A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril an Alternate History (49 page)

Lincoln's problem now was to restrain the fury of the public
and press demanding an immediate invasion of Canada. Headlines
screamed, "On to Canada!" "Avenge Albany!" and "Remember Maine!"
A blizzard had fallen from Wisconsin to Nova Scotia with such force that
the first act of the war was over. That primal force of nature had had no
noticeable effect on the press.

The siege of Portland had become the focus of the war for both the
Americans and the British. For the Americans, it was the piece of Northern territory still under enemy occupation. For the British, it was the only
place where British arms had not been driven from the field and the site
of their only clear-cut victory. New York demanded the relief of Portland
as much as London demanded its fall. For the British in North America,
its capture was of the utmost strategic importance as well. Should they
fail, they would lose the connecting railroad link between the Maritimes
and the Canadas. It was through the ports of Maine that Hope Grant's
reinforcements had poured. The status of the garrison and inhabitants of
Portland were much on the mind of the cabinet.

Long faces lined the cabinet room table -with the exception of Lincoln who seemed remarkably unperturbed, a fact Stanton commented upon. "Now, gentlemen, it is I who should have the long face," Lincoln
replied. "Mrs. Lincoln has insisted we go to the theater now that, as she
put it, 'It would show confidence in our victories.' There you have it. A
little confidence in our victories would do the country a good turn. And
don't think I won't have to struggle to put on that good face tonight.
Mrs. Lincoln is all atwitter over this young actor, Booth. All the ladies
are, I gather. I would prefer to see his brother Edwin play in Macbeth or
Hamlet. I guess I will have to settle for The Marble Heart tonight. I understand Edwin Booth's little brother plays the villain."18

But Stanton was determined to wear mourning and reminded Lincoln of the perilous state of Portland. "Why, you see," responded the
president, "it reminds me of Mrs. Sallie Ward, a neighbor of mine who
had a very large family. Occasionally one of her numerous progeny
would be heard crying in some out-of-the-way place, upon which Mrs.
Ward would exclaim, 'There's one of my children that isn't dead yet.'19

"Well, Portland is not dead yet, and I reckon that as long as
Chamberlain commands, it will keep on wheezing along. I suggest you
put your heads together to find a way to make sure Portland doesn't
expire while you are wringing your hands. Why, Professor Lowe said
to me yesterday that he could fly a thousand pounds of gunpowder into
Portland a day, and it's gunpowder and not biscuit they need up there
right now."

He winked slyly at Sharpe who had brought the idea to him from
Lowe who was limping around the Navy Yard, trying to get his balloons
repaired and new ones made. Lincoln had personally put the new shoulder straps with their stars on Lowe's uniform at the Yard the day before
to the thunderous cheers of Yard workers, sailors, and Marines. The first
man to sink warships from the air deserved no less. And even more important to Lowe than the star of a brigadier was the order signed by Lincoln for a hundred balloons and the sharp expansion of his corps.

Welles let Sharpe's conclusions sink home. His precious Navy had
been dealt a strategic blow that could prove mortal if a way was not
found to undo the logic of the British blockade. As if on cue, Welles
proposed to Lincoln the establishment of a naval balloon corps. Lincoln surmised that Fox was behind it; most of the Navy's strategic and
operational innovations found him an eager supporter. You did not
have to hit the pugnacious Fox over the head for him to imagine the possibilities of aerial attack on the Royal Navy's blockaders. Then there
was the gall that it had been the Army's Balloon Corps that had been so
decisive in defeat of the enemy's naval descent on Washington. Thank
God, he thought, a naval officer had gone up with Lowe. Welles had
made sure that young Cushing had shared in Lowe's glory by jumping
him up to the rank of captain and having Lincoln bestow the promotion
at the same time as Lowe's.20

Matching the Army in promotions was simply not enough for
Welles and Fox. It was brutally clear to them that despite the victory at
Charleston, the Navy had been driven from the open sea and bottled up
in its ports. The largest body of water it controlled, other than the Great
Lakes, was the Chesapeake Bay and that none too securely. If the Navy
didn't get back into the war in some dramatic fashion and soon, the war
would be a replay of 1812 in which the Royal Navy ravaged the American coasts at will. Balloons had proved they could sink ships, and that
was the Navy's job.21

Then Lincoln grew pensive. He stood up and waved his long arm
across the wall map of the eastern United States and British North
America. "Yes, new ideas. We need all the new ideas we can get. Try
something. If it doesn't work, try something else. We must have an edge
in this war, and it must come from the inventiveness and industry of our
people. I've had young Carnegie putting his mind to how we can do better with these matters.

"But new ideas take time, and that is in short supply. In the spring,
John Bull with little Napoleon will be on us in great force. We must get
more time, and I can't think of a better way than setting fire to the Lion's
tail in his own den."

He sat down again and leaned back in his chair. "You know, when
a man's cookhouse and barn are on fire, he's got a lot less interest in
bothering you. General Sharpe is looking into just how to do it for us. He
thinks our Russian friends might be able to offer us a hand. We'll just let
him work on it for a while before we talk it up anymore."

Seward laughed. "General, there's a heap of tinder in the Old World
that is just begging for a match. Do your worst. And I guarantee that all
those neutrals will pay attention. Our Russian friends would like us to
keep our alliance close to the vest until the very last moment. They have their own plans for Europe that will set a lot of cookhouses and barns
on fire."

Seward paused as if he were enjoying the taste of something. Then
he added, "Let's also not forget we have as the president's guest His
Royal Highness Prince Alfred. My sources tell me that Victoria is beside
herself with anxiety but will not let on. Poor example that would be. I
don't think the British have ever lost a royal prince, at least not since the
Middle Ages. That issue alone has the courts of Europe all abuzz. It has
been very positively received, even by the British press, that Prince Alfred is being nursed back to health in the White House by Mrs. Lincoln
herself."

Lincoln smiled, "Well, his wound was just what Mrs. Lincoln needed. It was also what I needed. My poor wife had not recovered from the
shock of a bomb being the main course at her breakfast followed by my
'altercation' with my late bodyguard. She just latched on to the idea of
nursing Victoria's little boy like a life preserver. Snapped her right out of
her funk it did. You will all be gratified to know that His Royal Highness
is recovering from his wounds remarkably well."22

He added. "The royals appear to be a hardy bunch. Though from
his abominable temper, lack of tact, sullen and brusque manner, Mrs.
Lincoln is praying even harder than Victoria for his speedy recovery and
even speedier departure. Most country people are better mannered, I
must say. Why, I think that just to please Mrs. Lincoln, I will return him
to his mother as soon as he's on his feet. It is a profitable day, gentlemen,
when I can gratify my wife and annoy the enemy with one stroke. We
will give back Prince Alfred and keep all the other British prisoners we
have taken. Let Palmerston answer to the House how a royal prince escapes the cruel captivity his mother's subjects must endure."23

Stanton had remained uncharacteristically silent through most of
the meeting. Sharpe had had the good sense to brief him thoroughly on
his report beforehand so nothing would be a surprise. He was pleased
that the War Department's interests had not been impinged, but then,
they had not been exactly enhanced either. It was time to remember how
the Army had saved the nation.

"Mr. President, I would like to add to Palmerston's problems. The
Army has a little present for you that will surely cause the Prime Minister more difficult moments in the House." He signaled to one of the president's aides, who nodded and left the room. In a moment, the door
opened wide to admit two color bearers carrying the torn and bloodied
colors of the Grenadier Guards. They marched to the end of the room
and dipped the colors. If Stanton hoped to please Lincoln, he failed. A
look of pain crossed the president's face.

"Thank General Hooker for me; it is a most a handsome gift," he
said almost perfunctorily. Then to the soldiers, he said, "Boys, just lean
them in the corner by the window."

That was the signal for the meeting to come to an end. As the great
men of the land moved to the door, young Tad rushed in past them,
caught one look at the crimson and gold silk in the corner, and dashed
over to it. He picked up the royal colors and ran shouting through the
room. Stanton patted him on the head, glad to have pleased at least one
Lincoln.

"General Sharpe," Lincoln said, "please stay a bit." He turned to
Tad, who was making his third lap around the cabinet table. His hand
snapped out and snatched the colors from the boy. He sat down and
enfolded Tad with his other great arm. "Now, Tad, this is not a toy,"
he said gently. "Valiant and faithful men loved this flag and died for it.
See the dark stains. That is their blood. It has made this a holy thing."
He hugged the boy. "Now go lean it back up where you found it." Tad
was used to being shamelessly indulged by his father, but even a spoiled
child can sense when playtime is over. He propped it up against the
frame of the nearest window and ran out to find some new mischief.

Lincoln just sat there, his large frame seeming to sink in on itself as
he stared at the colors. There was a blanket of snow outside, but it was
the sort of bright, clear day when the sky is so blue it hurts the eyes to
look up. The light pulsed through the window and seemed to set the
crimson flag on fire. The silk shone like a molten mist, and the light shining through it puddled a red glow on the carpet.

"General Sharpe, you see this thing, this object of military glory?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know what military glory is? It is 'that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood-that serpent's eye, that charms to
destroy.'24 There I go, General, quoting myself again. I wrote that as a
younger man when I was a congressman during the Mexican War. What
I would have given to not have been so prescient." He stared a bit longer at the blood glow, his eyes gone blank. Sharpe had never seen him so
withdrawn into himself, as if his body and mind had gone silent while a
titanic struggle waged within for his soul.

Minutes passed as Sharpe waited silently with increasing unease.
Then Lincoln was suddenly on his feet, his rangy frame radiating power
and purpose. He seized the royal colors and pulled it out of the light.
The serpent's eye suddenly faded away. It was now just ragged, stained
crimson silk and gold thread. "We and the British will have our fill
of this war long before it has had its fill of us. This war will girdle the
world, Sharpe, with ropes of fire. This will be a war like no other, all
kindled in the idea that one man can own another.

"Now we are at war with an empire that has fecklessly shackled
itself to this evil idea, the very empire that first abolished the evil of
slavery. Ask the average Briton if they should go to war for slavery, and
he would recoil in disgust, but that is what they have done out of spite
at our government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We
are all gone mad. And we, who live and breathe freedom, have allied
ourselves with the great autocrat, the'czar of all the Russias; who never
saw a freedom he could not live without. Shame on us.

"Even the British mock the contradiction. Listen to this doggerel
from Punch:

He turned to Sharpe. "Yes, this war will test us as nothing else before. I must tap this country's strength to the very bottom, Sharpe, as no
free people have ever been tested since the Athenians gambled everything on their wooden walls against the great king's hordes.26 In doing
so, I will have to trample on the edges of freedom to save its substance. If
we fail, the Constitution will not survive our fall. God help us."

He looked out the window bathed in the same sunlight that had
fired the serpent's eye. He stood for a moment as the light washed
around him like a great nimbus. Then Sharpe saw him bend his head
and say, "Lord, abide with me."27