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Post by ieshima on Feb 4, 2018 15:25:02 GMT -6
Confederacy AAR I have had Rule the Waves since seeing it played by numerous Youtubers, who sparked my interest in it. Having found the forums when purchasing the game, I quickly discovered the joys of reading through other commentators After Action Reports, or AARs. Many of these were good reads, and a few could easily be considered novels of alternative fiction. So, after playing for roughly a year, and having just started a new game, I decided to try my hand at writing one.
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
Admiral Name: Johnson B. Gains Nation: Confederate States of America (Version 1, so no Spain and the CSA holds the Gulf) Fleet Size: Very Large Historical Resources: Yes Manual Build of Legacy Fleet: Yes Research Rate: 50% Varied Technology: Yes
Edit: Please note that I have made the following edits to the original CSA.nat file in the game:
turretstyle has been changed from 3 to 1 (to reflect on Britain helping design and guide the Confederate navy in its formative years, and because they look better)
Added several new names for Confederate ships, and created a designated CA name list. Also removed several names that do not canonically fit with the history of the nation in this AAR.
Removed and modified several names for USA ships, mainly removing the names of 'Confederate' states from the BB name list.
Since no one seems to give any love to this rather interesting nation, I decided to give it a go. Personally, as a huge fan of history, particularly military history, I have always loved pondering the great “What ifs” of past wars.
History of the South:
The Army of Northern Virginia, having won the Battle of Second Manassas, marched into Maryland, intent on bring the war to Union soil. Thanks to a turn in history, (and two union soldiers throwing away the wrapper on some cigars they found) Union General McClellan rallied his forces from Frederick and slowly marched to recapture the town of Harpers Ferry, skirmishing with confederate scouts at Crampton’s Gap on the way. Believing to be up against 120,000 Confederates, McClellan clashed with Jackson’s Corp at Harpers Ferry late on September 15th, and met with some initial success, driving Jackson’s forces back into town. However, unbeknownst to McClellan, the scouts he had fought at Crampton’s Gap were members of J.E.B Stuart’s cavalry. They quickly brought word to Lee, who was with James Longstreet’s Corp around Boonsboro.
A view of the Potomac from the heights above Harpers Ferry.
Lee utilized his split forces, marched through the night, and by the morning of the 16th had maneuvered Longstreet’s Corp into the Maryland Heights north of McClellan and Stuarts thinly spread cavalry behind him to the east, trapping the Army of the Potomac in place along the river it was named for. An attempt by the Union army to escape culminated in the Battle of Sandy Hook, where McClellan, surrounded and outfoxed, surrendered his forces, but not after forcing the Confederacy to fight to a Pyrrhic victory. With this stunning defeat, and Stuart’s Corp raiding the suburbs of the woefully undefended Washington D.C., a temporary truce was called. While technically arguing from a position of power, the South knew it could not maintain its current position for long. As tentative talks began, news of the southern victory resulted in Great Britain and France formally recognized the South, something the Confederate government had prayed for. Suddenly under pressure from foreign powers to end the war, President Abraham Lincoln agreed to peace talks, personally meeting with President Jefferson Davis at the town of Leesburg.
The talks dragged on for days, but eventually resulted in an agreement that both sides could grudgingly support. The borders of the two nations would return their positions before the war, with the South taking possession of the Indian and New Mexican Territories, as well as any remaining Union holdouts in the south, such as Key West. The Union would formally recognize the Confederacy, and both nations agreed to a binding Pact of Nonaggression that was to last five years, preventing either nation from attacking the other, with Britain and France acting as enforcers. However, these agreements came at a cost: all slaves in the Southern states had to be freed, or the war would continue, regardless of the losses. The Union refused to budge on this point, knowing that even in their defeat the South would still lose on this matter. With British and French delegates, whose nation looked down on slavery, pressuring Davis to accept despite the uproar from other Confederate leaders, the Treaty of Leesburg was signed on November 4th, 1862, ending the War Between the States.
The news was met with muted celebration throughout the South. They had won, but at the cost of their way of life and the destruction of their economic system. With emancipation being enacted under the watchful eyes of foreign representatives from Britain, the Southern plantation owners had no choice but to free their slaves. With the rapid loss of their work force, much of which emigrated to the Union, many landowners were embarrassingly forced by necessity to hire their former slaves to work their fields. A surprising number of former slaves agree to do so, though with a notable difference between the owners who had been known to have a gentle hand, and those who did not. It was not to uncommon for particularly vicious plantation owners to be found hung from their front porch, and the British officials overseeing the emancipation did little to prevent such acts. If the end of the war was met with cold but open arms in the South, the North’s reception of peace was far worse. Riots broke out in cities across the North, resulting massive fires that burned for days as rioters fought with Union troops sent to keep the peace. Full-blown fistfights occurred throughout capitol hill, as politicians argued with each other over who was to blame for the nation’s defeat. Lincoln was forced to return to Washington in disguise, and only the presence of cannons loaded with grapeshot prevented hordes of furious rioters from storming the White House. It seemed that the United States was about to collapse. On November 14th, while giving a speech on the steps of the Capitol Building, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by Senator James Henry Lane of Kansas. Lane, a staunch abolitionist with a rabid dislike of the Confederacy, had lead a volunteer brigade of Kansas ‘Jayhawkers’ in a criticized and appallingly bloody raiding campaign through Missouri during the war, burning and looting towns as they went. Incensed by the terms of the peace, Lane attacked Lincoln, drawing a revolver and shooting the president twice in the chest before being assaulted by his fellow congressmen, who rushed to the aid of the mortally wounded president.
A photograph taken minutes before President Lincoln’s assassination. Lane is in the crowd behind the President
Lincoln would not survive his injuries, succumbing shortly afterwards. His death stunned both the Union and the Confederacy, with the riots in the north abruptly ending, and southern well-wishers sending gifts of sorrow to his widow. Lincoln would lay in state in the East Room of the White House until November 29th, before being placed aboard a special train to be carried back to his home state of Illinois.
His Vice-President, Hannibal Hamlin, was sworn in as President on November 15th. Hamlin’s role and actions over the next two years would begin to heal the rift between the Confederacy and Union, as though he was an abolitionist and a strong supporter of the Union, he was well liked by both countries. His first term was so successful that he beat out Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee and remained in office until 1869. Despite leading his country to victory, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was woefully unskilled at being the leader of a nation. While he worked hard to ensure that his fledgling nation did not fall into ruin, rumors and evidence of corruption and favoritism surrounded his administration for its entire six-year term. Davis refused to run again, choosing to instead return to his property in Mississippi where he would write his now famous book ‘Rise of the Confederate Government’. With the incumbent refusing to run, the 1866 election was a race between two military heroes: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and John Bell Hood. In a closely fought political battle that held the eyes of the modern world, Jackson won out with a respectable lead over Hood, becoming the Second President of the Confederate States of America. When asked by a reporter over his loss, Hood merely said “The better man won.” If Davis was the Father of the Confederacy, Jackson was the Builder of a Nation. Under his leadership, the Confederate government was taken from corrupt, weak and ineffective to an organized and efficient system. All officials currently serving and potential candidates had thorough investigations conducted on their backgrounds. Any who were found to be corrupt, even in the slightest way, were dismissed on the spot and permanently barred from holding or running for a government position for life. A firm believer in education, Jackson created the Department of Southern Learning, whose first goal was the establishment of a public school, open children of all ages and, eventually, race, in each township in the Confederacy. Jackson personally attended the opening of the first school in his hometown of Lexington and gave the first spelling lesson for the children.
With the war over, and their economic system in shambles, many Confederate citizens began looking for other ways of life. While the South would not match the Union in industrial might and size for some time, factories began sprouting up around the major ports of the Confederacy with the full support of the Jackson administration. Railways, funded by private donations, aided by government support, and built by the sweat and blood of the work gangs, began to bind the south together, though its undisputed lifeblood was still the Mississippi River. The President of the Confederacy worked quite closely with his counterpart in the north, Union war hero Ulysses S. Grant, who was elected after Hamlin’s second term ended in 1866. According to many in both administrations, the two presidents became close friends, and worked together in bridging the gaps between the nations. Both presidents toured the other’s nation, with Jackson being met by enthusiastic cheers in New York City, and Grant being welcomed in New Orleans with a parade.
American President Ulysses S. Grant arriving in New Orleans. Confederate President Thomas Jackson is in the carriage to his left
The only sore point of Jackson’s presidency was his views on blacks. Being sympathetic to freedmen, Jackson’s opponents rarely had to work hard in finding criticisms with his beliefs. Jackson’s efforts on the topic of blacks were met with mixed reception. While most southerners had not owned slaves, and were not overly affected by their freedom, many of the more influential politicians had been stripped of much of their “property”. They fought Jackson tooth and nail on any issue involving freedmen, regardless of how minor it was. It wasn’t until the last years of Jackson’s first term, and only through the influence of foreign nations, that blacks and other nonwhites were allowed to become Confederate citizens and were given the right to vote.
This resolution resulted in outpouring support from the newly minted citizens. Jackson coasted on this wave into a second term, firmly beating out George Pickett, who had served with distinction under Longstreet in the Battle of Sandy Hook. While his second term was nowhere near as grand as his first, it was only because so much had already been accomplished in the preceding six years. Jackson left the office of the president in 1878 and retired to his home in Virginia.
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Post by klavohunter on Feb 4, 2018 15:30:00 GMT -6
Interesting start to make the CSA more politically palatable, usually I consider myself to be playing as the bad guy when I play as the CSA... And I usually end up conquering enough territories to make the Draka blush! I swear they must get some secret bonus to seizing territories in the warlord event.
I think for a 'proper' CSA playthrough, you'd need to tweak the USA to be a bit poorer at the start, and to get rid of the Confederate state names (Unless you want a revanchist USA to fight!).
Let's see how you do! I was tempted to play as them again the other night...
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Post by aeson on Feb 4, 2018 22:55:07 GMT -6
Feel free to ignore this if you're not interested or if it doesn't fit your narrative, but Hamlin leaving office in 1866 would imply that he resigned from the Presidency or died about nine to eighteen months into his second term - he'd have been sworn into office for his second term March 4, 1865 - instead of serving out a full four year term in office. US Presidential elections are held in years of the Gregorian calendar which are evenly divisible by 4, with the President-elect being sworn into office on March 4 (or 5, if the Fourth was a Sunday) of the next year until 1933, and on January 20 (or 21, if the Twentieth was a Sunday) of the year following the election from 1933 to the present. Should the President die in office, the Vice President assumes the Presidency and serves out the remainder of the current term before the next elections are held.
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Post by ieshima on Feb 5, 2018 8:02:40 GMT -6
Feel free to ignore this if you're not interested or if it doesn't fit your narrative, but Hamlin leaving office in 1866 would imply that he resigned from the Presidency or died about nine to eighteen months into his second term - he'd have been sworn into office for his second term March 4, 1865 - instead of serving out a full four year term in office. US Presidential elections are held in years of the Gregorian calendar which are evenly divisible by 4, with the President-elect being sworn into office on March 4 (or 5, if the Fourth was a Sunday) of the next year until 1933, and on January 20 (or 21, if the Twentieth was a Sunday) of the year following the election from 1933 to the present. Should the President die in office, the Vice President assumes the Presidency and serves out the remainder of the current term before the next elections are held. Good catch. Hamlin should have stepped down in early 1869, not 1866. I will amend that shortly.
Also, nice to see someone else knows about that law. I've never encountered another person who did.
Edit: should be fixed.
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Post by ieshima on Feb 6, 2018 7:10:22 GMT -6
The Establishment of the Modern Confederate Navy.
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
It was early in President Jackson’s second term that something troubling came to his attention. While the Confederate Army had been modernized by the Confederacy’s first Secretary of the Army, the esteemed Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Navy was still in shambles. Due to the relative shortness of the war, the Navy had little time to establish itself before the conflict was over. It’s one true success, the ironclad Virginia, could hardly be considered as such, with the armored battery being scuttled just a few months after had been launched. Its first Secretary, Stephen Mallory, had been the Navy’s champion in Richmond, and had encouraged many new schools of naval design and experimentation. But the abrupt close of the war had left the Navy floundering in debt and incomplete warships. The suffering of his department appeared to also affect Mallory, who became progressively sicker and sicker as his precious Navy collapsed around his ears. He had died of pneumonia in 1865 and was buried at sea in Hampton Rhodes, the site of the Virginia’s victory over the Union blockade.
The Father of the Navy, Stephen Mallory, circa 1864
Mallory’s death left the Navy leaderless, broken and largely defunct. What few warships it had were in poor condition, and it had no money or support to finish the still incomplete vessels from the war. Its offices were not located in Richmond, but instead on the docks of Savannah, and not even in a proper building, but onboard the leaky ironclad Atlanta, which was launched just after the Treaty of Leesburg was signed. The current Secretary wasn’t even in Savannah, but was instead in New Orleans. The aging Franklin Buchanan was too old to travel across the country to his own offices, much less command a modern navy. When Jackson was informed of the state of his Navy, he was appalled by its conditions. More importantly, he was appalled with the lack of attention both he and Davis had given to it, hindsight being perfectly clear. Jackson immediately ordered a full investigation into the state of the department, its current resources, and potential solutions. It took close to a year for the findings of the infamous Savannah Report to be compiled, but when they were, it painted a shocking picture of the Navy. While the offices of the navy where onboard the Atlanta, there was no true chain of command, with officers rarely reporting to headquarters, if ever. The majority of the seagoing fleet was made up of aging sailing vessels and a handful of poorly built ironclads and river barges. The Naval Academy was a broken-down steamer moored just short of Richmond and hadn’t had a true class in close to a decade. The majority of the personnel were untrained private citizens and merchant sailors, and the only officers with experience were former Union commanders who were rapidly approaching retirement. It was painfully clear that the Navy would have to be rebuilt from the ground up, but the act of building a modern Navy from nothing was nearly impossible. With the obvious lack of home-grown knowledge, foreign aid was the only possible way to go. Astonishingly, the first source of help didn’t come from Europe, but from Asia.
When Commodore Perry first sailed into Edo Bay in 1853, the nation of Japan was firmly locked in the feudal era. Past diplomatic attempts by modern nations had been met with polite requests to leave at best, and open attacks at worst. Perry’s arrival and subsequent actions had not opened the door for modernization and trade: it had firmly kicked the door down and used it as kindling. By 1873, the year that the Savannah Report was released, Japan was well on its way to becoming the first modern nation in Asia, with trade flowing in and out to all corners of the globe. To protect this trade, Japan had undergone great efforts to also modernize its navy, working closely with Great Britain to build modern warships and train crews and officers. Even in its infancy, Japan’s navy far outstripped the Confederacy’s. Choosing to follow the lead of the distant nation, the Confederacy turned to its powerful trading partner for aid. After an inspection of the Confederate Navy was conducted by British officials, Queen Victoria agreed to provide help for the southern states. Officially, the new arrivals were representatives of major shipping companies, staying as guests of the British embassy, and were supposed to be inspecting southern ports for the potential expansion of trade. Unofficially, the British admirals in civilian clothes would take temporary command of the Confederate Navy, modernizing its fleet, bringing its personnel, tactics and bureaucracy up to British standards, and establishing a permanent Naval Academy for the training of officers and the exploration of new naval theory. By 1879, the Confederate Navy was in far better shape than it had been previously. The offices of the Navy had been moved from the damp confines of the Atlanta to an expansive brick complex near Portsmouth, Virginia. This location was ideal, the short distance to the capital in Richmond, and the nearby Gosport Navy Yard, which had been thoroughly modernized and expanded, making it the largest naval yard in the south, allowed the Navy far more efficiency. Gosport Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, Circa 1878
Modern iron-hulled steamers of British design rested on the stocks of Gosport in various stages of completion, with dockyard workers crawling over them in their labors. The equally busy dry-docks nearby housed the hulls of the soon to be completed Miami-class ironclad battleships. Classes of students were often seen being given tours of the yards, having traveled all the way from the new Confederate Naval Academy in Pensacola to stare in wonder at the new ships they would one day command. Overall command of the Navy had fallen into the capable hands of Secretary Joseph Nicholson Barney. A respected captain in the War Between the States, Barney had been one of the few career officers to remain in the service after its decline, and his patience and diligence, coupled with an eager willingness to embrace British aid, made him the perfect choice to command the new department. It was a good thing too, as the Navy had grown quite a bit. Ships flying the Confederate navy jack were present from Singapore to London and every port in between. Even if most were still sailing vessels, the Confederate Navy had become a respected power in much of the world.
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Post by coachlaw on Jun 26, 2018 23:05:22 GMT -6
Wow ieshima, I really enjoyed that. As a history teacher, I love to play the "What If" game. Lots of imagination here. As a matter of fact, the reason I purchased this game, was because it included the CSA. I do have to point out one major error in your story though. The Confederate Constitution specified only ONE six year presidential term. So no re-elections were possible. If I were to grade your paper though, I'd have to give you a 95. I really enjoyed it. Keep it up.
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Post by ieshima on Jul 6, 2018 22:00:30 GMT -6
A Leader is Made
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
While the main purpose of the Pensacola Naval Academy was the training of new naval officers, it was a college in the truest sense of the word. Brilliant minds from across the Confederacy, and from overseas, came to study at the new campus, putting budding intellect towards the development of new technologies and testing new ideas. It was there that new officers in training developed the naval theories that the Navy would use for decades to come. Following in the footsteps of its founder, the Mallory doctrine was the guiding principle for the Confederate Navy. Having quickly realized that the south could not yet meet the level of production of its potential foes, the Navy instead focused on the idea of ‘quality over quantity. Each warship would be of the best possible design, carrying the best guns and armor available, and little expense would be spared in their construction.
Pensacola Naval Yard, Pensacola, Florida, Circa 1880
The large, protected waters of Pensacola Bay were close by, a perfect testing site for new ship designs and the Pensacola Navy Yard, second only Gosport in Virginia, was more than happy to build small scale models of the student’s ideas. Permanently moored along the Academy’s wharf was Atlanta, which had been rescued from her life as a floating office to serve as the cadet’s gunnery training vessel. Common visitors to the school were the steamers Shenandoah and Alabama, the two raiders-turned-training vessels used by the Academy during the student’s summer training cruises.
Interestingly, the Academy also encouraged the exploration of more eccentric fields of study. Topics ranging from naval mines, to wireless communication, to outlandish ideas like H.L. Hunley’s submersible torpedo rams were discussed, blueprinted and experimented with thoroughly. The results of some of these tests were often explosive, literally. It was quite common for detonations to be heard echoing from the heavily reinforced halls of the Stephan Mallory Research Laboratory. In fact, it happened so often that the building was the first in the South to have a fire prevention sprinkler system installed. The Stephan Mallory Research Laboratory and its workshop, Pensacola Naval Academy, Circa 1880
It was into this crazed and exciting place that Johnson Beale Gains stepped. The second son of Jerimiah Gains, a successful shipping magnate on the Mississippi, Johnson was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the late summer of 1861. Because of his father’s business, Johnson was onboard vessels from an early age, traveling with his father up and down every inch of the Mississippi. With such a life came knowledge, and Johnson was an eager learner.
It was not unheard of for captains of paddleboat’s carrying cargo for Gain’s Shipping to find a tawny-haired boy standing on tip-toes to peer out of the bridge house windows, or for stokers to have to shoo a coal-dust covered lad out of the boiler room. With his family’s Baton Rouge residence resting close to the banks of the mighty river, Johnson would often come home, covered from head to toe in mud, happily carrying a disgruntled amphibian to keep as a pet. This curiosity, and the penchant for mischief that came with it, stuck with Johnson for his entire childhood. In school, one could often find the young Gains sitting in a corner wearing a pointed cap proudly bearing the word ‘dunce’. The title could not have been farther from the truth. Johnson was an avid reader, devouring any book he could get his hands on. He maintained solid grades through his schooling, though when he found it hard to read his books his father, a stern though loving man, gifted the boy a pair of circular glasses to aid his vison.
However, by the time that Johnson reached adulthood it had become painfully clear that he would not follow in his father’s footsteps. Despite possessing a quick mind and easily capable of managing the day-to-day aspects of a company, Johnson was not suited for the subtle nuances of commerce in the way that his father and older brother, Moses, were. With his sibling being the obvious choice to inherit Gain’s Shipping, Johnson, who had never lost his love of learning, was sent to the Academy to become a cadet. Arriving at the gates of the school in 1877, the 16-year old threw himself into his studies with vigor. According to his teachers, Gains was a gifted student, though his childhood pastime of finding trouble appears to have come with him. An excerpt from the journals that he kept during his school years gives light into what he thought of the problem: “…despite my best efforts to remove myself from punishable activities, I continuously find myself before the headmaster awaiting discipline. Many a long hour has been spent standing watch in the heat of July. This is not a task that any would find challenging, save that one must wear full rough weather gear while doing so, which drastically increases our discomfort. An equally loved consequence would be the scrapping of paint from the many, many buildings on our campus, supposedly to ready ourselves for a lifetime of the same activity at sea. My fellow troublemakers and I have spent a great number of afternoons in wonderment over our foolishness. The collective agreement has always been that it was worth the punishments it merited…”
Gains found fast friends in his college years. Easygoing Barton Cook Engle of Tennessee, known as “Cookie” to his friends, was one of the so called ‘fellow troublemakers’, as was the quick-tempered Miles Farlow of Georgia. Marcus Turner, a native of North Carolina, was the instigator of many of the adventures they went on. Finally, Franklin Buchanan III, grandson of second Secretary of the Navy, rounded out the eclectic band with his Virginian charm.
The Class of 1882. The ‘Troublemakers’ make up the top row, with Gains second from the right
The five cadets quickly gained a reputation in the academy. It was quite rare that they were seen apart, regardless of how improbable the location. If you saw one, the other four were surely nearby, most likely preparing for another prank or joke. However, once they put their minds to something, the ‘Troublemakers’, as they became known, accomplished it. When their misadventures resulted with one of the academy’s training cutters resting at the bottom of Pensacola bay, the cadets were tasked with procuring a replacement. Rather than purchasing a new vessel, which any normal man would do, they instead decided to build their own. The handsome little sloop, aptly named Caper, would remain the flagship of the academy training fleet for decades.
Unfortunately, all good times must end. Graduating in the year of 1882, the group of friends was split apart, and Sub-Lieutenant Gains was assigned to the newly commissioned CSS Gadsden. The Gadsden, named for the county of Gadsden, Florida, was the second ship of the Morgan-class cruisers, a quartet of sail-and-screw vessels heavily based off the British Leander-class. The Morgan-class served in the same role as their Royal Navy counterparts, ensuring the protection of Confederate trade around the world.
CSS Morgan, sister-ship to CSS Gadsden, in drydock at Gosport, 1885 With Southern trade being far-flung, especially in Asia, Gains found himself visiting strange and foreign ports across the globe. It was while Gadsden was stationed there in 1884 that he witnessed the opening battle of the Sino-French War. The Chinese had fired upon a French army column in late June, directly violating the recently signed Tientsin Accord. In retaliation, the French government ordered their Far East Squadron to attack the Chinese anchorage and navy yards at Foochow.
Regardless of the difficulties of sailing or steaming up the shallow Min River, it was made quite clear that the Gadsden was to act as a neutral observer to the fight. As such, the Confederate cruiser joined British and American warships at the Pagoda Anchorage to act as witnesses to perhaps one of the strangest naval battles in history. Even with the shallow river preventing the French ironclad battleships from sailing upstream, the cruisers and gunboats of the Far East Squadron outweighed and outnumbered the Fujian Fleet by nearly two-to-one. However, neither side appeared to engage. Despite being in a declared state of war for nearly two months, the French and Chinese fleets had shared the same anchorage since July! Both sides would wake up, run through their daily drills, eat, plan, and then sleep within spitting distance of each other! Even more incredible was the fact that each side knew of the other’s plans well beforehand. So, when the French ordered action stations at 1:45pm on August 23rd, the apparent disinterest of the Chinese was baffling. The action was brief and devastating. A French torpedo boat successfully struck the Chinese flagship, cruiser Yangwu, within minutes of the start of the engagement, forcing her to ground on a sandbank. Concentrated fire from the French slammed into the Chinese ships at pointblank range, often blowing straight through the thin-hulled junks to detonate on the far side of the vessel. Then, to seal the fate of the Chinese, the French battleship Triomphante steamed into the harbor. “…the battle was chaos, with ships trading volleys at close range as if they were from the great Napoleonic Wars. The Chinese ships were burning, as were the dockyards further upstream. The distant roaring, as if from a great lion, and the red smoking glow from over the island gave testament to the inferno engulfing the Chinese port. Then, as if awoken from the noise and confusion of the battle, one of our lookouts cried “A ship! A ship from the stern!” All eyes were torn from the slaughter to see what had approached. Like a titan of steel, wreathed in coal smoke and casting a wake that swamped the lighters and sampans of the locals, the Triomphante was charging upstream at full steam. She passed to our port at full bore with her gun ports open and ready, barely slowing, and slammed into the backs of the Chinese. Already overwhelmed, they were ill prepared for the monster that had set upon them. There was not a ship in their fleet that could have sunk the battleship that was suddenly in their midst, but the same was not true for their enemy. One of the Chinese gunboats moved to engage the steel behemoth, to be met, not with volley, but a single shell from the bow gun. The wooden vessel ceased to be, and timbers, scrap metal and unmentionable pieces began to rain from above…” A French diagram of the battle and the position of the warships
The devastation of the Chinese navy at the hands of France’s Far East squadron was a stark example of the effectiveness of having modern tactics and strategy as well as modern warships, as well as never becoming complacent enough to let the enemy anchor next to you!
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Post by ieshima on Jul 14, 2018 8:26:03 GMT -6
The Advance of Life and Science
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
Despite the adventure and experience that could be gained in Asia, India, and Africa, no nation was foolish enough to leave enlisted personnel or ships overseas without rotating them back to their homeland periodically for rest and repairs. It was upon one of these rotations to Gosport that Gains met Esther Nicholson Barney. Ms. Barney was present that day at the Gosport anchorage to promote her foundation, Veterans of the War Between the States, an organization that sought to reunite the aging veterans of the Civil War with other members of their units. Since a great many senior captains and admirals had served in the conflict, she had hoped that they might have kept in touch with their wartime comrades. Ms. Barney had boarded the Gadsden in search of the vessel’s commanding officer, Captain Charles Marmaduke, a veteran of the Battle of Hampton Rhodes, where he served as a midshipman onboard the famed Virginia. Despite suffering from several severe scars from the injuries received in the battle, Captain Marmaduke still possessed a sharp mind and Ms. Barney hoped to enlist his aid in finding his former shipmates. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the captain was not onboard at the time, having been called away to give his report of the situation overseas. The recently promoted Lieutenant Gains was tasked by the executive officer to give the young lady an impromptu tour of the ship, as a way to ensure she would not cause trouble. It is unknown what happened during that tour, but whatever did occur was enough to make the two agree upon meeting again at a later date.
The young romance blossomed quickly in the warm autumn months, and by the end of October the pair were by all accounts smitten with each other. The usual and often clichéd outings certainly took place, and with each event it became more and more certain that the two were fated to be together. The only hindrance to their relationship was the equally clichéd overly protective and stubborn father. In this case, however, the father was Joseph Nicholson Barney, the Secretary of the Navy and Gains’ superior officer in the highest sense. Joseph Barney was a fine father, and an equally successful navy man. It was when these two personas clashed that trouble arose. In fact, the only reason why the lovers had met in the first place was because Secretary Barney had given his daughter authorization to enter the anchorage that day, which was normally off limits to civilians, so she could approach Captain Marmaduke. In fairness, Secretary Barney descended from a very respected line of famous personages, being the son of a congressman and the grandson of the renowned Commodore Joshua Barney, and the thought that one of his daughters was to marry the second son of a mere cargo hauler surely rubbed him the wrong way. As such, Secretary Barney made quite an obstacle for the couple to surmount. He even went so far as to issue Gains’ the threat of being cashiered if he did not call off the relationship. However, Gains’ was not to be cowed by this, and rode through the cold night of Christmas Eve, 1886, to arrive at the door of the Barney estate the following morning. There, he and Ms. Barney pleaded their case to her father. After several hours of cajoling, the Secretary finally gave the pair his blessing. It is suspected that Mrs. Barney may have had something to do with his sudden change of heart, but that is neither here nor there. Gains proposed to Esther on the spot, to which she said yes, of course. The happy soon to be couple then spent the next month fighting off Gains’ severe case of pneumonia, which he had received from his dashing yet rather foolish midnight ride in the dead of winter. Naturally, this extended illness caused him to miss the Gadsden’s return to the Asiatic fleet, as he was on medical leave. Without a posting, Gains was shifted to the Navy offices at Portsmouth and put to work in the experimental weapons department. Because of the high chance of injury in the department, it could be claimed that the Secretary was making one last effort to prevent his daughter from marrying. Esther Nicholson Gains and Johnson Beale Gains Thankfully, no misfortune befell the lieutenant and, on May 10th, 1887, Johnson Beale Gains and Esther Nicholson Barney were legally married in the Navy Chapel at Portsmouth. However, it was at the following wedding reception that a surprise announcement was made. Citing his advancing age and the rapid technological breakthroughs that were changing how nations fought on the seas, Secretary Barney stated that younger generations of navy men should lead the way, and that he would retire within the month.
This caused a rather large uproar from both the press and the Confederate government. While no one faulted him for his reasoning, as he was 69 years old, the timing could have been slightly better. The government was just starting to organize relief and aid for the areas of Texas and Arizona hit by the Sonora Earthquake, and a sudden shakeup in the executive branch was an unexpected and unwanted surprise. Then Confederate President David Riggins grudgingly accepted Barney’s resignation, and appointed Admiral Edwin Maffitt Anderson as his successor. Upon their return from their honeymoon, the newlywed Gains’ discovered a final gift from the bride’s father. As one of his last acts as secretary, Barney had posted Gains as first lieutenant of the recently commissioned CSS Archer, of the new Archer-class gunboats. While certainly not as adventurous as his previous posting, Archer spent much of her career in the Caribbean protecting trade between the Confederate mainland and the various islands scattered throughout the tropical sea. The following years passed by uneventfully. Gains was given his first command, the now famous CSS Tazewell, in 1891 and returned to the Asiatic station. While he was overseas his first child, Margaret, was born. The then captain continued to serve overseas for two years, but while his vessel were undergoing a refit in Gosport he was called away to aid with the recovery of the Sea Islands hurricane, which had slammed into the southeastern coast around Georgia. While the devastation of the storm was immense, some light came out of the incident as both the Confederate and the Union navies worked in concert to help the areas destroyed by the Sea Island hurricane and the New York hurricane, which hit Long Island on August 23rd, just four days before the second storm hit the south.
CSS Tazewell on overseas station, unknown port, 1892
Despite being overseas and then supporting a vast repair effort, Gains remained quite up to date with the advances made in the fields of naval warfare. The short stint he had spent in the experimental weapons department seems to have had an impact of the impressionable young officer. With the Tazewell back in-home waters, she was often ‘volunteered’ by her captain as a test bed for new and innovative technologies that were being prototyped for military service. Being a fairly modern protected cruiser, she was both large enough and sturdy enough to be modified for different experiments.
The most important of these were conducted in the summer of 1894, just off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. You see, in prior wars, cannon fire was exchanged at very close ranges over open sights, with little finesse. This was done to ensure that the majority of the weapons fired hit the target, as very few were accurate beyond a short distance. But as cannons became improved, their accuracy and range did as well. By the time these tests were conducted, most cannons could fire well beyond 10,000 meters. The problem now was seeing the target. For example, a Richmond 6” Quick-Firing gun could fire out to a range of 13,500 meters if elevated to 30 degrees. But if the gun was mounted only 20 feet above the water, such as those on Tazewell, the horizon was roughly 9,000 meters away, limiting the range to that distance. What this means is that while a gun could fire beyond the horizon, the gun crew could not see the target they were aiming at, which is required for accurate gunnery. This was a rather large problem that all contemporary navies had to deal with, and all sought a solution to this problem.
This was where Gains’ old academy friend, Barton ‘Cookie’ Cook Engle, stepped in. Engle had spent several years working in the ordinance department instead of holding a seagoing command and believed that he had come to a solution to the problem. It was standard practice to have an observer positioned on a higher part of the ship with a powerful sighting telescope, which he would use to spot the accuracy of the ships weapons and give directions to the gun crews to adjust their firing. However, while this might work on larger warships, which had towering masts built specifically for this purpose, smaller vessels could not carry such weight without compromising the ship’s seaworthiness. Even this system was flawed, running into the same problem that the smaller warships had. The larger the ship was allowed for them to carry bigger guns with longer ranges, meaning that you would need an increasingly tall mast to allow for spotting at the furthest distances. Engle proposed a simple solution. Instead of building ridiculously tall masts, why not instead utilize a proven and reliable system to get to a higher point. Why not use a balloon? After all, they had been around for almost 100 years with remarkable successes. The Navy board agreed to try, and Tazewell was volunteered, again, for an experiment. With a sizable shed constructed between the last funnel and the aft mast holding the needed equipment and balloon crew, the vessel set to work. The results were nothing short of magnificent. On the first day alone, Tazewell reported accurately and reliably hitting a target at 7,500 meters, a proven but tricky distance to achieve any hits at. But when, after much trial and error, hits were made on a target 12,700 meters away, well beyond the horizon and nearly at the gun’s maximum range, that was cause for celebration. It was a simple, if still unrefined, idea and Tazewell spent a full month at sea testing it to its limits. The balloon itself was tethered to the warship with heavy ropes connected to a sturdy winch, which could raise and lower the aerostat to the desired height. The lighter-than-air gas, specifically hydrogen, needed to keep the craft aloft was produced by a generator onboard the mother ship, which could easily provide enough to keep the balloon aloft for days. Utilizing the heights the aircraft could reach, the Tazewell was soon reliably hitting targets at the longest range of its guns. This method of spotting was quite advantageous for other purposes as well. Even flying the balloon at a stable 100 feet extended the horizon to over 19 kilometers, nearly double the longest range of the largest guns in use by any navy at the time and allowed the observers to spot distant ships that normally couldn’t be seen. The Tazewell Tests, as they became known, revolutionized naval gunnery for the Confederacy. Ships were built or rebuilt with lower masts, instead opting for a large aft structure that would hold the balloon and its necessary equipment. It became standard practice to have the aircraft up even when not conducting gunnery drills, as it helped the warships spot other vessels, as well as the hidden reefs that the Caribbean was notorious for. However, the rest of the world’s nations, minus Great Britain who already had a ballooning school, brushed it off. They would stick to their own methods of spotting, thank you very much. Gains himself was witness to another important demonstration of the advance of science. In 1897 his command, CSS Montgomery of the Montgomery-class cruisers, had been chosen to carry the Confederate delegates to Great Britain for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. As part of the celebration was a review of the Royal Navy, the now senior-captain was invited to attend as a symbol of friendship between the two services. The events that transpired on that June day in Spithead are best described in his own words. “… the Navy was in full dress; pennants and flags and ensigns of all manners were flying from every conceivable line, the crews standing at full attention as the royal yacht sailed past. It was as we were approaching the Empress of India that the Prince exclaimed something that does not bear repeating. Turning, shocked by his highnesses’ vulgarity, the navy men among us were stunned by an astonishing sight. Charging up the lines of the black-hulled warships was a small, white painted vessel, going at a such speed that she appeared to be flying over the waves. Well behind her was a picket boat, vainly trying to catch the interloper with little success. For a full half hour, the small craft evaded pursuit, darting between the much larger warships like a rabbit through the brush. Despite the well merited annoyance of the British officers, every sailor in the fleet knew that we were witnessing the future of naval power…”
Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Navy Review. Turbina is in the foreground, with the royal yacht in the middle ground behind her
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Post by Spaghet Shipwright on Jul 20, 2018 0:28:14 GMT -6
These are great fun to read, I enjoy the way you are introducing the alt-history through the eyes and experiences of specific individuals. The small details like Stephan Mallory Research Laboratory made me laugh imagining crazy students experimenting with cutting edge explosives.
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Post by ieshima on Jul 20, 2018 12:54:18 GMT -6
coachlaw - Thank you for high grade, and don't worry, tomorrows post will clear up some of the currently vague Confederate Government.
Spaghet Shipwright - Thank you for the support. The Stephan Mallory Lab is actually based off the Melcene Academy of Alchemy from David Eddings' Malloreon series.
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Post by ieshima on Jul 21, 2018 21:25:26 GMT -6
The Restructuring of the Confederate Government.
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
Confederate President ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s immediate successor, President David Riggins, oversaw the completion of his policies, including the Navy’s modernization. But his personal project was the restructuring of the Confederate government, primarily reworking the Confederate Constitution.
The 3rd President of the Confederate States of America, David Riggins
While much of the Constitution was a copy of the United States’, large sections devoted to both the protection and expansion of slavery were now pointless, what with slavery now outlawed and blacks and other nonwhites being citizens. More importantly, much of the laws of the Confederacy were simply carried over from the Union and were starting to become rather dated and foreign. The tax code of the Confederacy was simply unmanageable, because federal taxes raised in one state could not be spent in another. However, the worst offense was the total lack of a federal court system of any sort. At best, the Constitution was loosely enforced and was outright ignored more often than not. This chaos limited the government, nearly rendering it impotent when it came to actually managing day to day affairs.
Riggins devoted himself to the herculean task of dragging the mess into a working system. A session of congress was called in 1879, and for 13 straight months representatives from each state and several Native American tribes, influential businessmen, foreign dignitaries and a random selection of citizens from each state argued, debated and even came to blows over restructuring the government. But, when the smoke had cleared, the Confederacy had a new Constitution. Much of the work was a near copy of previous governments, drawing heavily from the Union and Great Britain. For a rough explanation, the office of the Presidency was limited to two six-year terms and was directly responsible for representing the nation in foreign or military matters. As such, the armed forces fell under his command. The President was also responsible for the enforcement of the laws of the land, the continued education of the nation, the collection of taxes, and the handling of interstate affairs. He would also appoint diplomats and establish embassies, as well as handle the shadier side of international relations, such as gathering sensitive information.
The two branches of the military were headed by an executive Secretary, chosen by the President and confirmed by the Congress, who held the position for life, retirement or replacement, whichever came first. As such, a Secretary could transition from one administration to another without many issues. This allowed for the military to remain structured, without being shaken up every few years by a change in management. The Secretary was responsible for supplying, training and operating their branch, and could do so with limited interference from the rest of the government. So, even if the rest of the nation was collapsing, the military could still operate as a separate unit.
The Congress was made up of elected officials from each state or tribe in the Confederacy, who held office for three years before reelection. Each group or state was given a guaranteed three representatives (staggered so one representative was up for election each year) with a further representative for every 200,000 people, resulting in an initial Congress of 102 members. This would later grow as the population expanded. The Congress met once each year, and was responsible for the establishment of federal laws, the budget, the rate of taxation, confirming the admittance of new states or groups into the nation, and voting upon matters of import, such as the declaration of war.
The first meeting of the 1881 Confederate Congress
The new Constitution also established the Confederate Supreme Court, and the Confederate Court system. While the 1860 Constitution had also ‘established’ a federal court system, no effort by the nation was made to actually create one. The states saw it as a limitation of their powers, and simply ignored the issue until it became unbearable. The new Supreme Court was made up of six justices, who served for a single 10-year term. Their main duty was to interpret the laws of the Confederacy, and rule upon important cases. Each of the justices also presided over an area of the Confederacy, a judicial district, and was elected by the people of that district. In turn, they nominated judges for sub-sections of the district, who were voted on by the people of those areas and so on. These judges ruled upon the cases of their individual areas or advanced it to their superiors to rule on.
This resulted in a system where a case begun in Graham county in Arizona could move from the local judge to the Third Judicial Area of Arizona, which represented the western most part of the state. From there it goes to the State Court, and then to the 6th Judicial district, comprised of Arizona, Texas and the unincorporated lands of the Midwest. Finally, it would reach the Supreme Court, where the issue would be decided once and for all.
While the new Government was still rough around the edges, and required much polishing, the system worked. It was certainly different from foreign governments, but not to different, meaning that most nations accepted it as another quirk of ‘Southern’ North America. With these domestic problems seemingly handled, Riggins turned his attentions to foreign affairs.
When the War Between the States first erupted, the western counties of Virginia chose to stay with the Union. Western, or ‘Yankee’ Virginia as it became known, had remained with the North after peace had been declared. With it went some of the richest coalfields on the planet. Any modern industrial nation needed the black rocks as fuel for its railroads, steamships, and factories, and while the South did have its own coalfields, the majority of the coal they released was of poor quality, being both incredibly inefficient when burned and prone to breaking apart in transport, making it woefully unsuited for the Confederacy’s needs.
So, just as they had in the past, the South turned to Great Britain for help. More accurately, they turned to its colony, Australia. The land down under had grown to be one of the largest exporters of coal on the planet, and it was shipments of high-grade coal from Newcastle that drove the South during its much delayed industrial revolution. Of course, the transport of any goods over long distances, especially foreign goods, is quite expensive. Money was quickly flowing out of the South at an alarming rate, much to the joys of the Australian coal barons.
To pay for the imports of coal the Confederacy was bringing in, exports had to be found. While the cotton industry had never recovered to its past size, the South was still the leading exporter of cotton goods worldwide. Rock salt, a key ingredient for curing meats and leather, flowed from the Gulf island mines of Texas and Louisiana. Alabama, with the iron mines of Red Mountain, produced trainloads of steel daily, and foundry smokestacks crowded the skies of Birmingham. But it was Texas that became the beating heart of the Confederacy.
One of the many steel mills of Birmingham, Alabama, 1882
Out-producing the rest of the nation in agricultural products, Texas had more farmland and ranchland than any other state. It alone produced half the yearly cotton grown in the South. With the noticeable lack of reliably navigable rivers running through the center of the state, Texas had to turn to railroads to transport their yearly crops and cattle to the port city of Galveston. This led to several hub cities springing up in the seemingly empty plains, cities which became industrial powerhouses for machinery and engineering. Much of this output was devoted to farm equipment or railroad maintenance, but the massive factories of Dallas, Huston and Austin could, and would, easily retool to produce other products if the need arose.
While he did not have a direct hand in expansion of Southern industry, Riggins was accredited for it, and his presidency is generally seen as one of the best in the history of the nation. Under his two terms the South became an internationally respected nation with an efficient government and an expanding economy, proof that the Confederacy was a capable and powerful country despite its origin. When he stepped down in 1890, he left the nation in a veritable Golden Age. His successor, Benjamin Garrison, merely had to let the system run itself and reap the benefits.
However, Garrison, while a competent peacetime politician, was not as steady when it came to foreign crisis’s as his predecessors were. This made him woefully unsuited for what came next.
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Post by ieshima on Aug 1, 2018 12:40:06 GMT -6
The Spark to the Flame
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
The Caribbean Sea is perhaps one of the most majestic locations on Earth. At over one million square miles, it is second only to the South China Sea in size. Home to countless flora and fauna, the tropical paradise has been described as a naturalist’s heaven. The islands and reefs that sprawl through the archipelagos have a culture unique to them, one that could only have been made through the mixing of native traditions, African slaves and European exploration.
The site of the first civilized European landings, the Caribbean was quickly colonized by the empires of the day. While French, British, Dutch and Portuguese settlements claimed land for their respective crowns, it was the Spanish that took the lions share. Treasure gallons heavy with the gold and silver of Central and South America would often port at Havana, and the jungles of Cuba and Puerto Rico gave way to vast plantations rivaling any in the Confederacy.
But by the 1890’s Spain’s glory had long since faded. The same wealth that had fattened the Iberian Peninsula had been its downfall, causing rampant inflation and a widely fluctuating economy. Harsh treatment of local peoples at the hands of the Spanish and a history of slavery that was worse than even the Confederacy’s had led to an unsuccessful war for independence in 1868, which had extended into a decade of guerilla warfare.
Tensions again reached a boiling point when, in 1894, three privately owned ships loaded with weaponry and volunteers from the Confederacy set sail from Miami and successfully landed on Cuba’s northern shore. This action sparked a second rebellion against Madrid, which had ample support from the local population. The rebels again began to wage a bloody campaign through the jungles and plantations, clashing with and often driving back Spanish conscripts.
The South had always kept an eye on its island neighbors, in some cases before the South even existed at all. A proposal to buy Cuba from Spain was rejected by Congress in 1854, and the attentions of the nation quickly turned to the matter of secession and the Civil War. The rebuilding and modernization of the South after the conflict had been the primary focus of the Davis, Jackson and Riggins administrations, with little thought being paid to the troubles of the Caribbean. But with the Confederacy coming into the world as a power in its own right, attentions turned to outside affairs.
Having experienced the troubles of an oppressive and uncaring government, and the pain of a war of rebellion, many in the Confederacy saw kindred spirits in the Cuban people. Ladies groups began collecting donations for Cuban war orphans, or for the purchase of materials and war supplies for the rebels. Decorative cannons from war monuments mysteriously disappeared at roughly the same time the Caribbean guerillas received large quantities of strangely familiar artillery. Privately owned vessels risked life and limb to run the gauntlet of Spanish warships patrolling for smugglers. The public opinion was overwhelmingly in support of the rebels, and only grew as each year past.
Pressured by various groups to provide official support, President Garrison eventually caved to popular demand and, in 1898, dispatched a relief convoy carrying food and medical supplies to the island. To ensure the safe passage of the cargo, the convoy was to be escorted by a pair of cruisers under the command of Rear-Admiral Johnson B. Gains.
The Caribbean Squadron, maneuvering in heavy seas, September 15th, 1897
Gains was not overly thrilled with his new orders. He was the commander of the Caribbean Squadron, not a commodore. This convoy did not require his presence. Any senior captain could have led the escorting force with ease, he thought. It was only two armored cruisers after all. Damn that fool Garrison! He had no business personally directing the affairs of the Navy’s forces, his office be damned.
“Admiral on deck!” came the cry as he stepped off the gangplank onto the sturdy teak decking of CSS McLennan. “At ease lads, this is only a social call, return to your duties.” The crewmen, who had been engaged in the daily tasks needed to keep a warship in working order, hastily picked up their dropped scrappers and mops and set to work. The lieutenant on duty did not, and instead stepped forward to address his superior. “Welcome aboard McLennan, Admiral. Captain Turner is waiting for you in the wardroom. If you would follow me.”
The walk was brief, but the cool sea breeze was a welcome relief to the sweltering weather of Pensacola’s summer. Walking along the gangway, Gains gave a smile at the sight of the busy anchorage. Nearly the entire Squadron was present, from the battleships Robert E. Lee and Josiah Tatnall resting at anchor in the deep-water berths, to the smaller armored cruisers such as McLennan and her sister Charleston alongside the docks, down to the departing 2nd Destroyer flotilla headed by the protected cruiser Fayette, going out on local patrol. In total, it was a powerful fleet, second only to the Atlantic Squadron in Gosport.
The view was cut off, first through the hatch, then a left and up the near vertical steps to the superstructure, then a right to the wardroom just below the bridge. “Captain, Admiral Gains is here.” The lieutenant said through the open door. “Well send him in, don’t want him to die of old age!” As he stepped through the hatch, Gains was met by a bear hug from a tall, bearded man in the uniform of a Confederate Navy captain. A hug that he just as aggressively returned. “Its been a while, hasn’t it Marcus?”
“It’s been almost a year, you fool. But not a word from you since you got the star, not a peep. The rest of the gang hasn’t heard from you either. We thought you had up and vanished on us.” Marcus Turner let him go and stepped back, eying him up and down. “The new clothes suit you well though.” A quiet cough from behind the admiral reminded them of the other men in the room, much to their mutual embarrassment. “Ah, Marcus, this is Captain Martin Coleman, of Charleston, and his executive officer, Christopher Hughes.” Turner became red “This is my second, Noah McGraw. Ignore the silly behavior, lads. Admiral Gains and I are old academy friends.”
Coleman simply raised an eyebrow “I think we can see that sir.” The five men took their seats at the table. “Now,” Gains began as he unrolled a map of Cuba “gentlemen, as you already know, our mission is to link up with the civilian convoy currently forming at Key West. Once they leave we will escort them to the town of Gibara, here, on the north coast of Cuba.” Gains eyed the two men across from him. “Let me make this clear. We are only here to show the flag and keep Mr. Garrison pleased. But, should the Spaniards show, we are to turn around. The Navy’s brass, myself included, are solid on this issue. We are not going to commit our nation to a war just so some foreign rebels can have dinner.” “Sir,” Hughes said, “If I’m not mistaken, President Garrison has stated that this convoy will get through, come what may.” The senior lieutenant shifted nervously. “Has the admiralty really decided to go against the President’s orders?” “Lad, the bastard might be the President, but he is not in command of the Navy.” Turner pounded out on the table, “We answer to Secretary Anderson, and the Brass at Gosport. Not that fool in Richmond.” “Turner!” Shouted Coleman as he rose, “He is the President! He is the leader of our nation!”
“He is a weakling and an idiot!” Roared the other captain as he too stood, “The day I follow an order from him is the day I die!”
“Gentlemen.”
The calm and quiet word was enough to halt both officers in their tracks. Gains stared up at both of them from his seat. “You are both officers and gentlemen of the Confederate Navy, and I expect both of you to remember that and act as such.” The admiral turned his attention to Charleston’s executive officer. “To answer you, Lieutenant, yes. The Navy is responsible for the defense of our nation first and foremost. If our mission becomes a danger to the Confederacy, we will yield and turn back.”
“I will not drag our people into a foreign war.”
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Post by ieshima on Aug 6, 2018 0:43:04 GMT -6
The Growing Fire Warning and Disclaimer:
Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
Charleston’s bow dug heavily into the wave trough, sending spray high into the dark, rain filled sky. The ships of the small convoy hunkered down, bulling their way through the gale with determination. While the sudden downturn in weather was unwanted, it was not unexpected. Late May was the start of the Caribbean hurricane season, and as such many smaller but still nasty storms would batter the coasts. One such storm had brewed up shortly after the fleet left Key West, forcing the cruisers to bring in their balloons and the merchant sailors to rig for rough seas. Thankfully, the weather was slowly clearing. “Sir,” said Captain Coleman as he approached Gains in the wheelhouse “The observers say that they can go up now. They have the balloon prepped and ready. Shall I give the order?” The admiral looked up from the small desk where he had been examining the convoy’s movement through the storm. “You may. Lets get our eyes up before something-“
“Smoke on the horizon! Off the starboard bow!” -happens.” Both men moved to the windows, to see that the lookout’s cry was true. A dark trail of steam and soot that could only come from another vessel was approaching. “Speak of the devil,” Gains muttered “and he shall come.”
“She is close, quite close.” Stated the captain. He glanced aside to his superior. “We can still send up the spotter’s sir.” The admiral snorted in bitter amusement. “They are within eyesight at our level, Captain. Adding a few hundred feet won’t give us much benefit. But,” he added as he moved towards the hatch leading to the flying bridge, “a telescope would do quite nicely.”
The White House the Confederacy, the official office and residence of the Confederate President
“Please, gentlemen.” The mustached man exclaimed from his place on the couch. “There is no cause for concern. I honestly fail to see the cause of your dismay.” “Fail to see?!” Roared the red-faced and bearded secretary. “You miserable buffoon! You’ve sent a guarded convoy into a foreign nation’s warzone, despite what we said could happen!” He went to grab the seated man, suit rumpled and strained with anger. “I’ll see to it that you damn well ‘see’.”
“Patton!” Shouted his comrade as he restrained him. “He is the President. Sit down before you do something brash.” Navy Secretary Edwin Anderson dragged his fellow secretary back to the chairs on their side of the table. “Yes, Mr. Patton I fail to see how Gains’ convoy would be a cause for concern.” President Benjamin Garrison took a long drag on his cigar. “I have made it quite clear to the Spanish ambassador that the cargo those ships carry is not of military origin. They have no reason to act on a few tons of jerky and bandages.”
“They do if the jerky and bandages are going to help a rebellion against them.” Replied Anderson quietly. “Your point? Our citizens have been sending far more important items then that.” Garrison leaned over to the table, shuffling papers to find the report he wanted. “Here, just last month a steamship from New Orleans, the Mayfly, was stopped by the Iberians. They found her hold filled with enough powder and ammo to support a division for a month!” The sheaf of documents slid across the table to the two men. “If the Spaniards won’t fight over that, they won’t fight over anything. They even let the captain and crew go!”
“They will, you daft fool. Up until now those cargos were from civilians. Confederate civilians.” Army Secretary George Patton stabbed his finger at the table. “They did nothing in those reports of yours because they know that if they do, we’ll retaliate.” “He is right, Sir. They are lenient with our citizens because they do not want foreign intervention. This convoy is that intervention. They will not be lenient.” “Gentlemen, you are being quite silly. The Spanish will do nothing. Now,” Garrison said as he stood, “I’m afraid that is all the time I have for this conversation. I’m meeting with a group of representatives from Tennessee, and Congressman Morton is quite anxious to discuss several issues. Good day, gentlemen.” The room fell in to cold, stony silence as both secretaries angrily stared at the closing door. “Edwin, get back to Portsmouth as fast as you can and have your boys at the ready.” Patton was already leaving the room. “We just declared war on Spain.”
'The Ambush off Gibara', by Arthur Victor Gregory
“Well, it appears they are rather annoyed with us sir.” Captain Coleman stated dryly as several large waterspouts were raised around them. “I’d say miffed, annoyed is a bit of an understatement.” Was the equally sarcastic reply. The smoke spotted on the horizon had quickly divided into four separate plumes, each emerging from the sunset as the Spanish Caribbean squadron raced towards them. The approaching vessels did not signal or slow, their only answer to the Southern ships was a salvo. The Confederate convoy had turned for the north and was putting on full steam or sail while Charleston and McLennan shielded them from the rapidly closing Iberians. “Regardless of their scale of anger, they are very poor shots.” The captain noted. “Oh, we do have the identities of the two cruisers at least, the Vizcaya and Infanta María Teresa.” A particularly large shell hit the water just off the bow, drenching Charleston’s foredeck with spray. The gun crews ignored the soaking splash, focused more on sending deadly accurate fire back in retaliation for their saltwater bath. Just ahead McLennan also fired, and her crew’s ceaseless training was rewarded with an explosion on the rearmost Spanish cruiser.
“Well done Turner! Well Done!” Yelled Gains as the Iberian vessel reeled away, burning heavily and lighting up the dusk. “Coleman, focus on the flagship. That one is out of- “
Why did his head hurt? Why was he on the deck? The smell of smoke and cordite filled the small armored conning tower. The wheel was unmanned, the helmsman a crumpled red stained heap at his station. Beside him was Lieutenant Hughes, slumped against the wall, a length of still steaming shrapnel protruding from his back. Gains shook his head, still reeling. Someone was shouting, shouting his name as if from so very far away. “Admiral! Get up Admiral!” Coleman was shaking him with one hand, his left arm hanging limp in its sleeve. “Come on sir. We need to get out!”
He was being dragged, out onto the flying bridge. Turning his head, he could see the still smoking crater carved out of the thick steel of Charleston’s conning tower. A shell must have hit there. It was a miracle anyone survived inside.
“God, sir, are you okay?” Coleman was muffled, as if speaking through water or a wall. “I’m alright.” Funny, his own voice was just as quiet, more of a vibration in his chest than actual sound. “Help me stand.” The railing was cold, hard metal under his palm. He could see foreword, to McLennan. To McLennan and the two Spanish destroyers charging her in the fading sunlight. “Turner, to your port man, your port.” Murmured Gains, who could only watch as the enemy tore towards his friend’s command. “All guns, fire on those ships!” Bellowed Coleman beside him, his one good arm stabbing at the destroyers. The crews on both ships frantically shifting fire to the looming threat. The Selma guns in the gallery were barking, putting up a ceaseless barrage broken by the deeper roars from the main battery.
The front half of the leading craft vaporized, a 9” shell meant to punch through armor plate detonating halfway though the vessel. An angry cheer rose up from the crew at that. One was gone, but the other was close, far to close. She turned, barely a quarter mile away, and there was a small splash just off her side. The destroyer turned again, her deadly fish released, and made to run back to the relative safety of the enemy cruisers. The gallery guns on McLennan tore into her as she fled, ripping her decks and toppling her funnels. But the work was done. A flash, and a towering column of water flew upwards from the side of the Confederate warship. The water never had time to fall, as the cruiser was consumed in a red ball of flames and smoke which lit the darkened sky like a second sun. Both sides were stunned, and all firing ceased as the combatants heaved away in the night.
By the time the smoke cleared only the stern of the ship, battle flag still flying proudly from its staff, remained above the water.
Then, it too slipped silently beneath the waves.
CSS McLennan, sunk with all hands, May 30th, 1898
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Post by sillygoy on Aug 6, 2018 10:06:14 GMT -6
This narrative is properly gripping. Waiting for the next post...
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Post by ieshima on Aug 25, 2018 13:02:48 GMT -6
The All-Consuming Blaze
Warning and Disclaimer: Because of the context of the nation in this AAR, there may be topics and wordings that some may find offensive. Please be aware that these are only written as they apply to the history of the nation and are in no way my personal views or beliefs on the subject.
Gentlemen of the Congress. On May 30th, 1898, warships of the Spanish Empire attacked, without warning, a convoy of the Confederate States. This deliberate attack upon the citizens of our nation was met with distinction by the vessels and crews of our Navy. The armored cruisers Charleston and McLennan, under the command of Rear-Admiral Johnson Gains, engaged with the belligerent enemy in order to allow the defenseless civilian ships time to escape. It is my solemn task to inform this august body that McLennan was lost with all hands in the line of duty. Gentlemen of the Congress, as I speak warships of the Spanish Imperial Navy have engaged and sunk several Confederate civilian vessels in the Caribbean Sea. As I speak soldiers of the Spanish army have attacked Confederate citizens abroad. As I speak our embassy in Madrid burns. Gentlemen of the Congress, I have issued orders to our Army and our Navy to prepare for any and all eventualities. The soldiers and sailors of our armed forces stand ready to avenge this grievous and vile attack upon our nation. Gentlemen of the Congress, the peoples of Cuba fight back against the Spanish occupiers! The peoples of Puerto Rico fight back! The peoples of the Philippines fight back! I ask, shall we fight back as well? Shall we take up this gauntlet that has been thrown at our feet? Will we meet the enemy on the field? Or will we refuse this challenge? Will we be cowed by the last failing gasps of that ancient and horrid empire? Will we forget the men of the McLennan!? Have they given their lives so that we may forget them!? I ask that we may be allowed the chance to avenge our dead! I ask that we aid the Cubans and Puerto Ricans who fight for their freedoms! Gentlemen of the Congress, no, no citizens of the Confederacy! I ask that a state of war be declared between our nation and that of Spain! The ‘I Ask for War’ Speech, given by Benjamin Garrison, 4th President of the Confederate States of America, before the 6th Confederate congress, July 2nd, 1898
The hall outside the Congress chamber was crowded and noisy, filled with representatives or staffers hastily discussing the recent vote. It had been unanimous. The Confederacy was at war. The Congress itself had quickly dispersed, leaving President Garrison alone in the near empty room. “Well done Ben.” One of the few remaining occupants said, pounding his cane as he approached. “War with Spain. You must be quite proud of your accomplishment.” “Please sir, the accomplishment is ours. After all, this is the ‘will of the Confederacy’.” Garrison said sarcastically, waving a hand across the now empty floor of the congress. “A unanimous vote, not a single dissent.” At that the older Tennessean representative chuckled. “We had two days for the newspapers to print our stories. I already have a dozen appeals from various groups around Tennessee asking to form volunteer forces for an invasion. I imagine it is the same in other states as well.” John Morton glanced towards the President. “I was honest when I said well done, Ben. You’ve managed to get us into a very advantageous position here. If everything goes to plan, we’ll have control of most the Caribbean.” He tapped his cane against the floor again. “Now, I hear that you have gotten your hands on a bottle Limavady, and I am eager to see if that is true.”
“I can put that rumor to rest, sir, and I can assure you that it was not just one bottle. If you’ll follow me, we can sample them to our hearts content.” Both men made their way to the doors behind the podium and exited the cavernous room. Neither thought to look up towards the viewing gallery.
Secretary Edwin Anderson watched them leave, silent and grim.
The Navy building in Portsmouth was a hectic confusing mess. The sudden and unexpected attack had sent the offices into a panic, as the McLennan was the first Confederate vessel lost to enemy action since the War Between the States. The declaration of war shortly afterwards only threw more fuel onto the fire. Clerks jockeyed with admirals for right of way in the narrow hallways while storerooms and wardrooms became temporary sleeping quarters. The telegraph station, with it’s direct line to both Richmond and across the bay to Gosport, was overworked to such a point that the machine itself broke and a replacement had to be commandeered from a private mail station. Johnson Gains was exempt from the madness that had absorbed the rest of the service. His world had already dissolved around his ears and was slowly draining away with the ticking of the clock on the mantle. The office was quite nice though, solid oak desk, thick red carpeting, and the particular luxury of a ceiling fan quietly cooling the thick humid July air. But none of this mattered. It was the man behind the desk that held the Admiral’s attention.
“Admiral Gains.” Secretary Anderson leaned back in his chair. “You present a conundrum for us, and one that we do not need at this point in time.” The head of the Navy held up a hand to stop the apology before it started. “Let me finish. One of the ships under your command was lost with all hands. However, the loss was during an unexpected and unforeseen attack upon our nation and was itself caused by a desperate action of the enemy.”
“Mr. Secretary, the loss of the McLennan rests solely on my shoulders. Do not attempt to excuse my actions for me. I am fully prepared to accept whatever punishment the service deems necessary.”
“Mr. Gains.” Anderson said sharply. “I believe I told you to let me finish.” He held up a substantial sheaf of papers. “I, along with the Board, have gone over your report, Captain Coleman’s report, the reports of the surviving officers of Charleston, and the reports from the merchant vessels. We have come to the conclusion that you are not responsible for the loss of the McLennan. You and the command staff aboard Charleston were either killed or disabled at the time of the sinking and were clearly unable to render any meaningful aid to the battle.” The Secretary placed the papers back on his desk. “As such, no disciplinary actions will be taken against you, your staff, or the surviving officers of Charleston.”
The older man stood and went to the windows, staring out over the bay to the busy Gosport yards. “The problem is that you, and to a lesser extent the men of Charleston, are the closest thing to heroes that we have that aren’t dead.” That was rather confusing to Gains. “Sir? I have heard no such thing.” The secretary rolled his eyes. “I know that you are not a fool Mr. Gains, and I know that you have read the papers. The ‘Hero of Gibara’ they’re calling you. That is the problem. Whether or not you, or I for that matter, like it you are a hero for this nation.”
Anderson turned, fixing the seated man with a grim look. “So, I have four options when it comes to you. I can temporarily relieve you from command and send you around as recruiter for the Navy because God knows we need more men right now. I can assign you to the strategic planning committee, where you will be in a purely advisory role with a chance for later promotion. I can leave you in command of the Caribbean Squadron.” The grey-haired man’s face twisted into a grimace. “Or I can do what Mr. Garrison suggested.” “What would that be sir?” Sitting back down, the Secretary steepled his hands. “The President suggested that you be placed in command of a new squadron that is being formed as we speak. The force will be built around the capital ships of the Caribbean squadron, with a few cruisers and the Hill and Longstreet, from the fleet here at Gosport.” Pale blue eyes drilled into dark grey across the desk. “The purpose of this new formation is to hunt down the Spanish forces in the Caribbean and prevent them from interfering with the planned invasions of Cuba and Puerto Rico. If I give you this command, you will be at the tip of the spear.”
Gains shifted in his seat, uncomfortable in the sudden quiet. “Sir why has the President suggested me to this position? I would assume that it has to do with the attention the papers have given me.”
“You would be correct, Admiral.” Anderson sighed. “Mr. Garrison most likely believes that having you put in command of this new squadron will garner you, and by extension himself, more attention and fame. I suspect that he plans to guide your career for the foreseeable future. Normally I would block such an appointment and place an older star in command, but the points he brought up are annoyingly convincing. You are currently our only flag-officer with modern combat experience, you have commanded the Caribbean Squadron for a year, so you know the area you would be operating in, and most importantly,” He leaned forward. “Garrison is right about one thing. Those bastards killed our men. I want them to pay for that. I know you do too. So, the question is: are you the right man for the job?”
The views of the rest of the world at the start of the war were firmly against the Spanish. With many brutal and bloody massacres against the rebels making their way into international news, few nations wanted to appear friendly with the Iberian nation. But an attack against another sovereign nation without issuing a declaration of war? That was both unthinkable and unforgivable in European circles, and many rulers made it quite clear that they would remain wholly neutral in the conflict. Spain’s actions might be forgiven in hindsight. For four years an open rebellion against their rule had been waged in one of the last remaining jewels of their crown. Their soldiers had waged a desperate struggle against a guerilla enemy that knew the land better than they did and had no qualms of using that knowledge against them. Many of those same soldiers were conscripts from the poorest parts of the empire, with little experience and a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. But worst of all was the galling fact that another nation had supported the rebels with all manner of necessary equipment and supplies needed to wage war. For four years the Confederacy had sent ship after ship of weapons, munitions, medical aid and food stuffs to their enemies without care. The only response to the dozens of angry diplomatic messages sent to Richmond had been the same document. This document roughly said ‘What Confederate citizens do with their personal money and property on their own time is not the concern or responsibility of the Confederate government. Good luck with your problem.’ So, when the Confederate government itself commanded a convoy, carrying Confederate goods, guarded by Confederate warships, and crewed by Confederate sailors, to sail for Cuba with the intention of equipping the enemies of the nation, there were few options left. The constant supplying of the rebels had allowed them to push the Spanish forces to their limits. Open support from another nation would have pushed them beyond the brink. With its last, dying breath, the ancient nation threw down the gauntlet against that insult. The Confederacy was quite happy to return the favor.
Led by the newly formed Flying Squadron under the also newly promoted Admiral Gains, the Confederacy began a lightning invasion of Cuba. Landing at the critically important harbor at the rebel surrounded Guantanamo Bay, Confederate regulars quickly cleared the trenches and blockhouses of the starving Spanish troops. While there was sporadic resistance to the assault, most of the defenders were too disheartened by the extended siege to put up much of a fight, and many surrendered on the spot. Operating out of the newly captured territory, Confederate regulars, volunteer companies, and dismounted cavalry began moving westward along the coast towards the city of Santiago de Cuba, which served as the local and provincial capital for the area, as well as the staging ground for the Spanish army and navy. Under the local command of the now aged but still dashing Major-General James Stuart and the strategic command of the more level-headed General Roger Hanson, the troops clad in the butternut brown tropical uniforms pushed onwards despite scattered and sporadic attacks from the Spanish. Everywhere the troops marched they were met by the local rebels, who volunteered nearly on mass to act as forward scouts, trailblazers, liaisons or even soldiers for the nation that had supported them for so long. It eventually got to the point that the army was forced to turn away offers for help because they had already received far to many. At sea the Flying Squadron, flagged by the veteran battlewagon Robert E. Lee, wreaked havoc upon the Spanish merchant vessels and any warship unfortunate to be caught in open water. Temporarily lifting their support of the Cuban campaign, battleship Lee and her sisters Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet and A. P. Hill took a Puerto Rican vacation, providing artillery support for the invasion of the island. However, while the Confederate navy had success at chasing unarmed merchant ships and shooting at land targets, the real prize was hiding in Santiago Bay.
Castillo del Morro under fire by the Flying Squadron, August 2nd, 1898
The Spanish, knowing that they could not meet the Confederates in the field, opted instead to lead a fighting retreat back to the stronghold city. From behind the fortified hills that ringed the bay, the Spanish would send out small raiding parties to hazard the advancing lines. Taking the hills would be a difficult nut to crack. But that was the army’s concern. The Spanish fleet hiding in the harbor was the navy’s task. The navy’s first job was to force the surviving enemy warships into an engagement through whatever means necessary. The navy’s second job was to ensure that not a single warship flying the Spanish flag existed in the Caribbean after that engagement.
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