Dixie Forever

Chapter 21: Building the Future and Fallout

1865

The United States' Greenback, the fiat currency used to finance the war, began losing value in mid-July and continued to do so throughout the rest of the year; the loss of $30 million in gold did nothing to help the US' situation financially. Lincoln did what he could, but his Treasury Secretary William Fessenden was unable to prop the currency up, and it went from $226/oz back to $280/oz by December. His refinancing of bonds helped somewhat but the new billion-dollar debt weighed heavily on the now smaller United States.

United States trade with the Confederacy began to help its deficits, with a moderate tariff, as the treaty stipulated, was placed on cotton and tobacco specifically to pay down the debt. Given the lack of destruction in the southern Confederacy without Sherman making it past Atlanta, the southern country produced around 3.9 million bales of cotton, at $1.68/bale (lower than before since so many men were at war). The north took maybe half of that, the other half going to Europe. The United States tariff of 5% raised $327,600 for the war debt, while the tobacco tariff of 5% raised another $468,000 for the war debt.

The United States national debt had risen from $65 million before the war, to $2.7 billion after; while the Confederates assumed roughly $24 million, that still left a large debt to be paid; taxes and tariffs were needed to fill the gap, but raising those rates also helped to depress the northern economy more, since they didn't have a captive southern market that would either pay the tariff for foreign goods (sending money to the federal government), or pay for northern and especially New England-made inferior goods (sending money to New England at inflated prices due to the tariff).

The South was not in a better position by much. States had about $66,907,000 in debt, plus a national debt of around $1.4 billion. The UK and France were paying to emancipate (in exchange for diplomatic recognition and favorable trade positions), which added another $512 million to the national debt, bringing it to $2.912 billion.

The Confederate Congress decided to add a 2 percent tariff on all goods coming in or out for the war debt, which in the first year, brought in around $96 million specifically towards retiring debts, and specifically ordered that 2% to expire in 1885; as Thomas Jefferson warned, it was 'perverse' to saddle future generations with your debts, so this generation made a concerted effort to pay its debts off.

Tariffs that in the US began at 18.84% on average in 1861, went to an average of 47.56% by 1865, to the benefit of Pennsylvanian ironmakers and northwestern wool growers, whom the tariff had protected.  With the loss of the southern states, however, and their own lower tariffs of at most 25%, the United States needed to lower its own tariffs on a number of things in order to compete, but in doing so, the US would harm its native industries, which needed the tariffs to protect themselves from foreign and lower-cost competition.  In the end the tariff went down by about 10% on most articles, which helped, though Congress couldn't reduce the tariff much more than that.  The South still had lower tariffs, and could then import and resell items to Yankees with a little mark-up, making a very profitable import business, still undercutting the prices of direct import, draining money from the United States into the South, helping speed debt reduction and infrastructure repair.

Texas Bonds (1865)

When it joined the Union, Texas had some $10 million in debts that were assumed by the United States.  As part of the compromise of 1850, those debts were assumed by the US, which then issued 5,000 bonds in $1000 denominations.  When a Texan asked to redeem those bonds now that the war was over, the United States refused.  As a background to this, both the Confederates and United States agreed to war crimes tribunals, which the Americans were sure they would win, and were salivating at winning, because their culture and ideology was one of political religion, and several were eager to 'win' against the 'demons' of the South.  When the tribunals began turning against them, however, the Confederates offered to stop the tribunals in June of 1866 in exchange for a final settlement of the Texan bonds and the large amount of civilian damage done by the Union Army.  With that five million, Texas was able to retire all state debt, and fund construction of several new schools for freedmen (what we would consider universities, trade schools, normal institutes, or colleges), built up port infrastructure at Corpus Christi and Galveston, and subsidize railroad construction from those ports to Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas.

National Currency (US and CS)

Before the war, there were competing currencies in the United States.  There were notes printed by various state banks, and by the Second Bank of the United States till it expired under Jackson.  The Dix, or $10 note from Citizens' Bank of Louisiana, was widely known and circulated even up to Minnesota, because it was so sound and well run.


In the United States, however, the various National Currency acts taxed state-issued currency out of existence (as Marshall said, the power to tax is the power to destroy; originally referring to the State of Ohio taxing the National Bank branches destroying them), leaving the Greenbacks, the fiat currency used to finance the war, which caused so much inflation.

In the Confederacy, the experience of the war left the southern banks in need of coin, cash, gold, and silver.  Luckily, many importers took gold and silver in payment, and began depositing that into the various banks across the new southern confederation.  The Confederate government in Richmond began coining money en masse, accepting at face value the paper fractional currency turned in by any citizen of any state, using the silver and copper received in payments from tariffs now that the blockade was being dismantled, and British, French, German, and even some American trade was coming in.  American coins were accepted and turned in to the banks, who would then turn it around and restamp it into Confederate coinage at the mints.



By the end of 1865, there were about 20 million coins of various denominations minted and circulating across the CS from the 1/2¢ up to the $1 coin.

Tansill's Fate
Once the war ended, Robert Tansill, who had been a prisoner of the state because of Abraham Lincoln from August of 1861 to January 1862, and had then joined the CS Marine Corps, rose to the rank of Major in the southern counterpart to the USMC.  Once the war ended, he was tasked with becoming a commandant for a new Marine Corps Academy to be based in Pensacola at Fort Pickens.  Before that, however, he and his wife and children were given a month's furlough in Virginia before needing to move to faraway Florida.

Confederate Marines were just now getting the proper uniforms and equipment that they had lacked due to the Union's illegal blockade.  The uniform was Richmond Gray frock coats, black boots, and navy blue pants for regular duty, and black pants for dress uniforms.  A Marine Corps Band was established, with a red coat, white or navy blue pants (enlisted or officer), and gray kepi, with the conductor in a black uniform with red and gray accents.

Freedom Grows

A young boy, Rufus Estes, from Tennessee, is freed.  He will move to Nashville in 1867 to live with his grandmother.

Elsewhere, near Franklin, Tennessee, the Carters begins repairing the damage to their house, which was part of the battle of Franklin.  At the farm office, many planks with bullet holes are replaced with new planks, and the interior plaster is repaired.  The slaves who were sent south soon return and the Carters free them in accordance with Tennessee law, where they now work the land with the same wages as white labor on a farm.  That didn't mean they were seen as social equals, just that they now had access to more economic mobility.  Some former slaves moved into Franklin to open businesses, creating barber shops, dry goods stores, and various other enterprises, many buildings of which still stand today in downtown Franklin.

The Carnton Plantation continued operating much as it had, though the black labor were now paid, and the former slave quarters were abandoned for nicer dwellings built by the owners, which were comparable to homes used by the poor whites of Franklin.  The labor were required to maintain the houses with their own money, and any repairs needed that were done by the McGavocks came out of their pay.  In the town square where the slave market once stood, a monument was erected dedicated to the Confederate Soldiers of Tennessee, black and white, who protected the independence of Tennessee from federal invasion.

Davis's Pardons

As part of the attempted healing after the war, Jefferson Davis issued a series of pardons to white deserters, as well as to a large number of blacks who were US Colored Troops, shortly after creating the Confederate Supreme Court.  In his official statement on the matter, Davis stated he sought to avoid the uncertainty felt by many of those who had been forced against their will to serve the United States Army, and those who had left the army due to the need to protect their families and their livelihood.  This was later challenged in 1868 in the Supreme Court by North Carolina and Oklahoma, who were attempting to prosecute persons who had been pardoned.

The case was heavily followed in the press, who were divided on what should be done.  Some wanted the deserters hanged, and the former US Colored Troops deported or shot for treason, such as the Daily Richmond Examiner and the Atlanta Southern Confederacy, while others, such as the Knoxville Register and the Charleston Daily News thought the pardons were enough and the new Confederacy should move on.  The court eventually ruled that a pardon accepted bars prosecution from the crime so pardoned, and is neither an admission of guilt, nor is acceptance a confession of it, as all men are legally to be presumed innocent*.  Accepting a pardon is simply a bar on prosecution from the government.  The court's ruling helped many in the South move on from the war, rather than to continue prosecuting it in the courts now that the battles were done.  Thenceforth, in the southern legal system, accepting a pardon was legally not an admission of guilt, and businesses could not use a pardon against a person when hiring or firing.  The case also established that a pardon was public record, and should be known to the court before a trial is brought; this is in contrast to Burdick v. United States, where a citizen had to mention their pardon before the court, otherwise it could not be considered.  A Southerner must be let go if he has a pardon at any point in the proceeding, and a prosecutor who attempts to try a person who was pardoned can be liable depending on the circumstances.

*Burdick v. United States ruled accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt.


Union Leagues Close Down in the South

With the withdrawal of the Union troops, came the closing of all of the Union Leagues in formerly occupied Confederate territory, but unfortunately, their legacy would be a lasting one, resulting in some hard feelings between blacks and whites in the area, to such an extent that many of the blacks who had bought the Union League's propaganda were found to be guilty of a number of crimes, including arson, robbery, and murder.*

The people involved were convicted and often sentenced to jail or hanging, but almost all but the most egregious were given the option to leave for the United States, just across the Ohio River.

*The minority report in the House of Representatives detailed a number of crimes blamed on the Union League's activities, and the historians of the various leagues blame the leagues for worsened racial relations in the South and the rise of the Klan in response to the Union League.

One of the Union League historians, originally from Georgia, who moved to Ohio after the war, said:

"The prejudices and antagonisms that the Union League fostered are felt even to this day...The Union League of Georgia did more to breed suspicion between the races, to create misunderstanding, to ignite often justifiably but none the less dangerous explosions of feeling and conduct, to estrange the black man from the people among whom he must live, to fan alive and to kindle in new places fires of prejudice, than any other single influence.  There can be no doubt that if the races had not been set against each other, these situations pregnant with fearful implications for the future would never have come about..."  He went on to say that for the Union League acting in Ohio, "The Union League distorted the black's reaction to freedom, enslaved him politically for a time, and was a vital factor in creating the situations that have resulted in his economic slavery."

Up in the north, the founder of the Union League, Dr. Henry Bellows, noted the consequences of the Union League operating in the north after the war and on during Grant's administration:

"There was something more hopeless and desperate in the political, social, and commercial demoralisation that followed the war than in the war itself.  That presented an open enemy, whom powder and shot could reach and overcome; but we had in place of this a secret rot, an enemy with the inviolable power of a pestilence, in which the old and pestilent doctrine of the spoils to the victors had changed from an acknowledged heresy into a dogma, not so much adopted, as incarnate in the life of the parties."  While the North enjoyed success for a time, the war's loss for the North caused a shock and disbelief on the part of many in the public and in the army itself, and many of the soldiers did continue their theft and harassment of women and bonded blacks on the way out of the South.

Bellows continued: "Nothing less than a moral typhoid, the consequence of a general malaria in the public air, can account for the sinking tone of public sentiment during the decade following the close of the war; partly a reaction to the exalted patriotism that had sustained the war..., party the dreadful result of the unsettling influence on values, standards, habits, but the creation of an artificial currency that did not carry its measure in itself, partly by the coming to the top of powerful men who had suddenly become rich without the aid of any moral habit or any refined or gentlemanly standards."

The doctor was railing against the very things he had tried so hard to put in place in a defeated South - a new social order, remaking the South as a conquered province, destroying their moral and cultural standards and replacing them en masse with those of the north.  The immoral graft and corruption he had advocated for in the occupied portions of the South were a high moral cause when it was being done to the Southerners by Northerners, but not anymore.  Now that it was happening to Northerners, it was shocking and horrible:

"Vikings in energy, unscrupulousness and violence, who swept through the land in railroad land grabs, in mining speculations, in purchase of legislatures, in stock dilutions, in great corners on stock and grain, and who intoxicated and poisoned the once sober blood of the people, until politics had become a trade, or a gambling shop, a trial of wits, or a turn of chance."  

Those very things were great so long as Bellows and his Union compatriots were doing it to the Southerners.  Thirty years' worth of propaganda about the evil of the South and its horrid immorality dehumanized them to the point where Union soldiers were able to visit upon them all sorts of horrors, but in so doing, habituated them to doing the same sort of thing back north when they returned, which soured politics in the north for a generation, while encouraging the surviving Southern people to ensure a reform of morality in their own country to the point that southern politics for decades later were more honest and frugal than any in the North.  But he concluded:

"A profound distrust of American principles and ideas came over the better part of Europe, as it witnessed this consequence of the war which had an end so different from their predictions and hopes.  How a nation that had surprised Europe with its patriotism and its patience after victory, could surprise it again with its disgusting loss of moral control in its great centers, its rings, and its legislative and aldermanic vileness, corruption and vulgarity, and all within a single decade, were as disheartening at home, and as secretly demoralising even to the better half of the American people, as it was taunting and distressing to those who went abroad and bore the ignominy of almost universal ridicule and distrust.  This decline in the public tone was not confined to the vulgar and the ignorant.  It affected all ranks and professions, perhaps most marked where it would naturally be least looked for, and most abhorrent, in the clerical calling.  No doubt it affected injuriously many of the leaders of all parties and every school of politics, the Senate, the Bend, the Bar."

In the South, in contrast, Europe gained a renewed interest and curiosity in what became known as "Confederate principles," that of enumerated rights, strong Christian faith and morality and charity, and devolving power in such a way as to prevent corruption in the national level by giving the states or provinces more power.  Many monarchs would balk at this, with Europe being such a collection of highly centralized states with all power at the top, but the success of the Confederates would show that a limited and confederated republic could work.  Even countries in Asia took notice.  And the common people also took notice.

July

General Jackson celebrates the birth of his new daughter, Julia, with his wife.

The US Congress passes a 25% tariff on southern cotton, which the Confederates balk at, and they stop sending cotton north.  This shudders many New England textile mills, which were already in a precarious position due to the disruption of the war, despite the theft of millions of bales of cotton from southern farms during the war.  Shrewd southern businessmen in the cotton belt then bought up their textile equipment and shipped it south, bringing valuable machinery right to the Cotton Belt.  New factories would spring up in Beaumont, Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, Birmingham, Macon, Montgomery, and Tallahassee, including quite a few black-owned factories which cooperated with the new black cooperative industrial farms springing up to help the newly freed blacks make the transition to independence more easily.  Even the McGavock's in Tennessee, and the Carters, both in Franklin, being shrewd businessmen, bought up some textile equipment, creating a textile mill for Franklin, before moving it up to Nashville in 1869.  With their gin and their mills, the Carters and McGavocks now planted, processed, and transformed cotton into finished textiles for use in the South.  Their simple act allowed Tennessee, and other states, to recover more quickly from the devastation of the war, rather than become an economic colony of the north had the Union won.

Confederate author Albert Taylor Bledsoe would go on to write the book "The Second War of Secession" as a history and commentary on the recent War for Southern Independence, including this quote: "When those who cling to hitherto undisputed facts are accounted traitors, and visited with a merciless and unmeasured vengeance, by those who, having nothing better than disputed theories to stand on, are nevertheless backed by the possession of brute force sufficient to crush their opponents, and silence the voice of truth."

Journey for the Confederate Navy

Confederate Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes, with the peace treaty signed while he was in England, sailed the CSS Alabama, newly refitted and restocked, for the Azores, then Walvis Bay, Johannesburg, then made his way to the Falkland Islands, taking on a little meat from the sheep herders there, marking the first official Confederate visit to the island.  They sailed south to the South Georgia Islands, then the South Orkney Islands and South Shetland Islands, and skimmed the coast of Antarctica, before turning north and eventually reaching port in San Diego, now agreed to as the Confederate Territory of California.


Based on his journey, in 1876, the Confederate States laid claim to all Antarctic land bound by its easternmost and westernmost continental boundaries, 74 W and 124 W to the geographic south pole.

Union Leagues Take Action
In New York, the Union League meets in a heated discussion about the state of the country.

Union League building, NYC, founded 1863

A number of men in New York were motivated to join due to patriotic love of country and to strengthen love and respect for the Union.  A number of abolitionists (actually deportationists and exclusionists) were in the debate, and the incredibly unfortunate conversation turned against the black Union soldiers who believed they were fighting for Union and to free their fellow black men and women and that they were patriotic soldiers for the Union.  Members of the club, ex-soldiers, believed that the black soldiers were the reason they lost the war, and the blood of thousands of white Union soldiers was on their hands.  

Within weeks, stories began appearing in the New York Tribune, the New York Times, and soon across the north of men dressed in white sheets, riding horses, sometimes with bloody hand prints on their sheets, scaring and intimidating black northerners, mainly known copperheads; at first, black Union soldiers, and soon, any black northerner.  It would take till 1869 before cities in the north would finally get a handle on the violence and intimidation being done in the name of 'white Union soldiers.'  Northern Jim Crow laws, having their roots to the late 18th century, made life difficult enough, and this would be the last straw for many. 

Unfortunately, many black northerners would either voluntarily move to Canada, the Confederacy, Liberia, or to the British Empire to escape the harassment, depriving the US of a whole population of amazing, vibrant, intelligent, creative people.  There would be by 1870 only 302,250 black people recorded in the north; the other 300,000 or so were either deported to Liberia, Canada, or the Confederate States.  Of the 93,796 U.S. Colored Troops that were enrolled from the South, about 60,000 remained in the South after taking an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, though they would experience some troubles due to having fought against the South (the majority would claim that they were forced to fight against their will in court).

Ulysses Grant would gained renewed national prominence in 1867-8 for his calls to an end to the intimidation and violence, honoring the sacrifice of all veterans, and joining together under the National Union party banner (really a way to elect Republicans without having the stigma of the recently impeached president associated with them).

Black Situation in the United States

Despite the anger towards blacks from many across the midwest, Pacific coast, and the non-New England states, and against the abolitionists whom many blamed for the war with their 30 years of political agitation against the South, there were still several hundred thousand black people in the US, and many of them former slaves.  they would need to be educated and would need to find employment, as there were strong anti-vagrancy laws, and Jim Crow laws (as they were called in Connecticut in the 1850s).

California, split by the Treaty of 1865, passed of its own volition 17 new laws on education, segregation, residence, and miscegenation in the 19th century.  Black children were required to attend separate schools from white children, despite the relatively low population of black Californians directly after the war.  Likewise, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington (US), Montana, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, North and South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, West Virginia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Missouri all had laws concerning segregation in restaurants and public accommodations, education, residence (later to be known as 'redlining'), and miscegenation.  Only a handful of US states did not have some or any Jim Crow law on the books.  Unfortunately, by a century later, only Missouri and West Virginia would be remembered for their segregation laws

With such a situation, black Americans found it difficult to improve their situation, despite having, in many cases, voluntarily chosen to fight in the war against the South, their belief being that it would 'free the slaves' including their own family members and friends.  It would be three decades before many of the veterans would even get their pensions, more often than not the money going to their widows.  So the black Americans relied on help from southern black colleges and the help of some truly good people to create black colleges and universities in northern states to try to enable them to create their own economies and get jobs.

Black colleges and universities were founded across the west, midwest, and east - Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Lansing, Des Moines, Baltimore, Dover, and several other cities.  Southern colleges founded what would be called today 'satellite' campuses, including a Tuskegee Normal School in Detroit (Now the Michigan Tuskegee University), an A. Phillip Randolph Technical University in Columbus, Ohio, and other universities that would be critical in educating young black men and women in literacy and in practical sciences, be it agriculture, chemistry, metallurgy, and even history and literature.  The Ashmun Institute near Oxford, Pennsylvania, changed its name to Grant University during his time in office in honor of his efforts at racial healing and advancement, despite many people at the time knowing it wasn't sincere, but simply to try to gain political power in the states with larger black populations (Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio).  

Lee and Acton Write Each Other

The British Lord Acton congratulated General Lee on winning the war and preserving the idea of government by consent of the governed. 

An excerpt of his letter:

"Without presuming to decide the purely legal question, on which it seems evident to me from Madison’s and Hamilton’s papers that the Fathers of the Constitution were not agreed, I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform will now blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I overjoy for the stake which was won at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo."

Lee responded:

"I fear for my former country when all the right which once belonged to the States are transferred to Washington.  At that time America will become aggressive abroad and despotic at home."*

*This actually happened in 1867, minus the addition of "former."

Winding Down Slavery

While the Congress had already passed their emancipation bill and the emancipation amendment several months ago, slavery was still legal in the Confederate States.  In recognition of their loyal service to the army of the Confederate States, the states began passing a series of laws 'reforming' the institution as it wound down to protect the slaves who still existed, and to ease the transition to freedom and independence.  The bills passed first in Virginia, then North Carolina and Tennessee, and within the next 6 months, in other states.  The bills contained the following:

*forbidding of separating children from mothers by sale, which in theory was possible, but in practice was a very rare situation, despite northern propaganda.
*repeal of laws forbidding teaching slaves to read and write, so that they could receive grace and comfort from reading the Holy Scriptures themselves.
*repeal of laws forbidding the education of slaves
*legalizing marriages between slaves; many were recognized as married by their masters who would keep them together, but this gave legal protection to their marriages also.
*legalizing slave testimony in court so as to protect slaves from their masters where necessary
*requiring freedmen to be paid what a white worker would be paid if he were to do that job; slaves who were in an apprenticeship were required to be paid at least a quarter to half that of a white worker while in apprenticeship, and room and board not to be taken from his wages.

The last states to pass these measures were Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, the westernmost of the states, but by mid 1866 all states had passed measures 'mildening' the 'peculiar institution' and slowly bringing the slaves to a state where they could be independent and care for themselves.  The institution of slavery was now transitioning to a form of 'apprenticeship,' whereby the nearly 4 million people would begin assuming independence.  They would earn wages for the existing work they do on the same scale as a white laborer, with one provided meal a day at work, and all other meals their own responsibility.  Medical care would transition to their responsibility over a year, with state-level laws preventing taking advantage of them.  Schools were built to teach the black children reading, writing, and math, often at the expense of their owners and by many in the military who served with their parents.  Some were naturally quicker learners than others, and took to the new learning more quickly.  State level laws provided that slaves needed to demonstrate anywhere from 3-6 months of living independently to be considered 'freed,' not breaking laws, going into debt, begging, etc.  

The first freedmen would be the roughly 120,000 black veterans, their spouses, and children, who were the first considered freed.  Many veterans who were mustered out with them helped them to build houses and create new neighborhoods and businesses.  New streets with hotels, general stores, dry goods stores, and other businesses sprang up, helping rebuild the South after the war on civilians committed by the Union Armies.  Many new streets were named after places they'd seen, battles, and generals they'd served under, such as Cleburne Street, Stonewall Blvd, Lee St, Chickamauga Ave., Wilderness St., and so on.

More bonded persons were released from their bondage when the McCormick Reapers began coming south along with southern copies, along with more cotton gins and other machines which freed people from the field labor, allowing more people to move into the cities to create new businesses, which built up the economy faster than if they had been left to 'root, hog, or perish' as Lincoln famously said.

Black Situation and Education in the Confederate States

In the states' bills ending slavery, each state made provisions to start black colleges and universities so that the newly freed slaves wouldn't become 'vagrants' or 'vagabonds' as it was called at that time.  Every freedman was eligible to go to a black college, such as the Virginia Confederate University, open initially in Richmond to freedmen who would either pay tuition outright or work the tuition off, which some complained was akin to a return to slavery, despite the efforts to make the work non-agricultural in nature.  Forrest University in Memphis, funded in part by General Forrest, included amongst its first class in 1867 eight of the general's former bodyguards from the war.  Cleburne University in Little Rock was founded in 1869, and named in his honor after he gifted the new school $500 to purchase textbooks and bibles.  Atlanta University, Longstreet College in Petersburg, VA, and dozens of other colleges sprang up in the capitals and larger cities, with initial classes from 15 to 150 people, growing year after year.  These would become the Confederacy's "Historically Black Colleges and Universities."

At this point in time, the South was not what the 21st century would consider tolerant, but it was progressing more than the North.  After many freed blacks wandered about with their freedom for a while, many returned to the farms and plantations they had worked to continue working, as they needed to eat just like anyone else, and now, by law, they had to be paid for their work the same as a white farmhand, from $12 to $19 a month, depending on the state, by 1869.  From 1865 to 1869, wages would increase from between $12-$19 to $13-$24 by the end of the decade, depending on the state.  Some moreso than others would use their wages to improve their former slave cottages into houses as nice as those of some poorer whites.

While not by law, blacks coming into cities for work often created their own neighborhoods, which some of the white people already in cities would tend not to enter, necessitating that blacks join the police forces to police their areas of town.  By the 1870s, though concerns about the health of the black people and the safety of their sections of town began the earliest building codes in many cities and towns, including the building of water plumbing systems, beginning in Atlanta, Richmond, and Nashville.  Often credited to the McCormick Brothers, who brought their reaper business from Chicago in 1871, water towers began being built in major cities in the 1870s, and requirements for public buildings, including hotels, to have running clean water starting in 1875 resulted in a number of black businesses to go under with their smaller consumer base, until the 1880s, when a number of entrepreneurs began building up black communities, and even attracting white southern customers to their businesses with their unique offerings.

Foreign Observers Come into Dixie

French and British assistance was critical in helping to raise wages in this time, as Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Georgia, and areas close to the Mississippi River and New Orleans itself had been damaged by Union Army personnel, especially in the livestock, farms, and industry of the areas they had invaded. Their attempts to crush civilian support of the Confederacy by attacking civilians had shocked and outraged many in the United Kingdom and in France, whose observers and military personnel took pictures and first-hand accounts of what the United States Army had done to white and especially black women, elderly, and children.

Sad tales of orphans and widows with pictures of 'Sherman's Sentinels' filled newspapers in Europe, not a proud moment for the United States, but a shameful one, resulting in a number of charitable donations coming from as far away as Greece, Russian Poland, and Italy of textiles, clothes, wines, silverware, Bibles, seeds for crops, farming tools, glassware, plates, toys for kids, playing cards, alcohol of various kinds, horse implements (saddles, stirrups, etc), yokes, even livestock came over, including sheep, lamb, cattle, and some species like ibex, wisent, and moose came over in small numbers.

On the other side of things, the hopeful and helpful nature of southern people was contrasted to the dour and somewhat bitter nature of those in the cold north, attributed to the warm climate and deep faith of the people, along with the positive reports about the abundance of the land and the growing economy (due to rebound and rebuild from the war), helped increase interest in immigrating into the young country, bringing in new farmers wanting land (which would also push the existing black populations into cities also).

Books filled with pictures of the Union Army's destruction of houses, livestock, farms, and even tales of impaling the heads of Jack Hinton's sons on his gate's pikes reached Europe, souring the opinions of many against the United States, earning them a reputation of cruelty and wanton destruction that would take time to repair.  Eventually that foreign opinion would make it back to the United States, affecting their use of the army into one that 'spread democracy and freedom' so as to try to overcome the stigma of their actions during the war, and lead to the Uniform Code of Military Justice to reign in the excesses of the War against Southern Independence.

Georgia's Capital


The State Capitol at Milledgeville, the capital city of Georgia, had luckily survived unscathed, but Atlanta had not.  There was some talk of moving the capital to the more northern city, but the momentum of tradition kept the capital where it was.  But there was talk of building a new capitol building, which Georgia would complete in 1876.


New Capitol in Milledgeville

The new building would be built on the eastern side of the river in an as-of-yet unused plot of land, giving it a commanding view of the river, started in 1866, and finished in 1876.

Colleges West and East

In Virginia, the Virginia Agricultural and Technical Institute was opened August 21, 1867 for freedmen in Petersburg, Virginia with an opening class of 126 freedmen and 20 faculty (10 black, 10 white).  The University of Georgia closed in September 1863 due to the war, but reopened in 1866 with 80 students, including veterans using a state award of $300 with the agreement they would remain in Georgia as teachers after graduation.  The state established the Georgia State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (A&M) in 1868 with the sale of land from dormant plantations, resulting in about $243,000 which was invested to generate a $16,000 annual income for the college.  The government in Richmond had no say in education, but asked that universities around the Confederacy offer military training so as to improve general readiness, so UGA began to offer it in 1870.

The territory of California opened two universities, the University of San Diego and the University of California (in Irvine), in 1866, both with heavy emphasis on agriculture and mechanical arts, opening with initial classes of 58 and 64 students respectively.  These two universities would be crucial to the investigation of soil conditions in California and the development of important desalination technology to help fill the small lake at Salton Lake, which resulted in an inland sea by 1906 which enabled settlement of the former desert area of California.  The lake would have in 1910 a surface area of 2200 mi², a length of 100 mi, maximum width of 35 miles, and a depth up to 300 ft.  The addition of rushes, water lillies, and tape grass, along with fish for food enabled the lake to endure even in drought seasons, with the aid of desalination plants and pipes.

In Kentucky, John Bowman got a charter for the University of Kentucky on a defunct university of the Disciples of Christ.  He got state support from the sales of defunct plantations within the state, and with a promise to educate in mechanical and agricultural arts. The university opened in August of 1865 with 77 students, of which 20 were freedmen veterans who had served in the Army of Tennessee with General Johnston in the defense of Atlanta.  The first class were all veterans, except for 8 students, who objected to being educated with freedmen; three dropped out, and the other five were disciplined and eventually graduated.


University of Kentucky campus, 1869


Ashland, Henry Clay's residence, once served as Bowman's residence as University President

In Texas, the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College was founded in 1867 in Brazos County, which donated 2,416 acres near Bryan, Texas, for its campus.  Enrollment began October 2, 1868.  six students enrolled the first day, and classes began officially on the 4th, with 6 faculty and 40 students.  During that first semester, enrollment increased to 48 students, and by the end of spring semester, 106 had enrolled.  Admission was limited to white males and colored veterans of Texas, and all students were required to participate in the Corps of Cadets and receive military training; at this point in time, Indian raids were not uncommon in western Texas, and this was a necessary feature of the College.  Enrollment grew to 314 in 1876, but declined to 108 in 1878, the year the University of Texas opened in Austin.


Texas A&M in 1902

In the late 1880s, many Texas residents saw no need for two colleges in Texas and began asking for an end of Texas A.M.C. In 1891, Texas A.M.C. was saved from potential closure by its new president Lawrence Sullivan Ross (also known as Sul Ross or "Sully"), former governor of Texas, and well-respected Confederate Brigadier General. Ross made many improvements to the school and enrollment doubled to 467 cadets as parents sent their sons to Texas A.M.C. "to learn to be like Ross". During his tenure, many enduring Aggie traditions were born, including the creation of the first Aggie Ring. After his death in 1898, a statue was erected in front of what is now Academic Plaza to honor Ross and his achievements in the history of the school.

A&M President, former Brigadier General, Lawrence "Sully" Ross

Under pressure from the legislature, in 1911 the school began allowing women to attend classes during the summer semester. At the same time, A.M.C. began expanding its academic pursuits with the establishment of the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1915.

Across the Confederacy, states would be the key in establishing colleges to teach mechanical arts, agriculture, and classical subjects to returning soldiers and freedmen so as to enable them to transition to peacetime pursuits and independent living.  Education in the young nation would preserve the traditions of the southern culture, as the victory in war was taken as a vindication of their culture over that of the Yankees.
 
September

Based on the performance of the army and navy during the war, the Confederate Congress conducts several investigations, calling in General Lee, General Jackson, along with Joseph Johnston, Albert Johnston, J.E.B. Stuart, Nathan B. Forrest, and other generals. By the end of the month, the Congress has prepared several bills concerning military matters. The VMI Cadets performed admirably at New Market, but the lack of military academies, such as West Point, was a weakness for the South, and many in Congress were worried that the United States were going to try another invasion at some point. Various aspects of military preparedness were to be addressed, including foraging, survival training, field medic training; proper honor and respect for senior officers and civilian authority; tactics; reconnaissance; drill and parade; and other various aspects that were lacking during the war. Other bills would address supply issues.

Congress authorizes building and funding several new military academies for the army, navy, and marine corps across the Confederacy. While the locations and other implementation would take some time, by 1871, the following military academies would be in operation and accepting their first classes:

-Norfolk Naval Academy
-Gulfport Naval Academy
-Houston Military Academy
-Murfreesboro Military Academy
-Los Angeles Naval Academy
-Atlanta Military Artillery and Engineering Academy
-Lexington Cavalry Military Academy
-San Diego Military Academy

These military academies would turn out new officers for over 25 years, and each would gradually begin accepting civilians for non-military classes, after adding civilian-applicable classes for their cadets during the 1880s. These academies would in turn, form the basis for the Confederate University System.

Another issue was pensions for black soldiers.  Still a number of congressmen wanted to pay the black soldiers less than white soldiers.  A number of generals, from Lee to Johnston, and Forrest, testified to Congress, and even Forrest himself said "Better Confederates did not live."  Based on their testimony that they performed as well as or even better than white soldiers, since they were fighting for freedom even more than the white man, Congress passed by 5 votes a bill that required black soldiers to have the same pension as a white soldier of equal rank and time in service, and that medals must be awarded to a soldier for the same criteria regardless of whether he was black or white.

The Confederate Congress passed a bill, the Confederate Banking Act of 1865 with a number of provisions similar to those implemented by President Jackson and Van Buren in the United States, so that the new Confederate States would not experience a monopolization of wealth and distortion of the markets caused by bankers, who, in southern experience, used their access to money to enrich themselves and influence government to make them even wealthier.  The act had provisions to ban interstate banking branches, keeping branches solely within their home state.  The Treasury was required to hold all balances in gold and silver, redeem graybacks (the fiat currency from the war) for specie beginning five years hence at least 85/100 up to 100/100 of the value, and forbidden to print any further fiat currency, but only silver or gold certificates for gold and silver held in the government vaults that any 3 states could petition to review, which the Treasury had to comply with, with no option not to allow an audit.  Government funds could not be deposited into private banks, and state-chartered banks could print silver or gold certificates in accordance with state law, up to 55% of their on-hand gold and silver.

Arizona (October-November)

General Ewell, plus a force of about 8,000 men began tracking several Apache who had been running across the border between Arizona and New Mexico in late July, when they were assigned to pacify the Indians in the west. For much of August, in the heat of the desert, his men had been working on discovering the location of a force of Apache. Their break finally came in October when a small raiding party surprised his men and they had a brief skirmish, killing 3 of the 5 Indians; they killed two of his men with arrows. Ewell took his men north into Arizona territory, and eventually located Cochise, whom Ewell had faced before in 1861. Both the Indians and Confederates faced off first with their cavalry forces; the speed with which the Indians rode meant that the artillery couldn't be used with much effectiveness.



Dragoon Mountains, where Cochise surrendered

Ewell ordered his men to give chase, and eventually reached the Dragoon Mountains, which he remembered from 4 years before. Over the course of 5 days, the Confederates sparred back and forth with Cochise's men, until finally, an artillery shot felled the leader, and the next morning, his tribe surrendered to the Confederates. The Chokonen were rounded up and removed to Oklahoma, with permission of the state's government, and settled in the Cherokee Outlet, just under the 'neutral strip' of territory. It would take another five years, but eventually an Apache territory would be officially created within the state of Oklahoma.

Alexandria, Virginia (October 9)

The first meeting of the several nations occurs, with Russia, France, the German Confederation, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands sending five members each to form the tribunal, and the Confederates and Americans sending their lists of persons whom they wish to charge with violations of the laws of war.  The Union wants to begin with Captain Wirz of Andersonville, while the Confederates want to begin with General Sherman, though they began with General Turchin, a Russian national who fought for the Union.

The northerners would accuse:
Captain Wirz: neglect and abuse of prisoners at Andersonville
General Forrest - massacre at Fort Pillow of surrendering soldiers
most of the general staff for treason, theft, pillage, etc.

Soon, the Confederates would accuse the following:
General Turchin - burning Athens, allowing pillage, theft, rape amongst his command
General Sherman - burning Jackson, Meridian, Enterprise, Atlanta, etc.; forcing PoWs and civilians to locate/detonate mines, placing them in danger in violation of the Lieber Code; kidnapping/murder of civilians in Roswell, GA; allowing pillage, arson, rape, theft without attempting to stop soldiers under his command
General McClellan - using PoWs to clear minefields
Major R.M. Sawyer - killing civilians under orders from Sherman without countermanding the orders
General Louis Watkins - arson, murder, kidnapping around Calhoun, Fairmount, Adairsville
General John Foster - using PoWs as human shields in combat at Charleston
General Nathaniel Banks - theft, pillage, targeting civilians without military necessity in violation of the laws of war.
Colonel Fielding Hurst - extortion of citizens of Jackson; murder and mutilation of confederate soldier and others; arresting clergy for not praying for Lincoln
General Grant - expelling Jews; ordering destruction of civilian foodstock and theft of mules and horses; allowing stealing, robbery, pillage, and rape of civilians, including black servants; ordering the kidnapping of black southerners to prevent planting
Brigadier General Robert Mitchell - disturbance of a dead woman's casket and funeral procession, robbery, abuse of a Mr Harper's daughter
General Eleazer Paine - execution of civilians in Fayetteville, TN
General Stephen Hurlbut - closing Jewish businesses for personal profit, 
General Don Buell - allowing troops to pillage civilians
General Benjamin Butler - violating the dignity of women in New Orleans, violating the rights of people to speak their own language (French)
General John Logan - conscripting blacks into the army against their will; noted in a message to General Grant: "A major of colored troops is here with his party capturing negroes, with or without their consent...They are being conscripted."
Even the notes of the generals, such as from Sherman to Grant, told of their actions: "The amount of burning, stealing, and plundering done by our army makes me ashamed of it.  I would quit the service if I could, because I fear that we are drifting to the worst sort of vandalism...You and I and every commander must go through the war justly chargeable with crimes at which we blush."
Colonel William Hoffman - by testimony of Medical Director Simpson of the conditions at Camp Elmira "From personal inspection I know the facts as stated by Surgeon Campbell to be correct.  The condition of these men was pitiable in the extreme and evinces criminal neglect and inhumanity on the part of the medical officers in making the selection of men to be transferred."

The depth and breadth of the number of northern generals accused was shocking and an outrage, but the southerners had subpoenaed all records of the north, which had started to be compiled together in an official record.  Without their own loss of records, Confederates had records of their generals' orders and attempts to restrain their men from field excesses where possible when they went north.  Backroom deals occurred, which protected Grant and Lee from any trials, and their charges would be dropped the first day of trials in November.  But testimonies of numerous southern witnesses, which came again and again, would result in the convictions of a number of northern generals of war crimes, especially those of their PoW camp commanders, while Captain Wirz, by virtue of specifically requesting aid from the British and giving it to the prisoners, improving their health, escaped his charges, to the consternation of northern newspapers.  Generals, colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants were all accused of rape, theft, pillage, arson, plunder, destruction of civilian property, kidnapping, and murder in the Union army.

By November, the trials had begun, and Captain Wirz was the first man chosen by the Union to undergo the investigation.  His trial took five days of arguments by both the Union and Confederate lawyers and officers, all of whom called witnesses.  The efforts of Wirz to obtain blankets, food, and medicine through dozens of letters, and the actual use of those materials in 1864-1865 to relieve the suffering of soldiers brought about his acquittal; it didn't help that the Union witnesses were contradictory, lied under oath, were paid to be witnesses, and had not even been anywhere near Andersonville.  On the other side, the commanders in charge of Elmira Prison, including Major Henry Colt and Lt Col Seth Eastmann, were charged with war crimes in poor and inadequate attempts to clothe, feed, and care for prisoners, and denying medical attention meant they would be hanged, along with the commandants of Point Lookout, Brig. Gen. Gilman Marston, Brig. Gen. Edward W. Hinks, Col. Alonzo G. Draper, and Brig. Gen. James Barnes.  Their trials would show the Union that their efforts for an easy propaganda victory against the Confederates were highly in doubt.  Marston and his associates alone showed intentional mistreatment of prisoners, leading to a call for a new Geneva Convention to prevent what the United States did from happening again.  The trials of Marston and the other commanders of Point Lookout were immortalized in the movie "The Trial of Point Lookout."  The movie was a stunning indictment of the United States' actions during the war in Maryland.

December

The CS has paid off about $96 million of its debt with tariffs and internal taxes; the states have paid off roughly $5 million in all.

President Davis signs the Western Homestead Act of 1865, which authorizes the sale of unsettled acreage in California, New Mexico, and Arizona, along with condemned plantations in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and Oklahoma at $5/acre, the price of which would go to the retirement of the national debt.  Over the next 20 years, 62,573,512 acres would be sold, generating $312,867,558 in revenue for the government, sent to repayment of debts.  The States initially balked at the idea of the confederate government selling state land, but their representatives and other poor farmers argued it would help settle the west, and in the east, speed getting plantations back up and running and producing cotton, tobacco, and other produce in areas that were devastated by Union pillaging and burning.  The bill eventually got an additional provision that it was a temporary measure and afterward, the confederal government would not engage in selling land owned by the states.

Race Relations in the South and North

By the standards of 2020, both North and South were racist.  However, the expression thereof differed.  In the North, embittered by the war, which confirmed a number of prejudices, black codes were enforced with particular stridency and vindictiveness towards the newly freed population.  Blacks were reduced to a state of poverty and exclusion from northern cities, and while they were 'free' they were often unable to work in any meaningful sense or at anywhere near the same wage as a white worker.  The belief in superiority was common in the North, and the loss in the war was used as justification, as many common people and veterans would claim that counting on the black soldier was the mistake that cost them the war and the entire Union.  Black Americans in the North would often be blamed for decades for the loss in the war.

In the South, by 2020 standards, common white people were racist, but it took on a more paternalistic expression.  Gratitude for winning the war meant that black people were often seen as having 'saved the South,' and that credit meant that many white people were changing their minds in extending more leniency and privileges to black people, and to grant them their hard-earned freedom.  To be fair, it must be said that the vast majority were still enslaved, and if they did not work or got an attitude, there would be punishments, but those punishments did not often get to actual whipping, which many localities had already outlawed before the war.  Despite the enduring hardship, blacks in the South were more often than not hopeful at their impending freedom for having helped the Confederates win the war in their states.

1866

February

General Watie and General Stuart participate in a battle with a collection of Apache tribes, the Bedonkohe, Tchihende, the Tsokanende, and the Nednhi, with 5,000 men, including cavalry, attempting either to pacify, or to kill the Apache. Over the next two and a half years, they would fight a series of battles with the tribes led by Geronimo.

March

Confederate sailors on the CSS Virginia claim the Washington Islands (Marquesas) for the Confederacy.  France does not dispute the claims, and recognizes them in 1867.


May

Union Major James Austin Connolly, who wrote, "We'll burn every house, barn, church, and everything else we come to; we'll leave their families houseless and without food; their towns will all be destroyed, and nothing but the most complete desolation will be found in our track" is tried before the War Crimes tribunal and found guilty of intentionally ordering his men to target civilians and is sentenced to death by hanging.  He would be the thirteenth Union officer hanged.

June

The Tribunal gets to General Sherman, who had much evidence against him, including his own personal correspondence, including these two samples:

"There is a class of people men, women, and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order."

"The Government of the United States has...any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war - to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything...war is simply power unrestrained by constitution...To the persistent secessionist, why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better.

Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives."

His orders to kidnap and deport the civilian women of Marietta were also used against him, as were his numerous written and verbal orders to attack civilian property, theft, arson, pillaging, and more.  His very prominent trial and very obvious guilt worried the current government of the United States, who started the tribunals believing they would get Confederates in a court when they couldn't get them on the battlefield, or that they wouldn't be able to get many of the Union officers.  The President and others began scrambling to end the war trials.  He is convicted of war crimes, but the sentencing was not carried out due to the United States Secretaries of War and State feverishly writing to the Confederates and other nations to end the war crimes trials.

War Crimes Trials End (June 15)
By mutual agreement, the United States and Confederate States agree to end the war crimes trials.  Both sides felt that the continual mudslinging was not helpful to moving forward, while in the background, the huge international embarrassment to the United States for the continual evidence of their war crimes was doing great harm to their international reputation, and the rest of Europe were notably giving the US cold shoulders diplomatically and commercially.  There was absolutely no good will for them having 'fought to free slaves,' as many ambassadors would claim and many congressmen and generals would begin claiming, which drew laughter and derision in parlors across Europe and newspapers there and at home.  Everyone that US ambassadors and citizens abroad encountered knew they fought to economically dominate the south and to destroy their people and culture to conquer them.  The War Crime Trials evidence was printed in a thirteen volume set, "War Crimes Tribunal between the United States and Confederate States concerning the Conduct of the Late War Between the Two Nations," and documented the overwhelming first-person evidence of intentional war crimes committed on the part of the United States to try to subdue the South.

The end of the trials excluded Sherman from judgment, but not many of his subordinates, to the anger of many in the Confederacy.  John Turchin, originally from Russia, was excused, when Russia's minister de Stoeckl agreed that Russia would be interested in selling Alaska to the CS instead of to the US.  A few dozen Confederate officers were arrested or fined for their parts in excesses, while over 300 Union officers were either arrested or fined for their roles in attacking civilian targets or not restraining their soldiers from doing so.

The US agreed to pay the Confederates $125 million in reparations in civilian goods, including jewelry, silverware, furniture, horses, mules, cows and other livestock, grain seed, tools, and other civilian items, including $5 million in gold in exchange for outstanding Texan US Bonds, along with promising to try to return all stolen civilian property to the south, while the Confederacy agreed to pay roughly $25 million to the north for their actions during the war.  The goods coming south would go a long way to helping the south restart their economy after the devastation the north inflicted upon them.  Both nations also agreed to signing a new Geneva Convention wherein a number of the crimes the Union had blatantly and intentionally committed would be outlawed amongst 'civilized nations.'

The loss of any moral high ground for the United States would be a blow, especially to the New Englanders, going forward, as most in Europe saw the war as an attempt to conquer a group of states who wanted to secede, like King George wanted to do to the US, not a moral crusade to 'free the slaves' as some New Englanders would later try to claim.  The tribunal record, northern Official Record of the War of the Rebellion, and southern Official Record of the War for Southern Independence would all record for posterity the depth and breadth of northern war crimes. 

Several novels would be written of the trials, and over a dozen movies would be made in the south.  Notably Sherman, a four hour epic detailing the general's bouts of depression, insanity, rage, and hatred of the South, showing with gory detail his March to Nashville and March to Atlanta and his war crimes, would be released February 8, 2000, in honor of his 120th birthday in Atlanta's Cineplex Odeon theater downtown.  Hundreds of descendants of the defenders of Atlanta, black and white, would attend dressed in Confederate uniforms of the era as guests of honor at the premiere.


Michael Traceur, playing General Sherman.

General Grant himself would be played in three films, released in 1991, 1996, and 2001, by Gerald Baldwin, showing several phases of the war, in the movies Vicksburg, The Overland Campaign, and Appomattox.  The three epics were some of the finest cinematographically ever produced, with great attention to detail, and showed without any whitewashing how Grant acted during the war, his lack of care for civilians, his expulsion of Jews, and how he earned his reputation as 'the Butcher.' In 2009, he would portray President Grant in a TV mini-series on SBC showing the numerous corrupt deals going on, with the assumption that Grant knew what was going on, despite northern histories of Grant to the contrary (written well after the events in question and decades after the persons involved could go back and explain away their actions in a better light).


Gerald Baldwin, portraying Grant during the war.

Schurz talks about the Effects of the War

Union General Carl Schurz began writing his own memoirs of the war shortly after the end of the conflict.  He took stock of how the war affected the north.  So many businesses began dealing with the government, and so many people made fortunes on government contracts in Lincoln's implementation of Clay's American System.  Schurz wrote of the war: "a greedy craving on the part of a great many to use the needs of the government and the public distress as an opportunity for making money by sharp practices, and did not the rapid accumulation of fortunes develop during and after the war a 'materialistic' tendency far worse than any we had known among us before? Is it really true that our war turned the ambitions of our people into the channels of lofty enthusiasms and aspirations and devotion to high ideals? Has it not rather left behind it an era of absorbing greed of wealth, a marked decline of ideal aspirations, and a dangerous tendency to exploit the government for private gain - a tendency which not only ran wild in the business world, but even tainted the original idealism of the war volunteers who had freely offered their lives to the Republic in obedience to patriotic impulse...?""

Elyton, Alabama (July 1)

Elyton, Alabama becomes a focus for Henry Saylor's cousin, Willy (Wilhelm Gerster, whose parents came from Switzerland). He was just elected mayor, and got the town council to annex several smaller towns around the city, naming it Birmingham, after the city in England. Willy wanted to make the new city a focus for Confederate industry. When he heard the government was going to focus on bringing in the components of industry, he leapt on the chance, seeing the future as if it were a dream.

The new city of Birmingham, now founded 7-1-1866, sponsored immigration of metal workers, railroad mechanics, and other scientists, intent on making Birmingham the industrial heart of the young nation. By the end of 1867, the town will have brought 2,840 men and women in from Scotland, England, and Germany to build the town.  It was a lively mix, with breweries starting, blacksmiths, foundries, stables and liveries, and even distilleries to help build the town's industry, along with many in-town businesses in what would become downtown Birmingham.

November

For the United States, a new Congress was elected, and given the last year, it was no surprise that the Democrats finally took the House. The House went 89-86 Democrat, while the Senate remained in Republican control, 36-14. Despite Republican attempts to beat back the charges of their Democrat opponents, anger at the course of the war had turned much of the midwest against the Republicans. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri turned out Democrat majorities, while New York and Pennsylvania were nearly evenly split. Republican appeals to Union and patriotism may have helped stem some of the tide, but it didn't allow them to keep the House.

December

The Confederates have paid off another $95 million of their national debt

1867

April

The Democrats in the US House begin impeachment proceedings on Abraham Lincoln, based on papers given to them by Gustavus Fox and Gideon Welles, showing a conspiracy to start a war. The investigation would take three months before charges are brought before the House. This news is the culmination of more than 8 months of anger and tension across the midwest and the southern US (Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York) against Lincoln for his prosecution of the war. Three more riots in New York City over the past five months against free blacks began the exodus from New York City of its black population, whom the New Yorkers blamed for the war's loss.

Not helping matters is the discovery of a manuscript written by Lincoln himself in the early 1830s, which his publisher at the time claimed to have thrown in the fire*, but turned up now, espousing Lincoln's views on Christianity, blacks, and the Union, none of which were flattering to his case in the House.  Excerpts were published around the North and in the Confederacy, helping turn public opinion against the President.

Edwin Stanton is fired from his position, though publicly he states he is deciding to spend time with his family.  Lincoln was made aware of a plot on his life by Stanton, who agreed to step down instead of being imprisoned.**

*This happened originally; in this timeline, it didn't.
**There was some speculation that Stanton was responsible for plotting Lincoln's death, along with Andrew Johnson, several generals, several congressmen, some newspapermen, and some civilians for his lenient stance on the southern states after the war.

Richmond (April 1)

The capitol surveyor team, which had been paid several thousand dollars to conduct a survey for a new capital site, decided upon a triple point of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Before any construction could begin, the Confederates begin a design process and contest to design the new executive mansion, new capitol building for the Senate and House, and a new building for the Confederate Supreme Court.

May

General Jackson's wife gives birth to his son, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, Jr.

The Confederate Congress agrees to the purchase of Alaska, as part of President Davis's deal with the Russian minister de Stoeckl, for agreeing that the Confederate delegation to the international tribunal, would not pursue charges on Turchin.  Confederate ministers to the tribunal passed it off in the papers who in Alabama were livid with the decision.

The Congress gives the Russians $8 million in gold to be paid over 10 years at 3% interest, while the Confederates promise to allow the Russians to stay in Alaska who settled there.

In a number of counties in the South, the returning black soldiers are not treated as heroes by some of the people, who believe they don't "know their place."  Some towns and counties pass ordinances forbidding black ownership of guns, which at this point in history meant leaving them defenseless and often without a means to hunt.  Violence and intimidation has since 1865 become a simmering issue, leading to the formation, with the sponsorship of Lt. Gen. Patrick Cleburne, General Nathan Forrest, and a number of other officers and black soldiers, of the Confederate Rifle Association (CRA) to protect the rights of black Confederates to own and bear arms.  Its emblem became a Confederate shield with the year 1867 on it, and crossed Whitfield Rifles on it.  The enmity created by the Union Leagues, which had seduced a number of black southerners, was an issue that would continue for some time, delaying real civil rights for freedmen due to their violence.

June

The Pinal and Yavapai Apache surrender to the Confederates, and are placed in Camp Breckinridge in Arizona. General Watie signed the surrender document, and the 680 Indians were rounded into a series of adobe buildings at the fort, which was at the confluence of two creeks, providing fresh water for the men, women, and children. The Confederates left 1,200 men to help build buildings to house the troops and the Indians. The Confederates taught the Indians English, and had them draw up a charter of laws and liberties. Chief Eskiminzin represented the Indians to the whites.
  The treaty provides that the Indians would have this land in perpetuity provided they did not attack any white settlers, and allow whites to pass through their territory if they didn't stay permanently.

In Mexico, the French occupation finally ends on June the 5th, when the Confederates negotiated the French withdrawal in exchange for paying a part of their demanded 25,000,000 francs, namely $12 million.  The French, having already taken $3.5 million in gold and silver, agree to this, and for the Confederates paying their debt, the French cede a portion of Mexico north of the 21st parallel.

Within two weeks of passage of the treaty of cession, Benito Juarez was named Mexican President, and the Confederates helped him secure a restructuring of Mexican debt so he could reasonably pay the debt, and the economy of Mexico could get off the ground.  Many Mexicans were angry at the cession of more land to the Anglos, but there was not much they could do about it; roughly 3/4 of the Mexicans living in the ceded land left to remain Mexican, but those who stayed were hard working, very independent-minded, and had valuable ranching and farming skills.

Congress changed the border of the Arizona territory to a vertical division between it and New Mexico as of July 4th, 1867, and moved the southern border to the 31st parallel north, so that Arizona gained sea access, including access via the Colorado River.  The territory of South California was renamed Baja California, and the Baja peninsula was added to it, rather than keep the two separated.

Reaction in the United States was mixed.  Many abolitionists in New England printed breathless accounts of Confederates spreading slavery into Mexico, while many in the midwest and Atlantic states were more concerned with rebuilding their economies and getting along with the Confederates, often printing scathing rebuttals, including the fact that the Confederates outlawed slavery in a better way than the holier-than-thou abolitionists had demanded.  The pieces often included accusations against the abolitionists that if it weren't for them and their moralizing and (what would later be called) virtue signaling, the United States would never have had a war or secession.  The few calls for war over the Confederate land grab were shouted down in Congress and from the states.  No one was in the mood for war after losing over 400,000 men just to keep the south in the Union they didn't want to be in.

August

In a full vote in the House of Representatives, the House votes to impeach Lincoln, with multiple charges:
-conspiracy to start a war
-starting a war without consent of Congress (Article 1)
-invading southern states without consent of Congress and in violation of the Constitution (Article 1)
-blockaded ports without declaration of war
-violation of habeas corpus without consent of Congress
-imprisoning civilians without trial
-levying an income tax in violation of the constitution
-establishing military courts where civilian courts were still operating
-creating a state without the consent of the state that was forced to cede the territory
-arresting legislators and other civil servants to prevent an expression of the right of states (Article IV, violating the requirement to a republican form of government)
-expelling a congressman, Clement Vallandigham, without due process (5th, 6th amendment, Article 1 states Congress expels its members)
-promoting a general guilty of crimes against civilians during war (John Turchin)
-knowingly ordering or allowing to continue, violations of the laws of war by generals, namely the Lieber Code, under cloak of military necessity
-allowing generals to conduct war against civilians and their property which had no military necessity
-confiscating legally held property as contraband (slaves) without legal standing and theft of property (slaves) without due process (the Gettysburg Proclamation)
-creating currency not silver or gold to be used by the public (greenbacks)
-shutting down printing presses and newspapers critical of the president and his conduct of war (1st amendment)
-ordered confiscation of private arms in violation of the 2nd amendment
-ordering taking of private property without compensation (5th amendment)
-arresting clergymen under pretense of being "dangerous" for not praying for or supporting the President
-intimidating judges
-interfering with the privacy of the mail to affect the free speech of the press and the citizens, suppressing opposition newspapers to the point of closing their businesses
-refusing to exchange prisoners of war with the Confederates, prolonging the suffering of soldiers of the Union army
-using the military to intimidate voters
-forcing federal employees to contribute 5% of their annual income to the President's re-election campaign
-using spies, detectives, and secret agents to affect the outcome of the election
-forcing people within the bounds of the Confederate States to take an oath of allegiance to the United States
-using the military to choose which soldiers to furlough to interfere with elections based on whether they would vote for the President
-bribing voters and soldiers to vote for the Republican party
-using the military to intimidate northern legislatures
-establishing military rule in states within the Union at the time (Missouri) when the civilian government was open and operating
-ordering the deportation of entire counties of states within the Union (Missouri)
-authorizing the torture of soldiers accused of desertion and citizens accused of treason, for simply expressing dissent
-authorizing experimentation on prisoners of war with unverified medications against the will of those PoWs, and of unwanted medical procedures
-treason - for levying war against the state, denying them a republican form of government, and invading states, causing their secession

The vote was 100-73 to impeach, a number of Radical Republicans joining in the impeachment for Lincoln's refusal to continue the war, which they believe could have given them victory.  Other Republicans voted against Lincoln because they think he ran the war poorly.

Lincoln's witnesses claimed that the 'rebellion' and 'insurrection' granted him 'extraordinary powers' to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed' and to put down the rebellion.

One of his witnesses even brought the following claim from the President himself:

"I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation.  Right or wrong, I assumed this ground and I now avow it."

The Confederate reaction in the press was overly jubilant, to say the least.  Many spoke that the "ape" Lincoln would finally see justice served.  Some papers speculated that Kentucky and Missouri might rejoin the Union, but their governors were quite sure that would not happen.  President Davis gave a solemn response, quoted in the papers:  "The wrongs inflicted by the northern President upon the people have brought him to this point, and it is good to see justice done.  However, he never should have been allowed to get to this point in the first place.  I would ask the States of this Confederacy to enact a series of amendments to our own constitution so that no president of this confederation could ever attempt what that person did, and that the Confederation never attempts to be the final arbiter of its own powers."

Horace Greeley's American Conflict

Writing after the conflict, which was going by various names in the north, such as the War of the Rebellion, Civil War, Lincoln's War, War for Southern Independence, War to prevent Southern Independence, abolitionist Horace Greeley wrote of the experience of southern use of blacks in the army before the Union did so:

For more than two years, negroes had been extensively employed in belligerent operations by the Confederacy.  They had been embodied and drilled Rebel soldiers, and had paraded with White troops at a time when this would not have been tolerated in the armies of the Union.

Once the war ended, Greeley saw pictures taken of 'negroes' mixed in amongst the southern armies in their reviews in Richmond, which he printed in his paper, to the shock of the northern populace, who had put in place by demand strict segregation laws keeping blacks away from them:

Doubtless many of those who once fought to maintain the old Union would be shocked to see the pictures which we print here, showing a parade of Confederate soldiers; for we can no longer call them 'rebels,' as they have joined the community of nations and the sooner this is accepted the sooner we can resume friendly relations.  Some believed it mere rumour but the pictures tell the truth, that the Confederates did indeed enlist slaves and free them for their honorable service in the army, placing them shoulder to shoulder with white soldiers, unlike the United States Coloured Troops, who were separated from white soldiers aside from those in command, an undesirable position for most, and were scarcely paid for their efforts at preserving the Union.  The readers should know that the Confederates paid their negro soldiers the same as a White private.

Printed in his newspaper and later in his memoirs, entitled "American Conflict," the picture of smartly dressed southern soldiers, peppered with black soldiers, gave photographic evidence of their presence, which many other newspapers derided and used in fearmongering as to what would happen if blacks were allowed to come north or if the widely favored 'black codes' were relaxed, or lurid tales of 'mixing' with black people.

Recording the War

Despite the antagonism engendered by the war, a number of black soldiers who fought for the southern Confederacy were more than willing to speak to northern journalists and authors who came down to discover why they fought for those who enslaved them, which was a mystery to the northerners.  A variety of answers were given, but the southern blacks, including their families, gave a few broad reasons for their support of the South and their opposition to the North, who were ostensibly trying to 'free them.'

Several expressed their opinion that they didn't hate whites, especially southern whites, among whom they grew up and knew intimately; they cried with them, they laughed with them, they worked with them, and often sang and danced with them.  What they hate was slavery, and they knew that if they helped 'their whites' end the war sooner, they would gain their freedom sooner.  Others expressed their concern for their family and friends, love for their Southern homeland (and fear when they found out Lincoln's plans to free and deport them in his Gettysburg Proclamation), and actual affection for their 'white families.'  Many also expressed their very negative experiences with Northern whites soured them on their supposed 'saviors,' who shot at them to leave their armies alone, raped their women, stole from them, insulted them, whipped them, starved many in 'freedmen's camps,' and impressed many to fight against the south against their will.  A few cited their knowledge that it was New Englanders who shipped them over from Africa and bought their ancestors from African slavers, forced them to work first and them sold their ancestors and fathers south to continue in slavery rather than free them; southerners were freeing them, and in time, would earn their place in society next to, not beneath, the white man.  

These opinions and stories were reported in many newspapers around the north, but New Englanders printed more stories of ill treatment of Union Coloured Troops to cast aspersions back on the South; the war of propaganda had already begun.

September



The US Senate trial of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln was impeached in late August, and his trial was heard in the Senate. Various witnesses were brought forth, including Gustavus Fox, Gideon Welles, William Seward, Edwin Stanton, and including several generals. Over three weeks the Senate met for the impeachment. In the White House, Mrs. Lincoln was sent to a home, due to her nearly shattered insanity, while Lincoln was estranged from his cabinet during the process, as they didn't want to be associated with the first impeached President.

The House Managers presented their case on Lincoln's impeachment to the Senate. The press was present at the first impeachment of a sitting president, and the evidence appeared to be damning. The votes came in; the Democrats in the Senate, 14 in all, voted to convict the President. Republicans, especially from the midwest, voted to convict, and even one from New England. The senator from Connecticut was angry mostly that Lincoln had not finally amended the Constitution to eliminate slavery, which was the icing on the cake to him. Thirty-three voted to convict the President, one more than the 2/3 required by Article I of the Constitution. The first President removed by the Senate was required to vacate at noon the next day (September 17), at which time Andrew Johnson would be president.

Over the course of the next year in office, President Johnson would focus not so much on new initiatives, but rather focusing on the state of the country's finances and dealing with veterans' issues. The Supreme Court would be hearing the constitutionality of the income tax passed to fund the war, so that might close a source of funding for his administration to pay off US debts. Johnson's political capital was certainly at a low point. Till his last day, impeached President Lincoln would refer to Mr. Davis, not President Davis, and refused to concede that he was wrong in prosecuting the war. He just couldn't accept that his own actions had caused the war and cloven the country in twain.

Alaska (September 25)

The Confederate military and civilian delegation to Alaska arrive, with the transfer ceremony taking place on September 27th, the Russian flag being lowered, and the Confederate flag being raised.  The Confederate delegation worked with the Russians, rather than alienating them, and soon the Russians would come to be seen as a valuable part of the community.  All the Confederates asked was that the Russians learn English and show them how to live and survive in such a northern climate.  Of the 80 Confederates who came north, 75 would survive the winter, but would send back reports to the mainland Confederacy of the wealth of seals, fish, and the good chance of mineral wealth in the north, leading to more Confederates making the risky journey north.

General M Jeff Thompson, from Missouri, was appointed the first territorial governor of Alaska.


Late September, Lincoln's Journey (September 17-30)

Ex-President Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, returned to their home, taking almost two weeks by train, the former President visiting recuperating troops and generals in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, and finally Springfield.  Party bosses within the Republican Party met with him, and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome to campaign for any future candidates.  Others he met, including railroad clients, were not eager to have his name associated with them, as an impeached president, popularly accused of war crimes, but enough people had been given kickbacks, bribes, and sweetheart deals that several railroads hired him on in what would today be called a 'no show job,' giving the former President an income enough to enjoy a comfortable retirement, allowing him to focus on his memoirs and autobiography, without his name being publicly associated with their businesses.

November

On the 6th of November, the Confederates elected John Breckinridge to the office of the Presidency. General Lee had refused to be nominated, and was the early favorite for many people. Alexander Stephens, who had been a vocal critic of Davis during the war due to his strict constitutional views, knew he wasn't terribly popular past Georgia and South Carolina, and also refused to run. General Joseph Johnston thought about it, but in speaking with his wife, he declined to run. William Miles ran on what he called the States' Rights Party ticket, leaving Breckinridge to be by default a Democrat. John Reagan, the Postmaster General, ran on what he called the Confederate Party, which focused on foreign trade, removing reminders of the US from the Confederacy, pensions for soldiers, expansion into new territory for farmers, vigilence against executive overreach, and creating a positive balance of trade. Breckinridge focused on healing the country, peace with the US, railroads, building trade, growing the country, and settling the west.

Once he won, though, Breckinridge asked John Reagan to be postmaster general again, since that had been the most successful department during the war, despite running against him. Judah Benjamin was selected as Breckinridge's Vice President, the first Jewish Vice President in North America.


Election Results

Breckinridge: 79
Miles: 20
Reagan: 8

Breckinridge's Congress would include a House 56-26-17 (Democrat-States' Rights-Whigs) , and a Senate 19-7 in control of the Democrat Party, the 7 opposition members formed from the States' Rights and Whig Parties, which merged soon after the election in the House as well.  

December

Due to the purchases of Alaska and North Mexican national debts, the Confederates added $8 million and $25.6 million to their national debt, but paid off another $93 million, for a rough reduction of $57 million.


Map of the Confederacy and its territories (Alaska, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, Washington, Rio Grande, Durango, Jefferson, Veracruz) at the end of 1867.  With this cession of land in Alaska, and of Mexico, the Confederate States have an area of 1,834,023.52mi² (4,822,543.43 km²).  This represents an increase of roughly 92% over its 1866 size, and an increase of about 126% over the 1861 size of the Confederacy, a gain over 1866 of 1,143,891.82 mi².

1868

Homestead Act of 1868

President Breckinridge signed an extension of the Homestead Act of 1865 to include the Mexican Cession and Alaska, adding another 302,773,120 acres of potential land for homesteads, resulting by 1890 in about $1.4 billion in additional revenues to help pay down the debt and aid settlement of the west.  Much of the funding, after repayment of debt, would go into purchases of gold and silver so as to increase the available amount of currency in the vaults around the Confederacy so as to ensure the economy would keep growing.

Banking Act of 1868

Congress passed the Banking Act of 1868, limiting interest charged to a maximum of 10% for banks that operated in more than one state, which put an effective cap on the rate charged by state banks as well, and required the same rate to be charged to black as well as white customers.

Inauguration Day (Feb 22, 1868)

On a cold 51° Saturday, a crowd gathered in front of the State Legislature to hear President-elect Breckinridge take the oath of office, as the first popularly elected Confederate President (at least, indirectly via the electoral college), Davis having been essentially appointed.  Many reporters were present, cameras flashing to take early photos of the event.  Aside from the new congressmen and senators (126 people, including 3 Indians from Oklahoma, admitted in 1865), there were a number of governors, and state legislators and general public, making a crowd of around 1,310 people with people from several states, Americans visiting to see if the Confederates would inaugurate a new President, or if Davis would seize power like their lurid tales told them in the papers, and several dozen British and French observers to document the event for their European audiences.  The former General saw the crowd outside the window of the capitol building and briefly considered just taking the oath in private.  He was more comfortable leading soldiers than dealing with political crowds, and thought his service over with the peace treaty.

Duty first, he reminded himself, and gave a sigh, and walked out to the constructed platform, flanked by patriotic bunting and two flags on poles waving in the breeze, while a large Confederate flag draped the front of the capitol building.  The crowd cheered as he walked out to the platform, joined by the Justices of the court, President Davis, Vice-President Stephens, and Judah Benjamin, his own VP.  He waved briefly and smiled, the crowd erupting into applause again for a good minute or two, then motioned for the crowd to quiet so he could take the oath, which he did, reciting a familiar oath to many in the crowd before he stepped up to give his own inaugural address.

My fellow Confederates,



(applause)



It is by your suffrages that I stand now before you as the Second President of the Confederate States, and in conformity with our Constitution, have taken the oath of office therein. I accept the duties of this office and feel the enormity of the responsibilities which I place on myself, and will endeavor to the best of my ability fulfill those duties to pass on to our third President, a Confederation as free or freer than the one I was given by our first President, Jefferson Davis.



Many of us, our fathers, and our grandfathers, have long sought to protect our ancient rights, secured first by the Magna Carta, then the English Bill of Rights, then by their sacrifices during the War for American Independence. To secure our rights here in North America, we established first the Articles of Confederation, to preserve our States' sovereignty intact as we had won it. Soon we found need of a new Constitution, a new compact between sovereign states. We believed this document secured us a limited government, bounded by written word and the sober judgment of the members of the compact to uphold it, yet our partners in this journey sought sectional aggrandizement to control our general government through protective tariffs, closing the western territories, and reducing our people to serfs on a continent their grandfathers conquered.



So it was that we entered into a second war for independence, prosecuted ably by President Davis and his administration, and have secured peace from our former partners. Valuing independence more than our own comforts, we freed our bonded servants to help achieve this valuable end, and we must be true to our word, our foreign agreements, and to the sacrifice of our honored dead to bring them into independence and liberty, not return them to bondage as some have suggested would be appropriate for us to do. Such a course would dishonor us and our cause, and earn us the scorn of the other nations of the world as untrustworthy in our dealings with the least of ours, rendering any promises we make them so much nothing, not worth the ink we use to write. The question of suffrage is one for each state to make on their own in their own due time, not one to be dictated from the capital by fiat.



A great debt has been contracted to bring us our independence, which we must pay in full, along with a quick and sober resumption of specie, both of which will protect our national honor here and abroad. I pledge a faithful collection of revenue, a strict accountability for the treasury to every dollar collected, and the greatest possible forbearance against wasteful expenditure in every department of this government.



Part of this debt has opened to us a vast new land to our west, which I urge our young men and those entrepreneurs among us to colonize and settle, taming it as our forefathers tamed the Gulf and the mountains here, cultivating the land for its appropriate use, building railroads and wagon trails to connect every point of our confederation together, while allowing each of our states to pursue their own ends. We have already added the state of Oklahoma to our number, the brave Indians who fought amongst us now at last having a sovereign territory of their own that no treaty can take from them, that they can govern for themselves and their posterity. I forsee a future where we might double the number of states within our Confederation, tamed by the same sort whose steadiness earned our independence just two short years ago.



I would recommend to the Congress to continue their course of immigration of skilled labor, of scientists, chemists, metallurgists, and the brightest and most imaginative minds of Europe to build our confederation. We seek not the menial sweatshop laborers to fill monolithic smoke-spewing factories as monoliths to profit, but meaningful employment and new ideas that can only come from the recognition of the humanity of the employed and their families and communities over relentless, oppressive profit-seeking. This will revitalize us and bring us new expertise and ideas that would puzzle our minds in twenty years hence.



The young men of our country who so recently fought so bravely under my command, and under the commands of many generals more famous than I, shall be entrusted with our future not too long from now, and it is our duty to educate them in the righteousness of our cause for liberty, in 1776 and in 1861, and to instill in them our traditions and customs unaltered by time but only by the means they are communicated, so that a century from now we will know that our posterity is as secure in their liberties as we feel now in ours. Let no alien ideologies infect our politics as the snake infected the minds of Adam and Eve that they know better than Nature's God how the world was ordered and ordained, lest we fall into the same corruption of industry dighting government that shall be the ruin of many noble experiments in self-government.



Regarding foreign policy I shall endeavor to treat with foreign nations as equitable law demands of individuals dealing with one another; I shall protect our law-abiding citizens, whether native-born or foreign-born, whether free born or freedman, wherever our valiant flag waves. I would respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own confederation. Other nations near or far which depart from this rule in their dealings with us may compel us to follow that precedent.



My oath pledges me to defend our Constitution and faithfully execute the laws of the land passed in pursuance thereto. So shall it be with the guidance and prayers of the cabinet and the people of these States which have confederated together in a new birth of sovereignty and freedom upon this continent. I ask your patient forbearance towards this new government and to one another as we build our confederation together, each in our own states, and together across our several borders, and I ask the prayers of the entire Confederation on behalf of this endeavor.

March

Camp Breckinridge now holds 956 Indians, with births and stragglers coming for food. The Indians here act under the protection of the Confederate Army, provided that they conduct no raids, live in a 'white' manner in town, use English with the Confederates, and operate with a written set of rules and laws. Over the past few months, Col. Michael Demers was authorized to put a portion of land aside in the territory for the use of these two tribes, provided they operate in a peaceful manner, allow white settlers through their land, and act without malice towards the whites. In exchange, the Indians are granted full citizenship and rights within the Confederacy and can govern themselves.



Apache Territory as agreed between Col. Demers and Chief Ezkiminzin in 1869. The Indians are relatively autonomous within this territory, and the state of Arizona treats with them as a sovereign nation.

The land given to the Pinal and Yavapai extends northwards about 20 miles or so, and south maybe 10 miles, and covers 700 mi², and would eventually be called "Apache Territory" by Congress in 1871. Apache would be subject to their laws, and the laws of the territory of Arizona; white settlers would be allowed within the land only on permission of the Indians living there, and pay taxes to the Apache for living there. By 1880, only 65 whites would be in this Apache Territory, as opposed to 4,720 Apache. Instruction in schools would be in English and in Apache, while nearly 75% of the Apache will have converted to various Protestant denominations by 1890. The first governor of Apache Territory would be Chief Ezkiminzin, who served from 1871 to 1881.*

April

Abraham Lincoln publishes his memoirs of his presidency, titled "One Nation, Indivisible," where he goes into great length of his theory of government, coming from the Whig Party's Henry Clay, and from Alexander Hamilton, intending to justify the actions for which he was impeached during his presidency and claiming no knowledge of a number of incidents for which there was documentary evidence of his knowledge.  His theory of a strong national government would become the basis for Europeans in the 20th century to derive their political philosophies of centralization, placing Lincoln firmly in the left-wing of the political spectrum by the 1920s.  Numerous fascist, socialist, and communist leaders in Europe and Asia would look to Lincoln's theories to provide justification for their centralization of power, claiming the country would fracture and disintegrate like the United States had.  Alexander Hamilton's early theory of the states being treated as counties, dependent upon and subservient to the national government, was espoused by Lincoln in this tract, becoming an early inspiration to national socialists of the 1920s.

His future political activities were limited, though his second book "Union Forever" would sell in limited quantities, where he described his evolving political theories that would motivate future Democratic Socialists and National Democrats to form a coalition party with the American Workers' Party.

September

While the chase and over 18 battles lasted for some time, General Watie finally made the decisive strike against the Apache led by Geronimo. The year prior, General Stuart had offered him a treaty to stay in the southwest if he would stop raiding the white settlers and live in peace with them, recognize their rights to the land in exchange for recognition of Indian rights to the land not currently occupied by white settlers, with a suitable buffer. While Geronimo had agreed in September last year, his tribe, the Bedonkohe, broke the treaty when a lost wagon of white settlers wandered into their land, and was mistaken for an aggressive act of land theft. So the fighting continued for another year, when finally, the Confederates had defeated Geronimo, and expelled his four tribes to Oklahoma, to the unassigned land just north of the Iowa and Sac&Fox tribes.

October

Victorio, chief of his Chihenne Apache, is finally defeated by Col. Kevin Yost and roughly 1000 Confederates, in what would become New Mexico. Given that he had under 500 people under his command, Yost and he treated and he was authorized to place him in a territory near the forests of New Mexico.


Chief Victorio, 44 at time of surrender




Chihenne Apache Territory, 117 mi² in area, along the Cuchillo Creek partially. Lt. Col. Andrew Winston created Fort Winston, which eventually became the capital of this territory, where 200 Apache settled; within the next three years, the population would swell to over 1,100 Apache. Cuchillo was named after the creek, and Victorio's lieutenant, Nana, would be a founder of this small settlement.

Similar to the actions of Col. Demers to the west, Victorio was allowed to become the governor of the territory and enjoy sovereignty if he would give up raiding the white settlers. It took over a week of negotiations and speaking through translators, but Victorio eventually accepted the terms and territory. He and his people would create a written set of laws, based on their tribal customs and the laws of the Confederate States. Congress would approve the territory's status in early 1869, creating the Chihenne Apache Territory. Both this and the other Apache Territory would become models for other Indian tribes for self-governance. The Indians would settle into towns, adopt English (in addition to their own languages) and Christianity, and trade peacefully with the whites around them, and in exchange, the whites would leave them alone and respect their sovereignty. While not all Indians in the Southwest would adopt this model, a little over 2/3 would do so, such that the Indians who did would enjoy peaceful existence and self-determination. Unfortunately the Indians in the United States would not enjoy such treatment.

By 1884, the Confederates concluded their "Indian Wars." Most tribes had been pacified, and even Geronimo, who had settled in Oklahoma, treated with the Confederate Congress to return to his homeland in an Indian Territory, which would be granted in 1887, once it was guaranteed he would operate peacefully. He left with 1400 Apache, while a little under half his tribe remained in Oklahoma, having already settled and acclimated to life there.

Deportationists in the United States (1865-69)

During the war, the United States did have some draft riots, such as in New York City, where free blacks were hung or harassed out of town. In Connecticut, a woman who opened a school for colored children was run out of town, and the town actually pulled down the walls of the school themselves, because they didn't want black children around their white children. After the war, there was a lot of anger needing venting, and many thought the black soldiers had intentionally not fought well for the Union, especially after Confederate Emancipation began and blacks began defecting to the gray-clad soldiers.

After the war, the small portion of blacks remaining in the north, about 285,000, experienced even worse discrimination against them, the black codes up north getting even stricter than before. Congress had appropriated money and during 1866 and 1867, the US began deportation of blacks to the Dominican Republic and to Liberia, managing to take around 31,000 persons before the policy was halted after Lincoln's impeachment. Once that had happened, the US and the CS reached an agreement where the United States would send its black population south, and the Confederates would take them in, evaluate their skills, and try to place them with kin or where their skills would be useful. Around 55,000 blacks would go south, another 14,800 not being found or escaping into Canada, and the remaining 184,200 keeping to their own communities and becoming less trusting of whites around them, for fear of being deported, despite having fought to preserve the Union.

Growing international attention to the policy of deportation, especially from the United Kingdom, meant increasing pressure on the United States to stop the policy, as it was seen as cruel, deceitful, and a violation of trust of the soldiers who had fought for them, causing a lingering impression of the United States as being anti-black that lingered well into the 20th century.

Rapprochement through Baseball (1861-1871)

Baseball came about from a few similar New England ball and bat games, variously called 'townball,' 'roundball,' or 'base.' It was not the invention of the man who would later claim responsibility, Abner Doubleday. The most widely known version was called the "Massachusetts game." It featured two teams of 8 to 15 men playing in a square field, with either bases or tall stakes up to 5' in height at the corners. The batter would stand midway between first and fourth, and tried to hit the ball of tightly wound yarn (wrapped in smooth calfskin, around a cork or rubber core). His cylindrical bat would vary in length from three to three and a half feet, and was normally held in one hand. The pitcher would throw overhand, and there was no foul territory. Once he hit the ball, he would run around the bases till he was put out, or remained safely on a base. He could be 'retired' if the catcher caught three balls he missed, if someone in the field caught the ball before it hit the ground, or if someone hit him with a thrown ball while he ran the bases, which they called 'burning' or 'soaking' the runner. One out usually would end the inning, and the first team to score the agreed number of runs won the game.

This version was popular in the 1850s in Massachusetts, though it has origins in the 1840s New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, and some would say a man named Alexander J. Cartwright made the suggestion to put the batter on home (fourth) and orient the field in a diamond pattern.



Alexander Cartwright, Founder of Baseball

Cartwright went on to codify the rules of the game, such as pitching underhanded, not overhanded; a foul ball would be one that went outside the lines of first and third base; a player would be out if his ball were caught on the fly or first bounce or if a player touched him with the ball as he ran between bases. 'Soaking' the runner was then prohibited, and three outs would switch sides, and 21 runs, which they called "aces" would decide the game, so long as each side had had the opportunity to make an equal number of outs.

So the Knickerbockers played first in Manhattan, then moved to Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846. The game spread slowly during the next decade.

When the war broke out in 1861, many of the people who played the game were called to arms, as well as those who played cricket. Players thought the game prepared them for the field, as the physical education meant they could practice and build muscle by indulging in a little game, and that training would transfer into the field. The players took their love of the game, and even sometimes their bats and balls, with them. Some of the players even volunteered for the Confederates. Both sides would approve of baseball as an 'approved pastime' to relieve the boredom of camp life. Organizing game would motivate the men during training, foster unit cohesion and loyalty, and improve their physical fitness. For the Confederates, Longstreet and Cleburne's men would be the most involved, and to a lesser extent, Stonewall Jackson and Hardee's men.


Union Men at play while in camp in northern Virginia

Most of the time men would play within the safety of their camps, but sometimes would play beyond their picket lines. Once, Confederates attacked a Yankee game in progress over in Texas.

The New York version of the game gradually gained popularity as the war dragged on, and cricket lost popularity up north. At war's end, players in the Treasury Department played behind the White House. When Butler took control of New Orleans, the Union troops brought the game down south. Once the war ended, baseball helped to ease the hurt between the two nations.

Richmond, Virginia had a team that played the Baltimore team late in August 1865. The Nationals of DC fought the Richmond Confederates, clad in gray. In a series of three games, the Confederates won two, lost one. Over in Ohio, the Kentucky Generals from Louisville faced the Ohio Runners from Columbus, and the Ohio team won two of three games against them.

From 1865 to 1871, such cross border play, between Virginia and West Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois, and Missouri and Iowa would help transform the bitter rivalry of war into a game that encouraged good sportsmanship where the players would shake hands afterwards and go home. While politicians, especially up north may have been eager to continue stoking the flames of hate and rivalry, veterans and civilians would endeavor to try to put the past behind them and move forward.

Chapter 23: Amending and Remembering

After the experience in leaving the United States, the Congress of the Confederate States recommended several amendments, which the states would need to propose, due to the differences in the Confederate Constitution, in order to try to prevent the excesses of the United States experienced during the war.

The first Confederate Amendment was the emancipation amendment:

1. The Congress shall have the authority to emancipate slaves who served honorably in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, as well as their spouses or widows, and dependent children in accordance with law.
2. Each state shall legally recognize marriages between any man and woman without regard to color or previous condition of servitude.
3. Congress shall have the authority to draft a plan of compensated emancipation to provide for the freedom of slaves within ten years of passage of this amendment; each State shall obligate itself to full and complete emancipation within ten years of passage of this amendment in accordance with state law.
4. Ten years from the date of ratification of this amendment, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the Confederate States of America.
5. Emancipated slaves shall have the right to equal protection of the law of the states wherein they reside.
6. The people of the Confederate States shall have a right to work and to be paid for that work without discrimination on previous condition of servitude.
6. Each State shall have the authority to provide for reasonable measures for the determination of emancipation of their slaves to be completed within ten years of the passage of this amendment.
7. Congress shall have the authority to enforce this amendment by law.

The passage of this amendment near the end of the war showed once and for all that the Confederates were after independence, not the maintenance of slavery.  With this secured, and the experience of Lincoln's impeachment, the Confederates drafted a series of amendments based on his actions:

2. States' Rights (1865):
Section 1
1. No State, while remaining a member of this Confederation, shall nullify or refuse to obey this Constitution, or any law passed by the Congress of the Confederate States in accordance with the Constitution thereof.

2. Any State, by a convention of the people of such State, shall have the right to demand an issue to try the constitutionality of any law of the Congress of the Confederate States. Such issue shall be tried in a manner to be prescribed by Congress, by a court to be composed of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Confederate States, and of the chief justice of the State demanding the issue.

3. On complaint made by any citizen, body politic or corporate aggrieved, the President of the Confederate States may, and it is hereby made his duty, in a manner to be prescribed by Congress, to order an issue to try the constitutionality of any Law, order, or regulation of any one of the States of this Confederation, annulling, violating, or impairing this Constitution or any law of the Congress of the Confederate States (made in accordance with the Constitution thereof). Such issues shall be tried in a manner to be provided by Congress, and, after proper notice to the offending States, by the Supreme Court of the Confederate States.

4. If any State shall fail or refuse to conform to a decision of the court on any issue tried under this section, the Congress of the Confederate States may withdraw from such States all or any portion of the privileges and benefits of this Confederation, without releasing such State from the duties and obligations thereof.

Section 2.
1. When any State shall desire to withdraw from this Confederation, such desire shall be communicated to the Congress of the Confederate States, through a convention of the people of such State, specifically setting forth the causes of such desire to withdraw.

2. Congress shall consider of such alleged grievances, and, on failure to redress or accommodate the same, to the satisfaction of the complaining State and of the Confederate States, shall arrange with such State an equitable division of the public property, and a peaceable withdrawal from the Confederation.

3. But no State by withdrawing from this Confederation in the manner herein provided, nor in any other manner, shall be discharged or released from the obligation to pay a due proportion of the public debt existing at the time of such withdrawal; and such withdrawal shall, moreover, oblige the State withdrawing to account with the Confederate States for all expenditures made, or liabilities incurred by the Confederate States, in acquiring, securing, fortifying, or defending the territory or jurisdiction of such State.

Section 3.
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 1, each State shall have the right to nullify any law, order, or regulation passed by the Confederate Congress.

2. A State which votes to nullify a law, order, or regulation of the federal government of the Confederate States shall name the specific issue to be nullified, and the provisions of the Constitution which are violated thereby in their nullification, which shall be made by a majority of the legislature, by a record of yeas and nays.

3. Once at least one-third of the states nullify an issue of the Confederate States, within a year of its passage, the nullification shall be placed before all state legislatures. If two thirds of the several States’ legislatures shall vote to nullify the issue within 24 months of the passage of the same by a 3/5 vote of their respective legislatures, then it shall be void and of no effect.

4. The general government of the Confederate States, after the nullification of any law, order, or regulation, shall immediately cease enforcement thereof.

5. Any officer of the general government of the Confederate States, which attempts to enforce any issue nullified in accordance with this section, shall be liable to arrest and prosecution in accordance with the laws of the State whereat he attempts to make the enforcement.

6. Any elected or appointed official of the Confederate States which orders the enforcement of an issue nullified in accordance with this section, shall be liable to impeachment in accordance with Article 1 of this Constitution.

Section 4.
1. Upon the demand of the convention of any State, all troops under the authority of the Confederate States which may be within any fort or ceded place within such State shall forthwith be removed, except when the Confederate States are in actual war with a foreign power.

This amendment came from text that Benjamin H. Hill of Georgia originally tried to insert into the Constitution in 1861, but it did not pass.  It did, however, become the 2nd Amendment, preserving the right to secede and to nullify, while forbidding attempts to nullify parts of the Constitution, as the north did in the 1840s and 1850s.

3. Supreme Court Override (1865):
1. Congress shall have the power to override a majority opinion of the Supreme Court by 3/5 vote of both houses.
2. The several States shall have the power to override a majority opinion of the Supreme Court by 3/5 vote of the several states.
3. Whether by states or Congress, such override must be exercised within 24 months of the publication of the decision. Such a vote to override the Supreme Court shall not be litigated or reviewed in any court, nor shall the President be able to veto such override. Congress shall not interfere in any way with a state override.
4. While a State remains in the Confederacy, the decisions of the Supreme Court of the Confederate States on constitutional questions shall be conclusive in all cases capable of decision by legal process. That in such cases as do not admit of decision by legal process, a convention of all the States shall be assembled, in which convention the decision of the majority of the States shall be conclusive, subject only to the right of secession of the State or State dissatisfied.

5. Congress may provide by law for appeals from the State courts to the Supreme Court in all cases arising under this Constitution, the law of the Confederate States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority. Aside from appeals provided for by law in accordance with this amendment, the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall not extend to any case which shall have been adjudged by any court of a State.

With this third amendment, the Congress also passed a law that forbade the Supreme Court from overturning any state law except if it explicitly violated Article 1, Section 10 (delegated powers to the federal government), acting as another protection of state sovereignty, exercising its authority to determine the jurisdiction of the court.  The same law required the court to consider the Constitution a compact between sovereign states and the general government not to have a power not explicitly authorized.

4. Presidential Limits (1865):
Section 1. 
1. The President shall not suspend habeas corpus without authorization by Congress, unless upon actual invasion of one or more States, and then only in those states subject to danger.
2. Congress shall have no power to authorize or to make legal the actions of any official retroactively.
3. The President shall not order a blockade of the ports of any State, unless it has first seceded, and opened hostilities against the Confederate States, without first a declaration of war by Congress or actual attack by such State upon any State within the Confederate States.
4. The President shall not order the armed forces of the Confederate States to confiscate the arms of civilians not engaged in hostilities against them.
5. The President shall not shut down the press or mail during time of war, but may take measures to prevent making public information which would aid an enemy power.
6. The President shall not order the arrest or deportation of any elected or appointed official during time of war without due process of law.
7. Any Officer acting under the Authority of the Confederate States shall, upon Impeachment, be suspended from the Exercise of his Office during his Trial.
8. The President shall not use the armed forces of the Confederate States to interfere with the government of the states, or the elections thereof.
9. The President, the Congress, the Governors, the State legislatures, and any other civil officers of the Confederate States shall have no right to claim any emergency power during war or other emergency to infringe upon the rights of the people as enumerated in this Constitution, or reserved to the States, or to the People.
10. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the Confederate States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of violation of this article.

Section 2. 
1. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms is an individual right that shall not be infringed without due process of law. 
2. The people of the Confederate States shall not be tried in military courts when the civilian courts are still open.
3. The freedom of religion includes the right of clergy to preach and to pray and shall not be infringed.
4. The freedom of press and of speech shall include the right to disagree with anyone, whether elected, appointed, or not, with any means of communication, and shall not be infringed.
5. No person shall be required to contribute to a political candidate or group as a condition of employment, or to hold a specific political opinion to continue employment or to advance within employment.
6. The rights of the people protected in the Confederate Constitution, or the several State Constitutions, or reserved by the States or the people thereof, shall not be suspended during a war or other emergency. 


While President Davis balked at the above amendment, he understood the reasoning and made a public statement that the Confederate government sought to ensure that their Presidency never devolved into a dictatorship as so recently experienced.  The message was very pointed, and the newspapers in the United States easily picked up the subtext that the amendment was intended to prevent a Lincoln from arising in the South.

5. Economic Controls (1865):
1. Congress shall make no law setting or regulating wages or prices.
2. Congress shall make no law assuming control of a business or series of businesses, or its debts or liabilities.

The States sought to protect the right to privacy, a right frequently violated by President Lincoln during the war.  Political enemies were frequently jailed or even deported, which the southern confederation sought to protect.

6. Right to Privacy (1865):
1. The right of the people to privacy shall not be infringed.

2. The right of the people to the privacy and security of communications in any form shall not be infringed.
3. The right of the people to use any means of communication to disagree with any officer of the Confederate States, elected, appointed, or otherwise, shall not be infringed.
4. The rights of the people shall not be infringed for disagreeing with any officer of the Confederate States.

Confederates wanted to avoid another sectional party in their country, so they decided to require that a president get not only a majority of the electoral votes, but a majority of states.

7. Presidential Majority (1865):
1. Any candidate for President shall be required to attain a majority of votes in the Electoral College and a majority of the number of states to be elected President.
2. If no candidate achieves both majorities of section 1 of this Article, the election shall devolve onto the House and Senate in accordance with Article II of the Constitution.

8. First Census and Apportionment (1865):
1. The first enumeration shall take place in 1870 and thence every ten years.
2. After the first enumeration, there shall be one Representative for every fifty thousand, until the number shall amount to two hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred representatives, nor less than one Representative for every sixty thousand persons, until the number shall amount to three hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than three hundred representatives, nor less than one Representative for every seventy thousand persons, until the number shall amount to four hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than four hundred representatives, nor less than one Representative for every eighty thousand persons, until the number shall amount to five hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than five hundred representatives, nor less than one Representative for every ninety thousand persons. Hereafter Congress shall continue to regulate the apportionment once the Congress shall reach an additional hundred representatives such that each representative shall each represent an additional ten thousand persons .

9. Posse Comitatus (1866):
1. The armed forces of the Confederate States shall not be used to execute the laws of the Confederate States.
2. Congress shall not appropriate any funds to pay for the use of the armed forces of the Confederate States as a posse comitatus
3. This amendment may be temporarily suspended by act of Congress, but shall not extend beyond six months in duration before being renewed, when the constitutional rights of the people are endangered.

The Posse Comitatus amendment was put in place as a final protection against the confederate government from using the army against the states.  The final clause, however, allowed an exception, though limited in scope.  Opponents claimed it allowed a President to invade the states, but other states countered that the states could still nullify the suspension of Congress like any other law, preventing abuse.

These amendments were proposed in 1865, and were all ratified within the next 2 years, all becoming part of the Confederate constitution.

Memorials to the War

In the capital district, as the Confederate Government prepared moving operations there, while the new Congress, Executive Mansion, and Supreme Court were being built, the Congress authorized memorials to the soldiers who gave their lives to the new nation.  Upon his completion of his single term, Jefferson Davis himself was given a memorial in Confederate Park, along the river, surrounded by a circle of state flags.



Davis Memorial, 2018.
In his honor, the Confederate Congress declared the capital city would be named Davis in his honor, and the district would be the 'District of the Confederacy,' or "D.C."

In Richmond, a statue of Davis would be erected in 1878 at the capital of Virginia to honor his presidency there.



Along the Confederate Mall, a statue of Davis was erected in his honor.



From the view of the Davis Memorial, several museums would be erected in dedication to the War for Southern Independence on either side of the Confederate Memorial Park, becoming the Confederate Mall.

In the new capital district, another national cemetery was created, with one of the first monuments erected in 1884 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as their fathers began dying off.

On this memorial, like hundreds of others dedicated to the War of Confederate Independence, there were scenes honoring black Confederate soldiers:

Every single state in the Confederate made monuments to black Confederates, memorializing their sacrifice for the independence of the Confederate States.

These kinds of monuments, among the hundreds made between 1865-1876, again from 1891-1905, and 1961-1965, located at the numerous battlefields, both north and south, be it Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, Folcks Mill, Monocacy, Boonsboro, Harpers Ferry, Hokes Run, San Francisco in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and California, or Richmond and Petersburg, Franklin, Nashville, Atlanta, Peachtree Creek, Kennesaw Mountain, Fort Sumter, Vicksburg, New Orleans, Jacksonville, and more, honored the sacrifices of black Confederates along with white Confederates in securing independence.  These monuments were critical in showing young Confederates an example of honor, and made civil rights much quicker to attain in the South than would otherwise have been achieved.  In the new capital district, various black Confederate individuals would be honored, like 1st Lt. Darryl Polite, and 2nd Lt. Henry Flipper, the first black officers who led troops into combat in the Spanish-Confederate War (1873-1874).

Unfortunately, the US Colored Troops would have to wait over a century after the war to get a memorial during the US Civil Rights movement.

In honor of George Washington, the general who successfully defeated the British and was the first President of the United States, and was a native Virginian, the Washington Memorial was created, with a view to the water.


30th Anniversary Triumphal Arch
On the 30th anniversary of Confederate Independence, with the passing of more and more soldiers, construction began on a triumphal arch leading into Davis, DC. From 1891 to 1895, the arch was constructed, allowing soldiers to march underneath from the southern entrance of the district to the Davis memorial along the waters. It is 150 ft wide, 72 feet deep, and 165 ft tall with an observation deck inside to see the capital district. On the centennial, the observation deck was restored with new memorial displays and artifacts of the war, describing the incredible sacrifices of the soldiers who fought merely for self-government and independence. Every inauguration, the armed forces march under this arch in a proud and patriotic display, and returning soldiers from war march when a peace treaty is signed (as they did after WW1, WW2, and from the US-led Iraq War in 2003.

Washington Square Arch
Leading towards the Confederate Executive Mansion, an arch was constructed on the bicentennial of George Washington's birthday, February 22, 1932. On one side, it depicts Washington as Commander-in-Chief, flanked by Fame and Valor, and the other side, Washington as President, with Wisdom and Justice. There are 13 stars around the top, above which are 4 stars, and above that, 26 stars for the 26 states at the time, their coats of arms within their respective stars of the 26.



In the center of the memorial is a larger than life statue of Washington, flanked around by quotes made by the President that reflect his character.


While commonly called the Robert E Lee Memorial, bearing a large statue of General Lee:


(Small-scale replica of the statue in the capital)

There are statues in the memorial to Generals Johnston, A.S. Johnston, Jackson, Beauregard, Stuart, Cleburne, Forrest, Longstreet, Hill, Ewell Kirby Smith, and Taylor as well in the large monument, with plaques describing their roles in the fight for Confederate Independence from the United States.  Its official name is the Confederate Generals Memorial, begun in 1909 and completed in 1919.

The streets in the capital are named after states (Florida Avenue, Virginia Avenue, etc), famous southerners (Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, etc), and Confederate Generals and statesmen (Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Patrick Cleburne, Robert E Lee, etc).

In the western portion of the District, small-scale mining operations began at Battle Creek Mines which provided some income to the nascent town that was developing around the new Confederate nation (OTL South Pittsburg area).  The western area some called 'Antioch' was renamed the Washington Quarter (OTL New Hope), while the small town of Whiteside was also added to the district, changing its name to Davistown.  Jasper, formerly of Tennessee, with about 250 people, and now on the northern portion of the capital diamond, was incorporated into the capital district as the Jefferson Town, for the second US President.  The southern quarter became the Johnston Quarter, over protests from a number of people who wanted a quarter named for the man who saved Atlanta and the Confederacy, while the eastern was named for Jefferson Davis.

Over in Alabama, the town of Bridgeport's railway bridge, destroyed by General Bragg in 1863, was rebuilt and the rail line moved to the location of the new capital rail station.


Bridgeport railway bridge, 1865

Builders from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, and even Italy submitted designs for various public buildings, including houses, apartments, and hotels for the new capital of the young nation.  In what they now called the Washington Quarter, new Victorian, Queen Anne, and Second Empire homes were built.


A collection of homes in the western and southern quarters of the new capital that sprang up from 1865-1895

Construction crews didn't face the issues found the swamp land that formed Washington, DC, as they built the new capital.  At most, the Tennessee River would flood, but much of the new capital was above the typical floodplain.  At the triple point of Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, the groundbreaking for what became the Davis Memorial was held in 1867, a week after the inauguration of John C Breckinridge as President.  Surrounding the new monument was a ring 1861 feet in diameter, with an inner ring 1776 feet in diameter, creating a walkway around the monument, which was built up on a hill.  The circle had 13 flags with a 7' column and a flagpole on top, bearing the flags of the 13 states present at the time of recognized independence, the 7' height symbolizing the 7 original states.  On the outer ring, each state was to commission 3 statues of the most prominent citizens who were responsible for building the Confederacy, facing their respective states' flags.

Virginia sent Robert E Lee, John Letcher, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.  Mississippi commissioned statues of Jefferson Davis, Earl Van Dorn, and William Barksdale.  Tennessee sent statues of Nathan Forrest, Leonidas Polk, and Isham Harris.  Each statue had a plaque underneath describing the depicted person's role in Confederate Independence.  General Patrick Cleburne was chosen as one of the statues from Arkansas, and his plaque made sure to mention his role in emancipation of southern slaves, which was credited with the most direct reason for Confederate independence.

Along the northern and southern riverbanks, boardwalks were created both to protect from flooding, and to provide a future place for people to enjoy the river.


Along the southern bank of the river, the governors and legislators in the first Confederate Congress were given plaques to memorialize their role in the fight; on the northern bank of the river, northern politicians like Clement Vallandigham and Lysander Spooner were given plaques, as well as various Presidents and Founding Fathers before secession, like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Patrick Henry, even John Adams got a plaque.

The western half of the Tennessee River Boardwalk quickly became built-up with restaurants, shops, and hotels catering to the new capital's work crews and incoming population, only broken by bridges crossing the river to the increasing cross-river traffic.


Riverfront restaurant scene in 2002, with streetcar tracks visible. (Note: US flags were flown after a terrorist attack on Boston in a show of solidarity for a week).

Today, the riverfront is a vibrant area with buildings no taller than 8 stories (per the 1891 Height of Buildings Act), while hotels could be 12 stories, and residential buildings at most 100 feet tall, while churches had no height restrictions.  Wanting to preserve the green spaces, a Savannah architect created wide boulevards with tree islands separating the streets much like his home town, with little parks every few blocks to provide areas for people to escape the city a little.

On the north bank, Lee Park, a 30 acre park, was set aside, its corners flying the Confederate flag, and outside the park, a number of bed-and-breakfasts came about by the 1930s to help make ends meet.


Along the Tennessee River, pathways for runners, benches for park visitors.  This image was taken in 2008, before the 150th anniversary plaques were added between the lights detailing the various generals from each state and what they did to secure independence.


Anchoring the northern side of Lee Park, Confederation Fountain is shown here.


Near the waterfront, a statue of General Robert E Lee looks out upon the waters of the Tennessee River.  In 1872, he actually rode Traveler to the spot where the statue was later built and remarked, "This would be a good place for a park.  It is well to relax and take in God's Creation."

Lee Park

Two of several bed-and-breakfasts lining Lee Park


Five Davis hotels built between 1870 and 1890 (Washington, Virginia, Kentucky, Jefferson, Dixie).  Some were built along the waterline, some deep in the Washington Quarter and the southern quarter.  Several along the bank of the Tennessee River at the westernmost edge of the capital diamond, near Burns Island, and along the northern bank created several 'Hotel Rows' for travelers in town for business, often Congressmen and Senators who traveled to Davis when Congress would be in session and leave for home as quickly as possible.  Without even intending to do so, the Confederates had made their capital an incredibly tourist-friendly place putting so many hotels, restaurants, theaters, apartments, houses, and shops together in one place, with street-car service, so close to the rail station.  The entire area was very pedestrian-friendly.  

Starting in 1883, horse-drawn carriages on tracks operated on the streets of the capital, connecting the distant places in the new capital.  By the 1910s, electric street cars were installed, reducing the odor and need for stalls.  In the 1940s, air conditioned and heated cars were put in service, and updated in the 1960s, 1980s, 2000s, and more recently in 2015, with electronic signage.


Davis, DC Streetcar (Short version)



Davis, DC Streetcar (Long version)

Trains came in to Confederate Station in the Washington Quarter, with smaller station throughout the capital connecting streetcars and trains to all the areas of town.  In 1910, the station was enlarged to its present size.



Through this train station, the high-speed rail system, the ICE (Inter-Continental Express) runs at over 200 MPH, sometimes reaching 235 MPH on straightaways.


The street plan of the new capital included a street-level southern cross, with the streets radiating outward from the Davis Memorial, making it the center point of the cross.  These streets were wider boulevards four lanes wide per side, with a traffic circle around the Davis Memorial of seven lanes, with the lanes extending out over the Tennessee River forming into a bridge to cross to the northern bank.  All other streets were straight north-south and east-west, with the few hundred owners compensated when their houses and property were seized to continue the streets, with over 3/4 remaining in the new capital with a new and more valuable home being built in the new capital fashion.  North-South Streets were named for states, capitals, and cities of the South, while East-West were named for famous politicians and generals.  Each cross-street radiating out from the middle of the district was named for Davis (reaching to the Executive Mansion), Stephens (reaching to Congress), Polk (reaching to the national cathedral), and Lee (reaching out to the train station and the future Department of War building).  State streets were three wide on either side, while people who weren't either in the US Revolution or Confederate Revolution were relegated to two-land streets (both sides).

These streets became popular streets for businesses and hotels, and some of the more expensive apartment buildings and houses of the district, and even some theaters, churches, and opera houses.  In the 1920s, movie palaces were built along these streets, with Cleburne Theater being one of the best preserved examples.  Pharaoh Theater off Georgia and Polk is another popular theater which today has impressive stadium seating, delivered concession food and drink, 3d and 4k movies.


Early federal department buildings were influenced by the French architects who had bid for very large buildings, with the State, War, and Treasury departments being the first to be built near the Executive Mansion.


By the 1930s, however, the DoW building was too small and land was claimed in the Johnston Quarter (OTL Bryant) for the new building.  It was an architectural marvel, to put it mildly.  The new Department of War building was made 12 floors tall, not counting the 13th floor attic space, still beaux-arts style, a favorite of Secretary of War Charles William Cleburne from Arizona.  Archways connecting the buildings allowed traffic through from the interior and preserved the street plan of the area.  The central area featured a glass dome allowing a panoramic view of the outside, acting as the central hub of what is effectively nine buildings connected by three pathways between them on each side (imagine nine of these buildings connected by hallways).  Just counting the nine-block twelve-story above-ground building, there is roughly 234 acres of space in the Department of War building, not counting the three underground floors and inter-building walkways.  The various armed service branches chiefs of staff have offices in the central complex, as do the highest ranking flag officers.  This complex would be built for functionality and to meet the needs of the then-current war, but also beauty and an attention to the history of the complex.

The Congress building was very similar to that of the US, though with seven above-ground floors (named for the seven initial states), a central hub with a dome that came out to 300' in height, taller than that of the US Capitol Dome, including the statue of Dixie, which held a sword and shield with a southern cross on it.  Her Roman-style helmet has 13 stars on its visor, and bears a sash with the abbreviations of the 13 states of the Confederacy (at the time).  The dome was built to be 300' tall, and the masonry was built to withstand the weight of the dome.  Underneath, rather than an apotheosis was a representation of the leaders of the Confederacy and of the Revolutionary United States.  Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, and a few others were seen passing the constitution to the new leaders, through the goddesses Freedom and Liberty, where Davis, Stephens, Johnston, Cleburne, Lee, and a few others were depicted, along with Cleburne breaking the chains of a slave, representing his role in emancipation.  During the 1950s, the capitol gained three below-ground levels that were able to withstand a nuclear strike on the capital, and underground subway tunnels to the main train station to leave the capital altogether.

The capitol building's Senate could hold 100 persons, while the House could hold 400.  In 1919-1924, extensions were built, with the sides gaining 6 floors for more in-building office space and committee rooms, and a larger, more modern senate (200-persons) and house chambers (1000-persons).  The front and rear were extended out by 40 feet, adding new entryways and office space for the Senate and House leadership for each party.  Across the way from the Congress was the library building, built with a large footprint to dwarf the Library of Congress in DC, as it would be a building of legal deposit for the government to hold every book printed in the south.


One view in the capital district, in Davis, just a few blocks away from the Executive Mansion


First Davis Post Office, now a hotel.


New Post Office, 1928

The New Davis Post Office was designed to house much of the confederation-wide Post Office administration, including printing of stamps for the Confederacy, and had a footprint of about 8 acres, taking up two blocks.  This post office would be four blocks from the Confederation Station (Davis Main Train Station), and would also have its own subway station starting in 1951, with exits both to the street and into the building itself.



The old Davis Armory, now an office building


Embassies in the Capital District


Apartments in Davis


Social club buildings


Commercial Buildings in Davis

Hotels in Davis

In 1952, in response to a proposed hotel in the 'brutalist' style within view of both the capitol and the train station, the Congress passed the "Capital District Architectural Preservation and Beautification Law."  This required all buildings to use existing architectural styles in existence within the capital, and that all buildings must be harmonious within the district and if possible within their blocks and neighborhoods.  Chicago/Prairie style, popular in Jacksonville since the fire 50 years before, was popular for hotels and some skyscrapers, along with Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Art Deco, Neo-Classical, and a few others.  Many credit this law with both preserving the beauty and preventing the decay shown in the United States' capital of Washington, DC, which has many ugly buildings all over it.

Proposed Brutalist Hotel, later built in Sacramento, USA.


Davis Confederate Synagoge, Confederate National Cathedral (Cathedral of St James the Great), Christian Missions House

In the capital is one of the largest synagogues in Dixie, the Davis Confederate Synagogue, in Moorish Revival style.  The National Cathedral is 121,000 ft², being 700 ft long and a nave height of 186.1 feet.  The Christian Missions House is a place for various denominations to help coordinate charitable missions and disaster relief, as the Confederates have no counterpart to FEMA.


Museums in Davis

The first is the Confederate Museum of Natural History, dedicated to the history of the land, plants, and animals of Earth.  The next is the Confederate Museum of Art, holding paintings and sculptures of artists from around Dixie.  Many paintings depict the soldiers of the Confederate Army that fought in the War for Southern Independence, but there are also many paintings for everyday life, and other scenes of natural beauty.  The third is the Museum of Confederate History, with exhibits from each state which fought against the United States, reasons for secession, a small area for the history of the United States before 1860, Confederate emancipation and integration, the world wars, and other topics relevant to the Confederacy.  The Confederate Air and Space Museum is also located in Davis, DC, with exhibits on the Wright Brothers' airplane, military aircraft, and Confederate spacecraft.

Artwork examples in the Confederate Museum of Art:



Free-standing houses in Davis


Christopher Columbus Memorial, 1892


Parks in Davis

Government Buildings in Davis

The first is the Davis headquarters of the Secret Service, the CS intelligence agency.  Second is the Confederation Archives, housing important historic artifacts like the secession ordinances of the states.  Third is the Confederation Hall, holding artifacts from the War for Southern Independence from around the Confederacy, like Battle Flags, muskets, uniforms, and so on.


Factories and Breweries


Confederate Hall, Lee Hall
University Buildings in the Capital District



Utilities Buildings
The first building is the Davis Power & Light building, built in 1890 to provide electric power to the capital district.


Memorials in Davis, DC


Banks in Davis, DC


Streets in Davis commercial area


Early Subway Station in Davis, one of 10 original stops, 7 of which remain.

Original exterior of the Library of Congress and gardens.  Since its original opening in 1889, it has expanded outward.  The wing-to-tower sections were doubled to the sides in 1921-25, and the entire structure was expanded to the back giving it an area of about 200,000 m².  The now 12 reading towers each hold special collections, be it agriculture, science, religion, history, or otherwise, with a number of reading rooms, exhibit rooms, and research areas.  The library has public deposit, with every book published required to be deposited, ensuring that the library will grow well into the future.  The Library of Congress is 5 floors above ground, two below for research and preservation efforts.

The Reading Room in the Library of Congress, a 13-sided room, with stained glass above each side, representing the first 13 states of the Confederacy, with the state seals and renderings of people from those states who helped gain independence from the United States.  

Literature (1865-1870)
In the new Confederate States, several generals would write memoirs of service, including their hopes for the new country, and their opinions on various topics.  General Lee, Forrest, Cleburne, Johnston, Jackson, Stuart, Beauregard, and several dozen others wrote of their service, detailing their battles, organizations, and theories of war of what worked and what failed, and why.  Admiral Semmes's work was a best seller as well.

Others, such as Richard Johnston, a cousin to the general, and a native of Macon, GA, wrote "The History and Culpability of Slavery in the United States," detailing various 'inconvenient truths' about the history of slavery in North America, such as: legalization in 1637-9 of the slave trade and slavery before Virginia (1651), black codes in the North in various constitutions, treatments of blacks who tried to get an education in the North, treatment of US Coloured Troops in their service vs. the treatment in the southern army, the large number of antislavery societies in the South, the lack of slaveholders amongst the generals and most of the troops, the support of the troops for emancipation and a wide swath of society, as opposed to representatives in Congress, the history of Yale, Brown, Harvard, and other northern universities as being founded by slaveholders who got rich off slavery, the slave trade being centered and run by northerners in Bristol, Newport, and other northern ports, the history of slavery in Africa and how it operated, with enough citations to make a modern historian proud.  The book was well written, and achieved some success in Europe and the British Empire, though much less so in the United States, where many in the army and politicians were crowing about how virtuous they were because they stood against slavery; the book was a splash of cold water right in the face to that false virtue signaling.

Chapter 25: Recap of the Situation to 1880

Confederate Presidents


1: Jefferson Davis (1861-1867)
2: John Breckinridge (1868-1874)
3: George Washington Custis Lee (1874-1880)

Cabinets of the Confederate States

Cabinet of Jefferson Davis


Vice President Alexander Stephens
Attorney General: George Davis
Postmaster General: John Reagan
Secretary of War: John Breckinridge
Secretary of State: Judah Benjamin
Secretary of the Treasury: John Trenholm
Department of Navy: Stephen Mallory

Policies of the Davis Presidency after the end of the war:

Demobilization
President Davis oversaw from 1865-1867, the final two years of his presidency, the demobilization of 768,455 men from the entire armed forces, including 188,241 'colored soldiers'; roughly 120,000 deserters rejoined in 1864 after the victory at Atlanta when Davis announced they would not be prosecuted if they returned to service before December 31, and it began to look like the Confederacy would win the fight.  The army regained 227,000 Confederate prisoners from July to September, while they transferred 274,000 Union prisoners north to the United States.  

Demobilization occurred relatively quickly, though individual soldiers and politicians would claim that it was going too slowly during the process.  From May 1, after Grant and Sherman had surrendered to November, 625,000 men were demobilized and returned home through the remaining railroads left by the invading armies of the Union, by horseback, or by wagon.  The importance of improved railroads and roads was made clear by the experiences of soldiers and families returning to their homes.  Refugees kidnapped by the Union were released and sent home, as were prisoners of war, often found in nearly skeletal conditions due to Union mistreatment in their prisoner of war camps.

The Department of War managed an impressive feat of demobilization under Secretary Breckinridge and his assistant secretary of war Michael Steyn, considering the process was almost entirely handwritten, and the confederated government then needed to begin processing pay and pensions for the soldiers, as well as medals, honors, and awards due to soldiers for actions in the war, which would take several years to be awarded.

Immigration
President Davis asked for recommendations concerning immigration, and his Secretary of State, Judah Benjamin, based on having spoken with the peace commissioners in Ottawa and on the return trip, came up with a 'memorial' that the Confederacy should seek out persons of extraordinary intelligence and skills, persons of the Christian or Jewish faith and preferring those with families, with skills in railroads, mechanics, agriculture, metallurgy, physics, chemistry, armory improvements, and other sciences. 

Military
The Secretaries of War and of the Navy worked together on demobilization and also modernization so as to be better prepared should the United States attempt to reconquer the South to force them back into the Union.  Rifles were updated to the Spencer Rifle for cavalry, and for the infantry the Springfield rifles Model 1865, with some modifications to improve the extractor.  Artillery was improved, and the Union processes for creation of gunpowder, which were superior to those used in the South, were adopted. All cannon were rifled, rather than smoothbore, to improve range and accuracy.

The 3" ordnance rifle, accurate under a mile, was adopted in a breech-loading conversion, as was the Whitworth breechloader, and three versions of the Parrott rifled artillery.

Ships in the navy were docked and repaired, with some ships being mothballed, and others being removed from service to act as museum pieces.  The navy was reduced in size to 88 ships to maintain a ready force in case of another blockade, with 5200 men to be retained for a period of 4 years, with an option to continue service afterwards.

In concert with the Attorney General, the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps started investigations into the legal aspects of the military's actions during the war so as to provide recommendations for improvement of the conduct of the military, which would result in the Confederate Code of Military Justice within a few decades.  Its current form, Articles of War, would partially be based on preventing the vast abuses of the Union Army upon the southern people from happening on the part of the southern army.  Confederate military regulation would require teaching constitutional law to every officer, all of whom would swear an oath to uphold the constitution.

Trade
The Confederates were now free of the illegal blockade of their ports, and cotton exports, along with tobacco exports, quickly approached pre-war levels with the returning manpower coming out of the army, bringing in more revenue to pay the war debts of the confederate and state governments, pensions to widows and disabled soldiers, and all the other needs of the new government of the southern states.

Justice
The Attorney General, George Davis, began inspection of the conduct of war, and would prosecute abuses that had come up during the war, which happened, but nowhere near the extent of the northern armies.  The biggest issue was the emancipation of slaves and the results of emancipation, namely whether the emancipated were now citizens or not.  Based on the wording of the emancipation amendment and the emancipation bill, emancipated slaves were citizens of the state wherein they resided, so the states would need to regulate further, as it was a state issue after emancipation.

Diplomacy
During the final days of the Davis Presidency, the Confederacy negotiated the addition of two territories - Alaska and northern Mexico.  The former came about since the Russian minister, de Stoeckl, was rebuffed by the Americans, and the British were more concerned with the effects of the Confederate independence on their own empire, so he was able to get $8 million for the barren frozen land.  Davis was also able to successfully negotiate with the French that if they left and the CS paid them $25 million, asking what would the French be willing to give the Confederates for that.  The French countered with an amount of land nearly half the remaining part of Mexico, the land north of 21° N, roughly.  The two cessions were Davis's final actions and his second-proudest achievements, and would prove later to be some of the most valuable actions of any Confederate President.

The territories in the southwest would be renamed and borders adjusted to reflect their new nation:
Baja California - added to California territory
Sonora - border adjusted to 31° N
Chihuahua - renamed to Washington, border adjusted to 31° N
Arizona Territory - border moved to 31° N and split halfway between Nevada and Texas to make the two roughly equal in size, and give Arizona a shoreline
Durango - Sinaloa merged into the territory
Rio Grande - three states merged together into 1 territory
Veracruz - San Luis Potosi plus the portion of Veracruz requested for sea access.
Jefferson - Aguascalientes, Norte, Zacatecas, Nayarit

At the end of his term, there would be 10 territories: Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Durango, Veracruz, Rio Grande, Sonora, Washington, Jefferson

Cabinet of John Breckinridge

Vice President Judah Benjamin
Attorney General: Clement Claiborne Clay
Postmaster General: John Reagan
Secretary of War: Richard Taylor
Secretary of State: Waldo P Johnson
Secretary of the Treasury: Chris Memminger
Department of Navy: Stephen Mallory

Mallory would oversee the maintaining of the navy, and establishing naval bases across the nation, or modernizing existing ones with steam engine equipment and repair facilities, artillery depots, and the like. Norfolk, Wilmington, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, Gulfport, Mobile Bay, Galveston, San Diego, and also Cancun and Cozumel, Tampico (Veracruz), Manzanillo (Jackson), and Mazatlan (Durango), Guaymas (Sonora), and La Paz (Baja California).

Memminger would revise the currency along the lines of the 1864 bills' designs, but place buildings from various states, or the image of Dixie holding the shield, as appeared on the gold Confederate dollar. The currency would gain half penny, penny, two cent piece, half dime, dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar out of silver. The pennies would be 95% copper, 5% zinc to save money on the 100% copper coins. The US was doing the same with their pennies. The silver coins were all 90% silver, featuring the symbolic woman with phrygian cap, spear, shield, and various plants to symbolize their agriculture, and on the back, the value of the cent. Gold dollars and eagles were made as the US also did. Memminger's innovation, though, was to help banks hold onto silver and gold, to prevent runs and hoarding. He got Congress to authorize the printing of a silver certificate and a gold certificate. Rather than interest-bearing money or fiat, the treasury would hold gold, and issue deposit certificates, and people could turn those in to get the gold. The treasury had around $25 million in gold, so it could afford to print up both gold and silver certificates. Instead of hand-written numbers, these were the first Confederate notes with printed certificate numbers, in values of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1000. From 1-10 were silver certificates, and higher were gold certificates.



New Confederate coin design for new pennies up to dollars

John Reagan would oversea the continued profitability of the post office, with its small surpluses being saved for emergencies or to pay bonuses, and also to open new post offices in the new states of the southwest.

Richard Taylor's agenda, helped by Breckinridge's military experience also, would be the continued modernization of the army, updating its supplies to repeating rifles, training with the new equipment, acquisition of new rifled artillery, and the construction of new forts along the frontiers as part of the Indian Wars to protect settlers and hopefully pacify Indians either to move to Oklahoma or stop raiding in existing territory.

Waldo Johnson might not have been the talker that Benjamin was, but his tenure would see the opening of a number of embassies of the Confederacy, staffing them, and the successful implementation of the new immigration law. A large number of German, British, French, Scandinavian, Russian, Dutch, Greek, and Italian men and women would seek to come to the CS over the years till 1870 (520,455), and Congress would set its new decade immigration quota at 7% of the 1870 population numbers. Most immigrants came to Texas, Rio Grande, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Sonora, Arizona, California, Durango, and Veracruz.

Vice President Benjamin would work with the elected governors of the new states and territories to establish an interstate compact on education. The six new states and Alaska bound themselves to teach English to their school children, establish church-based subscription model schools where possible, establish technical and agricultural colleges, and the government would work towards adding railroads and telegraph lines into those new states to connect them to the rest of the country. By 1880, rail service would run from Tecoman up to Phoenix, and from Austin down to Tamiahua; with the invention of dynamite, rail tunnels through the Mexican mountains would make new rail routes possible.  Texas and a number of other states opened up new Agricultural and Technical Colleges which would form the basis of the state university systems of their states, grounded in both classical education and modern, practical science.

Education of freedmen would be taken up largely by veterans, like Lt. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who funded Sunday Schools for blacks near his house, and would soon involve schools to teach grammar, logic, rhetoric and arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.  All schools teach from an openly Christian viewpoint, with Bibles and Bible stories openly used in classrooms, as they are taken as actual history, not mere religion.  Schools would, as students progressed, teach Latin and Greek, along with French, Spanish, or German, the three minority languages of Dixie.  Classical works by authors like Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Josephus, Dante, and Shakespeare would be used, along with the Church Fathers, along with William Rawle's View of the Constitution, and Vice President Stephens's book The Constitution of the Confederacy, explaining the differences and the (then-)recent amendments (1-8) and what they were designed to correct from the US Constitution.  Later editions of CotC would include additional amendments and the problems designed to address and how they would protect states' rights; by the end of school, any Confederate child would know their Constitution and the rights therein and would be well-versed in finding out if the government in Richmond (later, Davis, DC) were overstepping its bounds.

Breckinridge set up the Census Bureau to take the census in 1870, which would include the following questions:

Name
Date of Birth
Race
Current Town, County, and State of Residence
Town, State, and Country of Birth
Spouse
Date of Marriage
Children (Please list with ages)
Faith
Occupation
Language most spoken

The census would be completed by the end of 1870, and record 17,488,558, an increase of 5.66 million people, some by immigration, some by annexation, and about 155,000 blacks from the north due to deportation between 1865 and 1867. The young nation's new immigration goal would be 7%, or 1,213,349 persons with usable skills, such as railroad, steam engine, agriculture, chemistry, science, engineering, architecture, and so on. English would be prioritized, but not required. A lot of Scots, Irish, English, Dutch, Belgian, German, Swiss, Italian, and French would immigrate to the Confederacy, especially after the Franco-Prussian War.

During President Breckinridge's term, the Confederacy was involved in two new wars, with Colombia and Spain, defeating both, and adding several territories and states to the Confederacy - Cuba state, and the territories of Puerto Rico, Philippines, Mariana Islands, Saint Andrew Islands, and also ratifying the ocean border between France's Polynesia and the Confederates' Washington Islands.  

Aside from Cuba joining as a state, New Mexico and California were added.  Confederate patriotism reached a new high, even after the war in 1865, and flags often flew in towns, businesses, and homes, especially new immigrant Confederates.  During this term, railroads were built around the nation, and with the improved transportation, came better settlement of the new southwest, with adventurous people coming all the way from Richmond to settle the southwestern territories.

Cabinet of George Washington Custis Lee


Vice President: James Longstreet
Attorney General: Augustus Hill Garland
Postmaster General: George Crittenden
Secretary of War: John Rogers Cooke
Secretary of State: Chiswell Langhorne
Secretary of the Treasury: Paul Jones Semmes
Department of Navy: Samuel Barron
Secretary of the Interior: John Horace Forney

President Lee oversaw the addition of Hawaii as a state, the second independent nation to join Dixie, and the successful resolution of the Spanish-Confederate War.  The Confederate Army demobilized again, and this time, black soldiers were roughly a third of the force, and Hispanic Confederates were roughly 1/5 of the force. 

Black Confederates were immensely proud of their contributions to the land they'd been in for two centuries and being the reason for independence, and were beginning to demonstrate for greater civil rights.  Despite their sacrifices, black Confederates still had quite a few restrictions on serving on juries, testifying against whites, voting, and so on, but slowly, states were removing those restrictions, with almost every state aside from Arkansas, South Carolina, and Georgia passing laws protection property rights of blacks and whites equally, securing the right to travel freely, and by 1880, over half the states were now ruling that black citizens could bear arms.  Due to the work of Nathan Forrest, blacks in Memphis were voting and by 1876, voting statewide (but not for national offices).

Lee's tenure in office was peaceful, though the state funeral for his father, General Lee, was a sad day for the nation.  Even the United States paid their respects for General Lee, when General Grant and several other Union generals attended his state funeral.  Though Lee didn't suggest it, Lee's birthday on the 19th of January was made a Confederate holiday as 'Lee Day.'  His funeral was attended by Jefferson Davis, John Breckinridge, most former Confederate Generals, and many Union generals, and even several Union politicians.

Railroads would bring the nation together and send immigrants to the new territories in the southwest. 

Rio Grande Statehood
Having organized their territorial gains from Mexico in 1867, Texans and other Confederates moved south into the Territory of Rio Grande, which grew large enough to petition for statehood in 1876, becoming the 19th state of the Confederacy.


Flag of Rio Grande

Rio Grande State Capitol building, 1888, under construction

The State of Rio Grande would declare its capital as Monterrey, roughly in the middle of the large territory, and its capitol building would be very similar in color and architecture to that of Texas, with the flags of Rio Grande flying over both the Senate and House wings, and a Confederate flag over the entrance.

Front of Rio Grande Legislature Building

Quite a few old and, quite frankly, dilapidated buildings that were crowded on narrow streets were demolished to make way for the new capitol building, which had a long park running to the governor's residence, and either side of the large, 10 acre park, flanked with a number of government offices, shops, restaurants, and hotels, all built in the style of the times.  Sadly for historians, over 45% of historic, Mexican Monterrey was removed to make way for the more modern core, including wider streets, sidewalks, sewage, and electricity.  While improving the life of the city dramatically, those changes did cause the loss of some centuries-old buildings from colonial times.


Rio Grande Governor's Mansion

Monterrey would soon be connected by Confederate-gauge (6' wide) railroad lines to San Antonio and Austin, Victoria City to the southeast, Torreon to the west, and Washington City in Washington Territory to the northwest.

Statehood as of 1880
1862: Oklahoma (13)
1865: Missouri (14)
1870: California (15)
1873: New Mexico (16)
1874: Cuba, Hawaii (17, 18)
1876: Rio Grande (19)

Confederate 1870 Census
As of 1870, there were 14,807,442 persons in the Confederacy and 141 persons in the House of Representatives.

Confederate Census of 1880
As of 1880, there were 21,412,053 persons in the Confederacy, with an immigration quota of 1,498,844 persons for the next decade. As a result of this census, there were now 222 seats in the Confederate House:

Lincoln impeached and Grant doing 2 terms in office, nice update jjohnson.

Would be great to see Lee doing his six year term as president of the CSA, at the same time as Grant.

Nice update jjohnson.

So the CSA gets its Independence and the Netherlands gets stuck with Congo.

Chapter 29: The Gilded Age in North America and Beyond

US Territories

The United States were understandably concerned at the breach of the Monroe Doctrine by the British Empire in South America during the Grant Administration, but through negotiations in the 1870s, the United States were granted Fiji (1874), the Cook Islands (1875), and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1876).  The British Empire had plenty of islands across the Pacific claimed as territories and protectorates, and if the cession of three small island chains could help the empire with the vast economic outputs of the United States, then so be it.

Lincoln's Funeral (1882)

By this time, Lincoln was quite old and passed away in his sleep in Chicago on a cold winter day from a pneumonia.  The news spread rapidly around the United States of his passing.  In a remarkable show of graciousness, President Hampton ordered the Confederate Flag to fly at half staff, despite the criticism of 'Lincoln the Tyrant' in the press.  Buildings were decorated in black in DC, New York, Chicago, and Springfield, where funeral services were also held.  Presidents Davis, Breckinridge, and Hampton attended as did Vice Presidents Benjamin and Longstreet, again, in a show of graciousness and good manners.  Northern press at the time was quite vitriolic and negative about 'traitors' and 'treasonous southerners' being at the funeral of the 'great emancipator' and the 'man who tried to save the Union.'  Their newspapers began some of the more positive myths of Lincoln, despite the last 15 years of incredibly negative press about Lincoln.  Now, he served a new propaganda purpose, along with Grant, who died in 1885, of having 'tried to save the Union,' a noble goal, not 'conquer the South.'  Northerners began to forget, starting in the new public schools, of all Lincoln's crimes against the Constitution, that for 15 years they had so often read about and had obsessed over for the first few years after the war.  Now, Lincoln could serve as an image of 'Union' in the minds of the public and a symbol of 'progress.'  Unfortunately a small resurgence of the Union League came about, resulting in another flight of northern blacks to Canada and the Confederacy, 'inspired' if that term could be used, by the press about Lincoln and his membership in the American Colonization Society.


Lincoln's funeral procession

Southern newspapers were tepidly polite, remembering their Christian beliefs, but strenuously criticizing his constitutional violations.  One Richmond paper wrote, "The impeached ex-president passed away quietly, fading out of this world with a whisper, not a bang.  The man whose inauguration threatened the constitutional liberties with his extreme political positions and sparked the secession of the south and the creation of the Confederation will be eulogized in the former capital of Washington, DC.  Our President during the late unpleasantness, Jefferson Davis, and his successor, John Breckinridge, will be in attendance.  Vice President Stephens sends his regrets, but will not be attending due to fragile health.  We know much of his machinations to create a war to solidify his shaky political position and unite the north against us for simply wanting to be left alone and not be part of a Yankee Empire, and of his position as a 'free thinker' in circles up north.  At this time, while we remember the huge cost in human life brought about by those machinations of this man, it is also a time to mourn the loss of someone who, while he did not believe, was created by God."

Other newspaper articles carried similar tones across the South, the people choosing to remind their readers of numerous violations of civil liberties by the north during the war, keeping the memory alive of those dark days so they would not be forgotten.  This would also lead to the erection of several dozen monuments to the civilians harmed by Lincoln's War, as it was called in some circles.

Former President Davis was gracious in his old age, attended with his wife Varina, and their children, including a fully grown Jim Limber Davis, who caused quite a stir by sitting with the Davis's and not in the separate black section of the church, as northern churches were segregated strictly.  Jim Davis invested in farming machines, helping create several freemen cooperatives, allowing the members to pool their resources, purchase machines, and vastly increase their crop yields and profits from their farms.  President Breckinridge was joined by his wife and two black attendants, as was Vice President Benjamin, causing a stir up north.  Northern press said they were still in slavery in all but name; southern press rejoined that they were freemen who chose to remain with their former masters and were paid the same as white employees in the same positions.

Let's Go to the Zoo!

In Atlanta, businessman George V Gress purchased a bankrupt traveling circus, and donated the animals to the city of Atlanta. The city leaders opt to house the collection at Grant Park, which remains its location to this day. The original resident animals of the zoo included a black bear, a jaguar, a hyena, a gazelle, a Mexican hog, lionesses, monkeys, and camels.

New Orleans gained a zoo in 1887, on the site of the 1884 World Cotton Centennial Exhibition World's Fair. It would be expanded over the years with new additions, like sea lions, an aviary, and more.

Octagonal Building from Mexico exhibit

In Dallas, Texas, a zoo is begun with the sale of two mountain lions and two deer from a private seller in Colorado.

Panama Canal

In 1846, a treaty between Colombia and the United States, the Mallarino-Bidlack Treaty, pledged the United States to maintain 'neutrality' in Panama in exchange for transit rights in the isthmus on behalf of Colombia. Roughly 40 years later, in 1885, Colombia reduced its military presence in Panama, sending its troops to fight rebels in other provinces. Without those troops, an insurgency developed in Panama. So the United States Navy was sent to keep order, in spite of invoking its obligations according to the treaty of 1846. The United States occupied the city of Colon, Panama. Chile, which had the strongest fleet at the time in the Americas, sent its cruiser Esmerelda to occupy Panama City in response. They were under orders to stop, by any means, an eventual annexation of Panama by the United States.

In 1899, and lasting till 1902, the Thousand Days' War was fought between the Liberal and Conservative Parties, which devastated Colombia, including Panama. This new civil war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Wisconsin, but the Liberal leader Victoriano Lorenzo refused to accept the terms of the agreement, and was executed in 1903. Two months later, the headquarters of the Panamanian newspaper El Lapiz were assaulted by orders of the military commander for Panama, General Jose Vasquez Cobo, brother of the Colombian Minister of War, in retaliation for publishing a detailed article on the execution and protests in Panama. This caused a rift and loss of trust between the Panamanian liberals in the Conservative government which was based in Bogota, and they later joined the separatist movement.

In 1903, largely due to the efforts of Teddy Roosevelt, a larger than life figure who fought in the Philippines and in China, the US and Colombia signed the Hay-Herran Treaty to finalize construction of a Panama Canal, but Colombia's Senate rejected the measure, despite having proposed it themselves. So the United States moved to support the separatists in Panama to gain control over the remains of the French attempt at building a canal.

Panamanians set November of 1903 as the time to separate. Colombia thought Nicaragua was going to invade and sent troops to occupy Colon; they were delayed by the Panama Railway employees who sympathized with the separatists. Colombia's gunboat Bogota fired shells on Panama City on November 3, causing injuries and mortally wounding Mr. Wong Kong Yee of China. The US sent the USS Baltimore, under command of Commander John Hubbard, which helped delay Colombian troops from reaching Panama.

With the troops delayed and suppressed, the Panamanians declared their secession as the Republic of Panama. Demetrio Brid became the de facto President of Panama on November 4 and appointed a provisional government junta to govern till a constitutional convention could be held. It would take Colombia 5 years before they recognized the new republic.

Shortly thereafter it signed a treaty with both the United States and Confederate States, authorizing them to act to build a canal. The United States would act as sovereign in the canal zone, while the Confederates would gain 25% of the revenue plus free use of the canal. Both countries would participate in construction, sharing the cost. That alone was the product of intense negotiation between the two countries, but President Frazer and President Roosevelt were able to work together to come to an agreement.


US President Roosevelt at the canal during construction



Canal under Construction



It would take 10 years to build the canal, which would open in 1914. During that time, Spanish-speaking Confederates moved to Panama to help translate and build up the infrastructure, which was nowhere near the level it was in Cuba, Puerto Rico, or even Rio Grande. Confederates began building electric power plants, electric lines, telephone lines, and even missionary efforts from Catholics, Baptists, and Methodists were started in the cities nearby. The nation of Panama advanced more in those ten years than in the last thirty. Politically the nation started moving away from the tendencies of other Central and South American nations, having military coups and dictatorships every few years, and began on the path of modernization and slowly becoming a truly free nation. Uniquely, Colombia would begin moving in the same direction largely of its own accord.

With the efforts of the United States in breaking Panama off from Colombia, however, the Colombians would turn to the Confederates as one of their chief trading partners, despite their earlier war over the Saint Andrew Islands.  The CSA would be a stabilizing influence on Colombia, which would seek European immigration to improve their country as well, seeking German, Dutch, British, Scandinavian, Russian, Polish, and French immigrants to help Colombia improve.

Venezuela

After the Venezuelan Civil War, and with the US and CS engaged in their own civil war, from the perspective of Venezuela, the South American country looked to Europe for help building up its land.  It sought immigration with favorable terms from the British Empire, but mostly from the German Confederation, given the long history of German settlement in Venezuela and, from the perspective of Venezuela, the success of the German Empire in defeating other European powers and creating its own colonial empire.  Beginning in the 1870s, tens of thousands of Germans were invited to move to Venezuela, provided they were capable of sustaining themselves and could start up businesses.  Over 120,000 "Germans" (a Venezuelan term covering the Dutch, Belgians, Luembourgers, Swiss, Germans, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish) moved to Venezuela.  

The unfortunate side of this immigration is the marginalization for much of the 19th and early 20th century of mestizo Venezuelans, until the 1950s and 1960s.  However, the immigrants brought a new vibrancy and new stability not present in the Iberian society, a legacy of the Spanish colonization.  The Germanic settlers brought order and stability to the country, and new foods and drinks that enriched the unique Venezuelan culture.  Even Venezuelan Spanish changed; the use of tu and vosotros as the singular/plural was strengthened, while the use of Usted/Ustedes was re-restricted to the formal singular/plural.  The old trend of using Usted/Ustedes as the second person in all cases was reversed and stopped, just like in Colombia.

British Guyana
With Venezuela's new vibrancy, they clashed with the British settlement in Guyana, as they claimed nearly half the colony.  The British were settling the land, and had found gold, encouraging a surge in settlers from the British Isles, and piquing the Venezuelans' interest in the land.  The issue came to a head in 1895 with the British-Venezuelan Settlement, brokered by the United States and signed in 1897.  By 1900 the population of 131,000 included around 79,000 British, another 14,000 Europeans, and the rest either black or Asian.

British Honduras

The Guatemalan rivalry between Carrera and President Barrios spilled over into British Honduras in 1863, and in a remarkably quick effort from Jamaica and the Bahamas, the British were able to successfully repel the Guatemalans and force both sides to the negotiating table, and cede Peten to British Honduras, so as to make their colony more defensible.  The resulting changes meant an earlier liberal revolution in Guatemala, and the rise of President Justo Barrios, who was able to put a treaty into effect with the British and French that meant investment, in exchange for Guatemalan produce.  Soon both Guatemala and British Honduras were also trading with the Confederate States, with the United States spurning both for another two decades until they realized the agriculture could mean millions for American businesses.

Brazil and the Netherlands
During the US-CS War, Brazilian troops made inroads into Surinaam, a Dutch colony, and had two minor incidents that threatened war with the British.  The Dutch sent troops to defend their colony.  Due to the British consul's ultimatum, the Brazilians gave orders to fire on any British warship that tried to capture Brazilian merchant ships.  In 1863, a Dutch-British convoy approached Brazil near the northeastern tip of South America, and was attacked.  The Dutch sent a dozen vessels to fire upon the coastal defenses, and managed to capture Natal and Recife.  For two years, the Brazilians were under attack in the south with Uruguay and Paraguay, and to the north with the Dutch from Surinaam and Natal and Recife.  Fighting in three fronts, with the British also giving aid to the Dutch, the Brazilians were forced to sue for peace or soon face two European powers.  In 1865, Brazil sued for peace so it could resolve its southern issues, and agreed to cede Ceara, Alagoas, and the states between in exchange for a cessation of hostilities and favorable treatment of Brazilians there.

In March of 1865, the Dutch came out with Surinaam protected, and a new New Holland.  Brazilians living there would begin leaving to remain with their own people, while many with American Native ancestry stayed and would soon begin assimilating to the new Dutch situation.

With the end of the North American War, as Brazil called it for much of the 19th century, the United States began attempting to enforce the Monroe Doctrine again, and the Dutch abandoned any attempt to enlarge their gains from Brazil.

Funeral for President Davis (1892)

Beauvoir, President Davis's home in Mississippi

President Davis kept a vigorous schedule after his presidency ended February 22, 1868.  President Breckinridge appointed Davis to act as a minister to the United Kingdom, where he was greeted with celebrations in the United Kingdom.  The US Minister, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., didn't speak to him the entire time (his term ended in 1868), but Robert Schenck, a former Union General and President Grant's new Minister to the UK, was surprisingly genial to the former President, inviting him to poker games in London on many occasions.  Davis and his wife Varina, and their children, including their adopted black son, Jim Limbor, stayed in London for four years before asking President Breckinridge to accept their resignation.  Once accepted and relieved, Davis took his family to France, the North German Confederation, Bavaria, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Greece, Egypt, and then back to the Confederate States, where they spent three weeks in Richmond before returning home to Mississippi.  

From this point, former President Davis wrote several books while running his plantation and taking care of the emancipation of his bondservants, and securing them proper wages and housing as he slowly mechanized his operation.  Davis entertained and attended various events, including the groundbreaking of the new Capitol, Executive Mansion, national cathedral, and train station in the new capital district, and even hosted President Grant at his home in 1875.  One of his books, On the Rising Industry of the Confederate States, took a look at the growth of various industrial plants around the young confederation and cautioned their owners not to seek profits over the welfare of the people, otherwise they would become the very Yankees from which they seceded, and urged them to pay a portion of the profits to the workers to give them a share in the company so they would have reason to seek its growth, an early form of profit-sharing.  Many owners did begin to provide such benefits, including health care for those who were injured on the job with in-house doctors, and with the rise of cleaner water, began requiring workers to shower at work or before to help prevent illnesses in the early 1880s at a number of factories; many began to shower after work as well before going home.  His book International Diplomacy and Neutrality was a treatise on the way Washington, Adams, and Jefferson conducted diplomacy with other nations, and an urging to remain out of standing alliances or international organizations, and an urging to avoid foreign ownership of local resources.  His health took a turn for the worse in late 1891, when he had to curb much of his travel, and he finally succumbed to an infection in 1892, dying in late May of that year in New Orleans, his doctor proclaiming him too ill to travel back to Beauvoir.


Davis's funeral procession in New Orleans; procession through Davis, D.C.

The entire city of New Orleans draped in mourning for the former President, before his body was transported to Richmond, Virginia for President Davis laid in state in the C.S. Capitol Rotunda for three days in a lead casket encased in wood, before laying in state in Davis, D.C..  His funeral procession was similar to U.S. President Harrison and Tayler, both of whom died in office.  A horse draped in black, riderless, and with reversed boots in stirrups was lead in front of his casket from the capitol to the cathedral where his national funeral service was held, and attended by several thousand, including Ulysses Grant's children, Martha Johnson (daughter of Andrew Johnson), the Lee family, Patrick Cleburne, his wife and children, Nathan Forrest's children, and even Union Lt. General Joshua Chamberlain, who spoke at his funeral, having developed a friendship with the Confederate President over the years.

Per his widow's request, he was entombed within the capital district, the first Confederate President to do so, in a tomb reminiscent of General George Washington's tomb, with Varina joining him at her death also.  Both caskets were laid in a sarcophagus with a life-like representation of them asleep in fine clothes, while the obelisks contained plaques on the bases, and a statue of the President and First Lady upon the top (removed 2009-2010 for cleaning).

Washington's Tomb, the model for Davis's Tomb; Statue of Davis, modeled after the one used for his tomb.

Several other Confederate Presidents would be buried in what became the Presidential Cemetery, located in the northern portion of the district, just east of Jasper, TN and north of the Sequatchie River.

Texas Gold

In the 1850s, a process to distill kerosene from petroleum was invented by Abraham Gesner. World demand for petroleum quickly grew. Petroleum exploration developed in many parts of the world as a result. In 1859, Edwin Drake from Pennsylvania invented a process to extract oil from deep within the earth by drilling. Drake's invention gave birth to the oil industry in the US and the CS. The first oil refiner in the US opened in 1861 in western Pennsylvania, during the Pennsylvania oil rush. Standard Oil, founded by John D Rockefeller in Ohio, soon became a multi-state trust and came to dominate the young petroleum industry in the US.

Texans knew of the oil which lay under their ground for decades, but for a long time it was seen as more of a problem than a benefit, because it hindered the digging of water wells. One man, Rancher William Thomas Waggoner, who later became a very influential oil man in Fort Worth, struck oil while drilling for water in 1902.

The story of Texas oil could be said to begin with Antonio Francesco Luchic, a man born in 1885 in Croatia, who graduated from Graz Polytechnic Institute. He arrived in the Confederacy in 1880. At 6'2", this strongly built immigrant became a Confederate citizen in 1885 in Norfolk, Virginia, and took the English name Anthony Francis Lucas. A few years later, in 1893, he began working in the gulf coast, in the salt mining region of Louisiana.

Lucas worked on his theory of stratigraphy of deep salt formations, and how earth's oil deposits could collect under rising salt domes. He heard of oil seepages over in Texas, and went to investigate. So Mr. Lucas went to a place called the Spindletop region to observe a gentle swell of a broad span of land, which rose about 15 feet above the level of the surrounding Texas plain. During his investigations he noticed a slight oil, salt, and sulfur leakage on the surface.

According to his theory that would mean oil below that salt dome. There were two problems - the oil was deep down, and the sand to be pushed through was prone to collapse into the drill hole when flushed with water alone, which was the conventional technique. So Lucas persuaded three Texas cattle ranchers to finance a new drilling technique which could theoretically go even deeper. He brought in Al and Curt Hamill, experienced drillers who brought in a new Sharps-Hughes hardrock rotary drill bit, recently invented by Howard Hughes, Sr. and Walter Benona Sharp.

Curt Hamill suggested digging a pond, and so cattle were set to stomping around in it to produce a steady supply of 'drilling mud' to replace 'drilling water' a new idea for the time. The men drilled deeper and deeper...700 ft, 800, 900, then 1139 feet. Then on January 19, 1901, they struck oil. A gusher shot up 150 feet in the air and continued for 9 days before they finally capped it.

Spindletop gusher

The gusher produced 800,000 barrels of oil, producing 100,000 barrels a day, more than the total production rate of all other North American wells currently active. Soon Beaumont became a boomtown; its population of 10,000 rising in 3 months to 50,000. Soon, new oil companies were born Texas Company (Texaco), Gulf Oil Corporation, Sun Oil Company, Humble (Exxon), and others. By 1902, 285 wells were dug.

Texas Gulf Sulphur Company would soon spearhead a huge industry supplying sulfur, an important fundamental chemical, in 1909. Large coastal refineries would be built from Louisiana to Texas, and down the coast of Rio Grande. The Confederate petrochemical industry was born, and along with it, the Sharps-Hughes Tool Company would be born, aided by its patent on that drill bit they used.

The Confederate Congress sought to preserve the oil for use in the Confederacy, and imposed an 80% excise tax on crude exports as a reaction to Standard Oil's attempts to grab Confederate oil for itself. With this, the Confederates helped enable their own future automobile, plastic, and modern industrial growth, and prevent domination by a Yankee company, preserving their economic independence.  The excise tax was more often than not passed on to foreign customers, keeping the oil within Dixie and at a low enough price to make it easy to travel on gasoline-powered vehicles.

Trust Busting

In the United States, the Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890, during President Harrison's term. The act gave the government the authority to break up monopolies and near-monopolies which caused a 'restraint of trade' - an ambiguous term. The first target of this legislation would be Standard Oil, which would be broken up in 1906 as an 'illegal monopoly.' At this point in time, the Confederates had no comparable monopoly in oil, or other business, so they would not pass such a bill till 1903, under President Robert E Lee, Jr., when the Confederate Congress passed the McLaurin Anti-Trust Act, which would go on to break up the attempted monopoly of Standard Oil in the CS in the Gulf Coast. Standard Oil left before the suit could be fully prosecuted, meaning it wouldn't be tested for another decade. In 1905, the Confederate Supreme Court ruled in the case Texas v. Confederate States on the legality of the act, but the Supreme Court ruled it legal, since it concerned interstate trade, not intrastate (within a single state) trade. Texas attempted to get the ruling thrown out, but not enough states passed ordinances to override the ruling.

Confederate Statehood: Puerto Rico (1895)

Puerto Rico took 21 years to become a state, remaining in territorial status for quite some time.  Twice Cuba blocked Puerto Rican statehood in the Senate, to the frustration of the island's delegates in the Senate.  It took the Confederacy time to align Puerto Rico with the Confederate judicial system of common law, as well as to integrate its culture and economy into that of the Confederacy.  Immigration to the island was steady from 1874 onward from the mainland, influencing its flag with the Army of Tennessee's red cross, with 25 stars to represent its position as the 25th state.

As a territory from 1874-1895, the island had a series of appointed governors:
Charles David Anderson (GA), former Brigadier General in the Georgia militia (1874)
Wilmot Gibbes de Saussure (SC) (1874-1876)
John R Jones (VA) (1876-1878)
Williams Carter Wickham (VA) (1878-1880)
Juan Delgado (PR) (1880-1882)* first native Puerto Rican governor, served in Spanish-Confederate War
William R. Terry (VA) (1882-1884)
Roger Atkinson Pryor (VA) (1884-1886)
José Severo Quiñones (PR) (1886-1888)
José Conrado Hernández (PR) (1888-1890)
Luis Raúl Torres Cruz (PR) (1890-1892)
Angel Perez Otero (PR) (1892-1894)
Nelson del Valle (PR/RG) (1894-1896)

The last appointed governor, Nelson del Valle, was born in Rio Grande to a Mexican father and Texan mother, and fought in the Spanish-Confederate War, and settled on the island afterward to help rebuild and renovate on the island.  In preparation for statehood, he declined to stand for election as the first elected governor, but was able to organize the elections for the first Puerto Rican governor's election and the Senate and House joint election.

Confederate Statehood: Sonora and Durango (1895)

Sonora state flag


Durango State Flag

Sonora (26) and Durango (27) became states in 1895 soon after Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, having the requisite population numbers, and also having railroads going through both territories, integrating them into the Confederacy.  Sonora is rich with mineral resources, as well as agriculture and ranching, while Durango grows cotton along with other crops, has forestry and fishing industries.

Silver and Gold Mining (to 1900)

In North Carolina, Davidson County produced gold, silver, and copper till the late 1870s, prompting the Confederates to move westward for more precious metals

In Texas, silver began to be mined in 1880. In Hudspeth County and Culberson, and a town which became Shafter in Presidio County, silver was mined in several thousand tons per year. In Garvin County, Oklahoma, the Oklahomans finally allowed both white and black settlers in restricted numbers to help mine the silver for their state.

Farther west, in New Mexico's Lake Valley, located in the Sierra County, a mine called the 'Bridal Chamber' was mined by Antonio Cleary, brother of the Major who fought in the War for Southern Independence, along with his nephew, Jose Cleary Jr, along with three of his friends from the State of Cuba. The mine produced over 2.5 million troy ounces from the 70s till about 1900. The Ortiz Mountains and Hillsboro's mines would produce $6.75 million Confederate Dollars' worth of gold by 1904 (at $20.67/oz).

In Baja California, Randsburg became a boomtown for its gold mines. Nearby Arizona's mines at Tombstone, Bisbee, and Longstreet (Globe) were producing record silver, along with gold and copper. Georgia's Gold Belt would continue to produce in small amounts until 1957, but would not be as famous as the western mines. It would be sufficient enough to pay off the debts of the State of Georgia from the war. Brewer Mine in South Carolina continued operating till 1988 producing Gold. Mines in Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Durango, Sonora, Jefferson, and Rio Grande also produced gold, silver, and copper to help finance the nation's growth. The period between 1890 and 1900 would be a period of rapid electrification across cities in the Confederacy, as well as massive improvements in public sanitation and sewer systems. Diseases would become less common as cleanliness increased.

Disease Spreading

The Russian Flu hit the United States in 1889-1890, and soon came south to the Confederate States.  Due to a lower amount of plumbing and sewage systems, people in many cities had a more compromised immune system and were more susceptible to infection and illness.  Roughly 15,000 people died in the Confederacy, and a push began for sanitation reform in the cities, along with electrification for safety and helping doctors, police, and firemen navigate at night.

The Confederate Congress was unable to make any national effort like in the US, given the more decentralized nature of the country and the states, so Congress passed a resolution calling for the states to begin working on sanitation and electrification.  Quite a few cities already had some sanitation and sewage systems, but they had long since become inadequate for the growing confederation.  From 1890 to 1920, a large project across the Confederacy took place, a lot at the insistence of the Confederate Progressive Party, formed in 1890 as a reform party for the following policies in every state:

-electric lighting and plugs for all new houses and existing buildings
-air conditioning and heating for all new and existing buildings (Gorrie's AC has been in use in some buildings, notably the capitols, governor's residences, and supreme court buildings since the 1860s in the CSA)
-indoor plumbing with purified water for all homes and buildings
-sewage improvements and drainage improvements
-sewage treatment, water purification
-river water purification and treatment of sewage from industrial areas
-road paving for safer travels across the Confederacy
-good sanitation for horses used as transport, including 'poop bags' so they don't leave messes on the streets in cities; this led to a number of widespread political cartoons ridiculing the CP Party.
-medical sanitation practices including gloves, clean instruments and buildings and beddings, and state exams of doctors to ensure some competency

Progressives in the Confederacy
The Confederacy naturally evolved into a two-party republic much like the United States, though in the CSA, the two parties largely had much of the same agenda with little differences between them.  Into this dynamic, a new young group of people, from the old Unionist areas from during the War sprang up looking to reform the Confederacy a little to bring some modernity to the slow-moving society.  Some areas, they were called the Reform Party, other areas, the Progressive Party.  Kentucky, Tennessee, and western North Carolina saw the party called the 'Progressive Party' while in the Deep South (Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida) it was called the Reform Party.  Politics were less contentious in the South only because most people were ideologically very similar and agreed on many things - suspicion of the 'national' or 'confederal' government and jealously guarding the states' power against encroachment, individualism, a desire for very low taxes and to be left alone by the government.  But even with that large agreement, many difference of opinion in how to protect the states and move the country forward left a lot of room for parties to develop.

Much of the policies of this party came about due to perceived corruption in the Democrat Party that wasn't being adequately opposed by the Confederate Party in their minds.  They thought people being in the legislatures and in congress for over three decades was too much, especially since the President was only there for 6 years.  Science was blooming in the Confederacy, and people in the Reform Party and Progressive Party wanted to embrace it.

At the state level, where most action was in the Confederacy, the parties worked on rooting out graft, racism, sexism, nepotism, and other corruption, term limits for governors and state legislators, as well as state-level internal improvements like road paving, electrification, plumbing homes and buildings, water purification, sewage treatment, clean air; on the national level, these parties sought a modernized military to defend against the US in case of another invasion, temperance (but not abolition), term limits, trust busting in some of the larger corporations, and coordination of internal improvements.

From about 1890 to 1920, the height of the progressive era in the Confederacy, Congress did become a four-party-legislature, with the Reform Party and Progressive Party forming two new blocs of power, with the Democrats and Confederates working to get their cooperation in legislation to try to pass anything.  Twice, power shifted in Congress when the Democrats refused to work with the Reform/Progressive coalition, and they then worked with the Confederate Party to get legislation passed.  After two election cycles, the Confederates tried not working with them, and the coalition brought the Democrat party back into the majority.  Once that happened, the two major parties saw that if they wanted to maintain power, they did have to work with the Reform/Progressive coalition.

Several amendments to the constitution were proposed and adopted due to the reform movement, including protection of the vote for blacks and former slaves from state interference, recall of senators and representatives (rather than popular election), a trust-busting amendment, and validation of interstate compacts for internal improvements.

The Reform/Progressive movement got up to 1/3 of Congressional seats at its height in 1912, and in the states, some gave the majority to Reform or Progressive candidates.  Due to the efforts of the Reform/Progressive movement, electrification was made mandatory in the Confederacy by 1918 for all new buildings and any old building had 10 years to add electricity for lighting and appliances.  Plumbing and sewage were made mandatory on all new buildings in 1917, with old buildings having 10 years to add indoor plumbing and sewage.  This also resulted in the first time many people paid for city sewage and water, but those taxes went for water treatment and the sewage and drainage improvements in the cities, causing a massive decline in diseases and sickness in the cities, which led to an increase in population there and an increase in the life expectancy across the Confederacy.

One other lasting legacy was the education movement.  Many schools were run through churches and paid through tithes or monthly fees, but the growth of cities and inadequate training led to the Reform movement wanting schools to train teachers on how to teach, and a nationwide movement for 'total literacy,' regardless of race or gender.  Additionally many schools in the Confederacy suffered from inadequate books, school supplies, heating, water, food, and other issues.  From 1890 to roughly 1920, many states passed new schoolhouse laws and built new schools in the cities for the larger number of kids needing education.  Rather than having to deal with much of this on the state level, states required the schools to be built, and allowed churches and private individuals to run a number of them.

Confederate education gradually evolved during this time through the influx of European immigration and the need to teach English skills to the Europeans coming to all areas of the Confederacy.  Over the course of several decades, states did begin to coordinate with each other and a Confederate Education Association began making recommendations for schools, though it would not ever make requirements of schools.  Children were to begin schooling for 4 years, ages 6-9 in basic school or primary school.  Secondary school went for 8 years, or 6 depending on the state, with children being tested as to which kind of school they would enter - high school for vocational training (apprenticeship into a profession), Technical School (for those who learn at a faster pace than high school children) who can apprentice into professions, and Grammar Schools, which typically take in the upper 25% of students, those who would go into involved professions such as law, medicine, and in the late 20th century, computer sciences.

High schools would teach mathematics, physics/chemistry, biology, geography, history, religion (or another elective class), music, art, politics, sport and language (German in Texas, Rio Grande, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, and Florida, French in Louisiana, and so on).  Technical Schools teach at a faster pace and prepare students for more involved jobs, such as working in railroads, medicine, machinery, manufacturing, and so on.  Grammar schools would teach German or French, mathematics, informatics/computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, art (as well as crafts and design), music, history, philosophy, civics / citizenship, and social sciences.

Throughout this time, PE classes would also include dancing, traditional dances like the Virginia Reel, with Friday night or Saturday night dances often being the big event for every quarter and semester as the big get-together, much like their parents and grand parents had done for over a century or more.

Universities began evolving further in this time, with various agricultural and technical schools growing up around military academies, and spreading through the various states, helping students learn to farm, or join professions such as medicine, law, chemistry, or machinery.  Education began to improve dramatically in the Confederacy around this time, with literacy jumping up to 80% by 1910, and 90% by 1915.  

Confederates paid for schools by paying tuition.  Everyone paid a school tax if they had school-age children which went to pay for primary (age 6-9) schools.  The tax was low enough in each state that it wasn't a huge problem to anyone.  Once children went to either high school, technical school, or grammar school, they paid tuition to the schools, which was also reasonable, as many of these schools were church-run or privately run in partnerships with some businesses who had an interest in turning out well-educated and well-rounded children who could fill the jobs they needed.  The actual running of the school was left to the educators (by law), but businesses could 'guide' schools in which things they were looking for from children.  Schools in the Confederacy often had hunting clubs and rifle clubs, and children would often learn how to hunt and proper gun safety while in school.

Skyscrapers in the South

Some cities naturally attracted more population and business, and with booming business, the southern confederation needed to build larger buildings.  With land values in cities booming, these businesses decided to build up, rather than out, or acquire more land, leading to the first skyscrapers in cities like San Diego, Austin, Dallas, Nashville, Louisville, New Orleans, and Atlanta.


Many of these early buildings would see use well into the 21st century with new tenants and owners, preserved on the Confederate Register of Historic Buildings.  Rather than destroy their past for the newest, tallest, and shiniest new skyscraper, southerners reused their old towers, and build new ones where it made sense to do so, usually in areas of downtown with dilapidated buildings, poor tenants, or buildings with no historic value.

Wright Brothers and Flight

Back in 1899, the Wright brothers began their experiments in flight in Ohio, United States in 1899. In the fall of 1900, 1901, and 1902, the Wrights went to North Carolina to conduct their flight tests. By 1902, they were ready to install a gasoline engine on their glider. A young man by the name of Cyrus McCormick II, son of the late Cyrus McCormick, was in charge of the McCormick Harvester Machine Company's Virginia/North Carolina Division, and had heard about some flight tests being made in North Carolina's Outer Banks. He decided to venture out to see what was going on. He figured, if anything, he could get some good fishing in while he was there. So Mr. McCormick watched the brothers, and struck up a conversation with them, and made friends, being impressed by what they had achieved so far. Their method of experimenting and proceeding methodically, step-by-step impressed him, as they were advancing by steps just enough that they would really be able to achieve real flight, he realized.


Wright Brothers' 1901 Glider



1901 Glider with a controllable rear rudder


October 10, 1903 flight in NC

Cyrus invited the two to dinner, and they had some snapper he caught, along with sweet potatoes, baked beans, rolls, some sweet tea, and talked shop. Finally, McCormick offered to finance the Wright Brothers' work, and give them all legal rights to what they produced in exchange for a cut of the profits later. He even offered to get in touch with Henry Ford to get them a gasoline engine for their experiments.

The brothers returned to Dayton to think it over. Unfortunately, their partner Octave Caswell had been trying to sell their aviation secrets behind their backs, which made them furious. Caswell and Augustus Amerling tried secretly to sell their secrets to Samuel Langley in Washington, DC. Fortunately, Langley hadn't cooperated with Chanute. That was the push that sent the brothers packing to immigrate into the southern states of the Confederacy. The two moved to Raleigh, North Carolina so they could work near McCormick's plant and have access to the Outer Banks as a test site.

Orville and Wilber set up a company, the Wright Aviation Company, with financial help from the McCormicks and Ford himself. The lawyers they secured assured the brothers they would be safe in any work they made into inventions, and they would get the patents. The brothers would make an airplane, but didn't have the knowledge to defend patents, so this made them much more confident in their choice to move south.

Their successful motorized flight was made October 10, 1903 in North Carolina at a place called Kitty Hawk. It was a short flight, but within a week, they would be making 1000-foot flights for over a minute. At this point, they would be using 'wing-warping' to make turns. But soon afterward, their associates at WAC would help them design an important improvement over 'wing-warping' - ailerons; hinged segments of the wings on the trailing edge which would pivot up or down, left or right, to control yaw and pitch. Soon the Wright Aviation Company was the recognized leader in aircraft design and manufacture, but it would be some time before it would be recognized for coastal or border defense. It would take a war to make that a necessity.

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal was initially built by the French, but became a joint British-French project in 1875, as both saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and empires in Asia. In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompted Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France. The local government allowed Britain to take effective control of Egypt. British control allowed Coptic administrators into government for the first time in centuries, and soon, Coptic became a prestigious language again, and the Coptic church grew. Over the course of the next fifty years, as Egypt continued under British control, Egypt's Christians flourished more than they had in the last 8 centuries.

Monaco (1895)

Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois, father of Ranier III, is born in Paris.  His father, Count Maxence Melchior Edouard Marie Louis de Polignac, married Princess Viktoria Louise of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg a few years before.

Fashoda Incident (1898)

In Africa, French troops tried to claim an area in Southern Sudan, when a British force purporting to be acting in the interests of the Khedive of Egypt arrived. Under heavy pressure, the French withdrew, which secured the Anglo-Egyptian control over the area. The status-quo was recognized by an agreement between France and the UK, acknowledging British control over Egypt, and French power in Morocco, but the defeat was humiliating for France and its Emperor, Napoleon III.

Confederate 1900 Census (1900)

Based on the 1900 census, the Confederacy has a population of 39,194,044 persons, with Texas having the most people at 4,582,219 persons.  Of this, 11,515,210 were black Confederates, 29.38% of the total.

Top 20 Confederate Cities:
New Orleans 338,783
Louisville      241,583
Atlanta        202,212
Nashville     180,329
Birmingham 132,532
St. Joseph   121,515
Los Angeles 120,925
Memphis     120,738
Richmond   106,313
Davis, DC     87,433
Little Rock    83,509
Oakland       79,013
Charleston   68,085
Savannah    64,008
San Antonio 62,919
Norfolk        55,016
Houston      54,006
Covington   50,667
Dallas         50,313

Unlike the United States, the Confederates did not congregate in their capital city, as most of the legislators returned to their homes for much of the year.  This contributed to a much lower regulatory burden than in the United States, along with lower taxes and fines.  Much of the capital city was populated by service industries like restaurants, hotels, theaters, and museums.

Russo-Japanese Incident (1904-1905)

Russia has for the longest time sought a warm water port that would be open all year long. Vladivostok iced over in the winter, and it had leased Port Arthur from the Chinese in the northeast of China. Japan wanted to create a sphere of influence on both Korea and Manchuria. Seeing Russia as a rival to its ambitions, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for Korea being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia unwisely refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel as a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese perceived the Russians as a threat to their expansion plans in Asia and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese opened by blockading Port Arthur and the Russian Fleet.

Seeing his options, and wishing to concentrate his energy elsewhere, the Russian Tsar was advised by his ministers to negotiate. Both the Japanese and the Russians negotiated with President Roosevelt and President Longstreet in Alexandria. The Treaty of Alexandria, negotiated in Arlington.

The two powers agreed that Russia would gain 'outer Manchuria' (light red, below) and the northern 2/3 of Sakhalin, while Japan would gain Korea as part of its sphere of influence. Russia also gained extraterritorial rights to Port Arthur as a Russian Cession and rail access to the port through Japanese-dominated Manchuria. In exchange, Japan would not place troops within 20 miles of its Manchurian border with Russia, if Russia did the same.

Avoiding a war and the casualties was great for both sides, but worse for Russia. It came out ahead in having its 1.55 million troy ounces of gold reserve intact, no casualties, no need for loans to pay for the war, and its three fleets remained intact. Unfortunately his unwillingness to win the war would boil over into the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Japan really came out ahead, as it showed an Asian power able to best a western power. Its victory gave it an edge in China, but the British, Americans, Confederates, French, and Germans all built up their Pacific Island bases and fleets as a result. Japan's emboldened military would take a more aggressive stance in China ahead.

China

In China, the Boxer Rebellion ended in its defeat in 1901. Before this, Christian missionaries had come from the west to evangelize in China. Even the Confederates sent missionaries starting in the 1870s, growing to the largest missionary group by the 1890s in China. They took their religious convictions seriously, viewing the relationship between God and an individual as a personal one, and one with which government must not interfere. Comparing their political philosophy with the various political philosophies they found in China, they professed that a Christian China would be the most successful if they adopted the Christian religion and the Confederate model - one of a strong local government and a limited national government. The Confederates professed this would give the Chinese a strong, modern, peaceful, and industrious nation, so long as they respected individual rights, promoted universal education and private property rights and the rule of law.

Confederate missionaries came from every denomination - Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, the AME, and even the Apostolic Methodist Church from Sonora, a splinter primitivist church based on the Bible and the Didache which worshipped on Saturday and integrated the Jewish festivals and calendar into their worship. Christianity's spread in China was impressive up until the time of the Boxer Rebellion, which targeted all western and Christian influences. Four hundred fifty Chinese Christians were massacred in Beijing, and outside was widespread murder - 250 foreigners, and 30,000 Chinese Christians were slaughtered. That was what brought in the eight nation military force to suppress the rebellion.

In September 1901, the Qing Dynasty gave western troops temporary control of Beijing and the port of Tianjin and allowed Christians to continue within China to convert people to the new religion. Confederates focused more in the central and south China areas, which were less devastated by the rebellion. The Yangtze River Valley from Shanghai to Nanjing, to Wuhan, to Chongqing, and on to Tibet, was where the Christian missionaries were most effective. They were also effective in Hong Kong and nearby Guangzhou (Canton), and west up the Pearl River in South China, north of French Indochina.

Confederates were seen as different by the Chinese. Unlike the French, British, Russian, or even US 'Yankee' (扬基). They were more often common folk, and their influence was widespread in China amongst the rural farmer, the urban worker, and the educated elite. Confederates were rightly proud of their country and its limited government; it let Texans manage themselves, Georgians manage themselves, and everyone kept out of the others' business. Georgia remained Georgia. Virginia remained Virginia. Every unique culture remained unique. As they traveled in China, they saw China was as unique and varied as the states in the Confederacy, and many people they met they told about their form of government and how it could work for them too; but they never pushed them or forced it on the Chinese like the colonizers from Europe. So the number of Christians in China grew, and Chinese relations with the Confederates grew.  The simple southerners were better able to relate to the Chinese they met.  

A Nice Little Colony

In 1905, Napoleon IV visited the German colony of Kamerun on what was ostensibly a good will tour of his and Europe's colonies. He arrived in Kamerun and arrived near the northern borders of it, British Nigeria, and French Middle Africa, and commented that he was there to support the sovereignty of the Sultan, Tafewa, at N'Djamena, who had been fighting both the British and the Germans using bases in what would eventually be called Chad. His statement amounted to a very provocative challenge to the German and British influence in the region.

Germany, now under Kaiser Friedrich III, who was delegating more duties to his eldest surviving son, Prince Albert William Henry, sought a multilateral conference to call the French to account before other European powers. The French foreign minister, Theophile Delcasse, took a defiant line, declaring there was no need for such a conference. Count von Bülow, the German Chancellor, gave a calm assurance that war would result of they did not. Under Friedrich III, Prussian militarism was held in check, though it kept up enough that Germans did emigrate to the US, CS, and British and German colonies to escape military service.

The result of this diplomatic misstep was the Algeciras Conference, in Spain in 1906. Supporting Germany was Austria-Hungary, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States, which were present due to their large German immigrant populations more than anything. France was supported by Spain, Italy, and Russia (Italy had gotten full control of Tunisia from France, and they were negotiating for the exact borders of Italian Libya). Realizing that their cause was not going to be won in the conference, the French agreed to a face-saving compromise, which resulted in Neukamerun being created for the Germans, France saying that the German colonial administration was best able to handle the security of its own colony.

Note: Bernhard von Bülow was born in 1849, and had served in the Confederate States, and then in the United Kingdom as a state secretary for foreign affairs. He even married a British Princess. His upbringing in Holstein, now Altona, Hamburg, was by governesses, giving him a grasp of English and French, and oriented him towards the British and their American and Confederate cousins.

Japan

France's colonies in Asia caused the empire to seek alliances, and found a possible ally in Japan. At Japan's request, Paris sent military missions from 1872-1880, and 1884-1889, to help modernize the Japanese army. Conflicts in China over Indochina climaxed during the Sino-French War (1884-1885). Admiral Courbet destroyed the Chinese Fleet anchored at Foochow. The treaty which ended the war gave France a protectorate over northern and central Vietnam, which it would divide into Tonkin and Annam. Under the leadership of Jules Ferry, the French Empire would greatly expand, gaining Indochina, Madagascar, West African territory and Central Africa, and Polynesia outside of the Confederates' Washington Islands.

Foreign Policy

To isolate Germany and its growing relationship with the United Kingdom, France went to great pains to woo Russia, gaining the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, and then the Entente Cordiale with Italy in 1904. By 1908, France managed, despite its alliance with Russia, to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire. The French promised Egypt to the Ottomans if they would fight a war on the French side. The Ottomans would agree in early 1909, despite France's alliance with Russia. Ottoman denial of the German-Baghdad Railway in 1900 was a blow to the Ottomans, who sought a deal the German Empire couldn't agree with - they gained too little with the concessions the Ottomans wanted (due to French back-channel influence). The Ottomans almost secured Russian aid, surprisingly, in the Turko-Italian War, but the Russian demand for what amounted to a Russian protectorate over Turkish lands scuttled the talk until 1909, when the Turks agreed to Russia's influence in Bulgaria in exchange for Turkish future influence in Greece, Macedonia, and Albania. The Turkish-Italian War was significant in that the two powers agreed to give Rhodes and a few islands back to the Turks, while the Turks recognized Italian authority over Libya, and gave favorable trade concessions to the Ottomans; this improved the Turkish economy and Italian economy, and helped smooth tensions between the two powers.

French Anglophobia was prominent in the early 20th century, after the Fashoda Incident. The Boer Wars in South Africa saw France's public opinion openly siding with the Boers, which was noticed in England.

During the Fashoda Incident, Germany secured closer British ties by supporting them with munitions during the Boer Wars that finally unified South Africa when the Dominion of South Africa, including Bechuanaland, was secured in 1905. By 1910, South Africa would have a population of around 5.3 million, of which 2.9 million were of European origin, and 950,000 were of Indian Origin. Bechuanaland never suffered any segregation as it had cooperated with the British, and were largely left alone; they did learn English and style themselves as the British did, and would largely assimilate into the wider South African society.

German Domestic and Foreign Policy

Kaiser Friedrich III ended the Bismark Kulturkampf and his new chancellor worked with him to agree to the use of Polish in schools and no punishment of Polish culture; in exchange, the Polish population in Posen, Silesia, and West Prussia would learn German and use it in court and in dealings with the government. The deal worked and the Polish in the east would embrace the German policy and government somewhat more fully, and even participate in colonization efforts, bringing with them their skills and knowledge to Tanganyika, Namibia, Togoland, Kamerun, and the pacific islands. German internal efforts at social programs soothed the public's desire for some government welfare, and cooled support for the SPD and its more radical Marxists, preventing a large build-up of communist sentiment in Germany; some businesses even tried profit sharing. Reports from Texas Germans came back and even helped give the National Liberal Party a boost; the CS was free and successful due to its more unregulated and less heavy-handed government, so why not try it in Germany?
  Texas German literature came back to Germany and began influencing European Germans - the present perfect began losing ground to the simple past tense as a conversational past tense, the R began to be trilled instead of uvular, and the genitive began to gain ground where the dative had been growing in usage.  Even the strong subjunctive began to grow in popularity in some circles over the würde+infinitive construction, which remained for weak verbs.

Colonial efforts began paying dividends, mostly in the western-most province of Kamerun, Togoland, German Samoa, and in Namibia with the restored Walvis Bay (1909). Kiautschou Bay also became a valuable export colony for Asian products, for which the Germans developed a fascination. Spices, silk, and other exotic Asian cultural items became prized in Europe. China (plates) became fashionable, and many in the nobility developed 'Asian rooms' in their palaces to show off things purchased from Asia.

Upon discovering the genocide in Namibia (German Southwest Africa), the Germans removed General von Trotha, who had damaged relations in the colony. German efforts to restore the confidence in their administration would earn public praise from the press in the United Kingdom; British had done much the same in the Dominion of Rhodesia, so they couldn't criticize too much what the Germans had done.  Namibia would soon become a majority ethnic German colony by 1915, and its policy of 'integrating' natives (teaching them to read/write German, christianizing them, having them dress as Europeans did, and work in the cities in various lower-paying jobs) would result in native Namibians slowly identifying with the colonial power moreso than the Zulu in Mozambique, having been pushed out of South Africa with British, Boer, and German help.  The Zulu were deported to Madagascar, Mozambique, Dutch Congo, and even to South America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific to work on plantations, with an unfortunately high mortality rate, drastically reducing the tribe's population in Africa until it became a shadow of its former self.

Bosnian Crisis (1908)

Austria-Hungary unilaterally declared its annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, timing it with Bulgaria's declaration of independence. Russia supported Bulgaria, and so did France, while the Ottomans opposed annexation of what it believed to be its province. This crisis nearly caused a full-scale war with Italy, Serbia, and Russia on one side, and Austria-Hungary on the other. Russia determined not to back down again and increased its military build-up.

Germany's slow and limited support strained relations with Austria-Hungary in the Bosnian Crisis, as Germany didn't want to risk a war with Russia at this point. Kaiser Friedrich III had just died and Kaiser Heinrich I was just getting control over the government at this point, and appointing a new chancellor.

Balkan Wars (1911-12)

The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in southeastern Europe in 1911 and 1912. During the first war, four Balkan states defeated the Ottomans, while Bulgaria, one of those four, was defeated in the second war. The Ottomans lost nearly all their holdings in Europe. Austria-Hungary was not a combatant, but was weakened as Serbia pushed for a union of South Slavic peoples into one nation.

The resulting wars increased international tensions between the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. It strengthened Serbia, weakened the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, both of which might have been able to keep Serbia under control, thus disrupting the balance of power in continental Europe towards Russia (and its ally, France).

Russia initially agreed to avoid territorial changes as a result of the war, but later in 1911, supported Serbia's demand for an Albanian port. At the London Conference of 1911-12, it was agreed to create an independent Albania, but Montenegro and Serbia refused to comply. After an Austrian, then international naval demonstration in early 1912, and Russia's withdrawal of support, Serbia backed down. Montenegro didn't comply, and the Austrian council of ministers met and gave them one last chance to comply, or face military action. Facing military preparations, the Montenegrins backed down.

The Serbian government, failing to get Albania, now demanded that the other spoils of the first Balkan War be reapportioned, and Russia failed to pressure them to back down. Serbia and Greece allied against Bulgaria, which responded with a preemptive strike, triggering the second Balkan War. The Bulgarians crumbled quickly when Romania joined the war.

German support for Austria-Hungary was limited as Kaiser Heinrich I didn't believe Serbia was worth going to war, especially against the allies it had. Besides, Germany was more focused now on its colonies and currying British support than worrying about the Balkans. German diplomacy was pro-Greek and pro-Romanian, in opposition to Austria-Hungary's pro-Bulgarian views. Despite the strains, soon after the war's end in early 1912, the foreign ministers of both nations (Leopold von Berchtold and Heinrich von Tschirschky) managed to help smooth over their differences. But Serbia was not finished.

By mid-1912, France's alliances with Italy and Russia were set as were friendships with the Ottomans, strained as they were; German and British alliances with Austria-Hungary were set, and all it would take is one little spark to throw Europe into war.

Voyage of the Titanic (1912)

Showing off the impressive industrial might of the British Empire, the RMS Titanic, the largest and most luxurious cruise ship of the era sailed from England for New York and then south to Norfolk. In early April, it managed to hit an iceberg due to failing to heed ice warnings but its water-tight bulkheads closed shut quickly, and they managed to sail into New York safely.


RMS Titanic, which arrived in New York in April 1912

As a result of its encounter, new safety measures would be enacted in the British Empire, the United States, and even the Confederate States. Ships would need to carry life boats for the entire passenger manifest, taller water-tight bulkheads would be required, stronger water pumps, emergency evacuation drills (many civilians loitered about, hindering the crew's effective response), and stronger metals for hulls, as the metal used on the Titanic showed buckling, revealing its hull not to be as strong as claimed.