Stars and Stripes in Peril (43 page)

Ambassadors from around the world had assembled for this great occasion. Only the ambassador from Great Britain was not there; though that country had been asked. There had been no response to the request.

While across the Irish Sea a fierce argument was raging in Britain. Most strongly heard was the war party. A stab in the back, an assault on a peaceful country, soldiers killed, revenge for besmirched honor called for. Far less vociferous was the voice of reason; after all the Irish problem that had always caused so much dissension down through the years had been settled once and for all. Very few listened to reason. Parliament passed bills raising more troops, while regiments were on their way home from Mexico and the Far East. Ironclads made swift raids along the Irish coast, burning any buildings that flew the new green flag with its golden harp. More American warships appeared in Irish ports to patrol the beleaguered coast.

But all of this was forgotten on this most historical of all St. Patrick's Days. At first light the crowds began streaming into Phoenix Park. It was full to bursting by eleven in the morning and the carriages of the honored guests could only enter after the soldiers had made a lane for them. The viewing stands filled quickly. President Lincoln, and the first lady, were seated on the platform close to the president elect.

"I must congratulate you on a landslide victory," Lincoln said. "This is not your first public office, I understand."

"Indeed it is not. I was elected to the British parliament by the good people of Tipperary," Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa said. "Though the British would not allow me to take my seat since they had arrested me earlier for being a Fenian. There is too much bigotry in Ireland, on all sides. This is why I insisted on having Isaac Butt as my Vice-President. He is a Protestant lawyer who defended me at my trial. To me he symbolizes the drawing together of all the peoples of this troubled island. Now I must thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, and your stout soldiers and officers, for what you have done for this country. Words cannot express our feelings of gratitude..."

"Why I thought you were doing right fine there."

"Then let me take your hand and say that this is the most important moment of my life. Ireland free, my imminent inauguration, in my hand that of the great man who made it all possible. Bless you, President Lincoln, the thanks and blessing of all the Irish people are yours."

It was indeed a memorable day. The speeches were long and windy, but no one cared. The inauguration ceremony brief, the acceptance speech well received. All the excitement had been a bit much for Mary, and the President called for their carriage. But not before Lincoln had sent a message to General Sherman to join him in the hotel. The President waited for him in the sitting room while Mary took her rest. There were some reports and letters waiting for him and he went through them. Smiled at the letter from young Ambrosio O'Higgins who was apparently going into Mexican politics, for which he was well suited. It appeared that he had visited the British road in Mexico, which was now abandoned and deserted. The locals had no use for it and the jungle was quickly taking over.

Sherman found Lincoln at the window, looking down on the celebrating crowds in Sackville Street.

"Come in, Cumph," Lincoln said, hurrying across the room to shake his hand. "This is the first real chance I have had to congratulate you on your marvelous victory by force of arms. And not only you—but Lee in the north, Jackson in the south."

"Thank you, sir, it is greatly appreciated. We have good troops, the highest morale—and the deadliest weapons that soldier ever fired. The Gatling guns carried the day. We have heard from captured prisoners that the mere sound of them struck terror into their troops."

"It was a war well won."

"And a peace well won as well." Sherman pointed at the crowded street below.

"It was indeed. If only..."

They looked down the street to the River Liffey and in their minds' eyes further still across the Irish Sea and to the land beyond.

"I wonder if they will accept the reality of their defeat?" Lincoln said quietly, speaking to himself.

"Their soldiers fought bravely and well. It is not them that we must fear. But the politicians, it appears that they will not let this matter rest."

"We must have peace. Not peace at any price—but a lasting and just peace. The Council of Berlin starts next week, and our ambassadors are already there. They have had sympathetic talks with the French and Germans. The British delegates will arrive soon. With Lord Palmerston at their head. There must be peace." Lincoln said it more in hope, than with any positive feeling.

"There must be peace now," Sherman agreed. "But we must be prepared for war. Only the strength of our navy and army will keep the enemy at bay."

"Speak politely—but make sure that the rifle hanging over the mantelpiece is loaded. That's what an old rail-splitter might say."

"Truer words were never spoken, Mr. President. Never truer."

A NATIONAL HYMN

Mexicans, hear the battle cry

Mount for battle, win or die,

The earth is trembling to its core

At the might of the cannon's roar.

If a foreign enemy be found

Who dares profane our sacred ground,

Heaven hears and sends your sons

To victory against their guns.

By Francisco González Bocanegra, 1824-1861.

(Translation by Gay Haldeman.)

Bocanegra, and Guillermio Prieto, were the patriotic poets of the Mexican revolution. Their inspiring poems were much loved by the fighting men.

AFTERWORD

It has been often said that history is written by the victors. True enough. Therefore the student of history must always be aware of not taking sides. But there are certain facts that cannot be juggled by the victors. Numerical records are one of them.

It is a matter of record that, during the two-day Battle of Shiloh, the first conflict of the Civil War where large units clashed face to face, that the North and the South, between them lost 22,000 men. To no avail—since their positions were roughly the same at the end of the battle as they had been before they began. And there was worse to come. By the time the war had ended 200,000 soldiers had been killed in battle. Another 400,000 had died of disease or hardship. The population of the United Sates at the time was around 32,000,000. Which means that around two percent of the total population died in the war.

This was indeed the first modern war, where large formations of soldiers clashed with one another, using advanced technology to achieve these disastrous ends. Modern rifles and cannon in great numbers, railroad trains to supply the armies, telegraph and observation balloons to direct the conflict, ironclad steam-driven ships at sea. 600,000 dead. The Civil War was the first mechanized conflict and the terrible price paid was only a shadow of what was to come.

Of course as the technology of warfare improved so did the death toll. By the time of the First World War the improvements of machine-guns, rapid firing rifles, smokeless gun powder, breech-loading cannon and improved transport had made modern warfare that much more deadly. The Germans had 400,000 casualties on the battle of the Somme; the French lost 500,000 at Verdun. The British lost 20,000 men in a single day in the battle of the Somme—the same number that had been killed during the entire Boer War. Machines were changing the deadly face of warfare.

Not that the generals noticed it. Never known for their imagination, they never quite knew what to do with their new weapons. They were always prepared to fight a new war with the tactics of the previous one.

In the blood-bath of the Civil War the Americans learned by experience how to utilize new tactics and new weapons. Since both sides in the First World War threw away their soldiers' lives in frontal attacks on entrenched machine-gun positions, I feel completely justified in having them do the same thing in this book, in 1863. It is hard to forget that in 1939 Polish cavalry charged against German tanks. The deeply entrenched attitudes of the martial mind are almost immune to novelty, logic or reason.

The irreducible facts of history speak for themselves. If I appear to be prejudiced about the British in Ireland in the nineteenth century, I do apologize. I have attempted to be as even-handed as I can. Putting historical quotes into my characters' mouths whenever possible. Avoiding inflammatory facts when I could. Such as the historical fact that Catholics were not allowed to buy land, or raise a mortgage on it—or even inherit it in the normal fashion. At the turn of the 18th century Catholics owned barely 15 percent of the total land in the country, most of that bog and mountain. This was because, by British law, they could not keep their lands intact. When the owner died the land had to be shared equally among all the sons of the owner. However—should any son of the family turn Protestant—everything became his. Therefore by the end of the mid-18th century Catholics, who made up about 90% of the population, owned only 7% of the land. Is it any wonder that they died during the famine on their miserable tiny plots of land—or later rose in revolt?

Lightning war—or
blitzkrieg
as the Germans called it—was a natural outgrowth of the use of machines of war. When the Allies first introduced tanks to the battlefield during the First World War they had little idea what to do with them. So they came to the battlefield piecemeal and were duly destroyed. By the time of the Spanish Civil War there were self-propelled guns and armored troop carriers. As well as aerial support. The Germans experimented with their joint use and the art of the
blitzkrieg
was invented. Neither France nor Britain took heed of these developments until it was too late. My Americans in 1863 did what the Germans did in 1936. They applied all the lessons of combat that they had learned the hard way, through he death of soldiers, to invent a new and more successful kind of warfare.

SPRING—1863

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Abraham Lincoln
President of the United States

Hannibal Hamlin
Vice-President

William H. Seward
Secretary of State

Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of War

Gideon Welles
Secretary of the Navy

Salmon P. Chase
Secretary of the Treasury

Gustavus Fox
Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Edward Bates
Attorney General

Judah P. Benjamin
Secretary for the South

John Nicolay
First Secretary to President Lincoln

John Hay
Secretary to President Lincoln

William Parker Parrott
Gunsmith

John Ericsson
Inventor of USS Monitor

Frederick Douglass
of the Freedmen's Bureau

UNITED STATES ARMY

General William Tecumseh Sherman

General Ulysses S. Grant

General Ramsay
Head of Ordnance Department

General Robert E. Lee

General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

General James Longstreet

General Joseph E. Johnston

General Thomas Francis Meagher
Commander of the Irish Brigade

Surgeon Francis Reynolds

General Bragg
Commander of the Texas Brigade

UNITED STATES NAVY

Commodore Goldsborough
Captain of USS Avenger

Rear Admiral David Dickson Porter

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut

Captain Green
Captain of USS Hartford

Captain Johns
Captain of USS Dictator

Captain Raphael Semmes
Captain of USS Virginia

Captain Weaver
Captain USS Pawatuck

Captain Eveshaw
Captain USS Stalwart

MEXICO

Benito Juarez
President of Mexico

Don Ambrosio O'Higgins
Revolutionary

General Porfirio Diáz
Oaxaca guerrillero chief

General Escobeda
Monterrey guerrillero chief

Archduke Maximilian
French puppet emperor

GREAT BRITAIN

Victoria Regina
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland

Lord Palmerston
Prime Minister

Lord John Russell
Foreign Secretary

William Gladstone
Chancellor of the Exchequer

BRITISH ARMY

Duke of Cambridge
Commander-in-Chief

Brigadier Somerville
the Duke's aide

General Arthur Tarbet
commander Belfast forces

BRITISH NAVY

Admiral Napier

Vice-Admiral Sawyer

Captain Frederick Durnford
Captain HMS Conqueror

Captain Fosbery
Captain HMS Valiant

Captain Cockham
Captain HMS Intrepid

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