Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History (26 page)

Should the Russian empire and the American republic form an offensive and defensive alliance they would necessarily preponderate and rule throughout the world. Our enemies should beware how they drive us to the cementing of a compact the existence of which would be the end of all opposing power and influence.
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The crowds that were welcomed aboard the Russian frigate as visitors found their expectations of the Russians realized. Almost every Russian officer could speak English well, the legacy of the fact that on-the-shore British naval officers, largely Scots, had officered much of the Russian Navy as it grew into a professional force in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The tall young women of New York, of English and German stock, were a bit taken aback, though, by the relatively short stature of most Russian officers.
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A ball was immediately thrown for the ship’s officers, who caused an unexpected reaction among the throngs of tall New York belles.

Alas! for the Russians. It is known, or should be, that these Slavic heroes are not the very largest of the human race—that they are small men in fact—and what is to become of small men in such a jam? Early in the night—indeed, very soon after the dance began—we saw several of them in the embrace of grand nebulous masses of muslin and crinoline, whisked hither and thither as if in terrible torment—their eyes aglare—their hair blown out—and all their persons expressive of the most desperate energy, doubtless in an endeavor to escape. What became of them we cannot tell.
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Another novelty was Protestant America’s first encounter with the Orthodox Church in the form of
Oslyabya
’s chaplain, whom the press described as “an eminent theologian.” The service aboard ship was reported with an open-mindedness rarely found for Roman Catholicism in America at that time.
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There was nothing about the Russians that did not find favor with the press and public alike. The dockyard pickpockets and thieves declared Russian sailors off-limits in a burst of patriotic fervor. The streetwalkers were even rumored to offer an occasional service gratis. “It is a noticeable fact that even the sharpers, who so fall foul of strangers, have kept themselves off these ‘Roo-shans.’”
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It was in the midst of the excitement over the Russians that the Liverpool packet
Aurora
arrived on September 17. She was the first fast packet to race across the Atlantic since the battle of Moelfre Bay. Word of the battle spread throughout the city and was immediately wired to Washington. Eight hours later, the news was in Richmond as well.

The North went wild with excitement. The church bells rang from Maine to Wisconsin as they had for Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Pent-up anger at British connivance with the Confederacy exploded in cheers and adulation for the
Kearsarge
and
Gettysburg
, mixed with anxiety for the safety of Winslow’s ship. The newspapers carried by
Aurora
trumpeted the fact that the entire Royal Navy had been set in pursuit of
Kearsarge
. In the South, the news spread just as fast, and the church bells would have rung with even greater joy had they not all already been melted down for cannon.
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The mood in the White House shared none of the public’s exuberance. Two days later, another ship arrived with Ambassador Adams’s enciphered reports of the battle as well his dealings with Russell. The ship also carried the British papers. They all screamed for war.

Seward briefed Lincoln and the cabinet on the events of Moelfre Bay. He concluded, “The British have brought this upon themselves. They hid behind the Foreign Enlistment Act, a tissue of neutrality so pathetic that it made them the arsenal and storehouse of the rebellion. The entire attitude of the British government has been one of unremitting hostility. In demanding an unattainable level of proof that the rams, not to mention the other pirates built in British yards, were intended for use by the Confederacy, they hoped to hide behind a fiction of legality. I swear, Mr. President, that had Adams presented proof written with the finger of God Himself, the British would have referred it to a Lucifer in a powdered wig to rule upon its authenticity.

“Most outrageously, Adams informs me that after the battle, Russell claimed that they had decided to seize the rams. Yet, just as with
the
Alabama
, Laird Brothers and their rebel associates were forewarned in time to attempt to slip the most completed ram out of Liverpool. It was only because Dudley was able to warn
Gettysburg
was Lamson able to go off in pursuit. As further proof of British collusion to help the ram escape, they dispatched
Liverpool
to protect her.

“Adams further informs me that it is unsafe for an American to be recognized on the streets of London. The flag has been repeatedly torn off the embassy’s flagpole and burned. American merchants are making preparations to flee to neutral European ports. The debates in the House of Commons have been near hysterical in their demands for war. Most ominously, Adams reports that there has been a frenzy of preparation in both the Army and Navy.”
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Lincoln’s normally dark complexion took on a deeper shade as he listened. His jaw was set. There was a glittering hardness to his brown eyes. “Before the world we can rightly claim to have done everything possible to avert these events. You all know that my policy has been ‘one war at a time’ and that at every turn we have sought reconciliation and simple justice from the British. And what have we received in return? A thousand examples are at hand, but let me lay just one before you. When Grant took Vicksburg, it was found that the thirty thousand rebels were uniformly armed with the most modern British Enfield rifle. Grant’s men were armed with old flintlock muskets that been converted to percussion and Belgian rifles more dangerous to their users than the enemy. He ordered his regiments to exchange these weapons with the captured Enfields. Does anyone believe that the Confederacy would not have collapsed within a year had not the workshops of Britain kept them supplied?
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“Some will argue that Moelfre Bay would never have happened had we not sent that ship. What would have happened in that case is that the rams would have been savaging our ports and breaking the blockade. That would have brought us to the same point but at great disadvantage.”

He turned to Sharpe. It had not been lost on everyone else in the room that the only uniformed officer in the meeting, other than the Army’s diffident general in chief, Maj. Gen. Henry Wager Halleck, was Lincoln’s new chief “spy.” Even the formidable Stanton had not risen to give battle over the man’s independence of the secretary’s grasp. That had been due to Sharpe’s realization that while he could afford enemies, he could not have Stanton among them. He had made it clear that while he would
report directly to the President, he still considered himself part of the War Department and would keep Stanton fully informed. He also made it clear he would not be stepping on Lafayette Baker’s toes. Let Stanton keep his thug for now, he thought. When Stanton had gone along, the rest of the cabinet had also fallen in line.

Lincoln’s nod had been his cue. “Gentlemen, the President has asked me to report to you certain preparations the British have been making in Canada and the Maritimes.” Sharpe went on to describe the information that had been gathered by the few agents he had been able to send into British North America over the last month. His network was too new and sparse to develop detailed information, but what they had found was disturbing. The tempo of raising and equipping the Canadian militia in British North America had picked up notably. The Canadian forces had also stepped up their training and often in conjunction with the imperial battalions, which were imparting to the Canadians some of their precision. His agents had also identified numerous British officers traveling in mufti on the American extension of the Grand Trunk Railroad, where they would make extended stops at every station on the routes. Most interesting was the number of officers who were coming to Portland. The number of port calls for Royal Navy ships had also increased.

Sharpe concluded with the latest reports that pointed to a sudden concentration of British and Canadian volunteer troops, ostensibly for training exercises in the region known as the Canadian “Peninsula,” bounded by Lake Huron on the west, Lake Erie on the south, and Lake Ontario on the east. This area was the southernmost projection of Canada that wedged itself between Michigan in the west and New York in the east. There were two points between the lakes where the borders ran; one in the west opposite Detroit and another in the east opposite Buffalo. Every eye in the room was drawn to the map on the wall as Sharpe traced the concentrations. Each man could picture in his mind’s eye the battlegrounds of the War of 1812, drawn with failure and danger. In this area, the U.S. Army had launched its ill-planned offensives only to be thrown back across the border and followed by British invasions, the most dangerous only stopped at Chippewa in 1814 by Winfield Scott. The memory of that train of disasters had not been lost on any American.
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When he finished there was a dead silence.

Seward spoke first. “There is no doubt that the British have planned a surprise attack on us. Russell’s connivance to let the ram escape was
only a part of this dastardly scheme. They have, no doubt, been planning this with the rebels for some time. Mr. President, war is upon us. We must act quickly to prepare.”

Stanton spoke next. “There is not a moment to lose if we are not to wake up and see Detroit and Buffalo in British hands.” He looked at Halleck. He was called “Old Brains” in the old prewar Army, where he had passed for that wonder of wonders, a military intellectual who actually wrote books on warfare. He certainly did not present a very martial appearance, a plump and bug-eyed man. As a field commander, he had been sound but overly cautious. With a subordinate like Grant to reap successes in his name, Halleck had found himself chosen as general in chief by a president desperate for sound military advice. That is what he got, but unfortunately that advice was not overly leavened with any boldness or willingness to take responsibility. Still, Halleck’s strategic sense was sound and the necessary action obvious.

“I recommend that those two points be immediately reinforced with a division from Grant’s Army and a division from Meade’s Army. Although Rosecrans’s Army of the Cumberland is closer, he is actively maneuvering to bring Bragg to battle, and I would not divert his forces and weaken him at such a moment.”

Sharpe was worried, not about what he knew of British deployments but about what he did not know. The geography of his home state of New York fell like a template over his worries. The strong railway ran from Montreal to Albany and down the Hudson Valley to New York City. Halfway between Albany and the city was Kingston, his home town. It was a natural invasion route and one of historic importance. Burgoyne had tried it and come a cropper at Saratoga in 1777, just short of his objective of Albany. But then he had had to hack his way through a wilderness. Now the thick web of railroads and good surface roads knit the region together. Yet there was nothing like the studied activity of British forces in the Canadian Peninsula. That was very strange. He gave the British credit for common sense and more than that after his dinner with Wolseley. The absence of activity in that direction was immensely suspicious. The Grand Trunk led to Albany in one direction and to Montreal and Ottowa in the other. If Albany was about 135 miles from the Canadian border, Montreal was only thirty-five miles from the American border.

He raised the issue. Unfortunately, it was the vulnerability of Montreal not Albany that seemed to arouse the most interest. The discussion
turned to the opportunity this presented. Stanton waved away the danger, his focus still on the Great Lakes. “The New York State Militia and home guards should be called up in any case. They should be able to delay any force the British could send across the border there.” He glared at Sharpe, “As you’ve said yourself, Albany is 135 miles from the border. Buffalo and Detroit are right across the border.”

Halleck came in on Stanton’s side, to no one’s surprise. “General Sharpe is correct to point out how vulnerable Montreal is. Here is an opportunity to strike at the heart of Canada. If we seize Montreal, we sever British communications and cut British North America in two. Remember, their settlements extend no more than fifty miles from the border. The XI and XII corps could be detached from the Army of the Potomac and deployed to Albany as a staging area.” He glanced at Stanton for approval and saw the man’s brow furrow. “But there is not the urgency that there is to defend the Great Lakes. There is no reason to rush up there now. We need to carefully plan this.”

When Sharpe saw that Lincoln would support Stanton, he folded his tent.

The meeting dragged on into the night as the entire range of war preparations was discussed. Lincoln finally adjourned the meeting at two in the morning. All through the night, aides and secretaries had been filing in and out to carry messages to the various departments of the government, mostly war warning alerts to Army and department commanders, coastal forts, Navy bases and yards, and the blockading squadrons. As the meeting broke up, Lincoln quietly took Stanton by the arm and pulled him to the window. “I thank Providence we put Ripley out to pasture three weeks ago. We are going to need a lot of those ‘new-fangled gimcracks’ he hated so much. We should have Colonel Ramsey rummage about his old arsenal to see what Ripley hid away. We cannot afford to overlook any advantages. The full weight of their empire will be against us.”
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“I’ve already done that. He reported to me yesterday that there were fifty of the coffee mill guns there in late August just before he took over the Ordnance Bureau from Ripley. Seems there are only forty of the coffee mill guns now.” He looked over at Sharpe. “But two thousand Spencer repeaters have just been delivered.”
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