The Grand Tour: The Pacific Alliance

With the War just beginning our grand tour is going to take a bit of a detour. And to a land of a bit warmer weather. 

It takes allies to win a war. From the moment the first shot was fired at Fort Leavenworth it was obvious that the new Republic was in over its head. To win the war all that was needed would be to outlast the resolve of the United States. To win the peace they would have to destroy the East's will to fight.

The path to victory in both respects is charted by Rachel Semmes, the niece of Raphael Semmes, Captain of the C.S.S. Alabama. The path is called The Pacific Alliance.

The Capital of the Pacific Alliance was the Kingdom of Hawaii from its founding through the Pineapple War. Once the war was won by the Republic and Hawaii and Queen Liliuokalani's reign was secured, the capital was integrated with Republican government functions at Reno. From 1893 to 1941 only PACCOM was centered at Pearl Harbor Naval Base. In addition to The Republic of Ansdale and The Kingdom of Hawaii, charter members of the alliance included New Zealand, Canada and Russia. As the alliance grew, new members joined, including Australia, China and Japan.

The prime doctrine of the alliance is mutual defense and aid of fellow members, though all members also agree to provide.

1. Open Ports of Call for member nations, especially to provide safe haven during times of war and other periods of instability.
2. Reciprocity concerning Letters of Marque and Reprisal for all member nations, and the establishing of maritime or admiralty courts in every major port.
3. Diplomatic exchange among the member nations.

The three requirements benefit the Republic almost exclusively, however, they alone, with some small help from Russia bear the military side of the agreement. There is no Hawaiian or New Zealand navy at present.

Despite its diverse membership, the alliance survives. There have been challenges however. The Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in its expulsion from the alliance, however, it was readmitted when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor Naval Base, at the time jointly manned by the Republic of Ansdale and The United States of America and followed it up with an invasion of China and Australia. Japan was expelled at that time and was not readmitted until sometime after the wars end.

Next time we will talk with the architect of the Pacific Alliance, Rachel Semmes.

The Grand Tour: Kansas

Let The Bleeding Resume. Our next tour stop is a State born of war. I'm speaking of Kansas. It's not often that a State gets the word "bleeding" affixed to it. It started before the first Civil War. You, know, the North South one, not the current East West one. The lightning rod for the conflict was voter fraud. As the region known as Kansas was about to be organized into a Territory border ruffians from Missouri flooded over the border. When you've got 1,500 registered voters and 6,000 votes cast, somethings wrong, and only a blind man could fail to see it. The Blind man in question was Franklin Pierce, the President of the United States. He Was a Democrat, The Slave owners were 90+% Democrat. As far as he was considered, the election was legal.

The outrage was immediate, and so was the response from the abolitionists. Even the Church was mobilized, most notable among them Henry Ward Beecher, who shipped crates of Sharps Rifles to anti-slavery emigrants that were labeled as Bibles. Well, it says The Word is like a two edged sword, so...

In this case the weapons of our warfare were quite carnal, and things all centered on a town called Lawrence. The town, which was settled by free staters, has been sacked three times

• May 21, 1856 - Border ruffians from Missouri burn the Free State Hotel, 2 newspaper offices and houses and businesses
• August 21, 1863 - William Quantrill burn the town and kill 183 men and boys, as young as fourteen.
• July 10, 1875 - Captain Leah Marie Quantrill of the 1st Republican Cavalry burns several buildings, most of them wrecks already, in a show of resolve and gains the surrender of the town.

Actually, the third one would barely Qualify as a sack, if not for the last name of the Captain. Quantrill. As in, the daughter, though illegitimate, of WCQ, the butcher of Lawrence.

This time, however, the Governor of Kansas was a supporter of the Cause, and so the allegiance of the State was never in doubt. The real problem was Leavenworth, and that had been neutralized a few days before.

The sides have been drawn. Things are about to get very interesting.

The Grand Tour: Missouri

Welcome back everyone as we re-launch the Welcome To The Republic blog. To old and new readers, I encourage you to experience the tour from the beginning. Our tour so far: Alaska, Nevada, Iowa, Texas, Wyoming, Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, and Nebraska.

Our tour stop today is Missouri. Enjoy.

"The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend". Sometimes in the cause of freedom it seems like you have to make a deal with the devil. Such was the case with Missouri. The second of the Confederate States to join the cause of The West. True, in the first conflict the State was officially loyal to the Union, yet Southern sympathies were strong, and Governor Clairborne F. Jackson created a Confederate Government in Neosho.

Unconventional was the watchword in Missouri then and now. The field of battle in Missouri was that of the Guerrilla, and names such as William Quantrill, Frank and Jesse James, William T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson and others have secured their place in Missouri Lore. In the lore of the West, allegiances are strange. Quantrill's daughter leads a new Raiders, aided by her second in command Katherine Anderson. The press has had a field day.

And then there is the James Gang. Frank and Jesse James bank and train robberies would make them Criminals to the United States, but to the Republic, for the moment at least, they are allies. The former Confederates strike out at mainly "Republican" targets, yet they are the allies of the "New Republican Party" of which most of the Ansdale High Command have become part of. As long as the gang behaves, they may remain useful. Once the war is over, they will be dealt with.

Fate intervened with the James Gang, and the Republic was spared the embarrassment. Midway through the war. Jesse was killed by one of his own and Frank "retired" without any charges being pursued against him. And the Republic won, so maybe it wasn't a deal with the devil after all.

Missouri was a Godsend. It gave the Republic control of the Mississippi and Missouri (Ansdale) Rivers as well as the Metropolitan area of St. Louis, which would provide much needed revenues to the war effort. And this time there would be no divided loyalties. There was no U.S. Government in exile, and a United House stood, and so did the Republic.

From the time Missouri joined the cause there was literally no turning back. Within a month Washington would declare war. Freedom always has a price.

The Grand Tour: The War Begins

Anybody who thought things would be different this time was naive. Events have caught up with our tour. Dreams for a peaceful separation are dashed. The Republic is at war.

Ten Independent Republics, as they style themselves, make up the new nation. While gaps exist, the border stretches from the River to the sea, and from Canada to Mexico. 

One thing can thwart the dream. Fort Leavenworth. While it isn't the most powerful fort in the West, Fort Ansdale is that, it is the most powerful fort loyal to Washington. That makes it a inviting target, and one which will not go unnoticed. 

Plans for a bombardment of Leavenworth  have been underway since Independence and the timing is important. July 5,1875. Forts Shoshone and Pawnee furnish artillery, including a Gatling gun, which cuts down Union Infantry with ease. Ironclads from Ansdale seal the river, and the main assault comes from "Quantrill's Raiders". After a three day engagement Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles surrenders the fort. There can be no retreat. Victory or Death.

The Grand Tour: Colorado

Can Loyalty be bought for a price? If so, what price would be enough? Surely it would have to be enough to soothe the conscience, especially when the "loyalty" meant betraying the cause of the West.

While the above question may seem absurd, it is exactly the question faced by Colorado. A territory at the time that war broke out, within the space of a year it was offered Statehood. Now a territory becoming a state in the late 19th Century is not exactly news. What makes it strange is offering that territory Statehood while it is in a state of rebellion. Governor Routt declared as much when he declared the Territory an Independent Republic on June 6, 1875.

The seat of rebellion for Colorado was Cheyenne Garrison, just outside of Denver. Under the command of Colonel Robert McMillan, the metropolitan fortress maintains a constant stream of communication with the Capitol. The purpose of the garrison, at least the purpose they admit to Washington, is twofold: To protect the citizens from Cheyenne encroachment, and to protect the Union Pacific Railroad. In reality both goals were accomplished at the signing of the Cheyenne Treaty of 1862 at the founding of the garrison. Since then there has nothing to do except to consolidate control of the territory into General Anderson's hands.

The War of Western Independence will not have many signature battles the likes of Manassas, Vicksburg, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg and Chickamauga. The Battles of The Mines will rank right up with the Siege of Fort Leavenworth and the Battle of San Diego Bay when all is written. The campaign consisted of five battles between the Federal forces of Fort Lyon and the Republican Forces of Cheyenne Garrison. They were fought during the Winter of 1876 in the snow at altitudes above 7,000 feet. Adding to the rout was the fact that the Republican troops fought on skis with White Winter Uniforms, making them virtually invisible, while the same could not be said of the Blue Uniformed federal troops. The campaign destroyed the Federal army in Colorado, and secured not only Colorado, but Wyoming and Nebraska for the duration of the war.

It was with that humiliating defeat fresh in their mind that Washington offered Statehood to Colorado. Coming as it was from a position of weakness, the offer was rightly refused. Colorado had proved it can whip the Federals on their own turf as a territory. They were better off on their own.

The tide of war has turned. There will be no lost cause of the West.

The Grand Tour: Minnesota

The first state to secede in the second wave was its most reluctant member. Minnesota was its own Territory in 1855 at the time of the Anderson expedition, and was not included in the generals original mandate. Minnesota has ties to the Fort Pierre expedition, however, as one of its members, Major Thomas Garfield, twice commanded Fort Ridgely in the state.

The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes has always been of great strategic value to General Anderson. Minnesota provides the Republic with access to the Great Lakes. Though technically prohibited by treaty from building up a navy on the lakes due to a treaty signed between the United States and Great Britain (The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817) to limit naval forces on the lake, the Republic was not going to let a piece of paper stop it from defending itself. The official position of the Republican Foreign Office is that since the Republic of Ansdale is a sovereign power at war with the United States and has no treaty with Great Britain, she is not beholden to agreements signed by the former possessors of the land. As long as Great Britain remains neutral in the struggle, ironclads will move only toward United States owned shores, not toward Canada.

If the diplomatic double talk is accepted by Great Britain, General Anderson will have shortened his theatre of war considerably. Even with trains an invasion of the east is problematic, but access to the Great Lakes opens up effortless bombarding of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Since Texas opens up the east coast to attack, the Great Lakes will help the Republic keep the United States surrounded. Now, if they can only build ships fast enough.

The Grand Tour: Dakota

The Council of Territorial Governors began the second wave of secession activity in The West. Sixteen days passed between the end of the first wave, marked by the secession of Texas, and the beginning of the second, which occurred when Wyoming proclaimed itself an Independent Republic.

Most people at the time would have expected Dakota Territory to have led the way, after all, it was where it all started. If General Anderson had not been ordered to 'The Northern Parts of Nebraska", there would have been no Great Western Empire. Alaska got the privilege of getting things started, and that was its payment for years of neglect and abuse. The second wave went to Wyoming, and considering that the territory is home base for Quantrill's Raiders, deservedly so.

Dakota should not be taken lightly, however. Originally known as the northern parts of the Nebraska territory, it was, as previously stated, the area that Brigadier General John Lee Anderson was assigned to back in 1855. Fort Pierre was the site of the first settlement, and it was a good thing that they encountered the peaceful Ansdale's and not the war hungry Dakota, because Fort Pierre was totally unsuitable for defense. Fort Ansdale replaced the crumbling Fort Pierre three years later. The garrison remains the largest in the territory despite the establishment of Fort Abraham Lincoln further north in 1872.

Actually, it was the establishment of that fort that provided the initial spark for independence, especially with the War Department's choice of commander. George Armstrong Custer, 34, was everything General Anderson despised. The goat of the West Point Class of 1861, brash, reckless, and with an ego the size of the west itself, he rose to prominence in the Civil War and is convinced of his own immortality. Anderson, however, at the top of his class, a veteran of the Mexican War, the picture perfect officer and gentleman, has been rewarded with the actual control of the west, if only because Washington has turned its head. The two seem destined to clash.

At the time War breaks out, Dakota is governed by John Pennington. He is the first governor of the territory to actually live in it, and it has affected the territory for the better. That is not to say that he can't have moments of unpopularity. Politically speaking he is Conservative. Though the territory has been suffering from a Grasshopper infestation for several years, Governor Pennington refuses to ask for Federal relief, believing it will create a territory of beggars.

General Anderson never officially got his showdown with Custer. The Golden Boy met his demise at Little Big Horn. Ironically, like his Confederate counterpart JEB Stuart, the field where he died was also the field where he was first wounded in battle. The Custer Luck ran out.

Custer originally came to the Black Hills of Dakota in search of Gold. The territory is still awash in it, but it is black gold. Between natural gas and oil, the territory is an energy powerhouse. Things are a fracking success. Of course of all its customers, selling to the energy starved United States is the best revenge of all. Washington better hope the spigot stays on.

The Grand Tour: Wyoming

Once Texas seceded the action in The West paused, at least temporarily, for the laws of mature required a reaction from the East. It was long overdue.

When Alaska proclaimed herself a Republic, Washington did nothing. When Nevada seceded, Washington did... Nothing. When Iowa seceded and seized the federal arsenal on Rock Island Washington did, once again, nothing. Yes, I will admit, they did call a peace conference after Nevada left, but with the Civil War as precedent, we all know how those turn out. Nothing would come of it but delay, which the Republic would use and the U.S. would squander.

By the time that Texas, for the third time in its history, proclaimed itself to be the Republic of Texas, Washington seriously began to think about maybe, quite possibly, doing something. In the typical glacial pace of Washington politics, four weeks would pass before President Grant decided to order a blockade of the Texas Coast. If Grant had not been so caught up in his campaign slogan of "Let us Have Peace", and had been more of the General who saved the Union, he may have ended the dreams of Western Independence before they had taken root. Grant's delay saw to it that three states would become six, and the territories would unite.

The uniting occurred at the Convention of Territorial Governors, which was hastily called to assemble in Cheyenne, the Capitol of Wyoming Territory. The City grew up along the Union Pacific Railway and was also the start of the Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail. The Territory was the also the Fifth Military District of General John Lee Anderson's command. It was established at the commencement of the Civil War by Kenneth Mark Bassett, a native of Portland, Maine, and has its headquarters at Lander, a town near the Wind River. Fort Shoshone is the Chief Garrison of the district, and it commands four other forts, including Bridger and Laramie.

Washington has its forts in the territory as well, but their loyalty is questionable. Of the Six forts established by the U.S. Army since the end of the Civil War, none of them have rushed to Washington's aid. Actually, the official standard is neutrality. For Washakie, 15 miles from Shoshone, is the only one of the six to declare loyalty to the West.

The strategic placement of Wyoming has led it to become the unofficial War Department at the early stages of the War. We shall see if Washington realizes it in time.

The Grand Tour: Texas

We come to the last member of the N.I.T. The third State to secede from the Union in 1875 was the first to do it twice. Texas was the first State in the Republic that was also part of the Confederate States of America. As a result Texas was able to provide the voice of experience as to how the United States would respond. Texas, along with Louisiana and Arkansas, would provide that experience from their alliance with the South to their more natural allies, The West. Of course Kansas and Missouri also had tales to tell, but they were "border states", not officially on either side. Of course that didn't mean they didn't suffer. Some of the most intense fighting occurred in the border states.

In a simplistic view of the conflict, the Mississippi River was the common boundary for the two nations. The United States was the Atlantic Power, and the Republic of Ansdale the Pacific Power. Texas shifts that balance of power, with its Gulf Coast giving the Republic access to the Atlantic coast of the United States. That access is a two edged sword, for it also opens Texas to the possibility of blockade by the United States.

Then there is the Rio Grande. The river marks the southern border of the state and marks the boundary with Mexico, which formerly considered the land theirs. In that respect, the experience the State gives to the Republic is priceless, for Texas is a State forged in War, all the way back to the Alamo in 1836.

When Texas proclaimed itself a Republic for the third time in its history, it came with a gift, and the Republic was hardly ignorant of it. Fort Bliss was its name. The fort was the guardian of the Southwest, established at El Paso at the end of the Mexican War. The Flag of the Republic of Texas flew over the garrison on the morning of May 14, 1875, two days after the State seceded.

As war would come to Texas once again, Washington would attempt to reconquer Texas by sea. The blockade gave way to bombardment and siege of Houston. If the sea defenses hold, Texas is safe. For now, Washington will not risk a land battle.

One of those sea defenses is at sea. The RNS Sam Houston, formerly the steamship Santa Ana, became the Republic's first blockade runner, slipping through the federal lines at Galveston on July 20, 1875, sinking two ships in the process. After a sneak attack on the Pensacola Naval Yard she has hid under a false flag at Nassau, Bahamas, posing as the HMS Victoria, using the time to resupply and rearm. While there they learn of a new innovation in naval warfare, the self-propelled torpedo. The Victoria departs for Trieste, Italy to make a purchase. If they are successful, no blockade will be effective again. It is wise not to mess with Texas.

The Grand Tour: Iowa

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.