Our next stop in our Grand Tour of The Republic of Ansdale is, according to traditional United States History, only appears once every four years. Other than that it is invisible, part of a region filled with farms and bumpkins known as "flyover country".
We are talking about Iowa, the second state to secede from the Union and the lynch pin of the N.I.T. triad (that's Nevada, Iowa, Texas to y'all). Framed on the East and West by the Mississippi River and Missouri River respectively and North and South by the States of Minnesota and Missouri.
In the thinking of the military brass of the Republic, Iowa is a strategic coup. It gives The Republic access to two of the major river systems of the West. It provides the Republic with access to all the major railroads and opens the door to an invasion of the East instead of being forced into a defensive war, as was the south.
Iowa also contains one military prize, the Federal Arsenal on Rock Island. Though the arsenal lies on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River, a city by the same name lies in Illinois, and once the papers print Rock Island Attacked by Rebel Troops, who cares about facts. Fortunately Grant, being a military man, wouldn't go to war over an arsenal.
Since Iowa was a state before the Anderson Expedition, it didn't fall under his authority and was not included in any of the military districts created before the war. Washington failed to see its importance as well. It would be left to our next stop on our Grand Tour to arouse their concern, and by then, the momentum could not be stopped.
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