The other armada
Parts 21-31
The Other Armada Pt. 21: Framed in Silver
Februrary 10, 1805
Chavaniac, France
Jean-Jacques Fougere Audobon looked up from
his painting as his employersat behind him to watch him paint. The Marquis
paid well, and let him paint
virtually anything he liked, but always insisted on observing him as
he worked. "The letters are tiresome, Marquis Lafayette?", inquired the
young Haitian
painter.
"You have no idea," agreed the old veteran,
leaning against an oak tree as he watched his employee and friend work.
"Polignac introduces bills to abolish
Parlement every session, Condorcet and I manage to restrain him, but
then he blocks our bills to extend sufferage to the Third Estate...and
I know the King
agrees with Polignac, half of the nobles never bother to show, and
the liberal priests are invisible..." Lafayette looked from the bird's
nest on the limb to
the scene the artist was painting. "That doesn't look like the bird."
he offered as an observation.
"Not so much to you," agreed Audobon. "I've
been fascinated with nature so long, and I've decided its time I struck
out on my own as an artist. I don't
try to paint the bird, I try to paint my impression of the bird, paint
what it looks like to me. I just need a name for it...a shame I'll never
have a chance
to show it, not with David dominating the art schools and salons the
way he does."
"A name, eh?" asked Lafayette meditatively.
He was quite glad to have something to speculate on outside of politics,
and after a moment, it came to
him. "Impressionism?"
June 1, 1805
St. Petersburg, Russia
Czar Paul I stared up at the burning palace.
They were all there, Bennigsen, von Pahlen, even his idiot son...they'd
plotted against him more than once, but
always lost their nerve. Well, now he'd shown them. Shown them good!
The liberals had tried to take his court, the way they'd done in Britain,
the way they were trying to in France...well, he'd help his fellow King.
He'd send troops, and men, and form an alliance
with King Charles. The coalescing German state to his immediate west was
too powerful, he had no urge
to back a state quite so powerful on his border, especially with the
merging of the Polish kingdom to their "customs union", however wise their
behavior toward
republicans was...
-------------
Thoughts? Paul is still alive because absolutism is much stronger in
this TL,
while there _was_ a Revolution, it was in Britain, not in the France
that so
many Russian nobles tried to copy.
The Other Armada Pt. 22: We Came For Blood!
It came on a crisp winter morning, in late January of 1806. Most
of the members of the French Parlement were still on the road to Paris,
storms had
turned most of the roads near the city into mush. As it happens, most
of the leaders of the liberal faction, the Marquis de Lafayette, the Marquis
de
Condorcet, and the Comte de Mirabeau are in the town of Courbet, staying
at the home of a mutual friend, comte de Réciproque-Ami.
Little do they know that the Regent of France,
Charles X, has made his decision; Parlement must be stopped, before it
gets any more uppity, before the
House of Bourbon is shattered completely, and he has allies. Only the
most radical of radicals, together with Jules de Polignac and his reactionary
clericalist factions from the First and Second Estates are in the Parlement
Hall in Paris on the morning of January 18. Juan de Batz, notorious as
a lackey
of Polignac's, introduces a bill to remove the temporal powers of the
monarchy, and the rapidly deploying forces of the reactionaries vote it
through.
French Army forces under Marquis de Bonchamps,
encamped only a few miles away, act immediately on the signal given by
royal agents. Every member
of Parlement, attending the session, is captured within an hour of
the passage of the Anti-Bourbon BIll. The reactionaries among their numbers
are immediately
given a full royal pardon, of course, while the radicals stay in prison.
The King issues an order calling for the arrest of those Parlement members
not already in
prison or pardoned, mentioning Lafayette, Condorcet, and Mirabeau in
particular.
Fortunately, he sends an infantry regiment
to arrest them, giving time for Sergeant Nicholas Soult to step into history.
Borrowing a horse from his cavalry
regiment, the NCO rides hell for leather to Courbet, all the way to
the front door of the R-A mansion. Moments after his horse drops dead of
exhaustion, he
is relating his story to the assembled liberal nobles. Most want to
flee, but Lafayette has other ideas...and so it is that he is standing
alone, unarmed in the public square when the infantry regiment arrives
to arrest him.
Lafayette begs a moment of Colonel Duchamps'
time, and out of respect for the Marquis' record, the Colonel, embaressed
at arresting one of France's
greatest heroes, lets him speak. Lafayette stands on a wagon, speaking
to both the assembled soldiers and the rapidly-growing crowd.
Lafayette speaks of the honor of a soldier,
of martial valour, of the glory that is the military...then he speaks of
what war is _really_ like, of how nasty and
brutal it is, how soldiers die for reasons that seem pointless...but
you keep fighting anyway, because deep down, the war has to be won, home
must be protected. And then he moves onto just how home must be protected,
how the people back home must be saved from fear, and just what causes
that fear...
By the time couriers arrive to find out what happened to the missing infantry regiment, they are far too late. There are signs of a brief battle, and several French soldiers dead or dying in the town square, along with a few civilians...but most of the regiment, along with the Marquis de Lafayette, and his liberal allies, have disappeared.
And the French Revolution has begun...
The Other Armada Pt. 23: Disco Inferno
With much of the Army in open revolt, chosing to side with their
hero than the King, Charles X flees to Lyons, while, oddly enough, Lafayette's
Republican
government meets in Lille. Both sides are acutely aware of the English
Civil Wars and the British Revolution, and both are determined not to make
the mistakes
of their predecessors.
Lafayette's Parlement is quick to style themselves
as the Legitimists; they do not seek the removal of the monarchy, they
merely charge that Charles X has
abused his status as Regent, ignoring what King Louis (who has now
recovered to the point of being able to open his eyes and eat food), really
wants for
France. Charles X and his Royalist Parlement, headed by Jules de Polignac,
simply call Lafayette and his supporters traitors, and begin purges. The
Marquis de Sade's troops, many of them Cossacks on loan from Russia, soon
are sacking and burning their way through France, destroying any hint of
resistance. A unit of Georgians utterly destroys the rebellious town of
Macon, north of Lyons.
Russia, however, is too far away to really assist Charles in his war, and most of his aid will come from Spain. Charles IV is well under the domination of his wife Maria Luisa and her lover, the young Prime Minister San Martin, and he never liked reform anyway. He has broken the reformers built up by his father, Charles III, and wants to help his fellow Bourbon do the same. General Godoy soon assembles an army in Catalonia and marches through the Pyrenees, while General d'Arce sets sail for Royalist-controlled ports on the Riveria.
Spain's efforts in France cause the government to gradually weaken control over their forces in California, their most rapidly-growing colonial territory. While most of the migrants there are Spaniards, some from Manila, most from Mexico, they are there for gold and gold alone, rather than the glory of Spain herself. General Iturbide soon finds himself operating with little help, if constant communications, from back home.
The British Republic, meanwhile, doesn't hesitate;
the three Premiers approve a motion to declare war on the "factions that
have seized the throne of France",
and offer support to Lafayette. Reservedly, the Legitimist Parlement
votes to accept, at Lafayette's urgings, and British general Robert Craufurd
is organizing the Expeditionary Force south into France. They arrive on
May 3, a month before Godoy. (Blake's People's Militia <Levee en masse>
comes in handy indeed, but Blake is too busy to resign and rejoin it, he
is finally writing his magnum opus _The Doors of Perception Are Opened
By Revolution._.
Things get even more interesting in America, this is just what the American Eagles have been waiting for. A loose faction of Congressmen and Senators and even Generals, their primary goal, despite sectional differences, is the expansion of American military power, most specifically into Michigan, Canada, and Louisiana. A mere two years before, they were too weak to be a factor, President Jay probably would have proclaimed armed neutrality.
But now Henry Dearborn is President of the
United States, and Aaron Burr is his Secretary of State. Before Congress
can get back into session, Dearborn
and Burr, together with Secretary of War Dayton, order the American
army into action. General Moses Austin's forces march up the Hudson, following
the route
of Greene twenty-five years earlier, and head for Canada, while William
Darke's men probe the Michigan border, moving quickly for Ft. Detriot,
and James
Wilkinson's troops in western Tennessee quickly head for Louisiana.
Dearborn gives the speech of his career to Congress when it reassembles;
"Republicanism cannot survive only one country, the flower of liberty
must be seeded in every nation! Britain has followed our path, and the
American marigold blooms in London. France has chosen the same path, but
the insects and predators of the world would seek to deflower Lady Liberty!
Will we allow this
to stand? Never! While the Marquis de Lafayette, our hero and friend
of the great Washington liberates France at home, American armies will
liberate France
abroad, and bring our values and culture to them, recovering what the
monarchs seized from us so long ago..."
The Other Armada Pt 24: Birds of Paradise
The concentration of both the Legitimist and Royalist factions
in France on matters at home left the various French colonial regimes to
fend for themselves
in large part, and left the various commanders on the ground to decide
which side they would follow, and by early 1807, they had.
For Alexander Berthier, still commander on the ground in India, there
was no question, as there was none for any of his high officers;
French India, created
in large parts by the military efforts of the Marquis de Lafayette
from 1783 to 1797, would follow his cause all the way to Hell, and then
back out of it. Most
of the purely French troops, in fact, leave entirely and head for France
to fight for the Marquis. To keep order, Berthier will need to rely on
the Mysore troops,
as they are called; Indians, with Indian NCOs, and French officers.
This will affect the future of race relations in the area very much indeed.
The situation is different in North America; whatever the sympathies
of General Alexandre de Beauharnais, he is under attack by a foriegn power,
and he must
defend himself from them. Michigan falls quickly, at least de jure,
though the Native Americans and their French allies will continue resistance
for quite some time. Louis XVI's great North American project, the colonization
of the Mississippi, is only partially completed, James Dickinson's armies,
one column on either side
of the river, get as far south as Ft. Rosalie (OTL Natchez) before
being stopped by the careful guns of Maurice Gigost d'Elbée, general
commanding New Orleans. Dickinson begins slowly settling in for a siege
as Colonel Andrew Jackson's cavalry probe the French defenses. In Canada,
things move slowly; the French have known for a long time the Americans
were coming, and by January of 1807, Moses Austin has barely reached the
St. Lawerence.
In the Caribbean, things are very...interesting. The planters of Santo
Domingo, Guadeloupe, Martinque, and the rest of France's possesions are
no particular
fans of Charles of Artois, with his high taxes and high-handed attitudes
toward the colonists...but civil disorder, especially of a somewhat democratic
nature,
will likely cause a slave revolt. They need an alternative, however
temporary, before the slaves catch wind that most of the French navy is
busy rounding up
the other half. Asking for Spanish or Anglo-American help is immediately
rejected, the Spaniards are behind the Royalists, and the Anglo-Americans
would
provoke revolt by their sheer presence, especially the British, who
have outright abolished slavery.
Finally, Dr. Charles Moreau, a surgeon-turned-planter, organizes a meeting
of the most prominent men from each colony, including the official governments.
He
has a way, he says, to ensure the survival of good order in the French
colonies, as well as ensure no harsh reprisals against them from whatever
regime comes
out on top...Moreau's chief agent is Jean Brock, a midget and soldier,
veteran of every war and conflict in the Southern Hemisphere since forever.
He boards a
boat, and sets sail to a certain island chain...
In Algeria, things are simple; the men are loyal to Admiral de La Contrie,
and he is loyal to Charles de Artois, who suggested him above higher-ranking
men to
command the expedition to take the lands. Seeing a chance to get some
troublemakers satisfied as well, de La Contrie promises full French citizenship
and a large gold bonus to any Algerian who defends the cause of Charles
of Artois. Within a few months, former pirates are sinking American, British,
and
Legitimist French ships, while helping Spanish and Russian ships land
ever more troops in the Royalist-held port of Marseilles.
And, of course, sinking any ships they can get their hands on...
The Other Armada Pt. 24.5: Bernie and Alex
<<I've gotten a lot of request for these guys, but I have no plans
for them...here they are. >> Benedict Arnold is entombed in an elaborate
monument in New York City. He'd made overtures to the British in April,
before Corunna, but the reversal of British fortunes made any efforts he
might make useless, and he broke off
communications in December Commanding Washington' cavalry at the siege
of New York in July, 1780, Arnold received a note from General Henry Clinton,
detailing the traitorous messages Arnold had sent, and ordering him
to defect, along with all of Washington's strategic information. Despairing,
torn between two insurmountable ways out, Arnold led a regiment-seized
raid against the British lines the next morning. Riding far ahead of his
men, he suddenly spurred his horse
into a gallop at the British forces camped in Yonkers. Firing a pistol,
Arnold wounded an NCO before being taken in the heart by a ball.
Arnold was first buried behind American lines, but then moved to the
elaborate tomb the citizens of New York donated the money to build in 1785.
Future game
show hosts will use; "Who is buried in Arnold's Tomb?" as a cheap trivia
question for people who just keep losing.
Alexander Hamilton's national political career is finished, but not his local one. The election of Aaron Burr to the US Senate in 1797 spelled the death knell to Hamilton's national political aspirations, he did not stay on as Treasury Secretary in the Jay administration, his general dislikeablity as a person ensured that.
However, in 1803, by marshalling every personal and political resource he possesed, Hamilton was elected Mayor of New York City, beating a Burr candidate. Tammany Hall still runs most of New York politics, but they will not control the city politics of New York City itself, not while Hamilton lives. Internal improvements abound on NYC during Hamilton's long reign, construction of a reliable watering supply being the biggest, lasting from 1805-1835. Hamilton's Tunnels will greatly fuel the growth of the city in years to come.
His last major project, just before his death in 1837, is the successful unification of Manhattan to Brooklyn/Bronx. Hamilton's long reign, an unbroken thirty-five years, will be the start of a trend in near-dictatorial mayors of New York City.
The Other Armada Pt 25: I Hate You, You Hate Me...
As 1807 drew on, it was clear that the Royalist cause was dying, to say the least. Charles of Artois had alienated almost every corner of society with his reactionary policies, his attack on the Parlement, and his reliance on nasty foriegn allies. The Spanish and Russians continue to hold down southern France by sheer main force, operating from the new capitol of Tarbes, where Artois had fled after the fall of Lyons at Christmas, 1806.
Lafayette's government, now operating from Paris, faced an abortive uprising in the Vendee region, but not for long. The peasants in the area, many of them very conservative Catholics, had risen against the Legitimist government there. However, the rising was not all about religion. The smugglers of the area approached Charles, offering to strike against the Legitimists if he, Charles, would maintain the ancient salt tax that had helped them make so much money for so long.
Charles immediately responded that he would make no deals with criminals, and had the emissaries arrested for suggesting he use vice to prop up his throne. The Vendee revolt had come to an end by the late spring of 1807, especially after General Napoleon Bonaparte had taken the city of La Rochelle in April
Bonaparte, destined to play a key role in the future of the War of the French Succession, had soon emerged as the most important figure in the Legitimist forces, quickly rising to the rank of General, from the colonelcy he had held before the war. With Lafayette's backing, he made plans, from his fortification at La Rochelle, against the Royalist positions in the south, planning to begin them before the summer ended.
Meanwhile, after several anti-Republican riots had caught both British and American forces in Legitimist cities, the Anglo-American alliance decides it was best to operate elsewhere. The British Expeditionary Forces under John Craufurd pulls back to Britain in the early part of 1807, guarded by the ships of Commodore Richard Sharpe. Together with newly-arrived Americans General William Henry Harrison and Admiral Oliver Perry, they make plans for operations against a certain coastline.
In May, King Philip I of Ireland, in consulation with his Prime Minister and government, orders the occupation of the French city of Cork, on behalf of "keeping good order with our French allies." General Richard Wesley himself, commander of the Irish army, leads 5,000 men into Cork, where the French garrison surrenders without a fight. At Kinsale, the largest French naval base on the island, Wesley's brother Arthur interns the French fleet there under Villeneuve. Philip's government is, of course, not stupid, and within a few months, the Legitimists among the French forces have arrived back home, along with their ships, while the Royalist soldiers are interned in Belfast, and the Royalist ships added to the Irish Navy.
In the Caribbean, Americans in Georgia notice a sharp decline in raids from East Florida, and the Picton Line of forts on the Panhandle are emptied of the regular army units almost entirely, replaced by the tough quasi-soldiers of the colonial militia. It is enough to stop anything short of a full-fledged American attack. King Ernest knows full well, however, that the Americans are distracted at the siege of Ft. Rosalie, and the rest of their army is north, doing their best to force a crossing of the St. Lawerence, or landing small units all along the French Great Lakes coast.
They are, in fact, heading south, toward a
land where they have been invited...the French Caribbean. The Earl of Uxbridge-Key
Largo himself commands
the force that occupies Guadeloupe, while his subordinates take the
rest of the islands. The Floridan government is very, very quick to send
a message that
they are _not_ conquering the French West Indies. They are just helping
out the Legitimist cause, by ensuring that there will be no nasty slave
revolts in the
Caribbean.
The Lafayette government is absolutely furious,
as can be imagined (France had been the first nation to recognize the Kingdom
of Florida), but they are
too distracted right now to swat Florida like a fly for its temerity.
For the moment, they must trust in the good word of the Floridans. Something
always
dangerous.
The Other Armada Pt. 26: Getting Hammered
January 7, 1808
In the Pyrenees
Just north of Navarre
Sergeant Lazare Hoche stepped into the mountain
tavern and waved hello to his fellow NCOs, drinking at a small table. Hoche
dodged around a few Basques,
but carefully so (most of the mountain people had risen to their side...everyone
hated Charles IV in these parts, and joined them.
Davout clapped him on the shoulder, grinning. "Ah, here is the famous hero, the liberator of Andorra!" Hoche rolled his eyes; he had been part of the invasion force sent to take the area, occupied by Spanish holdouts, and he had taken command of his company when accurate sniper fire picked off all the officers, moving in and driving out the Spanish. He had liked command, and pondered idly of what might have been. "Don't thank me, thank General Bonaparte. He's the one who took half their army at the pass, we'd still be fighting in France if we didn't have him in command.
All of them, Davout, Ney, Murat, and even Soult,
a patron of Lafayette above all others, nodded agreement. Without Napoleon
Bonparte, they'd be dead in a field somewhere, rather than here, happy
and alive and getting thoroughly smashed, even in the middle of this cold
winter. When the campaign season started up again in February, well, then
they'd see just how good he was.
January 19, 1808
Oldenburg, member of the Austro-Prussian Alliance
General Gebhardt von Blucher rode along the
seashore, letting the freezing wind wash over him. The sea was fascinating
to him, it never ceased to amaze
him that somewherhe out of his view on the North Sea were Danish ships,
German ships, Swedish ships, British, French..."Ah yes, French..." he chuckled
slightly, talking to himself. Not that he was insane, no.
When Charles of Artois had fled in shame to
Madrid, with French armies close behind him, Paul I had instantly withdrawn
his support, he would not back
a losing prospect. He'd switched, in fact, to Germany. Frederick William
II had married his daughter to the son of Joseph II, and the Holy Roman
Empire had
been officially unified with the Kingdom of Prussia, and allied with
the Russian Empire. Terrified, the rest of Germany had allied with them
while they still had the chance.
"They are vulnerable," he said
to himself, pondering the orders the Duke of Brunswick had given him, for
the operations to begin in the spring of next
year. "There will never be a better time..."
The Other Armada Pt. 27: The More Things Change...
For better or for worse, I have finally decided where this timeline
is going; before, I admit to pretty much letting it go wherever the wind
took me. So,
let's get cracking on our trip down memory lane, to those thrilling
days of yesteryear...
-------------------------------
On Valentine's Day, 1808, newly-promoted General Andrew Jackson successfully
forces the surrender of Fort Rosalie, the French port that has been so
bothersome to the Americans in Louisiana for so very long. With Rosalie
out of the way, Jackson (risen to command after James Dickinson's multiple
failures
to take the fort in the course of the last year) has little between
himself and the city of New Orleans, which he quickly strikes for in one
of the fastest forced
marches in history.
It is, however, probably not a good idea. Despite marching 100 miles
in 10 days, Jackson's troops are so exhausted by the time they reach the
city that a
quick raid by Jean Lafitte's citizen militia on their leading edge
at Metarie is enough to stop Jackson's army cold before it even reaches
the city, giving
General de Beuharmis time to pull his army into the city itself. Grumbling,
Jackson's troops settle in for another siege; this one of a bigger city,
with
better fortifications, and a better supply line, any French ships that
make it past Stephen Decatur's fleet of raiders that sail from Lincoln,
West Florida.
Meanwhile, sloppy handling of the Francophone Indian population in Michigan
(attempts to disarm and occupy) has provoked open revolt among the Native
American population there, quickly overwhelming the militia garrisons
there. Shawnee leader Tecumseh is soon in consulation with Canadian militia
lader
Charles de Salaberry as to strategy, while Alexander Darke holes up
in Ft. Detroit, plotting his counter-attack.
In Canada itself, communications are limited to overland, now that the Americans have taken virtually the entire St. Lawerence River valley south of Quebec City. Moses Austin moves his headquarters to Montreal, where he begins preperations for his attack against Quebec. He is following the same route Greene did, those many years before.
Meanwhile, in London, the allied powers have firmly rejected a proposed
Anglo-American invasion of Royalist Algeria...the Lafayette government
does not
trust even allies with their colonies, especially not the Americans,
not now. Finally, the various governments decide on a full-scale invasion
of northern Spain,
to assist General Napoleon Bonaparte's operations there. (Bonaparte
occupied at the moment with the gradual reduction of the city of Soria,
in northeastcentral Spain.)
General "Black John" Craufurd's British Expeditionary Force, together
with its junior partner, the division-sized American Expeditionary
Force under General
William Henry Harrison, lands in Galacia in April, taking the naval
base of El Ferrol on the second day of that month. By summer, they have
pushed their way
all the way to the Duero River, taking the entire Biscayan coast not
in French hands already. Bonaparte, meanwhile, has taken all of Catalonia
and Aragon, and
has laid plans for a strike against Madrid in the fall..
The Other Armada Pt. 28: The More They Stay the Same...
July 10, 1808
London, British Republic
American Ambassador Jonathan Dayton watched as a squadron of frigates
and ships of the line sailed gracefully up the Thames, escorting smaller
ships, troop
carriers from the look of them. "It's been a good year, Lieutenant
Perry, hasn't it?"
Lieutenant Matthew Perry, naval attache to the American embassy, nodded
and agreed after a moment's thought. "I suppose so, sir, yes. Do you think
I can be
transferred to a combat posting soon, sir?"
Dayton, who had seen combat as a soldier in the Revolution, looked at
Perry for a moment, knowing the young man was worried about his brother,
who was fighting
off Spain with the Republican Navy to back him up. "Oliver will be
victorious soon, son, I'm sure it's just a matter of..."
"My God!" Perry, with his keen sailor's vision, was standing and staring
out at the fleet, which had stopped just off docksides, as a tumultous
roar came up
from the smaller ships, now off-loading hundreds of troops. "They're
running up Danish colors!"
A cannonball whizzed overhead...
July 12, 1808
London, British Republic
General John Moore, officer commanding the British Army, watched as the fires still burned on the horizon, as the bucket brigades of hundreds of citizens, soldiers, and sailors tried to extinguish the flaming docks, and then he turned back, rejoining Premeirs Sheridan and Carey. "It's bad, gentlemen, very bad. We lost all but two of the ships at dock, the ones the damn Vikings didn't manage to burn or shoot down when they tried to get up-river. We lost most of the London Brigade trying to get them off the docks, and Southwark Arsenal is completely gone, along with most of the district. They didn't just rob it, they detonated it. We've gotten word of landings in the Hebredies and the Faeroes...thank God most of Popham's fleet was in the Channel, or we would have lost Southampton and Bristol as well."
"How many of our civilians are dead?", asked Carey, known mostly for
his missionary work, a compassionate man who had been elected mostly as
a successor
to his mentor, the late William Wilberforce.
"Thousands, at the least," said Moore, "The fires spread very fast,
and Southwark was a heavily-populated neighborhood. The worst part is the
damage to
the London docks, they will take a long time to repair...they even
sunk some of our ships right across the Thames, we'll have to tear down
most of London
Bridge to get out."
"And Hayley?", asked Sheridan, after listening to Moore's speech.
"Confirmed dead, it looks like he was struck by off-shore gunfire, the
shells that destroyed the Edmund Burke Regiment's headquarters. He and
the regimental
staff were the only ones inside."
"We'll have to elect a new member, then..." Sheridan glanced at Carey, who nodded. They'd both had a candidate in mind, just in case this happened. "Cobbitt..." Yes, Thomas Cobbit, radical though he was, was the best chance for this.
"What are your plans, General?"
Moore responded. "Pull most of Craufurd's forces out of Spain, let Harrison
and Bonaparte handle matters there. Get the Danes off our soil, and then
work on
rebuilding the fleet enough to get into the Baltic...even if that will
bring the Russians down on us."
The Other Armada Pt. 29: Just One Of Those Days...
The Danish-Norwegian sneak attack against the British fleet at London,
and the raids on the islands to the north in July of 1808, comes as a surprise
to the
allied republican powers...which is a prime indicator how far the British
intelligence services, long the best of the three, had fallen in the pre-war
period.
King Frederick VI is not a big fan of Paul I, the Czar reminds
him far too much of his father, who had died of apoplexy in 1784 after
Frederick had been
declared his regent. However, Paul was the only other major European
monarch willing to take a stand against the republicans, and so they
sign secret
treaty in 1806, after it was clear the Legitimists were going to win
the War of the French Succession.
The forty-four major vessels of the Danish Navy have their weaknesses;
they tended to be slightly smaller than American, British, or French ships
of the
line, and to carry a lighter gun load, in both numbers and in weight
of firepower. This is what proves decisive in the engagements off the Isle
of Wight,
when Popham's fleet managed to stop Jessen's, despite the loss of most
of their ships, along with Popham himsef. The new commander, Admiral
Galtier,
was confronted with the beginnings of the new Viking era...
The Other Armada Part 30: Dark Days Indeed
As the summer of 1808 turned into fall, and the winter, things grow
worse and worse for the allied Republican powers. The Danish raids against
the British
mainland grow worse and worse, an era future commentators will call
"Viking: The Return."
In August, a Danish force under Captain Peter Willemoes successfully
raided all the way up into Bristol, burning part of the city's docks before
retreating an
hour ahead of the reluctant John Moore, pressed into service again
to command the British Army's Home Defense.
In September, another embaressment, a raid on Scotland and the seizure
of the Shetlands again, this time humiliating Edward Pakenham, the military
commander
of the Highlands and Islands. As they left, Carl Wilhelm Jessen's marines
swung around Pakenham's rear altogether, landing along the eastern coast
of Scotland
and plundering the castle of Birkhill after a quick march.
This puzzled British authorities considerably, there was nothing of
any military value in Birkhill, it had, in fact, only a platoon of militia
to defend it, all of whom had
had the sense to surrender without a fight. Counsel Richard Sheridan,
however, was something of a student of history...and he knew the old Royalist
government
had moved many historical relics to Birkhill, since General William
Erskine's maniacal government could be assured to keep any and all Republican
hands from the crown jewels and other prizes of British history.
The Danes only took one relic from the castle, and it was not a jewel, or a crown, or anything profitable. In any way save morale, that is. So it was that on October 15, 1808, King Fredrick VI took back a relic that Danes had lost to an English army a long time ago indeed, installing it in Copenhagen to the cheers of the masses.
The Land Ravanger. The banner of Harald Hardrada...
But all did not go well, of course. Despite occasional Danish raids
into the Channel and the Bay of Biscay, the British did eventually withdraw
the British Expeditionary Force from Spain, getting all 30,000 veterans
under John Craufurd home by the beginning of November. A fast, mobile force,
they proved adequate
to the task of chasing off the Danes, eventually inflicting the first
real signal defeat of Danish arms, crushing 2,000 men sent against Edinburgh
on November 26, 1808.
That didn't stop Danish raids, of course, since the Republican Navy, a bit smaller and less professional than the Danes, was carefully sheltering in the Irish Sea, rapidly building and expanding their numbers, Admiral Galtier managing to resist government pressure to go out and meet the Danish-Norwegian fleet, currently cruising the North Sea and laughing maniacally.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the joint Franco-American force (essentially a
French army and an American brigade, augmented by local Spanish recruitment)
has increased
in size drastically, now with over 100,000 men in total to drive the
Royalist Spaniards from Spain entirely...with the finest French commander
of the war, Napoleon Bonaparte, in command, there is really little doubt
of the outcome, and Charles IV of Spain flees along with a cadre of royalist
soldiers and politicans, all the way to distant Mexico City in New Spain
in mid-November.
However, to assemble this vast army, France was forced to nearly denude
France itself; not only did they need to reinforce their own armies, they
needed to
replace the British who had been recalled to defend the homeland. It
was a risk, but a plausible one...
The Other Armada Pt. 31-Henry The Bear
January 1, 1809
Along the Sabine River
Lousiana
General Andrew Jackson looked across the river as the last French cavalry
splashed across the ford. It was dangerous, he supposed, for an army commander
to be so far to the front, but he needed to show the men the French
and their Spanish allies were not to be feared. "Charles has renounced
the Spanish succession altogether, I hear...but not his war with the United
States. If Florida was ours, we could strike against Cuba." He turned to
Lieutenant Scott and Lieutenant Taylor, his two aides. "But, since it isn't,
and since King Ernest is officially our ally, so far, where do we go next?"
Taylor and Scott looked at each other for a moment, silently conferring. Privately they despised each other, but they both were unified before their commander. Taylor finally spoke. "West, once the artillery comes up. It's all empty land to the Rio Grande, outside of San Antonio and a few other mission towns. Bypass those, or siege them. Then over the Rio Grande..." "Or west all the way," offered Scott. "Drive to the sea, through California...."
"A little of both," offered the reasonably enigmatic Jackson. "Iturbide has fortified California, we wouldn't survive those passes, and de la Romana has mobilized Mexico more than is safe. Secretary Lee," Henry Lee, the American Secretary of War, had spent Christmas in New Orleans, after it had fallen to the American armies in October. "tells me General Darke, in Mobile, has a plan for both. In the meantime...we go west."
January 2, 1809
Along the Rhine River, near Strausbourg
The German Alliance-French border.
The flames of Louisbourg still burned bright as the Austro-Prussian
armies streamed across the frozen river. Field Marshall Gerhardt von Blucher
wondered idly if
the heat of the burning city would melt the river, it would greatly
interfere with his massed cavalry drive toward Paris.
Of course, the duke of Brunswick would have an even more difficult task,
he had the infantry push through the Ardennes, but Blucher's mind was on
his own campaign. He had to move forward, fast and quick. He'd show the
world that Gerhard von Blucher could move!