Our flag is proudly floating
On the land and on the main,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Beneath it oft we've conquered,
And we'll conquer oft again!
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Down with the eagle...
And up with the cross!
Southerns all, at freedom's call,
For our homes united all,
Freemen, live, or freemen fall!
Death or liberty!
...
In the Western campaign, major general Henry Halleck instructed his subordinate, Ulysses S. Grant, to penetrate the Confederate defensive line across the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Grant swiftly transported his troops down the Cumberland River towards the Confederate strongholds of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. After fierce fighting, the two forts were captured, opening the way for future Union attacks into the Deep South. Grant, seizing the initiative, moved further south and conducted another expedition aimed at capturing the city of Corinth, Mississippi. Grant and the Army of Tennessee took up lodgings in the quaint town of Pittsburg Landing. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederate general, his army positioned near Grant's, initiated a surprise attack on Grant's force. Thus began the battle of Shiloh. In the first day of action, the Confederates pushed Grant back onto the sands of the Tennessee, but were unable to defeat him. The next day, Grant, now reinforced, lashed back at Johnston. The Confederates retreated from Pittsburg Landing towards their headquarters at Corinth, Mississippi. Grant was celebrated for the victory, however his own personal jubilation was cut short by the events that followed the victory. In order to see whether the Confederates were gearing for a second attack, Grant sent his right-hand man William Tecumseh Sherman on a reconnaissance mission to search for the Confederate camp. Sherman encountered the camp, however he and his party perished in the ensuing fight. Thereafter, Grant was promoted second-in-command of the theater, a position which he found unsuitable. After the Union army had occupied Corinth, Mississippi, the headquarters of the Army of the Mississippi, without the moral support of Sherman, Grant pleaded for an assignment elsewhere, and was granted a minor role in New Mexico, where he would fall into obscurity.
On April 23, 1862, Captain David G. Farragut entered the mouth of the Mississippi River and occupied the city of New Orleans, the largest city in the Confederacy. The Confederate Army of Western Louisiana, under command of Richard Taylor, attempted to prevent the Union advance up the Mississippi River from New Orleans, but was pushed aside. The Union army marched up the Mississippi, capturing Baton Rouge, Louisiana and besieging the major shipbuilding hub of Port Hudson. At the same time, George Henry Thomas, who replaced U.S. Grant, maneuvered west and occupied the major city of Memphis, Tennessee. The Union was preparing to initiate a final offensive that would revert to their control the remaining 125 miles of the Mississippi River that still belonged to the Confederacy. In an act of desperation, Richard Taylor intentionally propagated the falsity that the French intervention in Mexico was done in order to reinforce the Confederate troops in Texas and the Trans-Mississippi theater. In order to prevent the supposed French expedition, the Union proposed an offensive up the Red River in Louisiana to recapture the entire state. In addition, Frederick Steele, Union commander in Arkansas, would progress south and assault the Confederate capital of Louisiana at Shreveport. Once the two forces linked up in Shreveport, they would turn west and occupy east Texas, thus preventing the French from entering the war. The campaign was a complete and absolute failure. Although outnumbered, Richard Taylor managed to deliver a decisive blow to the Union armies outside Shreveport. Steele retreated back into Arkansas, while the main Union army returned to New Orleans. Richard Taylor pursued the Union forces, ending the Union siege of Port Hudson and starting the Confederate siege of New Orleans. After several unsuccessful attempts to break the siege, George Henry Thomas and his army to the north rested in Memphis, refusing to move south because of the stagnation of the Union's army in New Orleans. Unsatisfied with Thomas's performance, Alfred Palmer succeeded him as commander of the Army of Tennessee. Palmer was even more inefficient, and did little different than Thomas. Thus, by 1863, the Western front of the war came to a standstill.
In the East, the Union had as its main objective the seizure of the Confederate capital of Richmond. In July 1861, the Union launched an offensive out of Washington, the Federal capital, but was halted just a few miles outside the city at the battle of First Bull Run. George B. McClellan, general of the Union forces and respected greatly by his subordinates, then began the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, landing his army on the Virginia Peninsula, close to Richmond. McClellan advanced steadily towards the Confederate capital, but in the Seven Days Battles was forced to abandon the campaign by the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, despite getting within six miles of Richmond. After the Union's third assault was repelled at the battle of Second Bull Run, Robert E. Lee went on the offensive and led his forces into Maryland, only to be promptly turned back at the battle of Antietam by McClellan. The Union followed up the battle of Antietam with an attack on Fredericksburg, Virginia, but was defeated once again. President Lincoln, deciding an attack on the Confederate capital was the best way to destroy Lee and his army, ordered another campaign across the Rappahannock River. Lee combated the Union at the small village of Chancellorsville, and, despite being outnumbered, managed to defeat the Federals once again. After five successive failures to capture Richmond and destroy the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee took a gamble and led his army through the Shenandoah Valley and invaded the North. The Confederate force and the Union force commanded by General Meade clashed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After three days of fierce fighting, Lee and his army retreated back into Virginia after the failure of Pickett's Charge, a massive infantry assault on Union positions at Cemetery Ridge. General Meade and the Union army pursued Lee half-heartedly, but once they had gotten far enough into Virginia the Union army halted, the two armies taking up opposite sides of the Rappahannock River. Meade was too timid to go on the offensive, and a stalemate ensued, neither side daring an attack on the other.
By 1864, the war had been stylized by soldiers and civilians alike as the "Bore War". Indeed, it was silent on all fronts. In order to reinforce his reelection as president and increase the morale of the nation, President Abraham Lincoln ordered an offensive into northwestern Georgia. The offensive was partially successful, however at the battle of Dalton the Union was sent packing. The Confederates followed up their victory by sieging the Tennessee city of Chattanooga. After holding out for four months, the Union commander at Chattanooga surrendered his army to the Confederacy, propelling Southern morale and leading to the re-occupation of most of Kentucky and Tennessee by Confederate forces. Thanks to the ineffectiveness of the Georgia campaign and the loss of Tennessee and Kentucky, the anti-war Democrats soared in popularity. In a much-hyped election, Lincoln was voted out of office in favor of George B. McClellan, a Democrat who called for the immediate cessation of hostilities. McClellan, a popular commander during the war, garnered much support from his loyal, battle-hardened troops of the Army of the Potomac. So saying, a few months after the election of McClellan, the Army of the Potomac solemnly retreated back into Maryland. Confederate and Northern officials convened officially to draw up a formal peace treaty and resolve a number of future territorial disputes. The two sides signed the Treaty of Spotsylvania, solidifying Southern independence. The treaty also stipulated that the current position of the Confederate and Union armies would determine the current borders between the two sides. This meant that most of Kentucky and Tennessee were annexed by the Confederacy, however the major garrisons of Memphis and Louisville remained in Union hands. Unbeknownst to the Confederate diplomats, the Union army under siege in New Orleans was still functioning, and according to the treaty this implied that New Orleans was Union territory. Despite the South's harsh rhetoric ordering the Union to vacate the strategically important city, the Union army refused to leave, citing the Treaty of Spotsylvania as proof that the Confederate government had no quarrel with the status quo in New Orleans. The Confederacy dropped the complaint after they failed to produce any results, however it remained a contentious issue for years to come.
The Confederacy, after receiving diplomatic recognition from Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and other European powers, went about on its own, investing most of its time in attempting to repair its economy and political stability. The antebellum South had long been accustomed to lighter tax burdens, however, due to the unprecedented amount of borrowing the Confederacy did in order to fund the war, large census-based taxes on property and slaves were enlisted. Although the South was nowhere near the total repayment of its debts, its new budget, the steady flow of taxes and the lack of a money-draining war against a large industrial power made it easier for the South to cope with the burden. The Union also had massive war debts to pay off, however they found it easier to do so because of their developed markets and industrial base. U.S. President George B. McClellan had an able economic advisor, Salmon P. Chase, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln's administration. Chase managed to put the Union on the right track in repaying its war debts, however the delicate situation meant that every decision with economic ramifications had to be chosen and authorized carefully. One such decision was over whether or not to accept the generous Russian offer of Alaska, which was turned down by the Union for the devastating effect such a purchase would have on the economy and because Alaska, at the time, showed little hope of economic success. Politically, the South developed ultraconservative political parties that took a hard line against the Union, usually demanding the return of New Orleans, Memphis and Louisville. In fact, New Orleans was officially considered by the Confederacy as the Confederate capital under occupation, next to Richmond, the technical capital. The Sons of Southern Liberty won the Confederate presidential elections of 1865 and 1871, espousing an anti-Union platform consisting of states' rights and Southern nationalism. The Union's preexisting Republican Party, of which Lincoln was a member, promoted a hard line attitude towards the Confederacy, while the Democrats were mostly anti-war but nonetheless opposed the Confederacy through other means. As many blamed the Republican Party for the current nation's divide, the Democratic Party prospered. By the late 1860s, the two nations had managed to get ahead of their debts and thus started an era of mutual progress. The new era, and the eras that would follow, however, was labeled by a handful of fearful citizens as the Long Road to Ruin.
To the south in Mexico, Napoleon III of France was struggling to maintain his hold over the country in the face of numerous Mexican Republican victories. Most towns on the Rio Grande border with the Confederacy were captured by the Mexican Republican soldiers. Realizing how lucrative enlisting Confederate support could be, Napoleon III invited the Confederacy to assault the northern-most provinces of Mexico and kick out the Mexican Republican forces. In return, the French would transfer the Mexican provinces of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas to Confederate control. The Confederacy obliged, and activated its armed forces. The Union was alarmed and transported thousands of soldiers to the state of California, in order to monitor and counterbalance Confederate actions. The Confederate troops, with their high morale and renowned military leaders, routed the Mexican Republican forces with minimal casualties, capturing all the provinces owed to them by summer 1869. Shortly thereafter, the Mexican provinces occupied by Confederate forces were annexed as states, giving the Confederacy a vital lifeline on the Pacific Ocean. The Union, unwilling to grant the Confederacy the right to the Pacific, pushed into Baja California, a long and skinny peninsula of Mexico that juts out of California, without declaring war on France. The few French and local forces in the area were defeated and Baja California was occupied by the Union, effectively challenging the new Confederate possessions. France predictably reacted harshly, condemning the Union's actions and greed, and prepared for war. French expeditions landed on the coast of Baja California, hoping to recapture the lost territory. On the eastern coast, the French Caribbean Fleet docked in Nassau, Bahamas, a British possession. Aiming to deliver a decisive blow to the French naval forces, the American navy initiated an elaborate attack on the French fleet stationed in Nassau. After a day of combat, the French fleet was liquidated, presenting the Union with an uplifting victory. Because the attack took place on British territory, however, Britain condemned the Union for violating their neutrality, and severed all relations with the republic. In retaliation for their defeat at Nassau, France blockaded Boston Harbor (later reduced to rubble by the French guns) and the Chesapeake Bay. The French expeditions in Baja California failed, however, and the French largely gave up the war effort after no significant results were produced. The war significantly altered the Union for years to come. Namely, the war with the French isolated the Union diplomatically. Great Britain refused to communicate with the Union, while the Confederacy and France maintained a clear hatred of the Union. The hatred was mutual, as the citizens of the Union, especially in Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, were hit hard by the war economically. Realizing the need to be surrounded by allies, the Union signed an alliance with the newly-formed German Empire in 1871, adopting many of its characteristics. In addition, the new war-like tendencies that arrived after the war's conclusion, and a severe economic depression the Democrats were unable to contain, led the Republican Party to victory in the 1872 presidential elections, which in turn led to the widespread militarization of the Union and the establishment of a proud military heritage. With two radical political parties heading the two nations, the North American continent was destined for turmoil.
By 1876, the Republican administration had transformed the Union army from a rag-tag group of militiamen into a full-fledged and capable fighting force. No longer did they rely on hastily-called up militiamen. All soldiers were professional, and were drilled by the best drill inspectors Germany could supply. Rising Union military commanders were sent to military academies in the German Empire, where they received extensive knowledge on the art of warfare and tactics. Most importantly, the Union researched the Southern War of Independence, and attempted to highlight the reasons why they had failed to quell the rebellion, and in doing so developed new and innovative strategies to outdo the Confederacy in a future war. After an ambush by a group of Confederate dissenters killed half-a-dozen Confederate troops in Kentucky, close to the Federal garrison at Louisville, the Union began to recognize the potential in funding and supplying proxy forces within the Confederacy. With Union aid and military supplies, the anti-Confederate cause in Kentucky grew like wildfire, rupturing in many cities, including the capital of Frankfort. The Confederacy fought back by aiding Native American groups within the Great Plains against Union settlers.
Finally, in 1878, the Union demanded that the Confederacy cede Kentucky, threatening to finalize the transaction by force if necessary. The Confederacy ignored the demand and mobilized their entire armed forces and militia. As the cities of Memphis, New Orleans, Louisville and Washington prepared for what the future would bring, the Confederate and Union armies occupied their respective borders, staring each other down. The Confederate navy began laying the foundations of the naval blockade of New Orleans, while the army militarized the Delmarva Peninsula. The Union made the first move. Firefights broke out on all fronts, after the main Union army pushed their way past the Confederate border defenses into Kentucky. Outside Louisville, the Confederates didn't put up a fight, retreating east towards the capital of Frankfort. A second Union advance group that penetrated the Confederate border with Ohio easily maneuvered south and occupied the empty major city of Lexington, cutting off the Confederate supply lines. At Frankfort, the outnumbered Confederate forces were routed, losing almost half of their 60,000-man force. In a campaign that last three weeks, the Confederates had been ousted from Kentucky.
The Union navy ambushed the Confederate naval blockade of New Orleans, leading to the surrender and destruction of most of the fleet. Instead of simply watching its ally get pummeled, Great Britain and France joined the war on the Confederacy's side, their navies blockading all the Union's major ports (including New Orleans). At the battle of the Chesapeake Bay, the Union navy was decisively defeated by Anglo-French forces. In the north, British troops poured out of Canada into the undefended state of Maine. The British occupied Maine, but were denied access to New Hampshire after the battle of Portsmouth.
The Union, after annexing Kentucky, declared a unilateral ceasefire, which the Confederacy adhered to as well. At about the same time, one of the largest scandals of the war occurred. A French vessel was transporting parts of a gargantuan statue, entitled the Statue of Liberty, to the Confederate port of Charleston, a gift from France commemorating Southern independence and liberty. The ship encountered a Union war vessel, which proceeded to board the ship, and, upon discovering its contents were destined for the Confederacy, opened fire on the ship, causing it to submerge.
By now, the Union had captured Kentucky, but lost Maine. The humongous Union army once again pushed into Confederate territory, this time slivering down the Cumberland River in conjunction with the forces in Memphis, who advanced down the Mississippi River towards the cities of Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi. Extra troops sent to New Orleans broke the siege, seizing southern Louisiana. A second Union army opened up the war on the eastern front, landing on the Virginia Peninsula, imitating McClellan’s strategy in the War of Secession. At the battle of Nashville, the Confederate army was decisively defeated, leading to their evacuation of the whole state into Georgia. Vicksburg and Natchez were captured, and soon the Confederacy lost control over their portion of the Mississippi River, effectively cutting the nation into two. The Confederate force in Virginia was struggling to halt the Union advance, as the first units of the Union army arrived in the suburbs of Richmond. Mobile Bay, Alabama, was captured by a Union naval expedition, and all hope appeared lost for the Confederacy. After Britain and France pulled out of the war, a war with the Union's ally Germany on their hands, the Confederacy lost significant funding. Unassisted, and burdened with the problem of funding the new war, the Confederate dollar lost nearly all of its value. The war then spread to the Western states, with the Union seizing the coastal regions of the state of Sonora, and invading most of Confederate-held New Mexico, culminating in the battle of Albuquerque, where the Union once again defeated the Confederacy, this time weakening their influence west of Texas. In Virginia, the Confederate government fled Richmond as the Union resumed control. Finally, after almost two years of war, the Confederate government announced the disestablishment of the Confederacy on June 27th, 1881. The Union rejoiced, as its armed forces were sent in on all fronts to occupy all Confederate holdings. The Confederacy was fully occupied by 1882, including the Mexican provinces, and the Union was left with the burden of reuniting the nation and reconstructing the south, after so many years of war. The Confederates, however, converted their army into a guerrilla force, and continued to execute insurgent raids on Union forces. Even though the Confederate threat was only debased, the Union still propelled on the world stage, with new prosperous states in Mexico under its rule as well as the rich agricultural region of the South. The era, spanning no more than 20 years, was by far the most turbulent in American history, and is the main reason why they are a the world's sole hyperpower today.
Note from me: For a school assignment, I had to compose a counterfactual essay about any event in history. I chose the American Civil War, because it's a subject that interests me greatly and because of the many intriguing consequences that Confederate independence could have meant for the rest of the world since the 19th century. Seeing as this was for school, I didn't write it that comprehensively (otherwise the teacher would be bamboozled and give a low mark!), and there may be a few historical inaccuracies shrouded here and there, despite the fact that the piece is supposed to be written from the viewpoint of a neutral historian, but I hope that you enjoyed the read and that I didn't waste some of your valuable time. Cheers! ~Acco
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Helios 45 - A Burning Desire
TO LIVE IS TO DIE
Quae est infernum es
Troll Whisperer
Land of the Free! Home of the
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Behold the Beard
VENGEANCE BURNS
Horrible(ly cute)
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Originally Posted by Simon Cashmere
*takes off trousers
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