Wrapped in Flames: The Great American War and Beyond

[EnglishCanuck]

Will the confederacy attempt to atract european immigrants ?

There's going to be something of an immigrant slump in the latter half of the 1860s to the United States, but the Confederacy will not necessarily be actively attempting to attract them. That will be a state level initiative, and it will very much depend on the state. South Carolina, very much no, but places like Georgia and Louisiana won't be turning them down.

Arizona is where the Confederacy wants immigrants, but the economic debate between free and unfree labor will be something of a problem.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

Chapter 118: The Eagle over Mexico​

“In 1865, the future of the Mexican Empire, despite being only a year old, seemed bright. French forces had landed in Guyamas in early January of 1865, and armed with Maximillian’s liberal decrees and willingness to hear their grievances, quickly gained the support of the local Yaqui, Mayo and Opata tribes who threw themselves unreservedly into the cause of the Imperialistas against the landlords and civil officials which had oppressed them, who fought for Juarez. This resulted in further gains in the north, with Imperial forces marching on Alamos.

Most alarming for Juarez was the joint Franco-Mexican force which moved towards Chihuahua. With a scant five thousand men, the joint column of eight thousand French regulars and Mexican imperial soldiers was an overmatch for the forces still loyal to the president. Juarez made the nearly fatal mistake of dithering to the last moment before fleeing with his cabinet, sans a rear guard to slow the Imperial column…

The flight sent him further north to El Paso del Norte[1] put him even further from the center of Mexico, and much of his support, than even Chihuahua City. A mood of depression reigned amongst his followers, with much of the treasury now depleted in paying for the loyal republicans alongside him. Though the position of El Paso del Norte was seen as one from which supplies to continue the struggle might be obtained, the uncertain feelings of the government in Richmond had to be taken into account.

Juarez had no official ties with the government in Richmond, and the desertion of Vidaurri in 1864 to the Imperial cause meant that many of the authorities along the Rio Grande were, at best, men who could be bribed but at worst agents of the empire. The presence of Juan Cortina in his ranks also made for tensions with the Confederate government in Austin, and an increased number of Confederate soldiers along the Rio Grande created uncertainty for both sides. The only secure line of supply was further away on the border with California.

The effective bisection of the country also put him out of contact with his supporters in the south…

Fighting in Southern Mexico was tumultuous. Though Colonel Diaz commanded the most respect, he was outranked by Ignacio Comonfort who had managed to finagle himself into the position of the "General of the South" which was almost totally self appointed with a fig leaf of legitimacy from Juarez. Comonfort made a series of notable blunders in early 1865, allowing the French forces under Bazaine an easier advance after defeating his forces in the open field at Morelia, which merely saw his three thousand men defeated by a joint Franco-Belgian brigade half its size and a humiliating rout to the south.

Coupled with these defeats, Diaz began taking further and further control over the remaining three thousand regulars and another five thousand militia he was preparing in Oaxaca…” – The Mexican Adventure, Marc Braudel, 1986

“Maximilian spent much of early 1865 dealing with turmoil in his own inner circle. Despite ostensibly a European ruler of a Mexican people, he often relied on advice from Europeans far in excess of his Mexican ministers in the late 1860s. This was perhaps most obvious in the form of the Austrian secretary Sebastian Scherzenlechner and the Belgian Félix Eloin. As one of Maximilian’s countrymen, Scherzenlechner held the emperor’s ear on many matters, but was arrogant, overbearing, impolite and of substantial girth, he was hated by most of Maximilian’s staff. His large size earned form him an epithet derived from Cholula’s largest pyramid “Grand Cu” but he soon earned a more bovine name “the Grand Moo” which was shared by the empress who also loathed him and instead favored Eloin.

The feud between these two disrupted many government functions in late 1864 and early 1865, as Eloin, a man of little talent but at least a mining specialist, clashed with the French and Mexicans. The Grand Moo would especially infuriate Bazaine, often by critiquing French strategy and policy. Eloin was little better, often going over the heads of French officers and officials. His ambitions aimed higher than as a mere secretary, seeking to become, in effect, the man in charge of the vast silver mines in Mexico. When he began clashing with Scherzenlechner more publicly, the Austrian began complaining about his pay being too low and his title too beneath him, which Eloin mentioned to the emperor. When the matter came up Maximilian, in a rare display of fury, accused the man of lying and promptly dismissed him from service. However, he soon grew tired of Eloin, and would lean more heavily on his Mexican secretary José Luis Blasio.

Discontent between European officials was not the only problem however. The French officials in Mexico, Carlota realized, were more interested in sending money back to France and gaining prestige for themselves in Mexico than they were in the maintenance of the Empire. The Foreign Secretary Ramirez would often argue loudly and vocally with the French minister Charles Montholon, who was most interested in collecting the interest on French repayments. The initial loans to Maximilian in 1864 were almost depleted, and yet more money was needed for both the maintenance of the empire and the continuation of the war in the hinterlands.

To aid that matter, Napoleon had dispatched Charles Eustache Corta, an economic wizard, to Mexico to help rationalize the economy. Corta had been amazed at the untapped wealth of Mexico, noting that the mines alone accounted for between 11 and 20 million pesos a year in revenues and urged the Emperor to expand the mining with foreign contracts, managing to wrangle with Minister Vidaurri very preferential treatment to men loyal to the emperor. He was helped in having Vidaurri be very eager to extract not just personal but economic vengeance on Juarez for what he felt were slights dating back to the Reform War. Corta also managed to use his brilliance to underwrite loans which would establish Mexico’s first national bank, and allow for the Mexican peso to be recognized in Europe, a sign of confidence Maximilian found gratifying.

However, Corta realized that much of the bad spending in government came from two places, General Bazaine, and the emperor himself. The emperor had massive personal debts from setting up his court, and they seemed to expand monthly, while Bazaine had run up massive deficits on both the campaign and then in his personal dealings, many of which were notoriously corrupt. Corta would complain to Napoleon that “he [Bazaine] is the greatest spender in the whole French army,” advising his sovereign to reign in the profligate habits of his general.

It was not just his spending that began vexing many of Maximilian’s cabinet, but his tight fisted control over military matters. Bazaine often used Mexican forces merely as French auxiliaries, which made for great discontent in Mexican circles. He also rarely consulted Maximilian on military matters, instead preferring to undertake action at his own discretion. His decision to personally lead the army south to Oaxaca was viewed with both relief and trepidation in the capital, as Maximilian knew he could do little to reign in any of the generals actions.

In an effort to exert control over his own military, Maximilian appointed Austrian Franz von Thun to organize a military force independent of the French. Thun was a stormy Bohemian and veteran of the Austrian military who had arrived in early 1865 at the head of 6,000 Austrian volunteers and 1,500 Belgians. He was instructed to begin forming a force of mixed Mexican, Austrian and Belgian units to form the core of an Imperial Army, though he kept units of purely European soldiery under arms, partially out of not unjustified fears that Mexican soldiers could stage a coup against him. Indeed, the only soldier trusted with a large formation was Meija, whose loyalty Maximilian found unquestionable.

Thun set to work organizing such units as well as campaigning in the north around the Sierra del Norte. He succeeded in negotiating treaties with the local villages and Indigenous peoples, whom he hired interpreters and negotiators to listen to the peoples need and arrange for aid in gathering crops or food. He wrote to Carlota encouraging her to support the local hospital, and pursued a cooperative strategy designed to build a base of loyalty to the regime in Mexico City[2].

Carlota herself was supportive of Thun’s efforts, and would write to Maximilian that such efforts should be supported. The hacendados, who ruled the over 6,000 haciendas of Mexico, were little better than feudal lords, holding their tenants in conditions that were not far in advance of serfdom. When Maximilian again embarked on a tour of the country in 1865, he would make a point of visiting Indigenous villages and speaking with their chiefs and priests. Carlota pursued a similar strategy, going around the elite clerical hierarchy and often appealing directly to the parish priests and making a point to dole out funds and gifts from the imperial largesse while the bishops often withheld similar funds protesting Maximilians liberal policies.

“The more I study of Mexico, the more I become convinced that the regeneration of the country must be based on the Indians, who make up the vast majority of the country,” Maximilian would write. Indeed, he would make up decrees that aimed at making lives for those who lived under what he called “abject subjugation” to improve pay, working conditions, and eliminate forced labor. He also restored the right to shared land ownership, something revoked by the Liberal land reforms which had seized Church property. Though meeting with severe pushback, he worked to ram such conditions through, though would only succeeded after 1867 in making such works law…

Maximilian and Carlota receiving a delegation of the Kickapoo people in 1865​

Foreign policy was also of increasing concern for Maximilian in 1865. While there was considerable comfort in Maximilian’s cabinet that the civil war in America continued, there was some fear over relations with the Confederacy. 5,000 Confederate troops sat on the border stretching from Arizona to the Rio Grande, their intentions were not at all known, and though the attitude in Richmond was friendly, no one was sure it would last forever.

Further clouding the issue was the dispatch of John T. Pickett of Kentucky as the Confederate envoy to Mexico[3]. Pickett was an ardent expansionist who had, before secession, loudly and often declared he desired pieces of Mexico for the United States. Naturally, this alienated him from Mexican political leaders, and even after he had switched his posting from envoy to President Juarez and envoy to Emperor Maximilian, the hostility from native Mexicans prevented him from making any real headway into Mexican affairs.

However, Pickett was eventually replaced with William Preston in early 1865, just as the news that France and other European powers had recognized the Confederate States. This put Maximilian in a dilemma. He desired good relations with the United States, but that seemed almost impossibly out of reach if he recognized the Confederacy. As foreign minister, Ramirez said “the Confederacy stretches from the banks of the Colorado to the mouth of the Rio Grande, while our border with the United States is a spit of land neighboring California…it is far better to recognize our smaller neighbor.” So, in November of 1865, Maximilian proclaimed he recognized the Confederate States of America…

The greatest gain Maximilian would have in 1865 came also from Confederate agents in Texas seeking better relations with the emperor. By summer of 1865 Juarez was desperate for foreign aid. In seeking it, he made perhaps one of the worst blunders of his life. Writing to the new McClellan administration in August of 1865 he praised the incoming administration for its “peaceful nature” and spoke with “solemn despair for the cleavage of this great country in unhappy civil war which ravages my own.” He spoke of the need to keep the democratic principle alive in North America and said that Mexico was a natural ally in that state. He also offered to sell the states of Sonora, Baja and Baja Sur to the United States in exchange for funds and aid to keep the struggle going[4].

Such correspondence fell into Confederate hands as it was attempted to be smuggled north, and was duly turned over to imperial authorities. The news had a dual effect of both affronting Maximilian personally, he had pledged not to sell any Mexican territory, and seriously undermining Juarez legitimacy with his own people. Offering even a portion of Mexico to the “Northern Colossus” offended even his most ardent defenders and allies. It seriously undermined morale in his remaining forces and many guerrilla leaders fighting in his name began to wonder why they bothered to fight one invader when their president offered yet more of Mexico to another invader.

Even had the offer been taken to Washington, it would have fallen on unsympathetic ears. “The Mexicans have failed in self-government, and it was a question of which nation she should fall a prey. That is now solved. I don’t see that we are damaged by France placing a Hapsburg on the throne,[5]” McClellan would write to Secretary of State Seymour. McClellan had little love for Mexicans as a people, and, with a vast Confederacy now standing between the United States and Mexico, felt little compelled to offer even the pretension of help to Juarez’s government. He would have agreed with de Lhuys statement that “an ex president flying from village to village is no more the head of a government than a few bands of guerillas are armies.”

This great apathy to the fate of the Mexican Republic was yet another blow to Juarez’s hopes…” - Maximilian and Carolta: A New World Dynasty, Margaret Amberson, 2014

“Yet another crushing blow to the cause of republican government in Mexico came at the end of 1865. Bazaine had martialled a massive force outside Oaxaca City, facing some two thousand regulars and three thousand militiamen under Diaz, Comonfort had decamped South to raise fresh forces, or so he said.

He sent a demand for the city to surrender, but Diaz refused. In response Bazaine began a bombardment. Though Diaz had done what he could to strengthen the fortifications, he had little artillery and ordered the melting down of church bells and candelabras to make ammunition for what little he had. The French commented that they “were quite beautiful, but made for poor shells” and they often failed to explode, exposing the French forces to little danger.

On November 14th, with the defences battered to pieces, Bazaine ordered the city stormed. Though they put up a valiant fight, Diaz’s men could not stop the onslaught and he was forced to surrender after a day of fighting. With Diaz’s capitulation, four thousand men, and the cream of the remaining regular army in the south, fell into French hands, leaving only scattered bands under Comonfort remaining to fight for Juarez’s cause in Southern Mexico…” – The Mexican Adventure, Marc Braudel, 1986

----

1] OTL Ciudad Juarez, renamed in 1888.

2] All historical. Thun appeared to have been a rather foresighted leader in that he understood that bringing the Indigenous peoples around to the support of the Empire was the long term recipe for success. This was an idea that Maximillian and Carlota shared.

3] Dispatched in 1861, he was merely one of numerous officials sent abroad who were manifestly the wrong people for the job. OTL he was arrested and expelled from Mexico for assaulting a fellow American who happened to be a friend of the foreign minister. Just about the only capable and inoffensive diplomat the Confederacy sent was John Slidell to Paris.

4] To my considerable surprise, this is true. He wrote Seward in 1865, when he was indeed at the battered edge of Mexico with only a small army and funds to sustain him, making just such an offer. I can only explain this as an offer made out of desperation. It was also intercepted by imperial authorities and spread through Mexico. Thankfully for Juarez, the civil war ended and money and weapons could flood south, never forcing him to rely on such a deal with the devil.

5] Historically these were the words of William Tecumseh Sherman. He didn’t give a damn who ruled in Mexico, and surprisingly, neither did McClellan. He actually considered going south to fight for Maximilian after the Civil War OTL, instead deciding on an extended stay in Europe in reality.

 

[Nenshou Yuuki]

5] Historically these were the words of William Tecumseh Sherman. He didn’t give a damn who ruled in Mexico, and surprisingly, neither did McClellan. He actually considered going south to fight for Maximilian after the Civil War OTL, instead deciding on an extended stay in Europe in reality.

That would be an interesting what if?.

Also bad move trying to offer Mexican territory to the union, I imagine there's still a lot of bitter feelings over the Mexican-American War.

 

[EnglishCanuck]

That would be an interesting what if?.

Something that could be interesting to see done, if only from the perspective of writing about McClellan.

Also bad move trying to offer Mexican territory to the union, I imagine there's still a lot of bitter feelings over the Mexican-American War.

Deep and bitter feelings. I was so surprised to learn about it because Juarez was normally a much smoother operator politically, leaning not too much on the US and only wanting it as a counterweight to French arms in the war against the empire. So upon learning about this I was indeed surprised since he would definitely know how unpopular that would make him. Coupled with the now perceived terminal decline to his cause, he's taken quite a few hits it is unlikely he will recover from.

 

[Kurd Gossemer]

It seems like Latam is getting it's second monarchy, hopefully Maximillian can improve Mexico, at least in the long run.


Also, makes me wonder on how Brazil is gonna look since the author mentioned that the Paraguay War will be looking different from OTL so I'm really interested in that, maybe Brazil and Argentina come to blows over the partition of Paraguay or maybe even Paraguay doing better? Either way, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Nenshou Yuuki]

Deep and bitter feelings. I was so surprised to learn about it because Juarez was normally a much smoother operator politically, leaning not too much on the US and only wanting it as a counterweight to French arms in the war against the empire. So upon learning about this I was indeed surprised since he would definitely know how unpopular that would make him. Coupled with the now perceived terminal decline to his cause, he's taken quite a few hits it is unlikely he will recover from.

Yeah to me that seems like if Germany fell into a civil war after WW1 and one side offered to sell France the Rheineland for support, that would not go over well.

It will be interesting seeing how Mexico develops, while they won't have to worry about the Union for the near future, the Confederates might get ideas plus I can see the French trying to extract as much value as they can.

 

[DAv]

So the Empire's here to stay. From what little I know about Maximillian, there were certainly worse options for rulers during the time period although it appears that there's room for general instability if he can't reign in the spending and generals. Then there's the Confederacy on the border who might fancy a chance at spreading out once an opportunity presents itself.

 

[NoThymeToulouse]

Groups like the Georgia entrepreneurs are, essentially, the future of the Confederate economy. The Confederacy very much was an export based state, so the maintenance of overseas mercantile connections will be paramount to the maintenance of the economy going forward. Cotton, tobacco, rice and eventually sugar, are going to be the cornerstone of the Confederate economy. In exchange they'll be getting access to cheaper European manufactured goods and finished products. Part of that is an opening of the door to European markets that was simply not possible in the US (even with moderate tariffs post-war, the Confederacy has a way lower import cost than the US) which will make them the export market of choice for cheaper European goods. That, naturally, is going to have a negative impact on the US economy.

So too will the South's desire to import European rail iron and locomotives. During the war much of the existing railroad infrastructure was destroyed in the Upper South, but unlike OTL they didn't have to cannibalize their existing railroads to keep them going and could import rail iron, engines and other stock or machinery from Europe. This trend will continue, which won't be too bad for American rail industry in the long run because they're about to be building across the continent to the Pacific.

The notion that the Confederacy would want an agency (of what sort I'm not 100% sure yet) to promote more integration or investment from European economies is absolutely on point. I'm reading more into that at the moment, but efforts by economists from the Confederacy to better integrate with the European market are going to be driving forces in the post-war economic world.

Sorry if I'm miremembering but wasn't one of the big reasons confederate trade with Europe collapsed during the OTL Civil War was because the latter (especially the British Empire) ended up sourcing things like cotton much more cheaply from places like India? Wouldn't that still apply here?

 

[Nenshou Yuuki]

Sorry if I'm miremembering but wasn't one of the big reasons confederate trade with Europe collapsed during the OTL Civil War was because the latter (especially the British Empire) ended up sourcing things like cotton much more cheaply from places like India? Wouldn't that still apply here?

Well britain got involved early and smashed the Union blockade which allowed the South to sell their cotton to Europe cheaper than their competitors. It was more expensive to get cotton from India and Egypt but OTL it was pretty much the only alternative with the Union blockade.

 

[NoThymeToulouse]

Well involved early and smashed the Union blockade which allowed the South to sell their cotton to Europe cheaper than their competitors. It was more expensive to get cotton from India and Egypt but OTL it was pretty much the only alternative with the Union blockade.

Ah I see, thank you.

 

[Nenshou Yuuki]

Ah I see, thank you.

No problem, Egyptian and Indian cotton were higher quality but that came at a price, textile factories prefered something that was cheap but good enough for mass products.

 

[lusitano 1996]

There's going to be something of an immigrant slump in the latter half of the 1860s to the United States, but the Confederacy will not necessarily be actively attempting to attract them. That will be a state level initiative, and it will very much depend on the state. South Carolina, very much no, but places like Georgia and Louisiana won't be turning them down.

Arizona is where the Confederacy wants immigrants, but the economic debate between free and unfree labor will be something of a problem.

Arizona and Texas are pretty big places , plenty of room for immigrants , also latter the confederacy may want to increase its white population .

 

[SWS]

So too will the South's desire to import European rail iron and locomotives. During the war much of the existing railroad infrastructure was destroyed in the Upper South, but unlike OTL they didn't have to cannibalize their existing railroads to keep them going and could import rail iron, engines and other stock or machinery from Europe. This trend will continue, which won't be too bad for American rail industry in the long run because they're about to be building across the continent to the Pacific.

Was the South more successful in constructing railroads during the ATL War with the ability to freely import iron and machinery? There is an excellent online resource about it (https://www.csa-railroads.com/index.htm). Labor would still be an issue, I'd imagine, especially in regard to impressment of "slaves, mules and carts." Confederate agents might have induced the Irish to come, however. In any case, quality completion of the roads would have greatly enhanced the Confederate war economy and logistics.

The War Department never really made an effort to manufacture its own rolling-stock, in spite of the briefly-operated Raleigh "Government Locomotive Shop" for repair and private proposals to centralize manufacture of "Railway Machinery, Locomotives, Cars, Wheels, Axles, &c" in the same manner as rifles, gunpowder, ammunition, artillery, etc. It was probably a matter of principle that the Government should not control nor engage in such production in peace, which is why it quickly detached itself financially from the Piedmont Railroad once it was chartered.

 

[DarkAvenger]

I'm curious on what the "Cursed Amendment" is that would be passed in the US. My first guess is it allows states to secede from the US if the people vote for it and the government acquiesce to it, but no President would risk passing such an amendment.

The other one I am guessing is that the US returns escaped slaves to the Confederacy or it is illegal for slaves to enter the US but does that even count as an amendment? I'm sure that's more like an Act.

 

[Ironshark]

I'm curious on what the "Cursed Amendment" is that would be passed in the US.

I thought maybe it preserves slavery in the border states but why?

your idea is probably more likey

 

[DarkAvenger]

I thought maybe it preserves slavery in the border states but why?

your idea is probably more likey

Which one?

 

[kham_coc]

I think its regarding constitutional conventions, as its effectively what ended the war, so something that codifies the practice which will have impacts

 

[Ironshark]

Which one?

the first
especially with the Pacific Republic talk

 

[DarkAvenger]

I think only a President worse than Buchanan would propose that. And if I remember it correctly, the Western Alienation would occupy US geopolitics for the latter half of the 19th century, meaning that there is no Pacific Republic for at least 50 years.

 

[Icedaemon]

Hopefully Mexico comes out of this war better than OTL. It would be lovely if this timeline's Mexican empire ends up being seen as far more of a civilized and stable first-world nation than the confederacy, or ideally even the 'rump' United States itself.