Vindication By Mobiyuz Watch

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I trust you're familiar with the mockumentary CSA: The Confederate States of America, yes? The one where the British and French help the CSA and then they conquer half the planet and all that, the one that's in no way realistic in any scope of the word. Apparently the crux is when British and French troops assist the CSA at the Battle of Gettysburg. Here's my take on that idea, done perhaps a bit more realistically.

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When Judah P. Benjamin returned to Richmond with confirmation that the British and French were sending aid, oh how happy the Confederate government was. In the face of such a bleak situation, with Union forces cutting the CSA in two and blockading their ports, hearing that foreign nations were coming to their aid seemed like a godsend. And indeed, the British and French soldiers arriving in port in Wilmington, North Carolina, were greeted with cheers and adulation from the Confederate people. However, issues arose shortly thereafter when just before General Lee's planned campaign into Pennsylvania, General Jackson, one of the CSA's best generals, was shot and killed, severely wounding their war effort. No matter, the Union was now on the back foot. British and French ships had begun slugging it out with the USA's fleet, even shelling its major port cities.



And then the war turned right in their faces.



The United States was aware that the British and French were coming. President Lincoln himself had been made aware of it some time ago, these things couldn't exactly be kept secret anymore. And he'd given General Meade carte blanche to do whatever it took to turn them back, stealing further troops away from other smaller armies and funneling them into his army that was preparing to amass outside of Gettysburg. And the fight was brutal. In three days, the Union Army slugged it out over the city, eventually being forced to retreat. But Lee's victory was far more Pyrrhic, he had lost so much of his force and even of the French and British supporting forces that he was forced to withdraw, making the Confederate "victory" an incredibly hollow one.



When news of that reached back to Europe, that was it for the people of those nations. From the beginning, it had always been the government supporting the venture in the Confederacy. The people were foursquare against it. And when they heard of the disastrous "victory" at Gettysburg, they demanded change. In differing ways, through. For the United Kingdom, it was the end of Lord Palmerston's political career, forcing him to resign as Prime Minister in disgrace. Meanwhile in France, it saw massive public outcry against Emperor Napoleon III, leading to riots and protests across all of France. In the United States, meanwhile, it galvanized the nation. As the 1864 election approached, the Democrats saw the public mood turning against them. They had called for peace when the British and the French were moving in on them, and now they looked like traitors. The Radical Republicans soon gained greater sway in the nation, and Lincoln himself gave a speech on the lawn of the White House on the 4th of July, 1863, where in the now famous "Lawn Speech" he declared the following:



"Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a war not only of brother versus brother, but of democracy versus monarchy. We fight against a foe that not only seeks to keep their fellow men in chains, but also to place our nation in chains, to force its submission to a crowned head. The United States of America has never once allowed itself to submit to a foreign monarchy. And in our efforts to not submit, we fought much as we do now: brother against brother, to defend the rule of law or to defend our home or whatever other cause may be found. It must therefore be our mission to ensure our continuing sovereignty and independence from those who seek to shackle our people, our nation, our fellow man, and to fight for the cause of freedom, so that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth."



The speech did wonders. The American people rallied around the President and the Union, and the Confederates fell back on all fronts. In Canada, American forces pushed through the south and led an amphibious assault on Halifax, destroying the naval base and occupying all of the Maritime colonies. Finally, in 1866, after much bleeding and dying and fighting, Britain and France called for peace. In the subsequent talks, the French were indebted to the United States for a sum totaling nearly 500 million francs, while the British were only indebted 50 million pounds but were forced to surrender the Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda, Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the Maritime colonies to US occupation. The very next day, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander Stephens were caught attempting to flee north into unoccupied Canada, and summarily executed. Its leadership dead, General Lee in Union custody, and their allies deserting, the Confederate States of America simply fell apart and ceased to exist.



It has been 6 long and bloody years of war. And Honest Abe proved his statements true. Leaning into the Radical Republican faction, Lincoln has left Occupation Districts One through Five to the oversight of General Sherman, who has begun a campaign of terror and fear across the south to stamp out any remaining Dixie loyalists and to enforce the new mandate of an end to slavery, equality for all former slaves, and the right to vote for all men of legal age. Indeed, Representative Thaddeus Stevens has become a new leading figure in the United States, which has begun to move more firmly toward the policies of racial equality now that those who supported the South are very thoroughly branded as traitors not just to the cause of the Union, but to the United States in its fight against foreign enemies. Meanwhile, the British Empire has been entirely humiliated in the world, having not only fought for the cause of a slave-holding nation but lost that fight as well, leading to continuing public outcry against the British Government, which had once dedicated itself to ending slavery worldwide. Meanwhile, France has completely fallen apart as a new revolution has seen Napoleon III begin a desperate attempt to keep his throne in the face of a nation that no longer wants him. And all the while, the rising Prussia, on the cusp of unifying a great German Empire, has begun to grow ever closer to the United States, facing a common enemy in both Britain and France...



Addendum:

- West Virginia (here called "North Virginia"), Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland have all been awarded territory against the occupied states for their loyalty, with plans to further divide and punish them. For example, there is a plan to divide Texas into no less than three states.

- On 19 October 1865, Lewis Powell attempted to assassinate Lincoln and several high-ranking cabinet ministers as he attended a production at Ford's Theater. Unfortunately for him and his co-conspirators, Mary Todd Lincoln saw him coming and screamed, alerting them to his presence. His gun misfired, and Lincoln threw him over the balcony, where he broke his ankle and was swiftly subdued.

- The Republican Party currently plans to nominate either Hannibal Hamlin (who is still Vice President) or Thaddeus Stevens for the 1868 Election, either one stands a great chance in the face of a broken opposition.

- In some ways, Jim Crow has been reversed. White southerners who could not prove loyalty to the Union during the war have been disenfranchised and stripped of their constitutional rights, while Afro-Americans have been empowered and now form integral parts of the Reconstructionist governments.

- The areas of the Caribbean now occupied by the United States have actually been getting along pretty well with the Union considering that the US has enfranchised anyone with dark skin. Canada, similarly, is actually doing pretty good, since many were similarly outraged at the British for attempting to prop up slavery, and there's a sizeable movement in Canada to break with Britain entirely and join the United States.

- Not only has Prussia begun to court the US, Russia is also growing friendly as well, happy to see the British knocked down a peg and seeking international support for their ambitions in Central Asia. Talks have begun on the sale of Alaska to the US, almost as a way to cement this friendship.

- General Grant's occupation in Canada is infinitely more lenient than that of General Sherman's occupation in the south, where his soldiers have begun what could be called "total war" against the occupied territories: burning towns and villages, destroying factories, and everything to essentially send Districts One through Five back to the stone age.

- General Lee himself has actually been granted some clemency, being exiled to Europe, never to return. Lee himself is repentant about the whole thing, loudly regretting ever placing his loyalties with Virginia rather than with the Union.

- Aside from Lee, most other Confederate leaders have been rounded up and shot without trial, including both Davis and Stephens, as well as Benjamin himself. Any symbolism ever associated with the Confederacy has been entirely outlawed, and the United States has officially declared that the CSA never was a sovereign nation, merely a traitorous rebellion against the Union.

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Published : May 31, 2019