GeneralHannibal: The Pacific State's goal is fairly eclectic. The West Coast was never heavily hit by the economic downturn of the last 15 years, so radicalism never sprung up, beyond a few of the Midwesterners the Dust Bowl displaced and sent packing to California ala
Grapes of Wrath. So come '36, it remained strongly Republican and unwilling to totally subordinate itself to Roosevelt, who looked like nothing more than a strange cross between old style Democrats, Syndicalists, and National Socialists.
At the moment, California's split between people who want to just sit out the war and hope that neither radical side wins out, and those that think no one faction is acceptable and that California should go it alone from here-on-out.
As an aside to all interested readers, I recently discovered that no rebellious faction is actually at war with each other (with possibly the exception of CSA vs AUS). I'm currently debating whether or not to do some editting so that they're all at war with each other. Any opinions?
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The Second American Civil War - Part VIII
It was fast approaching the year anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt’s electoral victory in the 1936 election on a campaign platform promising to bring an end to the ruinous economic depression and civil strife that had plagued the United States since the general defeat of the Entente Powers in the Great War. But despite his and his generals' best efforts, stability continued to elude the Democratic president and reforms had yet to be implemented for the struggling, war-torn populace.
Roosevelt hoped to change all that; concerned about flagging Federalist moral in the critical war months almost to the point of obsession, the President's voice filled the airwaves every week with his so-called 'Fireside Chats,' personalized addresses to any American willing to listen. In each weekly broadcast, Roosevelt would attempt to explain the progress of the war effort to a country untouched by military conflict in over half a century, and explain why badly-needed reform and relief had not yet come.
In the end, it was simply impossible for Roosevelt to enact any portion of his proposed 'New Deal' while so large a part of the country continued to be wracked in a state of rebellion and, worse still, even the capital itself remained threatened with the possibility of attack from Patton's determined defense of Virginia. Thus, a military resolution was the only way by which American's could feel relief from their present circumstances.
With I. Army's advance into Michigan and Indiana stymied by the preponderance of Syndicalist forces facing MacArthur's force across the front lines, III. Army pinned in place in eastern Kentucky, and IV. Army trapped between the Californian and National armies in Texas, such a solution could only be decided by General Marshall's II. Army, battling tooth and nail for every mile in Virginia. The Virginia campaign had proved inconclusive for months, both sides advancing and retreating back and forth across the state again and again as if repeating the events of seventy years past.
But the second National defeat at Norfolk had seriously undermined Patton's ability to continue his aggressive counterattacks against Federal advances. With the whole of his right flank now wide open to exploitation, Patton's range of options had narrowed substantially. Marshall, even without the President's prompt encouragement, was all too eager to take advantage of the National commander's reversal of fortune before the onset of winter would hamper offensive operations.
On the morning of November 5, Marshall's attack began. Advancing from Richmond with Miliikin and Chamberlin in the east and detachments from III. Army in the west as support, II. Army battered its way through Patton's militia detachments on the road to Roanoke over the course of two days' fighting. Unable to mount a substantial counterattack, Patton began pulling National units out of the eastern half of the state at an accelerating rate. A week after the first attacks, the second Federal blow connected, with III. Army forcing Patton, who had headquartered in Marion, to abandon the state entirely. His retreat was hounded stubbornly by Federal air units, that mercilessly pounded away at exposed columns of infantry as they fled into North Carolina.
Roosevelt, overjoyed that the state had been all but cleared of organized National resistance in such short order, urged Marshall to maintain his momentum. All too happy to comply, II. Army's commander rapidly redeployed his army, dispatching the usual combination of Mj. Generals Miliikin and Chamberlin south from Norfolk along the virtually defenseless Carolina coast until almost all of Cape Hatteras was once more under Federal control. Marshall meanwhile pushed south with the main bulk of the army toward the state capitol of Raleigh and the city of Greensboro, hoping to split the state straight down the middle. Perhaps rather outlandishly, Marshall began to envision a sweeping advance that would roll the National forces before him, using III. Army's positions as an anchor to pivot his army from south to west-facing.
Unfortunately, National Lt. General Etheridge had other plans in mind. Bolstered by Patton's reinforcements and the increasingly frequent invective Kuhn was launching from on high in Atlanta, Etheridge finally managed to halt II. Army's offensive at the gates of Charlotte on December 14. It had been a harsh month for the National cause, indeed. Patton had been soundly defeated, Virginia was completely lost, and North Carolina was now on the brink as well. Although Kuhn put up a brave front in Atlanta, President Long began to privately wonder if a time would come when the capital would have to be moved farther west.
But neither had the Federal cause been entirely in the ascendant during the month of November. On the 24th, news that military planners in Washington had feared finally arrived: the Pacific State had attacked! Surrounded on three sides and with its back to the Gulf of Mexico, IV. Army had lived a precarious existence since the first California troops had entered western Texas. Now, General DeWitt's cavalry and national guard contingents were under attack at San Antonio. Initial reports were grim; five divisions under General Patch were pressing the Federal forces hard. Stillwell and Wainright immediately concluded that the outer defensive perimeters could not be held. Dallas and New Orleans were immediately abandoned, with all remaining divisions falling back on the vital port city of Corpus Christi and Houston.
Roosevelt and MacArthur, free from frontline duties now that the Ohio front had stalemated, consulted as to the fate of IV. Army. Fighting a way east to Marshall would be impossible, and it seemed at the rate the Pacific State was bringing forces to bear Stillwell would be overwhelmed, a disaster the Federal cause could ill afford. But Texas had been one of Roosevelt's staunchest supporters since the civil war had begun in the spring, and was still a vital center of loyalist activity, and abandoning it would be a terrible blow. Furthermore, a full-scale evacuation was virtually impossible. What remained of the Federal navy was docked idle in Pearl Harbor, and what little remained of the merchant marine was totally inadequate to ferry IV. Army to safety.
As the new year approached, the Second American Civil War was still far from over.
The frontlines as of mid-December 1937.