Early in 1860, David summoned the Secretary of War to the oval office and handed him a piece of paper. David simply said, ‘Your orders.’ The Secretary of War looked at the paper, “What? You want me to forcible retire six of our senior generals? Promote these twelve junior officers to the rank of Brigadier General. Hell, you want this Col. R. Lee to be a Lieutenant General. No wait, this one is better, you want me to convince this retired Captain U.S. Grant to come back into the army at the rank of Lieutenant General.” David responded calmly, “Yes, you have your orders and you WILL fulfill them.” David continued to explain, that once the Army shuffle was complete, General Lee was to take command of the new Africa Corp and with Generals Longstreet, Jackson and Johnson are to take naval transports and arrive in Africa no later than June of 1860. David walked over to the world map and started studying Africa and thinking to himself, ‘of course, to prevent those brave men from returning, I need to keep them busy.’
As the summer of 1860 started, David again summoned General Scott and issued orders to prepare for a colonial war with France. David walked over to the world map on the wall, “I intend to strip France of all of her Pacific possessions and all of her sub-Saharan possessions. But more importantly, we need to make sure that the best and brightest officers that may have southern sympathies are busy overseas.’
So, on June 23, 1860, the United States declared a Colonial War on France. When Gen. Lee had moved south toward Libreville, he had dispatched Col. J. Stuart northward to secure the French trading post west of Lagos, while the bulk of his forces moved south.
By July, the American forces under Gen. Lee had arrived in Libreville and by August Libreville was liberated. Gen. Jackson was ordered to improve the defense of the Libreville fortification, the only major fortification for hundreds of miles. Lee knew that this was the place that the French would counter attack. Lee ordered Gen. Longstreet to take a Corp south to secure that province, while Lee moved inward to secure the inland provinces. Their orders were to leave one division per province for defense and bring all remaining forces back to Libreville once the French provinces were liberated.
While the Africa Corp was securing Libreville, the Pacific fleet was shuttling its three-garrison divisions from island to island, securing any and all French outposts. Once or twice they encountered small French navel forces that were easily defeated. By October of that year, Palmyra, Gilberts, Fidjis, Ellices, Kiribati and the Wallis were all secured. The Pacific fleet rendezvoused near Hawaii for some rest and re-supply; however, the Hawaii government viewed the landing of three divisions of troops as an act of war. Before the naval commander and the local officials could discuss the situation a battle between local forces and the American division started. When it was all said and done, the Americans had occupied and claimed the Hawaiian Islands.
Back in Africa, the American forces were attempting to secure all of the port cities to force the French into amphibious landing. The rushing about resulted in the Americans being spread out with no chance of reinforcements when the French counter attacked at Benito and Saburo in September of 1860. Though the battle in Saburo was quickly won, it required the timely arrival of the first division in Benito turned the tide of battle that allowed the Americans to drive the French back by Sept. 21st; however, French reinforcements attacked again on Oct 3rd. The Second Battle of Benito lasted for two bloody weeks, before the French were beaten back again. During this battle, the first amphibious assault on Libreville started on Oct. 12th and that battle lasted until November 24th. The Americans were forced to pull seven divisions out of the nine in the Africa Corp from neighboring provinces to defend against the continuous stream of French divisions that were feed into the meat grinder. The second major attack on Libreville started on December 27th of 1860 and lasted for just two weeks as France feed another four divisions into the meat grinder. However, the American Atlantic fleet only consisted of naval transports that quickly were chased into port once the war began, so the American forces in Africa were effectively blockaded and unable to return.
David felt confident that he would be able to defeat the Confederacy before the southern Generals returned. David knew that South Carolina had promised to secede as soon as Lincoln was inaugurated and David intended for Lincoln to act quickly and decisively to suppress the rebellion. But fate still had some twists and turns in store for the United States. The first week of January 1861 saw the complete collapse of the Mexican government and though tempted, David knew the Congress would not let him intervene in Mexico so soon after the last Mexican War nor would it be wise to commit troops to Mexico with the impending crisis in South Carolina. But what David did not expect was that France would seize upon the opportunity to put troops on America’s border, so France and its ally Spain declared war on Mexico. The United Kingdom was immediately concerned about French troops adjacent to its Belize colony, also declared war on Mexico with the intent of establishing a buffer province. The stunning chain of events pulled American as Britain’s ally into another war with Mexico. David reacted quickly, and ordered the border troops across into Mexico to prevent French troops from occupying any Mexican provinces. David realized that the entire regular army was now in the field and that he did not have any available reserves. Therefore, on February 1, David called out the National Guard.
The Fifth Mexican American War was a race between France and the United States to see who could reach Mexico City first. The American’s had the advantage of 18 Divisions moving across the border versus the three divisions France landed in the province south of Mexico City. The American forces were ordered to occupy and secure every Mexican province to prevent France from gaining a foothold. So by the end of March 1861, the Americans had liberated seven Mexican provinces and France had gained control of two Mexican provinces. One of the French provinces was isolated in the Yucatan peninsula buffered behind two British Provinces: Belize and a British occupied Mexican province. The other French occupied province was south of Mexico City and American forces were rushing south through Mexico City to try and occupy the neighboring provinces before the French could. The American commanders wanted to attack the French and drive them into the sea, but according to the Swedish Paradox Accord of 1836, colonial wars can only be fought in colonies, so the American were not able to attack the French in Mexico.
March also saw another amphibious assault by the French on Libreville, that battle lasted from March 12th through March 30th and resulted in another four French divisions destroyed. March of 1861 was a successful month in the terms of military matters; however, March was the lighting of the fuse in regards to political matters. March 15, 1861 saw the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President. Within one week, South Carolina state legislature started debate on secession, so that on April 11th 1861, South Carolina officially seceded from the Union. The President immediately issued orders to forcible prevent South Carolina from dissolving the Union. Lincoln’s forceful action prompted Alabama, Tennessee, Arkanass, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana to join the new Confederacy.
The morning of April 25th, had David looking out the balcony window of one of the upstairs sitting rooms in the Whitehouse. Most of the cabinet arrived along with General Scott for the morning meeting. David turned to the cabinet, “Hopefully, everyone has had time to review General Scott’s proposal for Operation Anaconda.” David continued to explain that the plan is to move National Guard troops into all Confederate Provinces that border the Union. In addition, we will spearhead three Armies into the rebel States with the intention of isolating their forces. The Western Army will be under the command of General Sherman and will move down the Mississippi River to separate Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. The Central Army will be under the command of U.S. Grant and will attack out of Kentucky into North Carolina and then turn north to attack Richmond from the south, thus separating Virginia from The Confederacy. While the Eastern Army will be under the command of General Scott and attack out of Washington with the intention of engaging the bulk of the rebel forces while the other Armies capture provinces. The final element of the plan is amphibious landing all along the coast, we have a small fleet of transports that can move a few division, so we intend on attacking New Orleans, Florida and Charlestown by sea. They will become the dots for the other Armies to complete the ‘connect the dots game.’ Secretary of State Seward was the first to speak up, ‘Mr. President, we are currently in a colonial war with France, at war with Mexico and now we are fighting half of our own nation. We need to pursue negotiations.’ David nodded his head, “Yes, you are right, but the French still refuse to discuss terms, so we can either surrender or wait. Eventually, they will come to the table. The Mexican War is only two months old, but I do not believe that the Mexican army will be able to mount any substantial defense. And finally, though the Confederacy is the greatest threat, I have complete confidence in our National Guard to quickly suppress the revolt.’ Seward bowed his head, “Yes, Mr. President, I pray that you are right.’ At this point, General Scott stood up and addressed the cabinet, “I do appreciate the credit that the President gives me for the Anaconda plan, but I only suggested the initial outline of dividing the Confederacy and capturing it segment by segment. In fact it was the President who developed most of the details in the plan. In addition, I appreciate the offer to command the Eastern Army, but I must decline. I am seventy-five years old, with fifty years as a general. Though, I can still think, I am not physically fit for a field command so I must defer and suggest that the President choose another officer to lead the Eastern Army.” David lean back in his chair, “Thank you General Scott, I will accept your recommendation and talk with General Reynolds about commanding the Eastern Army; however, I do still need your service as head of the Union Army here in Washington.’ The cabinet meeting continued on for hours: discussing military deployments, logistics, supplies, foreign intervention, etc. Eventually, it was determined that the National Guard units would be in place with suffiecient supplies within four weeks and at that point Operation Anaconda would begin.