A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril an Alternate History

by Peter G. Tsouras

  The attention of the House turned to Russell, who betrayed no outward concern, but the other cabinet ministers were not so calm. Now voices cascaded down the benches, "Answer! Answer! Answer!" Russell stood almost languidly.

  "I assure the House that every consideration was given the proofs provided by Mr. Adams, the American minister. He was notified of the decision to detain the ships in proper time."

  Bright shot back, "Proper time? Mr. Adams had shown me before his departure the correspondence with your lordship's office. Your own signature, sir, says otherwise. For three crucial days after you had decided to detain the rams, according to what you have told this House, Mr. Adams had no word of this decision. Instead, he could only contemplate your last correspondence, which dismissed his proofs. Is it any wonder that he then delivered his government's ultimatum and added to it the fateful lines, 'It would be superfluous of me to say this means war?' Is it any wonder that the American plan to intercept the rams at sea was then set automatically into motion?"

  The House became a bedlam. It was minutes before the Speaker could regain order. Bright spoke again. "The government and privilege have willfully and fecklessly heaped up a mountain of tinder, and they are outraged that a match has fallen into it. The conflagration that rages has touched many humble homes in this country and in America, and for what, I ask the House, for what?"

  "Treason!" shrieked a voice from above the ministers' bench.

  Bright turned a baleful eye on its source. "Is it treason to want this country to stand back from the precipice before we go tumbling over into the abyss? For God's sake, make peace!"

  A bushy-bearded, slovenly man in the gallery looked down with glee at the roiling anger of the members. His small, dark eyes glinted in delight. Yes, he thought, make peace! But not just yet. He desperately hoped the fools would not. War with the Union could deal the forces of privilege and reaction a mortal blow and free the working class of their chains. He could feel in his bones the revolutionary condition coming to a boil. Still, it would be the title of his next day's editorial in the People's Paper, but its main audience would be the New York Tribune, the largest newspaper in the world, for which he worked as a correspondent.16 Karl Marx had composed the piece in his head before he had even left Parliament that morning.

  THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 7:00 PM, OCTOBER 15, 1863

  Baron Edouard de Stoeckl came to the point. "Mr. President, we are then agreed on the principles of the treaty of alliance between His Imperial Majesty's government and the United States." It was a statement, not a question.

  Lincoln nodded and said, "We are, Baron." Secretary of State William H. Seward sat back with a look of supreme satisfaction. He had done the detailed negotiations with the Russian ambassador. The day of the Royal Navy's attack on USS Kearsarge in the Upper Bay of New York, Baron Stoeckl had offered an immediate alliance under sealed instructions from Czar Alexander II, to be opened only upon an attack on the United States by Great Britain or France. The devil was in the details, though, and it took two weeks of wrangling to birth terms acceptable to the world's greatest autocracy and the world's greatest democracy. Hawk-faced with a roman nose and an unruly head of hair, the little American was so thin he would not have had trouble hiding behind a rail. Yet he had been a pillar of support for Lincoln once he had figured out Lincoln would not let him run the government. Lincoln had also found a good friend in Seward.

  The baron was a thorough professional in the highest traditions of European diplomatic service. His English was excellent, and he was not really a baron. The bogus title served to impress the Americans. Son of an Austrian diplomat and the daughter of the Russian dragoman in Constantinople, he had risen in the Russian service through ability and the patronage of the Russian foreign minister, Prince Aleksandr Mikhailov- ich Gorchakov. His tact and good advice had been much appreciated by Lincoln and Seward. In fact, it had been the Russian's good advice that had encouraged Lincoln to back off the confrontation with Great Britain over the seizure of two Confederate emissaries from Trent, a British mail packet, by a U.S. warship in late 1861. The baron had candidly advised Seward that the United States had violated international law in the seizure, despite the fact that it had been wildly popular in the North in the face of blatant British favor to the rebellion.

  The baron's analysis of the situation and international law was so lucid and compelling that Lincoln was convinced to return the emissaries and take the political heat. It also reinforced his "one war at a time" policy. He realized that had Britain gone to war, as it seriously threatened to do, it would have crushed the Union in short order, so unprepared was it at the time. As it was, he had backed up only as far as necessary. He would not accede to the additional British demand for an apology. With the return of the emissaries, the British conveniently dropped the issue.

  Baron de Stoeckl said, "His Imperial Majesty has long felt that the preservation of the American Union to be a vital objective of Russian policy. We have had a long and friendly relationship, Mr. President. Our mutual commerce has enriched both our nations. And uniquely among great nations of the world, we have no strategic conflicts."

  Seward added, "At the moment of this country's birth, Russia's influence was benign. The British tried to buy mercenaries first from Catherine the Great who responded that her subjects were not for sale. German princes were not so solicitous of their subjects. Then that same monarch formed the League of Armed Neutrality to resist by force of arms British attempts to interfere with neutral commerce with the United States. Russia's latest gesture of support has been the visit of her Baltic Fleet's squadron to New York and her Pacific Squadron to San Francisco. The London Times simply seethed. I had not been so gratified in a long time."

  Lincoln replied, "I cannot tell you, Baron, how much it meant to me when you read to me your sovereign's letter of support in the dark days of the first year of the war. It was, as I said at the time, 'the most loyal manifestation of friendship' shown by any European government. We shall never forget.""

  The Baron picked up the cue. "Still, we must be realists, Mr. President. Nations do not go to war through sentiment and good feelings. There must be something that engages their vital interests. And it is here that our mutual cordial relations reinforce the interest. British world hegemony threatens Russia as much as it threatens the United States. The British and the French attacked my country ten years ago as Russia was engaged in loosening the bloody grip of the Turk upon numerous Orthodox Christian peoples in the Balkans. They have now attacked you while you are engaged in a similar liberating crusade."

  "Yes," Seward said to Lincoln, "the Baron has put his finger on the liberating missions of our two countries. The Czar's freeing of the serfs and your issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in the same year are enormously powerful statements to our purpose."

  It took all Lincoln could do to control himself. For once no appropriate story was at hand. Yet butter would not melt in his mouth now. "Liberating mission" indeed. He would have to ask Seward how much he actually believed in what he was saying. He suspected strongly that it was just a way for Seward to poke a sharp stick in the Lion's eye. Lincoln had no doubt of the liberating mission of the United States in this terrible war. Russia was brazen to pretend such lofty ideals while she was busy suppressing the latest Polish revolt with marked brutality. Yes, freeing any subject of the vile Turk was a humane goal by any standard, but the Russians merely meant to replace one autocrat with another. Lincoln supposed that in the balance of things, it would be an improvement. Compared to Turkish cruelty, the Russian rule was indeed liberation. Lincoln could only fall back on the aphorism that the only thing worse than fighting a war with allies is fighting a war without them.

  The baron went on. "The world has not seen such a war that is beginning since the wars against Napoleon. Now England fills the roll of international tyrant. She has not made many friends by bestriding the world. The pretext upon which she goes to war, the sinking of a ship, is flim
sy. All Europe knows she went to war to support the slave power in a malicious attempt to ruin her strongest commercial rival. She sees your future, and it frightens her. I assure, you, gentlemen, that the slave power is thoroughly detested throughout Europe. The English are now in a poisonous embrace, not only internationally but, our ambassador in London assures me, domestically as well.

  "It is common knowledge that she has grown even richer by selling the Rebellion the weapons and supplies without which it could not have continued the war for more than six months. But let us look a few moves beyond the present in this great game, gentlemen. His Imperial Majesty's government will declare war on Britain and France with much regret. All of Europe will see that Russia was forced to do so by an unprovoked attack upon His Imperial Majesty's ships in a friendly, peaceful port.

  "Then it will be a time of choosing sides. The smaller powers will, as usual, attempt to stay neutral lest they be crushed by the great powers. Without Russia, no one would come to your assistance. With Russia as your ally, your active ally, the pieces on the board will all begin to move.

  "Unfortunately, the coming winter will limit the ability of Russia to support you with anything more material than official belligerence, but even that is useful. Much of the rest of the fleet will go to sea before our declaration of war is presented in London and Paris. That and the state of war will add enormously to cost of war for the enemy, as the shipping insurance rates will become crippling. Our enemies will have to begin looking both east and west at the same time.

  "But when spring allows active operations, we will then be able to stress the British and French at opposite ends of the planet. You see, they were successful against us in the Crimean War because the full power of both empires could be directed against Russia at one critical point. Now they will have to split their forces at opposite ends of the planet, never quite sure which is the more important.

  "The offensive operations of the Russian Imperial Army, I assure, you will provoke the entry of Austria into the war. Whether she declares war on the United States as well as Russia is uncertain. She would be foolish to do so, but the Hapsburgs have often acted fecklessly. In any case, she can apply no power against you.

  "The Prussians, on the other hand, will be the critical player. With Austria in alliance with France, Prussia will see her two ancient enemies at war with Russia and the United States. These two powers have had the continued fragmentation of Germany as a primary policy. Prussia has been slowly unifying Germany, a process that holds no threat to Russia. She gains nothing by remaining neutral or by joining them. I believe that Prussia's interest lies in the defeat of France and Austria. I have no doubt the able Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, is pursuing just such a long-range policy. This war gives him the perfect opportunity to advance that plan. Prussia's intervention on our side, leading a German confederation, would tip the balance."

  "Don't forget, Mr. President," Seward added, "the Germans are the most intensely anti-slavery people in Europe. The Prussian king refused to receive or allow any of his subjects to receive the Rebel emissary."

  The baron resumed, "Also do not forget, sir, that it will be Prussian interest that will decide their actions. If it aligns with sentiment, so much the better. It will make the Prussians feel virtuous.

  "Since our mutual enemies have gone to war to destroy the territorial integrity of the United States, the maintenance of that integrity is the primary objective of both our countries. We agree to make no separate peace. Since it is the pursuit of hegemony that impels the English to seek to destroy that integrity, His Imperial Majesty believes that the means of that hegemonic power must be destroyed. In this, both the United States and Russia can play complimentary roles. To that end, we support the conquest of Canada by the United States. Russia, in turn, will endeavor to encourage revolt in India, which the English call so charmingly the 'jewel in the crown.' They will be even more sensitive to the loss of India than Canada, for India is the cornerstone of their empire, the greatest source of wealth and position in the world. Let them worry about keeping what is theirs for a change rather than stealing what belongs to others. The threat to India coming on the heels of the Great Mutiny will ensure that the English will not dare to strip the garrison of India by so much as a drummer boy."18

  Seward said, "And the British have a very small army, half of which is in India or scattered in penny packets across the rest of their empire. Sharpe's analysis of the strength of the British on land and sea did much to assist our negotiations."

  "Indeed, Mr. President," the baron responded, "the good general has been most helpful in supplying valuable information. I have already sent it off by pouch to St. Petersburg, where I am sure it will be a valuable addition to our own efforts along these lines."

  Lincoln stood up to lean one long arm against the mantle. "Canada and India, of course, Baron. Your logic is sound, but it is like serving ten years in prison; easy to say but harder to do."

  "That goes without saying, Your Excellency," the baron replied dryly.

  "But what about Ireland, Baron? If we wanted to detach something from the British Empire, I can think of nothing better than Ireland to cause them infinite pain."

  Seward jumped in, "That attacks the integrity of the United Kingdom as profoundly as the British support of the rebellion attacks the integrity of the United States. Two can play that game." He positively relished the idea.

  The baron shrugged, an act of tactful patience. "Yes, it would, but remember Archimedes's statement that he could move the earth if he had a lever long enough and firm place to stand. I am afraid that neither the United States nor Russia has the lever or the ground to make such a threat. With their superior fleet, there is no way that we can seriously threaten English control of Ireland."

  The baron thought that Lincoln had accepted the obvious and moved on, though Seward, who knew him far better, was not so sure. "We are both great land powers, Mr. President, with armies of a million men, and it is with these armies that we must apply our power. You against Canada and we against India and England's friends in the Balkans."

  "Of course, Baron, of course," Lincoln replied.19

  HEADQUARTERS, CENTRAL INFORMATION BUREAU (CIB), LAFAYETTE SQUARE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 7:50 PM, OCTOBER 15, 1863

  Brig. Gen. George H. Sharpe heard the familiar rap on his office door and looked up. It was Sgt. Mike Wilmoth, the young Hoosier who had become a combination secretary and the chief of his new order-of-battle office. He had come to look on him in a proud paternal way, the way a father looks on an able son with a bright future. The young man might have been lost in the dark blue mass of the Army had not an illness sent him to a Washington hospital and then to light convalescent duty with Sharpe. He quickly had brought administrative order to the new office and absorbed like a sponge the skills of an order-of-battle analyst from John C. Babcock, the man who had founded the art in the Army of the Potomac.21

  "Sir," Wilmoth said softly, "the president desires you attend him at the White House."

  Sharpe put down his papers and left immediately through the bustle of his outer offices. The CIB did not keep regular hours. He passed his deputy, Jim McPhail, in the hallway and said, "Off to see the president, Jim." McPhail just nodded and went on down the hall intent on his own business. This was no great event. Lincoln called Sharpe almost on a daily basis.

  It was certainly not that Sharpe cut a Napoleonic figure. Lincoln had had enough of that type of officer. If anything, he was much the opposite -a thirty-five-year-old man of medium height, round-shouldered, with short, dark hair and a drooping mustache. What Lincoln found in Sharpe was a man with an unusually keen brain, fertile imagination, and a sly boldness in getting things done. As soon as he engaged this nondescript colonel of infantry in conversation, the man seemed to transform himself. He was sharp as an obsidian razor, it was clear from the first words. He knew his business like the best lawyer knew his brief, and the fact that both Lincoln and he were lawyers may have had s
omething to do in the way they connected. The way Sharpe could express himself in speech and writing in the clean and direct style of a fine legal brief impressed Lincoln. There was charm there, as well - the art of winning arguments and men without making enemies-and a wit and gift for telling stories that came close to Lincoln's legendary penchant. Lincoln joked that he kept Sharpe on just to mine his stories.

  Lincoln had pondered deeply over the implications of Sharpe's hand in the victory at Gettysburg and contrasted that with the confusion and lack of central control of intelligence matters at the national level. He ordered him to Washington and laid before him the offer to create for the entire U.S. government the same sort of intelligence operation under the same single guiding hand that Sharpe had done for the Army of the Potomac when he had put together the BMI, the country's first all-source intelligence entity.

  Sharpe had accepted immediately. In a few months, he had replicated his old organization to serve the entire war effort. It was headquartered in the house he had rented for his family earlier on Lafayette Square right across from the White House. Luckily, his wife, May, had fled with their three children from the Washington summer back to their home in Kingston, New York, just south of Albany on the Hudson. He set up shop in the empty house. Its location had been a priceless ad- vantage.21

  One of his first priorities was to obey Lincoln's order, "Get me my balloons back." Lincoln had personally authorized the creation of the Army Balloon Corps after a brilliant demonstration of the capability of the wonder at the hands of the country's foremost aeronaut, Dr. Thaddeus Lowe. Lowe's balloons had done invaluable service from the Peninsula through Chancellorsville. A telegrapher and his device had been placed in the balloons, allowing the army commander to receive real-time intelligence. Unfortunately, jealous officers had harassed Lowe to the point where he went home in disgust after serving without pay at Chancellorsville. After that the corps had simply disappeared, its balloons worn out, and none of its personnel able to replace Lowe. Sharpe brought him back with the rank of colonel and command of the reconstituted Balloon Corps, and he had Lincoln's approval to subordinate it directly to his own CIB. Sharpe now added aerial reconnaissance to the growing assets of his new bureau.22