of two, his wife and children having been taken from him and sold separately before his escape from bondage. Hannibal Freeman..." and so the list went on..."
From “The Unyielding Office – the Presidency of Jefferson Davis” by James L. Caney
Buffalo
"Davis' defense was confused from the first. On one hand his defense claimed that as lawful president of the Confederate States he had acted within his authority in issuing Orders 60 and 111 (a proposition that might not even have succeeded before the Supreme Court of the Confederate States). Then his defense would assert that such argument was irrelevant because the execution of Hunter was the act of an overreaching junior officer [Rhett] acting without and indeed in breach of orders...
The prosecution dismissed the first argument on the basis that the lawfully constituted government of the United States had emancipated the slaves in the Southern States and therefore servile insurrection or incitement thereto was impossible in Virginia. In any event Hunter had not faced trial for these or indeed any alleged crimes. As a prisoner of war he had been summarily put to death without due process of law in compliance Davis' edict. Whatever the rationale, argued the prosecution, Hunter had been murdered in cold blood at the behest of the rebel Commander in Chief, Jefferson Davis..."
From "The Devil in Gray" by Michael Shears
Buffalo 1999
"Rhett seemed to relish his notoriety. He had proclaimed his martyrdom already. In his private letters he clearly saw himself in some kind of anti-John Brown role. A great southern patriot, whose death on a Yankee scaffold would "light the biggest fire the North has ever seen". His detachment from the reality of southern sentiment by 1867 was total. Indeed several studies have suggested that his incarceration and the shock of the Confederate defeat had pushed him into some form of psychosis. In any event his state of mind did not affect his abilities as an orator or as the arch-apologist of secessionist fire-eatery. Indeed his performance on the witness stand was incendiary...
On two separate occasions the Court had to be cleared to prevent near riots. After the newspapers published his testimony two extra regiments of troops were drafted in to Washington to ensure he was not pulled from his cell and lynched! Horace Greeley was moved to observe that "he not only eats fire but breaths it too!"...
Rhett even sought to attack the members of the tribunal referring to James Shields as a "pre-eminent example of the foreign mercenary employed by the Black Republicans to drive Old Dixie down...Lincoln's Hessian scum...". His reference to some of the witnesses was darker. In referring to the testimony given by General Alfred Terry Rhett expressed his regret at his own lack of forethought in not ensuring Terry met the same fate as General Hunter. "I earnestly wish I had sent him before the almighty's righteous judgment as well"
Robert Barnwell Rhett as he appeared during his trial
From “The Unyielding Office – the Presidency of Jefferson Davis” by James L. Caney
Buffalo
"As the trial went on Davis sought to distance himself from Rhett. Already facing death in Virginia Davis sought not to preserve his life but his legacy. "I fear the moral truth and lawfulness of our actions...of our cause...will be drowned out by the bloodthirsty ravings of the fire-eaters...That is all the North has heard. It is all they wish to hear, and, as the victors, I fear they will ensure in the years to come, it is all the South will ever hear of us...".
From “A Day That Will Live in Infamy - the Hunter Controversy” by Prof. J. K. Lang
LSU 2003
"Robert Barnwell Rhett was convicted of all 36 counts of murder by the unanimous verdict of the tribunal and sentenced to hang. Upon McClernand's declaration of the verdict the Court erupted with unseemly expressions of jubilation. Strangely Rhett himself seemed most satisfied with the verdict. His martyrdom ensured...
When order was restored Jefferson Davis' verdict was pronounced. When formed the Military Commissions were permitted to pass sentence on capital crimes by a two thirds majority. Davis was convicted of murder and again sentenced to death. It was shortly revealed that three members of the tribunal had voted against conviction. McClernand we now know leaked the names of the dissenters to the press. While former Democrats, politicians and lawyers had voted to convict Davis, three of the regular soldiers were not convinced. Ames, Clendenin and even the notorious Hazen voted to acquit Davis of murder. Nathanial Banks denounced them and called for their dismissal. James Speed called the split an unarguable endorsement of the justice of the commission. Philip Kearny called their votes for acquittal "an act of supreme courage in defense of conviction"...
On October 18, 1867 Robert Barnwell Rhett was hung by the neck. To the mixed horror and satisfaction of the gathered crowd the execution was bungled (many said deliberately so). The fall did not break Rhett's neck and he began to asphyxiate. After a short period the officer commanding part of the guard, Colonel Cleveland Winslow, pulled sharply on Rhett's legs finally snapping his neck...
Jefferson Davis was returned to Virginia for the execution of his sentence. In a supreme irony the execution was overseen by the new commander of the Union garrison in Richmond, Jefferson C. Davis. Former President Davis' last words are alleged, probably apocryphally, to have been "Do not look so grim General. I am sure they will hang the right man"..."
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Bravo, sir, bravo!
That post was filled with some delicious irony. One Jefferson Davis presiding over the hanging of the other was hilarious.
That post was filled with some delicious irony. One Jefferson Davis presiding over the hanging of the other was hilarious.
I laughed at the "Game of Thrones" reference.
And I admit to unseemly schadenfreude at the hanging of Jeff Davis.
And I admit to unseemly schadenfreude at the hanging of Jeff Davis.
Whereas it has prompted me to play my copy of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band.
That was beautiful TKI.
You can see that Rhett just wanted to milk it for all it was worth. He might not be Benedict Arnold worthy for the word "traitor", but damn if his name will not be synonymous with something else in the future. You have to wonder what that would be.
That was beautiful TKI.
You can see that Rhett just wanted to milk it for all it was worth. He might not be Benedict Arnold worthy for the word "traitor", but damn if his name will not be synonymous with something else in the future. You have to wonder what that would be.
Ridiculously deluded would be martyrs - or those suffering from some kind of Messianic complex: Rhett syndrome?
Anyway controversy may follow: next post looks at Lincoln and race in his second term. Hopefully it will be up sooner than the last update...
That ought to put something of a spin on any books celebrating a social system that's gone with the wind....
Decided to stop lurking today and post in this great thread. It's by far my favorite Civil War-focused timeline on the site, TKI. I've never been one to really like the minutiae of battles and the like in timelines, but your writing was so engaging that I never thought to skip over it. Anyway...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Secretary of War Stanton's idea that African-American Union veterans could be used as a kind of fifth column, after being resettled outside of the country, in places like Central America to help ease them into the Americans' sphere of influence or even be annexed by the U.S.? Admittedly, I don't recall how much sway Stanton still has in the Lincoln administration but considering Lincoln's views on racial affairs even in OTL, I do see 'encouraged' expatriation outside of areas where it's beneficial to keep African-Americans the majority (South Carolina, Georgia, to name but two) as quite likely. After all, considering the Supreme Court just ruled that the federal government has the power to do so, it's a depressingly likely possibility I'm sure.
I have to say that I'm most curious about how Lincoln plans on dealing with Native Americans ITTL given the above as well. We're about to enter into a period of intense expansionism in the West and there's little doubt that they'll want to go anymore quietly here than in OTL. Or, really, what they're going to do about groups such as the Cherokee in the South.
Regardless: the hints that you've given that the U.S. will have some sort of colonial empire (interests in Korea, their apparent sojourn with the British in Ethiopia 20 some years ahead, the possibility of getting creative with the Monroe Doctrine as I mentioned) are quite fascinating. I do wonder how this earlier reconciliation between the U.K. and U.S. seemingly is going to effect the nascent Canada.
Perhaps it's also just me, but as I consider what's been subtly told to us about post-Lincoln presidencies, the word that comes to my mind consistently is 'caudillo.' I'm sure that that's not a coincidence...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Secretary of War Stanton's idea that African-American Union veterans could be used as a kind of fifth column, after being resettled outside of the country, in places like Central America to help ease them into the Americans' sphere of influence or even be annexed by the U.S.? Admittedly, I don't recall how much sway Stanton still has in the Lincoln administration but considering Lincoln's views on racial affairs even in OTL, I do see 'encouraged' expatriation outside of areas where it's beneficial to keep African-Americans the majority (South Carolina, Georgia, to name but two) as quite likely. After all, considering the Supreme Court just ruled that the federal government has the power to do so, it's a depressingly likely possibility I'm sure.
I have to say that I'm most curious about how Lincoln plans on dealing with Native Americans ITTL given the above as well. We're about to enter into a period of intense expansionism in the West and there's little doubt that they'll want to go anymore quietly here than in OTL. Or, really, what they're going to do about groups such as the Cherokee in the South.
Regardless: the hints that you've given that the U.S. will have some sort of colonial empire (interests in Korea, their apparent sojourn with the British in Ethiopia 20 some years ahead, the possibility of getting creative with the Monroe Doctrine as I mentioned) are quite fascinating. I do wonder how this earlier reconciliation between the U.K. and U.S. seemingly is going to effect the nascent Canada.
Perhaps it's also just me, but as I consider what's been subtly told to us about post-Lincoln presidencies, the word that comes to my mind consistently is 'caudillo.' I'm sure that that's not a coincidence...
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Firstly let me say thanks very much!
Racial views are going to be more diverse in this TL as a result of the way the war played out but in the short term the African American freedman issue is still going to be a tough problem for the administration, but in different ways than in OTL.
The Native American issue is an interesting one. Despite the stereotype of Sherman and Sheridan, "the only good injun is a dead injun", I have found that US army officers are often the most sympathetic and understanding of the Native Americans. Men like Eugene Carr had a great deal of sympathy for and understanding of the Native Americans. It will be interesting to see (as I haven't yet decided) how the change in likely personalities in the coming US army command in the west will affect Indian policy...
As for the caudillo theory, well it is the country that elected Generals Washington and Eisenhower and Grant, Major Generals Jackson, Harrison and Taylor, Major General Garfield, Brigadier Generals Hayes and Pierce, Colonels Harrison and Roosevelt etc etc...The key issue is the effect of military regulars turned politicians rather than politicians turned volunteer generals...
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I will have to I think. But first:
America Abroad - Lincoln's Missionaries and The Kearny Mission
The Great Exodus Part II - The Blue Eyed Prophet and the Promised Land
Brotherhood, Trauma and a Great Purpose - The Army and its Veterans
Lincoln at Peace - The Path through a Second Term
The Great Exodus Part II - The Blue Eyed Prophet and the Promised Land
Brotherhood, Trauma and a Great Purpose - The Army and its Veterans
Lincoln at Peace - The Path through a Second Term
I'm waiting to look how happens his visit to France. I expect Prince Napoleon (aka Plonplon) to show up at some point as an echoe to the state visit he made in 1861, also visiting the battlefield of Manassas and speaking to Confederate generals about it; he had always been a supporter of the Union.
not that i want to derail, but i just have a curious question.
Where is John C Fremont at the moment? i mean, you think he might have, in some way, gotten along with Kearney, to at least some extent.
Where is John C Fremont at the moment? i mean, you think he might have, in some way, gotten along with Kearney, to at least some extent.
I am afraid the pro-Fremont Radicals attempt to derail Lincoln's presidency in 1864 have badly tarnished Fremont's image (Kearny is a great believer in personal loyalty even when the subject of that loyalty doesn't always deserve it - see Dan Sickles). He will turn up shortly...once again doing the right thing at the wrong time...
TFSmith121
Banned
As always, great stuff...
The text is great and your ability to find art that illustrates your work is phenomenal.
Best,
The text is great and your ability to find art that illustrates your work is phenomenal.
Best,