Not to necro but since someone else posted I’ve been thinking, would be pretty poetic to have a major American victory in the west right as Washington falls and Britain breaks the stalemate in the north forcing an American surrender- plenty of “we should have kept fighting” sentiment to lead up into the inevitable continuation war
Wrapped in Flames: The Great American War and Beyond
- Thread starter EnglishCanuck
- Start date
hmm part of me hopes the UK and US having an forever antagonist relationship is not what happens and engilsh canuck did say his current plan is to end at 1870 or the 1920s so my guess is the victory in the west gives Grant or Pope captial to run for President after the war .from there there presidency leads to a re unficition war which the British support after the CSA pisses them of because the Confederacy does something stupid
or the brits just feel bad after seeing the abomination that is the Confederacy in action for a bit.The big bad of the series will be the french who get arrogant due to no one calling them on there shit.I mean emperor max was okay but let's say he gets killed due to standing up to Napoleon or something .
anyway this is where I see the timeline going
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I don’t know why I just thought of this but what exactly is the political situation in the North? Even with the British being unifying opponent, there would still be a fairly strong “Copperhead” opposition who point to the Sieges of Ticonderoga and Washington, the defeat in the Great Lakes and the Confederate occupation of parts of Kentucky as signs that victory is not to be had, and would be strongly advocating for some sort of peace(I could see Lincoln offer the British a fairly honest peace before turning to smash the South) but what’s the overall resistance from the Democrats to the war?
the brits don't want total victory. they want to punish america enough to make there point and get back to trade and commerce asap.
they would accept a separate peace officer
A year prior maybe, but I think with the end so close in sight they can get what they want and get an independent Confederacy too.
Just so everyone knows this TL is not dead! Real life merely getting in the way of proper continuance! Thanks for everyone expressing an interest and don't worry, we'll be wrapping up the campaigns of 1863 and getting into the political dimension/campaigns of 1864.
Now for some general replies...
This has been explored a lot, very well by better authors than myself, and let's just say I'm not really shooting for that angle. The post-war growth of the United States, and it's neighbors, is going to have some interesting differences. While my end goal would be for the 1920s, I am committed to getting detailed posts up to the US election of 1872. If necessary, I may go the route of the superb The Union Forever and truncate posts a bit to give updates by year rather than the very detailed posts I'm doing all the way through the 1860s.
So one thing I did leave very much in the background I realized, was the political/domestic situation in the North and the South. There's going to be some sweeping political activity in both countries (and Canada/Great Britain) for the September 1863 updates. I touched briefly on it in Chapter 36, which holds some hints at that. However, there's a lot of pro-war and anti-war sentiment in the North while the South has seen some...interesting political ramifications. I'll probably have to split it into four parts to properly address, but we shall see.
Ah and here we come to one of those political situations! There's extremely big questions about this in the British cabinet and Parliament, the specifics of which, we shall address. There's some interesting players in this situation we'll be looking at, from those you may have heard of, to those who you may have not.
Now for some general replies...
This has been explored a lot, very well by better authors than myself, and let's just say I'm not really shooting for that angle. The post-war growth of the United States, and it's neighbors, is going to have some interesting differences. While my end goal would be for the 1920s, I am committed to getting detailed posts up to the US election of 1872. If necessary, I may go the route of the superb The Union Forever and truncate posts a bit to give updates by year rather than the very detailed posts I'm doing all the way through the 1860s.
So one thing I did leave very much in the background I realized, was the political/domestic situation in the North and the South. There's going to be some sweeping political activity in both countries (and Canada/Great Britain) for the September 1863 updates. I touched briefly on it in Chapter 36, which holds some hints at that. However, there's a lot of pro-war and anti-war sentiment in the North while the South has seen some...interesting political ramifications. I'll probably have to split it into four parts to properly address, but we shall see.
Ah and here we come to one of those political situations! There's extremely big questions about this in the British cabinet and Parliament, the specifics of which, we shall address. There's some interesting players in this situation we'll be looking at, from those you may have heard of, to those who you may have not.
Chapter 70: The Battle Cry of Freedom
Chapter 70: The Battle Cry of Freedom
"Oh we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
And we'll rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitors, up with the stars,
While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!"
- The Battle Cry of Freedom, George Frederick Root, 1862
“Thomas’s plan was very simple in theory, but complex in execution. Thomas, who had with great reluctance and difficulty, passed on the plan to assault Lee’s lines at Washington, asked that Rosecrans take whatever forces he could to break out in the direction of Annapolis Junction, while his own forces would move to assault the Junction as well. It was hoped that with the two forces attacking simultaneously, Lee’s grip on the city would be weakened, and with his only secure supply from the sea threatened, he would have to break off the siege or withdraw south of the Potomac..
It required that Rosecrans wait for the attack to begin at Annapolis Junction, and that he attack out of his own lines, irregardless of any movements of Lee’s own troops. An assignment fraught with uncertainty, Thomas decided he would go for one piece of certainty. He would try to draw Lee’s troops into a position where they would be forced to attack him on his own terms, and his scouts surveying the lines found just such a position…
True surprise was of course, impossible. The country between Baltimore and Washington was riven with Confederate sympathizers and Jeb Stuart’s scouts. To that end, Thomas sought not to disguise his attack, merely his intentions…” - The Siege of Washington, Jeremiah Dutton, University of Philadelphia, 1993
“Leading the charge would be the XII Corps, supported by the scrapings of cavalry that could be spared from New England and Maryland. Their target would be the single Confederate infantry and cavalry brigade protecting Lee’s all important rail junction at Annapolis Junction and the Patuxent. They set off to battle, arriving on August 15th.
The forces there were under the command of Fitzhugh Lee, who was given charge of the cavalry and the infantry brigade whose commander had fallen ill. In total they amounted to 4,500 men, who suddenly found themselves facing a force three times their size. In a situation almost comically similar to that from a few months earlier, the Confederate garrison found itself scrambling to protect itself as Sigel’s man slammed into them. Though Lee’s troops were protected by earthworks and his own batteries of artillery, he was forced to dismount most of his cavalry, having them fight on foot to prevent the position from being overrun.
Lee managed to get a message to his uncle at the siege lines, and Lee was swift in dispatching the bulk of Jackson’s (Garnet and A.P. Hill) and Whiting’s (Holme’s and Ransom’s) corps to hold his important position…
Having forced the withdrawal of Fitzhugh Lee’s troops, Thomas brought bulk of his troops in McCook and Crittendon’s divisions to the Little Paxutent River, arraying them along what would be Lee’s flank should he choose to once again assault Annapolis Junction. Setting McCook’s division at Savage’s Factory and atop the 200 foot elevation Whiskey Hill, he presented an awful sight for Lee’s arriving troops. With the XII Corps taking their own position adjacent Annapolis Junction and Savages Switch, they controlled the higher ground and could observe Lee’s forces moving to engage them. However, he only had the men of Sanford’s division and division from XII Corps as his reserve. It was imperative to hold out against Lee’s first assault.
Lee obliged by striking earlier than he perhaps ought to have…
Jackson’s attack towards Savage’s Factory, prompted by Lee’s desire to break Thomas’s stranglehold on his only secure means of communication with the beachhead at Annapolis was most likely premature. Jackson had only just finished setting up Garnett and A.P. Hill’s divisions along the Little Paxutent. Lee’s order to attack came at precisely 1:00pm and Jackson’s obliged, the first attack towards Savage Bridge commencing at 1:15.
A.P. Hill’s division moved towards the bridge under the cover of the division’s guns, and received almost no fire. Buoyed by the unexpected silence of Yankee guns, Hill’s men dashed towards the bridge, hoping for an easy bridgehead. Instead, now less than 200 yards from McCook’s men, they were opened up upon with a hail of shot and shell.
“A wall of Thunder, prevented our passage,” an appalled Lieutenant of the 27th Virginia would later write. “No man could cross that ground and live.”
The first attack was readily repulsed, and a second attack made no headway. The division's leader then personally threw himself into the fray, Garnett advancing with his men and, by sheer force of will, leading them across the bridge. He was killed at the head of his men amid hand to hand fighting in the factory yard. Though they would briefly establish a beachhead, the Virginians would soon be driven back across. From that point on, Savage Factory would simply be known to each side as “The Meat Factory” as men in Union blue were killed by Confederate cannon and men in Confederate gray scythed down by bullets…” - A Blood Red Day, The Fight for Savage’s Factory, Thomas Little, Maryland Press, 1969
“Whiskey Hill was, to Lee’s mind, the ground he needed to dominate. It provided an advantage to any force occupying it, and would effectively cut Thomas’s position in two. He decided that Whiting’s men would proceed to attack as soon as they were in position.
Whiting’s assault on XII Corps proceeded far better than initially anticipated. The Corps was worn from hard marching, and still much demoralized from fighting in the Maryland Campaign. So it was when Holme’s division came streaming up Whiskey Hill, the men of Schimmelfennig’s division were met by an undaunted Confederate charge, they buckled. However, thanks to the inspiring presence of Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski, the division retained cohesion. A bloody firefight ensued. The contest would continue on and off until 2:30pm. The Confederates would make a second charge up Whiskey Hill, but by 2:30, they would be ready for a third.
It was at that point the battle might have gone either way, as Schimmelfennig’s men were low on ammunition, and the remainder of the Corps was pinned in place by the attacks of Ransom’s division, only barely held in check by the commitment of Stahel’s division, this was Lee’s true chance to win the battle.
Forming into a line which impressed the foreign observers present, Ransom’s division once more advanced. Supported by murderous counter battery fire which struck the hill, the men moved in what one private of the 73rd Pennsylvania would call “An ominous silence” before breaking into the terrifying rebel yell and running towards the enemy.
The fight on Whiskey Hill was truly lead by Krzyżanowski. A Polish noble turned immigrant, his father had fought for Polish independence under Napoleon, and again in the 1830 rising. He himself had joined in the 1848 rising against Prussian rule, and its defeat had forced him to flee to Hamburg, and then to New York to prevent arrest for his part in that particular revolution. Settling in Virginia, he had worked as a civil engineer on various railroads gaining much experience in Virginia and it's environs. When the war began he enlisted with the 58th New York Volunteers (the "Polish Legion") and soon became colonel. Serving with distinction throughout the campaigns of 1862, and particularly on the Rappahannock. Though in the Maryland Campaign his brigade, much like the entirety of the XII Corps, had been swept away in the fierce fighting. Ferocious and courageous, Krzyżanowski determined his men would not be moved a single inch and flatly stated that he would shoot the first man who ran himself.
As the rebel charge neared Krzyżanowski seems to have forgotten himself, as he had to repeat his order three times to be properly understood. He cried “Bagnety! Bajonette! Bayonets!” And his predominantly German speaking volunteers, upon deciphering Polish, German and English, fixed their bayonets, and charged. Though an early Confederate volley killed some, the charge of a brigade of cursing, screaming Germans caught the Confederates in a whirlwind of fury. In a dramatic clash, the two sides collided in the largest melee of the war. Bayonets, knives, clubbed rifles, and fists flew to the point that it was hazardous to even attempt to reload a rifle. Officers fired all six cylinders in their revolvers only to clash with their swords. Krzyżanowski would famously slay two enemy officers in hand to hand combat, being compared to a ‘knight of old’ by the men around him.
A British observer quipped in 1875, “One would not observe nearly so medieval a scrimmage until a decade later in the desperate fighting in Rhine.”
In the end Krzyżanowski’s countercharge most likely saved the day for the Union. Had Lee been able to control the hill he most likely could have broken Thomas’s army in two despite the limitations he operated under and prolonged the siege. Had that taken place one can only speculate the outcome…” - The Siege of Washington, Jeremiah Dutton, University of Philadelphia, 1993
Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski, the Hero of Whiskey Hill
“At 5pm Lee now found himself in a desperate position. He had brought only those divisions of Jackson’s and Whiting’s which were available and could be spared from the siege lines. He had no reserves with which to continue the battle. Thomas however, still had his fresh New Yorkers.
Though the men of Sanford’s division only numbered some 6,000, they represented a striking force which could still throw Lee into confusion. Thomas finally ordered them into the fray as the sun began to set low in the sky. Sanford, who had last seen action at Bull Run, led his men from horseback. The men were variously immigrants, wealthy men of society, and from all walks of the boroughs of the largest city in the Americas. Though few had seen action and some men, such as Theodore Roosevelt Sr., had only enlisted to fight the British. They played their part well.
Moving around the lines at Annapolis Junction, they struck the flank of Ransom’s division and rolled it up along the front. In half an hour of fighting, Ransom was in retreat, and Lee would soon see his position was untenable.
The news from Washington would only increase his worries…” - A Blood Red Day, The Fight for Savage’s Factory, Thomas Little, Maryland Press, 1969
“Rosecrans had little idea of when Lee would connect with Thomas’s army marching from Baltimore. He was forced to play the entire battle by ear. Hearing no guns, and discerning little of Lee’s movements, he waited until 3pm to launch his own attack.
In the north, where he expected Lee’s lines to be weakest, Hooker’s III Corps, which he considered the most reliable, moving in concert with Sickle’s XIV Corps towards Thomas’s own troops.They would cut off Lee from Annapolis and, hopefully, leave him exposed to destruction in Maryland between his own troops and Thomas’s - hopefully - victorious arms.
To the south, aiming for Bailey’s Crossroads, he set his former V Corps under Ord and the IV under Reynolds. He considered these two commanders reliable, and with the officer corps “trimmed” (or in the words of men who were loyal to McClellan, purged) of lesser officers, he assumed his troops would be able to take the Confederates under Longstreet and Magruder by surprise.
When the assault from the trenches came, it was truly a shock to the Confederate defenders as they had not expected such ferocity to be possible by the bombarded and demoralized Union army. What remained of Whiting’s Corps was swiftly overcome by the veterans of III Corps. Jackson’s troops held slightly better, but the sheer weight of numbers and surprise drove them back towards his headquarters at the Maryland Agricultural College.
The success was so great that Whiting’s men were pushed back in the direction of Annapolis, while Jackson’s men were pushed north…”- The Siege of Washington, Jeremiah Dutton, University of Philadelphia, 1993
“While Rosecrans and Thomas had proved successful in defeating Lee’s two corps on the northern banks of the Potomac, the attacks against Longstreet and Magruder’s Corps south of the city did not go entirely as planned.
These Union troops were the most demoralized from the siege. After McClellan had been unceremoniously dismissed from command, many officers had resigned in protest and been replaced in return. That left the structure of these corps dangerously unstable as officers worked to improve morale and new officers tried to get used to one another. Despite these flaws, Rosecrans felt he would be able to force the Confederate army from its positions south of the city, and in doing so drive the Confederates back into Virginia. It was an ambitious goal, but perhaps one beyond the ability of his army. Demoralized by months of siege, the discomfort of the higher ranks, and having been on half rations until only days before, the men of these corps were not at their best. Despite two well appointed officers being placed at their head, and measures taken to increase morale and cohesion, there were some notable failures.
Reynolds, considered one of the best commanders on the field that day, had done the most to bring his men to heel. Insubordination had been punished with hard labor, and an entire company of men from New Jersey thrown in chains. Deserters were executed, and Reynolds reviewed his men often so that the IV Corps had returned to, if not a similar state of efficiency, then the best state any commander could reasonably have asked of his men. As such, when his troops broke out towards Langley from the Union lines that afternoon, Magruder’s men were caught completely off guard.
While not a strategic surprise, indeed deserters over the past weeks had warned of ‘something’ happening in the Union lines, Magruder had simply intuited this as a raid for the purposes of raising morale. The wholesale assault by V Corps took the normally wily commander was left in a state of near panic, matters were only made worse when Magruder was injured when his own horse was shot out from under him and had to be raced to the rear of the Confederate lines.
The result was utter chaos.
Union troops penetrated Confederate lines as far as Langley, but events to the south halted the Union advance...
While Ord and V Corps managed to make it far enough into Magruder’s lines to precipitate a crisis, Reynold’s advance against the lines of Longstreet’s Second Corps almost immediately bogged down. Despite months of fighting and losses, Longstreet had kept his corps’ efficiency high, and his earthworks strong. The men of IV Corps, as motivated as they had become, immediately bogged down in the face of concentrated fire from the men of Huger and Anderson’s divisions. Supported by the corps artillery, Reynolds was hammered into submission.
With IV Corps stalled on his front, Longstreet was able to free Pickett and Holme’s divisions to march to the support of Magruder’s beleaguered troops. The two divisions marching into line took Ord from the flank near Langley. This spoiling attack forced the V Corps back into the the entrenchments around Washington…” To Arms!: The Great American War, Sheldon Foote, University of Boston 1999.
“As the sun set on August 15th, the situation around Washington had changed radically. While Rosecrans assault south of the Potomac had failed to dislodge the Confederate army, Lee himself had been thrown into disarray and was withdrawing into Maryland. Half of Whiting’s corps was fleeing towards Annapolis, and Longstreet was effectively in command south of the Potomac. Holding tenaciously to his ground, he could claim he still invested Washington and the army was, more or less, intact.
However, by the dawn of August 16th, the Siege of Washington would be broken…” - The Siege of Washington, Jeremiah Dutton, University of Philadelphia, 1993
Before reading the chapter.My condolences on the death of canadian and British pubilc servent and soilder HRH prince philp.
I think we here of all places can all appreciate the history his life represented and as the author is English Canadian I feel this note would be appreciated by them.
sorry if this counts as off topic.ill edit later with my thoughts on the chapter.
I think we here of all places can all appreciate the history his life represented and as the author is English Canadian I feel this note would be appreciated by them.
sorry if this counts as off topic.ill edit later with my thoughts on the chapter.
The Rock of Chickamauga has pulled victory from the jaws of defeat, one the Union badly needs
Thank you! It wasn't quite the victory the Union intended, but it was definitely the one they needed. Though sadly, the Rotunda is still in range of Confederate guns...
I discovered Krzyżanowski about a month ago, and honestly knew I needed to slide him in somewhere. The man was so cool I had to find ways for him to excel, and on Whiskey Hill he found his place!
Aw yeah, George Thomas has pulled through. The Union may not win this war, but at least the traitors will not be dictating peace in the white house.
Just read the chapter.fun fact To battle cry of freedom god save the queen and star splanged banner but then my playlist hit the dark knight theme as the action began and it fit perfectly
Immigrants! they get the job done!
also The better Virginian won!
but maryland is in danger of getting wrecked from all the fighting
Immigrants! they get the job done!
also The better Virginian won!
but maryland is in danger of getting wrecked from all the fighting
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Hell of a chapter, good to see the Union still has some oomph left in them and to see Thomas' star keep rising.
I think more than a few rebels will grouse that if only "x had gone right" they'd have been sipping mint julips in the White House by September. Though a few rebel artillerymen will be trying to one up everyone by saying they put a shell in the East Wing for sure...
Thank you! I'd been hoping to keep the outcome in doubt for a while, and I was mildly concerned people might figure out how I was going to pull it off! Thomas has further to rise yet, but saving Washington so far is his big deal! Even in the post-war environment he's going to be pretty famous, and just bristling with rank.