MANIFEST DESTINY – WORLD POWER
Brian Boyington
Book #2 in the Manifest Destiny Saga
“…. Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread and possess the entire continent, which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.”
John O’Sullivan, New York Journalist, 1845.
This book is a work of fiction dealing with alternative history. I have liberally used historical characters and created others. All of their actions are of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons or actions are purely coincidental.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter 1.Royal Navy Fleet
Chapter 2. The Battle of San Francisco Bay
Chapter 3. Alcatraz
Chapter 4. Washington D.C
Chapter 5. London, England
Chapter 6. Hampton Roads
Chapter 7. The Bay of Fundy
Chapter 8. St. Johns, New Brunswick
Chapter 9. The Battle of the Gulf of Maine
Chapter 10.Halifax, Nova Scotia
Chapter 11.Washington D.C.
Chapter 12.London, England
Chapter13.Treaty of Berlin
PART TWO – WORLD POWER
Chapter 14.Central Pacific Railroad, Elba Nevada
Chapter 15.Fort Grissom
Chapter 16. Battle of Salt Lake City
Chapter 17.Presidential Election 1868
Chapter 18.Mexican Civil War
Chapter 19.Assassination
Chapter 20.Treaty of New Orleans
Chapter 21.Dominica
Chapter 22.Quebec and Ontario
Chapter 23.Haiti
Chapter 24.The Virginis Incident
Chapter 25.The Arapiles Incident
Chapter 26.The Spanish American War
Chapter 27.Puerto Rico
Chapter 28.Battle of Santiago de Cuba
Chapter 29.Battle of Havana
Chapter 30.Treaty of Paris
Chapter 31.Presidental Election 1880
Chapter 32.International Naval Arms Race
Chapter 33.Inauguration Day
Prologue
April 14, 1865
8:30pm
President Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, Major Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris, Lincoln’s chief of security Alan Pinkerton and his wife Joan, boarded a carriage at the White House for the brief journey to Fords Theater to see the play Our American Cousin. Shortly before 9 pm they arrived at the theater and were seated in the Presidential Box. The play stopped as the orchestra played Hail to the Chief, then quickly resumed.
John Wilkes Booth, the famous actor, and southern sympathizer resolved to kill Lincoln when he heard Lincoln speak of the desirability of blacks being able to vote. Booth stealth-fully entered the box behind Lincoln, pointed the Derringer at the back of Lincoln’s and fired. At that moment, President Lincoln sneezed with his head lunging forward. The bullet missed. Momentarily stunned, Booth lunged at Lincoln with the knife. Major Rathbone intercepted him and sustained a stab wound in the shoulder. Allan Pinkerton grabbed Booth, wrested the knife from his hand, wrestled him down the box seat stairs and shoved him over the balcony. Booth fell to the stage below, landed on his head and broke his neck. He died on the scene, a fitting end for the celebrated actor.
The public was horrified at the assassination attempt by Southern sympathizers, and the newspaper headlines demanded punishment for Confederate leaders. The military governors of the various southern states issued curfews and ordered the arrest of many Confederate commanders.
Two days later, Lincoln made a speech on the White House steps, expressing his resolve to honor his 2nd Inaugural Address. He explained in part: “The acts of a few extremists should not be the excuse to keep our house divided.” He repeated his famous quote “A House Divided Cannot Stand.” With Lincoln’s calming words, the furor died down. Grant issued orders for the termination of the curfews and the release of the Confederate leaders.
Weeks later, after obtaining the support and active assistance for General Robert E Lee and former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the process of healing began. By the end of August, the former Confederate States altered their state constitutions to abolish slavery and adopted the 13th Amendment. In a convention, they unanimously requested re-admission into the Union. In September, the United States House of Representatives and Senate approved.
Special elections were held in the South to elect new state legislatures and representatives to the House of Representatives. The newly elected state senates selected two senators each to join the United States Senate. On December 4, 1865, in a special joint session, the new US Senators and House Members took their seats.
During that session, President Lincoln, in his State of the Union speech outlined a path towards the future. He revealed that after lengthy negotiations, Liberia had agreed to accept former slaves and free blacks as new immigrants into their country. Over 175,000 of the free blacks were former Union Army soldiers, which Liberia desperately needed to defend themselves from constant incursions from migrating tribes. The incentive was free land if they were former soldiers who would join the Liberian Army. Over 40,000 former soldiers took the offer and emigrated. Hundreds of thousands of former slaves migrated on the promise of a new life in an all-black free society.
In mid-1866, with a new well trained and energized army, Liberia pushed their borders east and eventually ran into conflict with British designs in the area. After a border incident with the British colony of Sierra Leone, Great Britain threatened war. Liberia was an American protectorate, and the United States State Department warned the British not to attack. At the same time, the Lincoln Administration rushed heavy coastal defense cannons, army field pieces, and Spenser repeating rifles to aid in the Liberian defense.
Two United States Navy warships, the turreted ironclad USS Stonewall and the Sloop of War Kearsarge patrolled the West African coast. The USS Stonewall was a repatriated former Confederate ironclad the CSS Stonewall. Before deployment, she was refitted with 6-inch armor plate and equipped with two new 20 inch Dahlgren cannons in the turret and 15-inch guns in a forward casement. With that armor and heavy guns, she was more than a match for any single warship then in existence.
Months of negotiations about Liberia were fruitless. The British refusal to address the Alabama Claims issues compounded the problem. As war loomed on the horizon, the Lincoln administration looked north to the lightly defended Canada, as she was and open to natural attack.
The British began hostilities by invading Liberia with a force of 15,000 regular army troops, 5,000 native levies from Sierra Leone and an active Royal Navy fleet. With characteristic contempt for their opponents, the British Command divided their forces, sending the army to invade Liberia from Sierra Leone, while the Royal Navy and several thousand marines attacked the Liberia capital, Monrovia from the sea.
During their voyage to Monrovia, two of their patrolling ironclad frigates engaged the USS Stonewall with disastrous results. USS Stonewall severely damaged both of the frigates then retired to Monrovia. Undeterred, the Royal Navy attacked Monrovia and were in a heated duel with two large forts which were protecting the harbor. After two hours of battle, the British were beginning to gain an edge. At that critical moment, USS Stonewall sallied out of the harbor and began to reduce the British warships one by one. The assault by USS Stonewall, plus the harbor defenses drove off the Royal Navy.
At the same time, the British army split into two divisions to attack Monrovia from two directions. That combined with the Royal Navy assault was supposed to bring the Liberians to terms. The British underestimated the Liberian army. Their field commander
s consisted of former US army soldiers. After a week of slogging over muddy roads and fording streams, both British Army divisions approached the well-entrenched Liberian Army positions. The British units were defeated piecemeal, surrounded and forced to surrender. The survivors were marched under guard back to Sierra Leone.
Furious and blaming the Lincoln Administration for their defeats, Great Britain, in September 1867 foolishly declared war on the United States. Anticipating the move, President Lincoln had assembled 100,000 veteran soldiers, commanded by General Ulysses S Grant on the Canadian border. Invading from Detroit and Buffalo, Grant quickly overran the north shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario capturing Toronto, the fortress city of Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal & Quebec City. By the time the St. Lawrence River iced over, only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and British Columbia were still controlled by the British.
In response, the British launched two massive raids against New England. The first raid had initial successes in Penobscot Bay Maine. However, a fleet of Maine built ironclads defeated the Royal Navy squadron. The remnants of the Royal Navy fleet retreated to Halifax.
The British also attacked Boston. After successfully reducing two of the harbor fortifications, the British warships were confronted by five re-fitted Monitor-class ironclads. Most of the wood Royal Navy ships were sunk or captured, and the overall commander, the Royal Governor of Bermuda, Sir Robert Chapman, was rescued and captured from his sinking flagship. The balance of the fleet escaped to Halifax.
In February 1868, the American offensive, led by a fleet of new ironclads, was assigned to capture Bermuda, Jamaica, Granada, Barbados and the other British possessions in the Caribbean basin. The long awaited dream of Manifest Destiny was within grasp.
Political change was underway in the United States government. In December 1867, Ulysses S Grant was appointed Secretary of War to replace Secretary Stanton who resigned to assist Lincoln in the efforts to gain approval of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That Amendment would provide full citizenship rights to the former slaves including voting.
Admiral David Farragut was the new Secretary of the Navy. Gideon Wells, a longtime proponent of ironclad warships had joined with John Ericsson in a venture to develop new ironclad and possibly all-steel ships with new larger naval artillery. More ironclad ships were in the process of being launched, and a big gun battleship was under development.
On March 18, 1868, in a meeting with his cabinet, President Lincoln outlined plans for the offensive against Halifax, to wrest control of Nova Scotia from Great Britain. At the end of the meeting Lincoln received a message that with the votes of New York and New Jersey, the 14th Amendment had secured the needed 3/4th of the states to ratify the congressional action. That was a political upheaval, as now almost 1,000,000 men, who were former slaves could register to vote in the fall elections. President Lincoln and the Republicans had led the fight to grant them full citizenship. The anticipation was that most of them would vote Republican. Expecting his victory, President Lincoln announced to his cabinet that he would run for a third term.
Within a week, grim news arrived over the telegraph. Royal Navy ships had landed British soldiers in Puget Sound and captured the lumber port of Seattle. The ships then departed into the fog. British agents had been very active. The Mormons were in open revolt. The Mormon Nauvoo Legion had attacked and burned two United States Cavalry posts, Fort Douglas and Fort Floyd. The fate of the soldiers was unknown. On the steps of the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young declared the independent Republic of Deseret.
The Plains Indians rose in revolt. An alliance of Sioux, Comanche, Cheyenne, Apaches, and Arapaho sent out raiding parties to attack wagon trains, the railroads, and small settlements. The Plains Indian tribes were traditional enemies but joined to fight a common enemy. The British agents supplied weapons to the Sioux and the Cheyenne, while bandit armies in Mexico, provided the Comanche and Apache supplies, guns and ammunition.
Five days later, on a Sunday morning, the telegraph lines from San Francisco reported that Royal Navy warships, at least three of them wood battleships, were bombarding the forts at the entrance of San Francisco Bay. The militia was being called up, and Navy personnel at the Mare Island Navy Shipyard, located 25 miles north of the city in San Pablo Bay were on active alert.
Naval vessels stationed there included the twin-turreted ironclad USS Monadnock and the single-turreted monitor USS Comanche. Both ironclad ships were armored with 8 inches of iron plates, and the turrets mounted twin 15-inch smoothbore Dahlgren cannons. There were also two steam frigates and three steam sloops of war as support vessels. The two frigates and one of the sloops were not available due to dry dock repairs.
CHAPTER 1
Royal Navy Fleet
Vice Admiral Sir Richard Chadbourne aboard his flagship the 84 gun two deck battleship HMS Deli was five nautical miles northwest of San Francisco Bay. He was in command of a flotilla of nine Royal Navy warships, including two 74 guns two deck battleships, HMS Rangoon and MMS Madras. Support vessels included three, 38 gun frigates and three sloops of war. He was proud of his ships. All of them were built in India for the Honourable East India Company but requisitioned into the Royal Navy due to the disgrace of Company in the aftermath of the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. They were all constructed of Teak wood, which was the fashion of India built ships.
Chadbourne cursed at his bad luck. He feared he lost the element of surprise as one hour previous a coastal steamer had sighted them but escaped into the morning fog. Still, it was a Sunday morning, and it was likely that many of the soldiers and officers were on leave. Chadbourne's mission was to raid San Francisco, capture the munitions stored on Alcatraz Island, set fire to the waterfront and capture or burn as many merchant ships as possible. He had hoped to steam into San Francisco Bay under cover of the persistent fog, do as much damage as possible then escape. He now was concerned that the defenses at Fort Point and Alcatraz would be alerted and ready.
The armaments at Alcatraz Island consisted of 110 six inches and ten inch Rodman cannons. The guns were in exterior casements on the perimeter of the 22-acre island. The Alcatraz Armory, the storage location of the excess gunpowder and explosive shot for San Francisco, was located in the middle of the isle. Alcatraz, being a fortified island was considered to be the safest storage location.
Fort Point was a three story masonry fortress, with seven foot thick walls. There were 100 guns of mixed variety situated inside casements and a battery of 26 ten inch Rodman on the roof top bulwarks. The main channel into San Francisco Bay ran between the two fortifications providing them with overlapping fields of fire.
Chadbourne's’ concerns were unfounded. The coastal steamer did not stop at either Fort, but went directly to the dock master and reported his sightings. After 10 minutes of confused talk, the dock master reluctantly sent a messenger to the police department. 30 minutes later, two police officers arrived and conducted a lengthy interview with the frustrated steamboat captain. As the police officers argued amongst themselves as to whether or not there was enough proof to alert the forts, cannon fire erupted in the harbor. The angry steamer captain shouted: “You wanted proof … Listen … There is your proof.”
Golden Gate
Chadbourne's’ ships were cleared for action as they entered the Golden Gate. Fort Point was on the south side of the Golden Gate, and Alcatraz Island was one mile off shore. With no signs of activity at either Fort, Chadbourne ordered his battleships to open fire. HMS Deli and HMS Madras bombarded Fort Point, and HMS Rangoon bombarded Alcatraz. The battleships were able to fire three devastating broadsides before the forts answered with sporadic and ineffectual return fire. The frigates and sloops of war steamed into the harbor and began to bombard the waterfront Marina District. At the same time, 300 Royal Marines headed for shore in longboats.
Forty-five minutes later, the guns on Alcatraz were silenced, however, in spite of the serious damage, the cannons on Fort Point had found the range scoring several hit
s on HMS Deli and HMS Madras. HMS Rangoon launched 150 Royal Marines in longboats to capture or destroy the munitions stored on Alcatraz.
The fort originally had a garrison of 195 black soldiers and five white officers. Following the bombardment, only 90 men were not killed or wounded. Worse still, one-half of the survivors were so shell shocked as to be ineffective and all the officers had been killed or injured.
The highest ranking enlisted man was Sergeant Major Hannibal Johnston. Seeing the Royal Marine longboats approaching, he gathered the 45 remaining active soldiers into a defensive position in front of the armory, made up of the rubble of the fortress. His men dragged two Gatling guns and twelve boxes of ammunition for each gun out of the armory into the makeshift fortifications. Gun crews were selected, and the other soldiers’ grabbed rifles, ammunition, and bayonets.
The Royal Marines charged the fortifications with fixed bayonets but were driven back with heavy casualties. They then fell back and made defensive positions in the rubble, while other Marines tried to flank the defenders. An eternal heavy fire from the Gatling guns kept the Marines at bay, defeating the flanking attacks. The defenders had the advantage of quickly replenishing their ammunition from the armory.
The battle of attrition went on for over an hour. Then the British were reinforced by additional 50 Royal Marines from HMS Madras. As casualties among the defenders mounted, the perimeter became smaller. Sensing the moment, the Royal Marines mounted a furious charge. The Gatling guns cut them down like a sickle through wheat, but first one gun crew, then the other were shot down. Realizing the position was lost, Hannibal used his cigar to ignite the previously prepared short fuse leading into stacked barrels of gunpowder in the armory. He and three other surviving defenders jumped into a casement just before the Armory exploded.
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