A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril an Alternate History (3 page)

By the summer of 1863, Lincoln had already done much to prepare
the Union for this ultimate struggle. He had been impressed by the brilliant and decisive contribution to the victory at Gettysburg by the Bureau
of Information (BMI), the first all-source intelligence organization in
history. He brought its creator, Col. George H. Sharpe, to Washington
in late July to replicate on the national and international stage what he
had done for the Army of the Potomac-rationalize the disparate and
uncoordinated efforts of the government. In short order, Sharpe created
the Central Information Bureau (CIB) and established its motto:
"We Share Intelligence." He utterly rejected the natural instinct to horde
information as power. He would make the CIB a great combat multiplier
for the Union.

Lincoln had also taken action to create another combat multiplier by removing the chief of the Army's Ordnance Bureau, Brig. Gen.
James Ripley, who had obstructed every attempt to take advantage of
emerging technologies such as repeating and hreechloading firearms.
Lincoln was a technologically astute and transformational man, but his
efforts had been effectively blocked by Ripley, who would sabotage a
direct presidential order to buy repeating weapons. Even Lincoln's direct
purchase of the first effective machine gun, which he named "the coffee
mill gun," had been countered by Ripley, who saw that every one was
returned to be safely polished and stored in the Washington Arsenal.

Lincoln's nose for technological innovation had also been shown
in his order to establish the Army Balloon Corps early in the Civil War.
With a telegrapher in each balloon, Union commanders were able to
receive real-time aerial intelligence. So effective were the balloons that
they terrified the Confederates, but Lincoln could not be everywhere all
the time. The war structure of the federal government and the armed
forces was too new and unwieldy. With no one to watch over it, the Balloon Corps was neglected to death by the Army. Lincoln's first order to
Sharpe was to get his balloons back. Sharpe did just that and was careful
to subordinate the revitalized Balloon Corps to the CIB.

The survival of Portland was owed to Sharpe's suggestion that the
Maine regiments be returned under the cover of recruiting. His suggestion was based on intelligence that intensive prewar British intelligence
was gathering in Maine. After his arrival in Washington, Sharpe had
met a British visitor over dinner, the one-eyed Lt. Col. Garnet Wolseley,
the assistant quartermaster general of British North America. They both
realized the other was more than represented. Sharpe was no ordinary
colonel of infantry; Wolseley had soldier written all over him despite his
mufti. Both recognized a formidable opponent in each other. For Wolseley would return to plan the attack on the United States and fill the intelligence role that Sharpe did across the border.

But intelligence, balloons, and repeaters, not to mention the nation's
deeper resources of industry and ingenuity, were advantages that would
be slow to develop. Smoke hung over the Hudson Valley as New York
City screamed for help. Two army corps (XI and XII) of the Army of the
Potomac had been ordered to the relief of the trapped Union Army of the
Cumberland at Chattanooga, Tennessee, following its defeat at Chickam auga. They were instead diverted to New York City and designated the
Army of the Hudson. Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker was given command; it
was a supreme opportunity to redeem himself after his defeat at Chancellorsville in May.

History was coming to his aid at that moment. The tramp of redcoats on the soil of their adopted land had switched the huge Irish immigrant community from its Democrat-inspired opposition to the war to
its total support. In the days after the Battle of the Upper Bay, the former
commander of the Irish Brigade, Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher,
had recruited fifteen thousand of his countrymen to fight for the Union,
the equivalent of an army corps. Lincoln had promptly promoted him
and given him command of XI Corps at Hooker's suggestion. His first
act was to lead a band of his Irish veterans to scotch the British raid on
the Cold Spring Foundry across the Hudson from the Military Academy at West Point. The foundry was the largest producer of cannon for
the Army and a strategic asset. His men returned to a victory parade in
New York where flowers cascaded on their ranks; a red coat swung from
each bayonet. But the British Albany Field Force had only been nicked.
Its wait for New York City to panic would not be long, and it marched
downriver to settle things once and for all as a huge reinforcement from
the British Isles put to sea.

As the British poised to march on New York City, the ships of the
Royal Navy's heavily reinforced North American and West Indian Station left their anchorage in Bermuda. Vice Adm. Sir Alexander Milne
sent a strong force to break the blockade at Charleston while he led his
main force to the Chesapeake Bay. It was at Charleston that the navies
would fight one of the great battles of the war. Led by two of the largest
armored broadside warships of the day, the British crossed the bar to get
at the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron that was commanded by the
father of U.S. naval ordnance, Rear Adm. John Dahlgren.

At the Third Battle of Charleston, it would be American technology that was decisive. Dahlgren's famous guns packed a bigger
punch than anything the Royal Navy had, and his battle line of Passaic class monitors and the broadside New Ironsides outfought the
two British armored leviathans in the first great battle of armored
warships. Yet as glorious as the triumph of that day was, it was a
strategic disaster. The blockade was as broken as if every one of Dahlgren's ships had gone to the bottom. The loss of the forward
operating pass at Port Royal made the blockade logistically unsupportable. Charleston station was abandoned as Dahlgren's force fled
north to the shelter of Norfolk Navy Yard and the Chesapeake, picking up the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Wilmington on
its retreat. Britannia still ruled the waves with her huge navy as it began to choke off American trade and hover like sentinels of ill omen off
every port. The Royal Navy, smarting over its defeat, would resort to its
ultimate weapon, the slow squeeze of blockade that had brought the
haughty monarchs of Spain and France to heel time and time again.

Thus the alternate history of Britannia's Fist ended with the Union in
dire peril -the blockade broken, Maine lost, Portland besieged, the Midwest in revolt, Albany seized, and New York City threatened. Throughout the Confederacy, the church hells, if they had not already been
melted to make cannon, were ringing in delirious joy. The fervent hope
of foreign intervention had been fulfilled with the resounding glory of an
Old Testament prophecy.

If anyone thought that victory had fallen into the lap of the Confederacy, though, it was not Robert E. Lee. Hard fighting still lay ahead. He
knew the men in blue had a core of resilient steel, but for the first time,
the odds were now more than even.

This now is the story of A Rainbow of Blood.

The Franco-Confederate Gulf Campaign,
October-November 1863 32

The Battle of Vermillionville, October 22,1863 75

The Portland Sortie, October 24, 1863 110

The Battle of Kennehunk, October 25,1863 127

Washington, D.C., October 1863 136

The Anglo-Confederate Attack on Washington,
October 27-28, 1863 181

The Battle of Claverack, October 28, 1863, Phase 1 205

The Fight for the Navy Yard, October 28, 1863 219

The Struggle for the Long Bridge, October 28, 1863 223

The Battle of Claverack, October 1863, Phase 2 228

Alfred Ernest Albert, His Royal Highness. Lieutenant, Royal Navy
(RN), aboard HMS Racoon, the nineteen-year-old second son of
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Alger, Russell A. Colonel, U.S. Volunteers; commander, 5th Michigan
Cavalry, 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Hudson, in the
Hudson Valley Campaign.

Andrews, George A. Brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers; commander of
the garrison of Port Hudson.