~ To Live and Die in Dixie ~ * Revolutions*

Cuba became almost a burden of President Breckinridge. New streamed in from the land a crossed the way about Spanish brutality to the people of Cuba and it became more and more important to the people that the Spanish be stopped. Many hawk politicians backed up the people, taking there side and ‘speaking’ for the people in the Senate and Congress to get there way, which would mean war with Spain and annexion of Cuba.

While President Breckinridge was looking for a new market for the Confederacy, he was not ready to go to war with a European power. Europe was one the backroom fall back plans in case of another Union attack, just like the “Stonewall” Line was the physical embodiment of that fear. Increased pressure from the public by the public, fed by those hawk politicians, led to the secret funding of the Cuban insurrectionists.

This was all of course kept under wraps, Congress approved of Breckinridge’s secret funding of the Cubans and only few commerce captains making ‘trade runs’ to Cuba knew about it, that being because they were running the supplies (namely guns and medical supplies) to the Cubans, keeping them hidden in food marked containers and crates. The trade was the most well kept secret of the Confederacy who like to put on a face of honesty for the rest of the world, a secret so kept most of the ships crews didn’t even know what they were delivering.

One of the most frequent runners was a ship known as The Virginius, a former blockade-runner running food and medical supplies to the developing Latin American countries. President Breckinridge placed the most important ‘goods’ on this ship, which frequented Cuba and had established a good relation with the Spanish government.

Besides the dealing in Cuba the president had to worry about funding the “Stonewall” Line and like his predecessor, tried to promote Industry as much as possible. Breckinridge’s major success would come from this, as his leadership and charisma was able to convince many to invest in industry, personally visiting big time capitalists and using his great command presence to persuade them to do what he willed.

On the flip side he done his best to gain more power to the Federal Government. The patchwork of states, what was practically small countries, made it near impossible to open factories and expand the countries industrial power without going through ton's of paperwork and pleasing the state legislator’s. Seeing the problem in this he used his connections with the northern states such as Kentucky and Missouri to support his bid for a more involved Federal Government and convinced many that it was in the best interest for the states and the country as a whole to allow the Federal government more power over such important matters.

At the end of his term Breckinridge had increased ties with the border states into the Confederacy by making them leaders in southern industry (aside from Virginia), expanded the Confederacies overall industrial capacity, laid the groundwork for intervention in Cuba and lead the country into greater political standing on the world stage by sponsoring the many medical and food intervention in places like Argentina which had been griped in civil war since the beginning of the War of the Succession.



Breckinridge was succeeded by Herschel Vespasian Johnson when the Whig party failed miserably to gain ground with there canadate Herschel Vespasian Johnson, who was caught up in a voting fraud scandal and lost nearly all support from the people. The Democratic Party would once again come out on top with a first in Confederate history, a Jewish canadate.

Judah Philip Benjamin, a close friend to Jefferson Davis and John Breckinridge, won with a land slide victory over Vespasian, who was caught up in a scandal by the Whigs to rig the election, though Vespasian never tried to cheat himself, the party set him up to take the blame for their failure. Judah pardoned him after taking office and persecuted the Whigs afterward, the party had already been falling apart with their failure to elect a president into office during the War of Succession which took a massive toll on their ranks who were leaving for the Democrat’s, who were gaining a basic monopoly over Confederate politics.

Judah came into office with a mess on his hands, the intervention in Cuba was becoming a dangerous game and the fact that he was Jewish in a largely protestant nation offered a religious hurdle he would have to cross. President Benjamin would turn out to be just the man to overcome that divide as he regularly visited his friends, both ardent Christians and former presidents, and expanded on the idea of religious tolerance.

Just eight months into his term the Confederacy would come dangerously close to a war with Spain…

Gulde said:

Hmm, interesting AAR, I've tryed playing CSA three times, but I've always get kicked by USA :wacko: .
So I will use this AAR as a "manual", and hope that gray color will cover at least half of Northern America .

Looking forward for next part of this AAR .

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Oh well thanks but I would have to suggest Hannibal Barca's Manual, as I got my ideas for the distraction invasion into the Union from him. Oh and of cource you might want to check out CSABadass' Southern Revolutions mod, which a great bit of this could not happen without, glad your enjoying the AAR, thats what its here for, enjoyment

Ksim3000 said:

Interesting......do you think you will persue the Philippines too or just Cuba? Also, a good election post. I did enjoy reading it. Glad to know that you are keeping up with the political side as much as the military side too.

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The Philippines are deffinatly tempting, I was looking to expand into the pacific and that will give a good base to get involved in colonization. Also, glad your enjoying it as well!

Viden said:

How you join Missouri to the Confederancy? What is needed for the event?

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You have to have all of Missouri under your control and keep the Union out for a certain amount of time and then an event should pop up "Missouri Joins the South!" Im pretty sure the more soldiers you have occupying the state the sooner it decides to Succede.

Jonney stretched as he walked along the deck of The Virginius, Jamaica loomed in the distance, a little piece of Britain in the Caribbean. Spotting Rick out of the corner of his eye Jonney turned and ran to catch up with him.

“Rick, I need to talk to you.” He shouted, Rick stopping wait for Jonney to catch up to him.

“What is Jonney? There a problem?” he asked, giving the young man an inquisitive look.

“Yea Rick, I believe there is a problem..” he said, pulling out a small pistol from his jacket. “What is this? Huh? Why didn’t you tell us you were smuggling guns into Cuba?” he said in a little more aggressive tone, shoving the gun into Ricks chest.

“Wait a minute Jonney, you don’t know what your talking about. How did you get this anyway?” he asked, taking the gun and placing it in his coat pocket.

“It fell through a hole in one of our last shipments into La Havana, do YOU know what your doing here!?” he said, toning his voice down but still visibly upset over the matter. It was understandable of course, if the Spanish were to catch them then things could get messy.

“Don’t worry about it Jonney, I know what I am doing, besides, the government wont let them do anything to us…” he was interrupted by Roy, the new first mate, who came running from the rear of the ship.

“Ricky! We’re being tailed! Looks like a Spanish War Ship!” he said, stopping to catch his breath before the three men began to head to the rear of the ship. Sure enough fast approaching was an Iron Clad, flying the Spanish flag. Instead of trying to escape and causing an international incident The Virginius slew down to await its inevitable boarding.

“It’s the Tornado captain.” The ships British interpreter, Rogger Welsh, said, one of most important figures on the ship given the fact that most the nations they visited spoke little to no English. The Tornado pulled up beside the The Virginus and their captain walked out and began shouting over in Spanish.

“Alright Rogger, you know I don’t speak much Spanish, so I’m going to need your help. The rest of you get back to work.” Rick told Jonney and the rest of the men who had begun gathering on the deck to see what was going on.

“What do you think they want?” one sailor asked, not directing it anyone. Jonney knew what it was about, he couldn’t understand Spanish but given the secret cargo they had been shipping it was pretty obvious. “I don’t know…” Jonney lied, looking over to Roy with a concerned look.

Rick, Rogger and the Spanish captain began speaking, the crew watched from afar, wondering what was being said, then things began to get a bit…ruff. “Look sharp guys, this doesn’t look like its going to end well.” Jonney said, watching as the conversation began to get heated, their expressions changed and Rick pushed Rogger back and got up in the captains face.

“Oh god this doesn’t look good..” another said, backing up. Suddenly a shot rang out and everyone jumped. Ducking behind a crate Jonney and Roy saw Rick fall back and hit the ground while the Spanish Captain walked on bord followed by troops.

The troops immediately began rounding up the crew and searching the rest of the ship, though many tried to hide it was useless. Occupying the ship they gathered the crew in the bottom of the ship while they took over, The Tornado latched a hold to The Virginius and toed her back to port in Santigo De Cuba.

Several hours past as the crew sat locked in the bottom of the ships hold under tight guard…

“What do you think they will do to us?” one asked, whispering to the others.

“Well ain’t it bloody obvious? They killed Rick, and they will kill the rest of us.” Another said, this one a brit like Rogger.

“But why? Why would they kill us? What did we do?” someone else asked, the fear vibrating off them.

“Because Rick was smuggling in guns to the Cuban, I found a gun in last shipment, but Rick said the government would never do anything to us..” Jonnney began but was cut off by a Nathen Walters.

“What the bloody hell was he thinking!? How is it none of us knew about this!?” his voice getting louder, the Spanish troops looked suspiciously at them, giving a harsh look, obviously irritated at not knowing what they were saying.

The large metle door swung open as Rogger and the Spanish captain who killed Rick. Clearing his voice Rogger looked down at the men with a sad, almost painful look. “I am sorry chaps, but the Spanish colonial government has decided to Court Marshal us and…execute.” He swallowed hard at the idea. “As pirates.”

A mess of words came spewing out of the captains mouth as he jabbered on and the soldiers gathered around the crew and Rogger. “We’re to be taken above deck and executed one by one…Im sorry chaps,” he said as they pushed him and the crew above deck and lined them up, one by one near the edge of the ship. Outside a large crowed of Spanish colonists and soldiers stood outside, cheering as the captain read off the charges and one by one began shooting the crew, starting with Rogger.

The sound of the captains gun discharging sounded as Rogger closed his eyes, the bullet entering the back of his head and out the front, jerking him forward and off the side of the boat to land on the concrete dock below. One by one he went down the line, reading out the sentence that no one but he and Spanish and Cubans could understand before executing them

Jonney was standing by Roy, who seemed detached, his face red and eyes swollen from several hours of silent sobbing over his cousin’s death. Jerking his head as each shot was fired off Jonney closed his eyes and thought back to all he had done in his life. He thought about the war, about all the killing he had done himself, but this was different. In the war people fought and died on both side for a cause, this time around they were being murdered because of the mistake of one man, or at least that’s how he interpreted it. He counted, fifty two shots had been fired, that meant half of the crew had been killed, and he would be number fifty four.

Listening as the foot steps clanked along the iron deck he heard the captain stop, uncrumble a peace of paper and began reading. The man beside him looked over and whispered, “I don’t want to die Jonney…” before the gun’s hammer clicked and the shot was fire.

Closing his eyes tight he looked away and awaited his turn, the boots of the captain clanked again before stopping and reading off his sentence, he heard the hammer being pulled back but then something else. A loud horn was blown as he heard another man yelling out in Spanish but, in an English accent?

Several of the English men on board cheered, Jonney, peeking out the corner of his eye saw a ship pulling up beside them, the name on the ship reading the H.M.S. Niobe.

Lord Telcius said:

Looking good man, looking good. Also, what would your plans be to invade Spain itself?

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I don't think I will invade Spain directly, things are sort of delicate right now. The U.S. is still on my back and has entered an alliance with Mexico while things are heating up with Spain, while I could draw on my mobilization pool, I don't want to risk the U.S. catching me with my pants down while fighting over seas. However I do plan to take Cuba and perhapse the Philipines, only invading Spain if absolutly necisarry.

President Benjamin sat hunched over his desk, rubbing his temples with his thumb and index finger as he looked over the Virginius report. “Fifty three…” he mumbled to himself, sliding the report aside he turned his attention to Spain’s official apology to the Confederacy, along with a large sum of Ten Thousand dollars to pay for the indemnities.

A knock soon came at the door as one of the attendants bowed and introduced a man in brightly colored clothing, mainly orange, it was the Spanish ambassador. “Hello, Mr. President.” He struggled to get the words out, looking down at the paper pushed to the side of the president’s desk.

“May I sit?” he asked, looking down at the chair. With a simple nod from Judah he sat down in the decorative Oakwood chair.

“I have a received an apology letter and a large sum of money from your country, and I can’t say I am not tempted to turn the offer down and take from Spain the cause of so much trouble, by force, if necessary.” Judah said at last, looking up at the diplomat.

“I do not think that would be in your best interest Mr. President, nor ours. Our nation and king is sincerely sorry for the incident, but is at the same time wonders, why you sir, did not deal with these insurrectionists aiding our enemies?” he replied, looking long at hard at the president.

“These men should have been dealt with by our government, not yours, the Court Marshal and execution of the crew of The Virginus was not legal and was not in Spain’s right to do so. However, the offer you have sent us is gracious…and at this time we also believe it is important not to war with Spain, though unless something is done about Cuba.”

“Forgive me sir, but just as you believe it was not in our right to execute the pirates who flew your nations flag into our ports, we believe it is not in your right to tell us how to deal with our own insurrectionist rebels.” He said, his voice sounding a bit irritated now.

Judah looked at the diplomat and then back at the paper, before responding. “We will accept this offer of money and the apology, but know this, it is in the interest of our people to see these atrocities committed in Cuba stopped, and let know your king that we will not allow the cruelty you government shows to the people of Cuba to continue for much longer.”

With that he rose from his seat and bowed once again to Judah, before leaving the office.


The Virginus incident was one of the closest moments the Confederacy had to coming to war with a European nation and was narrowly avoided by the concerns of foreign intervention. President Judah accepted Spain’s apology and let go the hopes for a Confederate Cuba, for the moment. Instead the expansionist eyes of the Confederacy turned westward, to the pacific, and southward to Argentina.

In a quick, decisive move a detachment of ten thousand men were sent to small independent nation of Hawaii to persuade the small nation of the benefits of joining the rising power of the Confederacy, safe away from the imperialistic powers of Japan in the West and the United States in the West. To say the least the queen was ‘thrilled’ at the number of men sent to protect the nation during its progression from a small fish caught up in a lake of big fish to under a big fish’s fin. Hawaii was welcomed into the Confederacy as a new territory with open arms, and embraced as new brothers.

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Argentina became a great interest as well, not as a conquest, but as an ally. The Confederacy was not a great conquer, always searching for a Casa Belie to go to war, never without a good cause. The nation of Argentina had been griped in long bloody civil war with no signs of ending.

Reports from commerce ships say that the war was devastating the populace and destroying a beautiful country. The main reason for showing any interest in the region was because of the increasing friendliness between Brazil and the U.S. An ally in South America would be used to counter the ever present threat of the Union gaining an upper hand on the Confederacy, the same way Hawaii’s absorption was to counter the U.S. purchase of Alaska from the Russians. While not going in and offering full military support, the President and Congress authorized the funding of there Argentinean war effort and began to steadily improve relations with the nation. One month after the absorption of Hawaii (in March 25th of 74) there eyes would turn once again to Cuba, this time with a little more force…

Lord Telcius said:

Always nice to have a little war going on, maybe make a premptive strike in California. For President, I would have perfered Longstreet(and not just because of Turtledove's books) or Hood. Still looks good.Be interesting if you can make a great Confederate Empire.

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Well, the way things are going right now I don't think I'll be able to do a premptive strike and ill have to put my plans for cuba on hold..

Personaly, one reason I didn't choose Longstreet was because of the Turteldove novels, I never knew he was much of a political man and chose Judah because of his political background and ties with people already in power. As for a Confederate Empire, thats not a probability, being the Confederacy want's to have a say in its little bubble, but not to the degree Germany, France and Britan want.

Black Lotus said:

I'm glad you didn't invade Spain, I don't think the Confederates coming out of the Civil War just decades prior could sustain the logistics realistically of a cross Atlantic invasion, the U.S. even in the 1890's had a hard time with logistical problems in Cuba, and that was only 90 miles away.

Great job anyway!

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I tried that in a past game once, didnt work out very well, not because of the great Spanish Armada (which is a joke) but becasue I couldn't afford to keep troops in Spain and fend of the little invasion into Alabama, Florida and Louisianna every now and then. Not to mention its kind of gamey.

Thanks for the replies everyone and it would seem like worst fears are coming true in the next update

Strategos' Risk said:

Why Argentina? I'd think that Brazil would have been the natural ally, considering that they have slavery as well. Though I suppose the game doesn't account for that.

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I dunno, for some reason the U.S. is geting rather chummy with them, and I believe they have already freed there slaves. I always like Argentina for some reason anywho, and givin that they are in the middle of their own civil war it adds something to talk/write about.

Well..I just got my butt handed to me by the U.S. I don't know exactly how though given I had Jackson in command of the Army of Northern Virginia with 12 divisons, + several artillery and engineer birgades attached (lso a level two fortification by the way) and some how a Union army obliterated him.

I of cource took down almost twice the number of enemy divisons, but I never had that happen before :wacko:

So I have arrived at a delima, retry and keep fighting, or avoid the ordeal all together, any advice or suggestions?

A month after the intervention in Hawaii the territories of New Mexico and Arizona were officially accepted as states into the Confederacy after gaining the full support of the Indian populace, agreeing to stay passive in return for a certain degree of self autonomy like the “civilized” tribes of Sequoia in Oklahoma. While this was wonderful news, alongside the commission of four new ships the shadow of war would again loom over the Confederacy from the north.

On October 16th, 1874 reports of Union forces mobilizing in the west reached Richmond too late. While the Eastern border was heavily occupied and rather secure, the western border was being watched solely by the Army of Mississippi, sadly enough that was not enough to counter the coming invasion. Soon Arizona was over run by Union forces, totaling around fifty thousands, poured over the western “Stonewall” Line and into the empty deserts, un-apposed.

Meanwhile another attack was made into Oklahoma, which was easily repulsed by the Army of Mississippi. Surprisingly there was no attempt on the Eastern Front, which was commanded by Thomas Jackson and the Army of Northern Virginia. Besides the original assaults there was nothing until December 25th when Fifty Six Confederate divisions were mobilized and deployed to the border, nearly twenty thousand in each sector along the “Stonewall” Line, besides the eastern front were there was sixty to fifty thousand running along parts of Western Kentucky and Northern Virginia.

Almost immediately retaliation began in the west as the Army of the West (seventy thousand men) pushed back the Union army in Tucson, but at heavy cost.

“The blue bellies took up defense on the line and turned it ageist us, there was nothing we could do but move forward. Casualties were horrible, there was nothing to hide behind on the attack, just open dessert and the fortifications on the horizon. Cannon fire, gun fire, they threw everything at us and it ripped our ranks apart, the dessert sand had turned red from the blood by the time we were able to push them out.” One soldier reported.

Later the attack was pushed back by a relief force from the Union, while Bueno Vista and Phoenix were captured without much strife, every attempt to disloge the invaders at Tuscon was useless.

Meanwhile the rest of the front was quite. Union troops held their positions and set up their lines as did Confederate soldiers, the tension was high and neither side was willing to risk making a move yet. President Judah and Jackson were to meet later at the front in Manassas and discuss a quick way to win the war. Knowing that the longer they waited the more the chance that the Union would overwealm their deffences.

The first sign of this came a week before the Presidents visit to Manassas when a Union army, two hundred thousand soldiers through themselves at the line in Manassas. The Army of Northern Virginina, made up of about one hundred and twelve thousand soldiers held positions and fought off the Union attack, taking heavy casualties but dealing almost twice that of what they took. The battle lasted the entire week and was joined by attacks on Weeling and Lexington were large battles were waged, each brining heavy casualties on both sides, but eneding in a Union retreat.
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A short update till I add in the conversation between Jackson and Judah about a new plan for invasion of the north.