Hello everyone. I know I haven't been very active lately, so I decided to remedy that with a new post. I was writing this, and I did a lot of research on the politics of the time period, and decided to write this. I would like a critique of it if anyone wants to say anything. Constructive criticism is appreciated.
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Hell on Earth
Hellfire(1861-1862)
Europe watches as the American Civil War flares into existence with the Battle of Fort Sumter. While initially, Britain remains neutral, an incident known as the Trent Affair erupts.
The British, after demands to the Americans that the Confederate diplomats be released on the grounds that they are on a neutral ship, and that the US recognize British rights to trade with the Confederacy.
Lincoln attempts to defuse the situation, however a skirmish between Canadian militia and Union troops results in deaths on both sides on November 9th, 1861. The enraged Northern public rallies behind a war with Britain for the "Invasion".
Lincoln, under pressure from Congress, declares war on Britain, and calls for an army to a million troops. US forces under General Ullyses S. Grant are transferred from Kentucky to the border.
After a Canadian raid on December 3rd, Grant moves his 15,000 men into Canada, and seizes the Niagara Falls area in revenge. After routing the militia there, he presses northward. By January 4th, 1861, Grant takes Ottawa.
The British respond by dispatching 100,000 troops to Canada. In the west, the French, without a declaration of war or provocation, invade California, shelling Los Angeles by sea, and invading on the ground.
As the war intensifies, Tsar Alexander of Russia, remembering his country's defeat in the Crimean War just a few years earlier, decides to retaliate. The Russian Army attacks the Ottoman Empire on two fronts, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, on March 13th.
The invasion results in an official declaration of war on Russia by Britain and France just days later. As European armies mobilize for renewed war, the other great powers of Europe seek opportunities of their own. Seeing an opportunity to gain power and prestige for Prussia, Otto Von Bismarck announces his support for Russia, and invades Denmark, and via the Rhineland, invades Alsace-Lorraine.
While the war breaks out in Europe, Grant begins another offensive, hoping to reach Hudson Bay, and cut Canada in to. However, he realizes he may need reinforcements for this.
However, before he can advance, a British Army marches to meet him under the command of Sir James Simpson, veteran of the Crimean War. He attacks Grant just north of Ottawa on April 4th. At the same time, Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston launch an invasion of Kentucky to avenge their defeat at Mill Springs.
In addition to this, the Union army is slow in moving south to Richmond. Due to the rampaging French in California and the fortification of Manassas Junction by Joseph E. Johnston, supreme Commander of the Union army George B. McClellan decides mainly to fortify the Union's positions near Canada rather then wage war on the Confederacy.
In the west, General Sibley of the Confederacy invades the Union New Mexico Territory. He is joined by a second French army, and the two defeat a Union force at Glorieta Pass.
The arrival of the French leads the Union commander in the west, John C. Fremont, to organize a defense near Los Angeles. There, Confederate forces, joined by reinforcements from Arizona attempt to encircle and surround the city while French soldiers launch an amphibious landing.
Fremont commands his troops in a desperate fight, though is killed in battle by a Confederate sniper. A new Union officer, George Armstrong Custer, retaliates with ferocious counter attacks on the Confederates.
After these fail to gain much ground, Custer digs trenches, and rather then retreat from the city, fights directly inside, using buildings to snipe at the Confederates. By summer, with fighting raging in Southern Canada and California, Lincoln orders the Union army to mount offensive operations along the whole front.
As this goes on, the Prussian invasion of France is checked at Strasbourg. There, the French army under Napoleon III drives the Prussians out.
In the east, the Russians campaigns against the Ottomans stall as well. Confederate officer Alfred Von Schlieffen however wins a huge victory over French troops in the Saar, where he is reinforced by General Moltke. By this point, with the war on their doorstep, the German states choose sides.
Austria and the southern states intervene in the conflict on the side of France, hoping that toleration of the French will prevent a repeat of the Napoleonic wars. Austrian forces invade Silesia, while Denmark invades Prussia proper. Only the arrival of Russian forces prevents a Prussian collapse.
On the other side of the world. Grant finally outmaneuvers Simpson and cuts his army off near the Hudson Bay. There, he gains reinforcements from a new Union commander, William T. Sherman. The two shatter the British army, and destroy it.
Inspired by Grant's victory and Fremont's tenacious resistance in Los Angeles, Lincoln reinstates Irvin McDowell as commander of the Army of the Potomac, and orders it into Virginia.
McDowell attacks through the Shenandoah Valley, where General Robert E. Lee is stationed after Thomas Jackson is killed at the end of his Valley Campaign. Lee out flanks McDowell and invades Maryland. McDowell moves north and prevents Lee's capture of Washington at the Battle of Sharpsburg, but is forced to retreat to Washington, only weakening Lee's army.
With Lee occupying a sliver of Northern Territory, Johnston moves north to join him. He meets with General Lee near Sharpsburg. The two argue about how to use their armies, and eventually Davis, tired of slow Confederate progress, approves a plan to march north into Pennsylvania and capture Philadelphia. Lee is given command of both Johnston's Army of the Potomac and his own Army of the Shenandoah. He combines them into the Army of Maryland, and after Johnston refuses an offer to command the I Corps, names Longstreet and Beauregard his corps commanders.
Lee marches north rapidly, engaging McDowell in a series of battles at South Mountain, Camp Hill, Chambersburg, and Gettysburg. After seizing the high ground, Lee's army routs McDowell's Army of the Potomac. The Army of the Potomac retreats, and leaves Washington open. A British landing on the east coast of Maryland results in the capture of Washington, though the Union government is able to escape, and flees to New York.
The British army however focuses mainly on Canada, and engages Grant at the battle of Hudson Bay. There Grant again defeats the British Army, and moves east, into Quebec.
As the war drags into the fall of 1862, the French finally abandon the siege of Los Angeles, and retreat. Without their support, the Confederates retreat back towards San Diego and San Bernadino.
In Europe, Prussia and Russia defeat the Dano-French army near Berlin and the Austrian Army at Hohenfriedburg. These victories, combined with a Russian victory at Sevastapool over the British Navy, keep the newly formed Alliance of the United States, the Russian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia in the war. But victory is not near, the war will drag on far longer.
Walk in Hell(1863-1864)
The war drags into 1863. A disastrous Confederate defeat at Pittsburg checks the Anglo-Confederate advance. But the victory is short lived. Confederate weapons are smuggled north to supply the Confederate Army of Maryland.
In Kentucky, Albert Sidney Johnston reaches the Ohio River. Under pressure from Lee, he attacks Cincinnati on January 14th, and captures it. In Canada, Grant is defeated by the Canadians on the Plains of Abraham. He retreats back to the Hudson Bay.
The siege of Washington D.C ends, and the capital surrenders. Lincoln and his party suffer massive losses in the Mid Term elections. In California, Custer builds up his troops for a major push against the Confederates.
The fighting drags on, and Union forces repel a French attack on Denver, though at great cost.
On March 1st, 1863, the Union Monitor and British Warrior clash along the Hudson River. The Warrior sinks the Monitor, but the attempt by British marines to take New York City fails spectacularly. General Don Carlos Buell is ordered to hold the line at all costs, and does so, winning a great victory for the Union.
As the fighting continues, Lincoln orders a Levee en Masse of every able bodied male in the country to take up arms and fight the invading armies back. "The Union may no longer be preserved, but it must not be destroyed!" He declares.
As the North enters a state of Total War, Grant is called south to replace McClellan as Commander in chief of the Union Army.
With over a million more men joining the army, Grant devises a multi pronged strategy to hit the Confederates and their allies from all directions. The Army of the Susquehanna, the successor to the Army of the Potomac, is to retake Philadelphia, while the Army of Canada under Sherman is to take Quebec. Don Carlos Buell is to join his Army of New York with Sherman in an invasion of Quebec from the south. In the west, Custer is to drive the Confederates from California.
In Europe, the Prussians are forced to pause as they recover from the casualties at Berlin. By now, Bismarck has become convinced that the Dano-Austro-French invasion could be used as a tool to rally the German states behind Prussia. Austria would allow a fellow German state to be conquered, and would do the same to any one other.
His speech, called the Unification speech, is done to challenge the German states on who their loyalty should be to? Austria, which tried to conquer it in the 30 Years War and let's France rampage unopposed through Germany, or Prussia, a beacon of freedom in the eyes of the Germans? He declares that if Germany was to survive the war, it would need to unite.
The result was startling. Bavaria and Saxony throw their support to Prussia, followed by many others. They declare war on France and Austria. The Russians meanwhile abandon their costly advances against the Ottomans, and focus their efforts on the Crimea, which is under attack by the British navy and Ottoman Army.
As fighting intensifies, the cost grows ever higher. Women serve as nurses, and children in the factories. The North nevertheless struggles to fight a war on three fronts, and it's attacks on its enemies are slow.
The plan by Grant finally pushes the Confederates out of San Bernadino. But they retreat with the French into the far southern areas of California. In Canada, Sherman besieges Quebec, while Grant takes command of the Union Army, and besieges Philadelphia.
The Union army under Don Carlos Buell wins a major victory in New Brunswick, and drives further north.
As 1864 begins, both sides continue to fight on, trying to win the war, but as the war drifts into stalemate, the prospects of victory seem dim. Lincoln remarks to his Secretary of State "The war to preserve the Union cannot be won, but perhaps the war to preserve the independence of it can be maintained." Lincoln, in an attempt to score a political victory, agrees to recognize the Confederacy, but declares that as they have invaded the north, that the Union is the one who is on the defensive. It declares Britain, France, Austria, the Confederacy, and any nation who side with them aggressors in the conflict, and that the Union, Prussia, and Russia are simply defending themselves.
Lincoln's speech inspires the north. Hundreds of thousands are sent to the front line, and over a million more are drafted. The largest army in history, over three million men now, is assembled. The Union launches enormous offensives against its enemies on all fronts.
By May, 1864, however, the American people are tired of the war. Calls for peace ring out, and culminate in riots in Boston. The American navy is unable to prevent the British from blockading their ports, and the northern states are in a state of shock.
Then the impossible happens. Philadelphia is finally liberated, and Lee is defeated. The Confederates retreat into Maryland, and after the 2nd Battle of Chambersburg, retreat into Virginia. Along the Ohio River, Albert Sidney Johnston falls back after Union troops under George Thomas push him out of Cincinnati.
In California, Custer cuts the Franco-Confederate army off at San Diego, and besieges it. In Canada, Sherman breaks through and takes Quebec. Finally, by September, the Union army has defeated the Confederates and pushed them into the Confederacy.
At the same time, the German states under Prussia and Russia drive the French out of northern Germany and the Austrians from Silesia. They then press southward. The French are defeated at Frankfurt and then along the Rhine at Remagen. The Russians break through the Ottoman lines along the Caucasus and invade the Ottoman Empire proper, while in the Balkans, they are joined by Greece in an invasion of Romania.
The fighting continues into the winter, though by this point, the combatants are spent. The Union advance into Virginia is checked at the Third Battle of Manassas, and the Union army returns to Washington D.C.
Lincoln is assassinated just before the election, and his Vice President Hannibal Hamlin takes over. However, he is defeated by the Peace Democrats under Clement Vallandigham. He calls for peace with the Confederacy, and ending the war.
The Union public yearns for peace, and on January 1st, 1865, the warring parties meet at the same place the War began, Charleston South Carolina.
There, they negotiate the terms of peace. Eventually, the terms are as follows; the Confederacy is recognized as independent, with referendums in Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. The Union agrees to respect French domination of Mexico in exchange for their recognition of Union control of California. In addition, the American public agrees to withdraw from Canada, in exchange for QuÈbÈcois independence.
In Europe, Prussia defeats the French Army on the Rhine and captures the Rhineland, and declares the German Empire on April 1st, 1865. Austria concedes to recognize Prussian domination of Germany in exchange for Prussian promises to respect Austrian territory in Bohemia, and the Balkans.
Russia annexes all of the Caucasus, and is recognized as controller of the Crimea. In Britain, an agreement is made to recognize German control of Hanover.
With the negotiation over, the warring parties officially sign the peace agreement on April 12th, 1865. The Treaty of Richmond, as it is called, end past the war on the four year anniversary of the war's beginning.
Out of Hell(1865)
The American Civil War, has ended, but casualties, destruction, and conflict have changed the face of the world. At the cost of almost three million deaths, of which 1 million were Northerners, is a devastating blow. In addition, the North American and European continents are war ravaged, and many believe that it's only a matter of time until the next war begins. Otto Von Bismarck decides that it is necessary to prevent war from breaking out again. He forms the Triple Alliance, consisting of the United States, the Russian Empire, and the German Empire. In response, Britain, France, the Confederacy, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria from the League of Strasbourg. The seeds of another epic war are laid.
