Proclamation from Charles Albert, Prince-Elector of Bavaria
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Proclamation from Charles Albert, Prince-Elector of Bavaria
Counteroffer
A Frigate of the British Royal Navy
The Spanish ransom sent shockwaves in Great Britain. Pressure had been put on the British press to get them to report that the four agents being ransomed were the sole survivors of brutal Spanish torture, rather than the truth that they were only alive because of Spanish mercy. While it was doubtful many believed this since the truth was already well known, it gave ample ammunition for the Tories and King to push for retribution against the Spanish rather than give in to the ransom. While the ransom was practically pocket change to the British government, it was rather high for a mere four men, and the whigs were torn between accepting the ransom to recover British nationals at any cost or rejecting the ransom to deny the Spanish such a sum. Prime Minister Walpole decided he could not let the debate go on and divide his party while the Tories gained strength, so he agreed to a compromise that more or less satisfied all parties, at the price of escalating tensions further. Only the outbreak of war on the continent and the promise of neutrality there allowed Walpole's and the Whig's agreement. Britain would rescue its agents by force.
A frigate, the HMS Pearl was dispatched under the command of Captain Jonathan Cutter, hand picked by Commodore Edward Vernon, to the coast near where the Spanish presidio that held the British agents lay. It was ordered to demand the surrender of the Spanish presidio and bombard them to submission if they refused. Unfortunately when the Pearl arrived, there was a heavy fog in the area. Unable to see the presidio, the Pearl offloaded some of its cannons to move them inland where they would be able to fire upon the presidio. The situation rapidly worsened when the Pearl struck itself upon an outcrop of rocks that was hidden by the fog. A desperate attempt to evacuate the crew and as many cannons as they could was mostly successful, though they now lacked a way home. Rather than panic or abandon their mission, they decided to pull their artillery inland and demand the surrender of the presidio anyways.
After a long haul, the guns were in position and Captain Cutter and a number of his men approached the presidio to demand its surrender. The Spanish were by now aware of the British presence and had dispatched a man to inform St. Augustine of the British incursion. However the Spanish were unaware of the sinking of the HMS Pearl, and Captain Cutter attempted to bluff them by repeatedly mentioning his ship and how he would take the captives away by sea. While the Spanish believed this, they also thought that the Presidio could hold out against the British guns long enough for the naval squadron based at St. Augustine to cut off the British retreat and refused to surrender. Captain Cutter then proceeded to order a bombardment of the presidio. The commander of the spanish garrison, as well as near half the garrison and 1 of the British prisoners died during the 10 hour bombardment before the battered survivors surrendered. By this point though the St. Augustine squadron was approaching from down the coast and the Spanish thought the British would surrender without a ship to retreat on.
Instead Captain Cutter ordered his guns spiked and the Spanish prisoners executed, with his men to make an overland march for Savannah, where the Spanish ships would be unable to follow them. These were the same swampy disease filled lands that had destroyed the expedition that started this whole debacle. Cutter's sailors faired little better, and the "rescued" colonials even worse, only a single one of them was alive by the time they reached Savannah. Cutter himself barely survived, with less than 2 dozen of his sailors making it to the town. The entire affair had been a blood-filled gauntlet of pointlessness, but it was likely that this was just the beginning of troubles, not the end.
[-1 Frigate to Great Britain, captives "rescued", Responses expected from Spain and Great Britain]
A Frigate of the British Royal Navy
The Spanish ransom sent shockwaves in Great Britain. Pressure had been put on the British press to get them to report that the four agents being ransomed were the sole survivors of brutal Spanish torture, rather than the truth that they were only alive because of Spanish mercy. While it was doubtful many believed this since the truth was already well known, it gave ample ammunition for the Tories and King to push for retribution against the Spanish rather than give in to the ransom. While the ransom was practically pocket change to the British government, it was rather high for a mere four men, and the whigs were torn between accepting the ransom to recover British nationals at any cost or rejecting the ransom to deny the Spanish such a sum. Prime Minister Walpole decided he could not let the debate go on and divide his party while the Tories gained strength, so he agreed to a compromise that more or less satisfied all parties, at the price of escalating tensions further. Only the outbreak of war on the continent and the promise of neutrality there allowed Walpole's and the Whig's agreement. Britain would rescue its agents by force.
A frigate, the HMS Pearl was dispatched under the command of Captain Jonathan Cutter, hand picked by Commodore Edward Vernon, to the coast near where the Spanish presidio that held the British agents lay. It was ordered to demand the surrender of the Spanish presidio and bombard them to submission if they refused. Unfortunately when the Pearl arrived, there was a heavy fog in the area. Unable to see the presidio, the Pearl offloaded some of its cannons to move them inland where they would be able to fire upon the presidio. The situation rapidly worsened when the Pearl struck itself upon an outcrop of rocks that was hidden by the fog. A desperate attempt to evacuate the crew and as many cannons as they could was mostly successful, though they now lacked a way home. Rather than panic or abandon their mission, they decided to pull their artillery inland and demand the surrender of the presidio anyways.
After a long haul, the guns were in position and Captain Cutter and a number of his men approached the presidio to demand its surrender. The Spanish were by now aware of the British presence and had dispatched a man to inform St. Augustine of the British incursion. However the Spanish were unaware of the sinking of the HMS Pearl, and Captain Cutter attempted to bluff them by repeatedly mentioning his ship and how he would take the captives away by sea. While the Spanish believed this, they also thought that the Presidio could hold out against the British guns long enough for the naval squadron based at St. Augustine to cut off the British retreat and refused to surrender. Captain Cutter then proceeded to order a bombardment of the presidio. The commander of the spanish garrison, as well as near half the garrison and 1 of the British prisoners died during the 10 hour bombardment before the battered survivors surrendered. By this point though the St. Augustine squadron was approaching from down the coast and the Spanish thought the British would surrender without a ship to retreat on.
Instead Captain Cutter ordered his guns spiked and the Spanish prisoners executed, with his men to make an overland march for Savannah, where the Spanish ships would be unable to follow them. These were the same swampy disease filled lands that had destroyed the expedition that started this whole debacle. Cutter's sailors faired little better, and the "rescued" colonials even worse, only a single one of them was alive by the time they reached Savannah. Cutter himself barely survived, with less than 2 dozen of his sailors making it to the town. The entire affair had been a blood-filled gauntlet of pointlessness, but it was likely that this was just the beginning of troubles, not the end.
[-1 Frigate to Great Britain, captives "rescued", Responses expected from Spain and Great Britain]
A Royal Marriage
After a long series of intense negotiations between, King George II and King Frederick-Wilhelm of Prussia it was at last agreed that the Prince of Wales and King Frederick-Wilhelm's daughter Wilhelmine would be wed in Hanover on May 14th 1733. Thus the bad blood between the two cousins was put to an end and King George could sleep better at night knowing the eastern border of Hanover was secured.
Augustus III, Rightful King of Poland
The Sjem has fallen to the villainous usurper, Stanisław Leszczyński, swayed by the French to not elect the rightful heir of Poland. Thankfully, the Military, in exchange for more power, has agreed to support King Augustus III. The army is being mobilized, and hopefully they can recapture the country and install the right ruler to the throne. God Have Mercy on Them.
REINO ESPAÑOL
SU MAJESTAD, FELIPE V
Spain wins once again. The heathen English have proven their cowardice and barbarity to the world multiple times, and this is one more addition to their puny failures and attempts to project power. Not only did they kill their own citizens, they managed to lose the faith of their own people. Spain, with it's benevolence and magnitude, has long fended off their raids and given mercy to the criminals that they send us, this will not continue. Therefore, the British right to the Asiento is declared null and void immediately until compensation is paid for their brutal actions*, all British embassies in Spain are closed, all British in our lands will be subject of investigation and eventual deportation or in the worst case, execution.
*Aedan, please tell me how much this is, and I will then decide how much I demand.
A War Reignited
The terrain of Persia, specifically the area near Hamadan
In early 1732 Nader Afshar had overthrown Shah Tahmasp II and placed Tahmasp's infant son on the throne. His attempt to find common ground with the Russians stalled though, and almost delayed his planned invasion of the Ottoman Empire. He planned to take his veteran army with support from the survivors of Tahmasp's army to defeat the Ottoman army and then take Baghdad, to negotiate a return of the Caucasus territories. Nader spent much of 1732 gather forces and setting the court in order to secure the puppet Shah's place in his absence. By the time he was ready to launch his invasion, it was December of 1732.
The terrain of Persia, specifically the area near Hamadan
Despite the late start, Nader moved quickly. His first goal was the fortified border town of Zohab, near Qasr-e Shirin. Rather than advance against it directly and risk being bogged down by resistance and a siege, Nader instead led a few hundred men around mountain passes to get behind the town and strike it unprepared. Though he lost some men during the trip, he succeeded in getting enough men behind Zohab that he was confident enough to launch an assault immediately. Taking the garrison by total surprise, only a handful were even able to fight back before being killed or fleeing in terror. With the border secured, Nader was free to march the Persian army into Mesopotamia, but it was far from undefended. Ottoman armies still were active in the area, and they were now aware of Nader's force. 1733 would most assuredly see a decisive clash of these forces.
Treaty of Potsdam
· The Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Prussia will enter into an alliance with one another
· The Kingdom of Prussia joins France and Poland in its current war against Russia and the Polish rebels.
· The Kingdom of Prussia will support the election of Stanisław Leszczyński, and will support his war against the Russians and Polish rebels with their own armies.
· The Kingdom of Prussia will allow French soldiers to lay port in their cities
· Together the French Army, and the Prussian Army march into Poland with full military might, where they will work together in the coming war, and ensure that king Stanislaw succeeds.
(X) King Louis XV, King of France and Navarre
() Frederick William, King of Prussia
(x) Frederick William, King of Prussia
By request, and a lack of orders from most players, I am giving an extension of 6 hours, putting the deadline at 6 GMT on Sunday December 20. That means you have about 12 hours and 45 minutes from this post to get orders in.
Johann Baptista Ruffini. Brother-in-law to Privy Council Chancellor and Conference Minister Unertl. Nephew to Johann Zacharias von Mezger, an administrator in Traunstein. Ennobled in Vienna by the emperor himself in 1720. He was even an Imperial Privy Councilor. None of that mattered to Prince-Elector Charles Albert though, what mattered was his position as the preeminent salt merchant in Bavaria.
The House of Wittelsbach now enjoyed more respect within the empire that it had perhaps since the reign of Louis IV as Holy Roman Emperor from 1328 to 1347. Charles had drawn the envy of Paris and Vienna with his renovations at the Nymphenburg Palace. He had, through Count Ignaz von Törring, improved economic relations with the various realms of southern Germany. And alongside the King in Prussia he had rejected the attempt of the Archduke in Austria to impose his tyranny on the states of the Empire. But the treasury in Munich did not seem to reflect that.
One of Bavaria’s most prosperous industries, its salt mines in the south-east on the Austrian border, had struggled since the burning of Taunstein by Hungarian “Panduren”. Now Charles Albert hoped to promote the salt trade, putting Bavarian salt in the kitchens of every town in the Holy Roman Empire. That is why he called Ruffini before him, to serve as a representative of Bavarian salt merchants, to present their needs and explain what could be done to provide aid. Following days of discussion, Charles Albert and his advisors reached a conclusion to issue the Salt Act of 1734, granting special rights to salt merchants such as cutting tariffs paid by salt merchants in order to expand Bavaria’s control over the salt trade. There was a great deal of excitement in Munich as to whether the Act would have a net positive outcome on the electorate’s economy over the next few years.
Update is almost done, but I really need war orders from @alexander23 and @Maxwell500 for Prussia and Russia respectively. I'm not going to set a deadline, but please send in war orders as soon as you can since both nations are far too important to the war for me to control them as NPCs.
Update 1733
Western Europe
Efforts were made by agents of the British crown to investigate the results of the small scale changes in agriculture based on the work of Jethro Tull passed by Parliament last year. This would prove to be fairly difficult to measure, since the small scale of the changes with only a year for farmers to accommodate the changes made potential improvements highly limited at best. While yields of the farms investigated produced slightly more than they had the prior years, so had many farms this year, and skeptics in the investigation announced that the changed had made no improvements. More progressive members of the investigation were more optimistic, stating that while no great success had been seen so far, more time would see greater success. The end result was that Parliament remained unconvinced in greater expenditure to be spent on Tull’s ideas, not with tensions with Spain heating up.
[Negligible effects]
Said rising tensions would play into an expansion of the British Navy. The loss of the HMS Pearl was considered an embarrassment by Parliament and Britons at large, which they hoped to compensate for by constructing 15 more frigates and a further 5 ships of the line. 5 of these frigates would be constructed in Britain’s New World colonies, to test their capacity as a naval center. New York, Baltimore, and Charleston were the largest harbors in America at the time and were obvious candidates for this project, but also selected was Baltimore, a town less than 5 years old. Even worse the backwater marsh town of Baltimore had no harbor. While colonial representatives assumed His Majesty had merely confused it with the nearby harbor of Fell’s Port, that was also a small town. While New York and Charleston had each produced a frigate by year’s end, and Boston two, Fell’s Port had not. Further, while the construction had been successful, the lack of proper shipyards in the harbors meant the quality of these ships is questionable, and had cost more than they would have in Britain.
[Major decrease to British treasury, +14 frigates +5 ships of the line, +1 frigate next year]
Parliament also (barely) approved a raise in taxes to attempt to balance the budget. The raise was controversially high for peace time and it was feared that the reduced money in circulation would cause lower expansion, or possibly even a shrinkage of the British economy. By the end of the year it became clear that the fears were correct, with the British economy shrinking for the first time in years. Amidst the passing of this bill, its effects, the shipbuilding program, the investigation, and tensions with Spain, there simply was no time for a planned budgetary reduction to take place.
[British Tax rate raised by 14% of prior total, economic growth rate reduced by 2.5%]
Once again British colonial officials in the New World are overwhelmed by commands from Great Britain. Various commands were given to the Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania colonies with multiple goals regarding relations with the Iroquois. Not willing to repeat the failures of last year in overextending themselves, and with the southern colonies somewhat distracted by the possibility of war with Spain, only the commands to the Massachusetts colony were carried out. An expedition was sent to the southern shore of Lake Champlain in Iroquois territory, and established a fort there called Fort Crown Point. While the Iroquois did not contest this, and continued to trade the same as ever with the British, they were mildly discontent about not being consulted regarding the construction of a fort within their lands.
[Tiny decrease to treasury, Fort Crown Point constructed on Lake Champlain]
King George II felt that greater connection between his realms was needed to support the interests of both. A key failing as he saw it was the lack of a capable harbor in Hannover to support the British Royal Navy. To solve this issue he approached the Free City of Bremen and offered to expand their harbor and reduce tariffs in Hannover for their merchants, in exchange for rights to base the British Royal Navy there. After some discussion, the Free City agreed to the terms. By the end of the year, Bremen had a well-equipped port and could support a fair complement of the British navy, as it grew richer from expanded trade.
[Moderate decrease to Hannoverian treasury, reduction of tariff rate by 9% of previous level, small increase to trade]
King Louis XV oversaw the creation of a new military college outside Orleans, which he hoped to create a new corps of experienced officers to lead France to greatness. It would take time to see results, but it seemed to be a useful and promising initiative so far.
[Small decrease to treasury, possible increase to professionalism in 2 turns]
Cardinal Fleury oversaw the expansion of France’s roads in the northeast of the nation. It was hoped this would increase trade. It did, somewhat.
[Mild decrease to treasury, small increase to trade]
The King and the Cardinal both also pushed for an initiative to create more trade markets across all France. They would both be rather disappointed by the results. While France is a large nation, much of its population is either too poor or rural to contribute much to trade, or already in cities with active and flourishing trade markets. The small towns and villages that were affected by the joint initiative were generally too small to make an impact on the economy, despite the substantial sum spent by the crown to build as many trade markets as it could.
[Moderate decrease to treasury, small increase to trade]
However, while the direct actions of the crown failed to see the gains hoped for by the French crown, the anti-Colbertist measures of the prior year would be spurned into greater results by it. With an active hand in supporting the general French economy, many craftsmen and the like were encouraged to start their own businesses in fields no long dominated by government sanctioned monopolies. While competition was fierce and many such ventures failed, quite a few succeeded. While the gains are modest for now, the French economy is expanding faster than ever.
[French economic growth rate increase by .5%]
Fearing further British attacks, French Louisiana constructed 5 major forts and a dozen smaller outposts in areas bordering British possessions. Specific instructions weren’t given for the location of these forts, so they were built in places convenient for the builders, which did not always mean strategically important. The forts were constructed by the end of the year at mild cost, but the ability of them to actually stop any raids was questionable and varied from fort to fort.
[French Louisiana eastern borderlands semi-fortified, mild decrease to treasury]
The French also sought trade and closer ties with the Iroquois tribes with offers of gifts. While the Iroquois had been leaning to the British camp for many years, word of the British attacks on Spanish colonies, tensions with British colonists expanding further west, and the unilateral construction of a Fort on Lake Champlain made some of the Iroquois question this. While the French offers of an alliance were rejected almost out of hand due to Iroquois value of independence, closer trading tied were established.
[Tiny decrease to French Treasury, tiny increase to French trade]
King Philip V decided the solution to Spain’s financial woes was to create a bank to trade funds while remaining in the hands of the treasury. Unfortunately banks aren’t created from thin air, and few were willing to back a bank tied directly to the finances of the Spanish Crown. While he was eventually successful in getting the bank started, it barely made a dent in the Spanish deficit.
[Small increase to Spanish income, Mild decrease to Spanish treasury]
King Philip V also took reforms to the Spanish colonies, attempting to break down the requirements for using fleets and hoping to allow a more flexible system allowing for individual ships to register and conduct trading. While he succeeded in this and it seemed more ships were operating than before, some of his advisors questioned this move, since it made their ships more susceptible to attacks by the British.
[Mild boost to Spanish colonial income]
Creek Indians launched a number of attacks on British Georgia and the Carolinas. While this has happened before and the British colonials are normally well prepared for this, the Creek were rather well equipped, more so than usual. Many outlying farms and small villages are destroyed. In one village, a successful defense left a few Indians dead, and careful examination of the weapons they were using led to several colonists declaring that they were Spanish made. Tensions were reaching a boiling point between Great Britain and Spain.
[Small decrease to Spanish treasury, small decrease to British colonial income]
King John V of Portugal suddenly was distracted from his palace building by rising colonial tensions between Britain and Spain. While Portugal often ignored these disputes to little detriment, for some reason King John V was struck by the threat of the Spanish right now. He insisted a series of Forts be constructed along the border to prepare for an invasion. Some in the Portuguese court suspected that King John just likes building things.
[Portuguese forts constructed, moderate decrease to treasury]
Continuing with his well-worn policy of ignoring that fanciful thing called a “budget”, King John also insisted on funding the Portuguese textile industries. While he claimed it was to bring more money into the Portuguese treasury, it utterly ignored the already high quality of Portuguese textiles and the very concept of what funding something means. Many unscrupulous textiles owners were quite happy to take what funding they got, though little of it seemed to come back to their business. While the policy seems to have been somewhat successful despite all this, the state of the Portuguese treasury grew increasingly dire, and some worried creditors might raise interest rates if this continued.
[Moderate decrease to treasury, tiny increase to economy]
Central Europe
The Austrian court had been shocked and appalled by Emperor Charles VI’s refusal to support Augustus III against the French backed pretender with arms. They were thrown into confusion when the Emperor then ordered 40,000 men be raised and sent to the Rhineland on the border with France. While these orders were carried out, the men were not drilled or trained properly due to the rush, and many in the Austrian court began to whisper about the sanity of their Emperor.
[Austrian Army of the Rhine created with lower equipment and professionalism than Austrian standard, Moderate decrease to treasury, -10 Prestige]
Much like France, Austria too sought to establish a formal war college under Field Marshal Count Claude Florimond de Mercy to train better officers. Unlike the French school which hoped simply to train many officers effectively, the Austrian school wanted to make masterful generals. It had a detailed system of admission and examination and then 7 years of study on the intricacies of land warfare and then specializations for infantry, cavalry, artillery, and logistics. Not only was the program functionally ambitious, it also decreed that the academy would only accept 100 noblemen and 100 commoners. With the army and nobility already outraged over the failure to go to war in support of Austrian interests in Poland, they had no tolerance for such a fanciful project. De Mercy refused his position, and all army officers and nobles boycotted the academy. Whilst many commoners applied, there were very few willing to teach there, and it was extremely doubtful any officers produced from such an academy would be accepted by the army.
[-8 Prestige, mild decrease to treasury]
The Emperor also decreed that taxes be raised, to overcome budget shortages and “to prepare for coming war”. This succeeded at thoroughly confusing the entirety of his court and most of Europe. While his previous actions in raising the Army of the Rhineland suggested the possibility of war, many thought it to be merely a precautionary measure. Raising taxes and declaring expectation of a war was a differently level of preparations entirely. Not that the nobility and army were opposed to this, they just had no idea why their Emperor was so clearly preparing for a war that he had said he intended to remain neutral in, and would possibly be resolved before he had a chance to march to war at this rate.
[Austrian taxes increased by 18% of total, economic growth rate decrease by .5%, -4 Prestige]
To round out a year of poorly thought out decisions, Emperor Charles VI commanded that 20,000 Neapolitans be raised into an army. Concerns about loyalty had been the chief opposition to raising a force previously, though perhaps under the best of circumstances a small force of Neapolitans might have been raised effectively. These were not the best of circumstances. With the Emperor’s standing rapidly eroding, and the Austrian Army being moved around in every direction except south, the efforts to raise an army in Italy backfired most spectacularly. While a handful of Neapolitans agreed to join the Austrian commissioned army, far more decided to rebel against Austrian rule, with the backing of the local nobility. While the rebels had a much larger army in southern Italy, they knew they could never hope to oppose the Austrians alone. So they offered the crown of Naples and Sicily to the eldest unlanded member of the Bourbon family, excluding Ferdinand heir to the Kingdom of Spain. Which was Philip Bourbon, a 13 year old boy and third eldest of Philip V’s surviving sons. They hoped such an offer would gain them the backing of France and Spain against Austria while also securing greater independence for themselves than if they had chosen a Bourbon already landed or closer to the Spanish succession.
[Southern Italy in revolt, rebels offer crown to Spanish Bourbon, -7 Prestige to Austria, small Army of Austrian Naples raised]
Prince-Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria sought to expand Bavaria’s control over the salt trade by granting special rights and reduced tariffs to a consortium of salt merchants led by Johann Baptista Ruffini. One particular goal of his was to achieve better access to the salt mines in the Prince-Povostry of Berchtesgaden, which had been ruled by the Wittelsbach Prince-Archbishops of Cologne up to 1723. He was moderately successful in these endeavors, seeing heightened salt trade flowing throw Bavaria, further establishing Munich as an important market center in southern Germany after last year’s efforts.
[Slight reduction to Bavaria’s tariff level, moderate increase to trade]
After his diplomatic success last year General Ignaz von Törring, the Foreign Minister of Bavaria, was tasked with performing an audit of the Bavarian Army to streamline its costs and reduce waste within its administration. While he was unsuccessful to make any headway with the Bavarian cavalry regiments or artillery crews, which remained as they were, he managed to do away with redundancy in infantry supplies which saw excess equipment slip through the cracks. With this resolved, the Bavarian army weighs somewhat less upon the Prince-Elector’s budget.
[Bavarian infantry maintenance costs reduced]
King Frederick William I of Prussia took an interest in the sciences this year, ordering the Prussian Nouvelle Société Littéraire and the Society of Sciences to be merged into the Royal Prussian Academy of Science. He wanted the combined groups to being research into unsolved scientific mystery’s and improvements in the study of the projectile motion seen in artillery. Monetary compensation was offered for these goals. While noting significant was discovered this year, with much of the group’s efforts being focused on integrating the different prior groups, it’s expected that this will be more useful in the future.
[Mild decrease to treasury, Better chance of success on tech or science orders in future turns]
King Frederick William also ordered that greater trade should flow through Prussia. Thus Prussian diplomats and ambassadors were seen across northern Germany and Sweden, attempting to convince the princes and Swedish king of the benefits of greater trade and ties with Prussia. This initiative was fairly successful, and Berlin was becoming an increasingly important center of trade in northern Germany.
[Moderate increase to Prussian trade]
Eastern Europe
Fearing a spread of the war to his homeland and uncontested title in Saxony, Augustus von Wettin ordered the Saxon army be expanded by a little over 7,000 men. These forces were drilled and joined the main Saxon army to prepare to defend Saxony from foreign invasion.
[Saxon army expanded, moderate treasury decrease]
Sultan Mahmud I was too busy conducting his war against Persia to issue any administrative decrees in the Ottoman Empire.
(OOC. Oh well, that was a major disaster. In my defence though I had an IC declaration of war ready but Paradox servers gave out on me yesterday)
A Fool's War: Part I
Augustus von Wettin, claimed King of Poland Lithuania, incompetent general
Augustus von Wettin, claimed King of Poland Lithuania, incompetent general
While many had expected the War of Polish Succession to occur, few if any thought the sides would be France and Prussia backing a candidate against the Russians and Saxons. Austria’s declaration of neutrality and subsequent inconsistent actions left Europe is a state of confusion. The question of Austria slowed Prussian and French deployment as they wondered whether Austria was really neutral.
The Franco-Prussian plan was simple: A French army of 20,000 men under Maurice de Saxe, illegitimate half-brother of Augustus von Wettin, would be sent by sea to Danzig, and nearly 25,000 Prussian soldiers were to then be sent to meet them, with the combined force to then march to Warsaw and join with Stanislaw’s 24,000 men. This combined force would then crush any opposition. It seemed that such a plan would be assured of success.
Indeed, early developments went far better than the alliance dared hope. For reason unknown to anyone but himself, Augustus von Wettin order half of his army to march on Warsaw, while he stayed in Krakow with the remaining half. Though his Polish Royal Army was better trained and equipped than the Noble Army under Stanislaw, it only had 15,000 men total. To send half of that against 24,000 men seemed folly. Despite this, the Polish officers were confident they were better man for man than Stanislaw’s force, and wanted to prove Poland could fight by winning the war before any other nation had time to intervene.
Thus General Ernst Sokolof led his force of 6,000 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, and 15 artillery pieces to attack Warsaw in March of 1733. Stanislaw had been content to remain in Warsaw, waiting for his allies, and believing himself safe until the Russian army arrived. The sudden appearance of the small Royal army one morning in a field near Warsaw took him by surprise. Despite the poor quality of his army, he saw the small force as easy pickings, and wanted to crush them immediately. While his noble supporters believed they could, they warned him of the possibility of the small army being a trap, to get him to leave the safety of Warsaw to be ambushed by a larger Royal Polish-Saxon army out of sight. Indeed, had that been Augustus’ plan, it would have worked out brilliantly, since Stanislaw dismissed such fears and ordered his army to assault the Royal army, with the large cavalry contingent leading the way.
Sokolof had expected such an attack, and quickly had his cannons deployed, aiming to break the Noble cavalry, which alone nearly matched the size of his whole army. While the noble army had greater numbers of cannons, the crews were mostly untrained, and were unable to score meaningful hits in the battle. Sokolof’s artillery by contrast broke formation after formation of Polish cavalry as they attempt to launch spectacular charges against the Royal army throughout the morning and early afternoon. Despite this success, each time the Nobles got close before being driven back, and all the while, their infantry formed up. The nobles had twice the infantry of the Royal army, and the quality advantage seemed to be diminishing as the Royal forces squared off with the Noble cavalry.
It was late afternoon when the Noble infantry finally launched their assault against the Royal Army. The Royal infantry and artillery shifted their entire focus against them, with the Royal cavalry being sent to hold off the reforming Noble cavalry. While the Noble forces were unable to fully use their numbers and crush the Royals in an encirclement, they still have enough forces and firepower to press the Royals hard. Sokolof soon found his cannons out of ammunition, and his cavalry on the verge of being overwhelmed by the Nobles, with his infantry only barely holding the line against a tide of Stanislaw’s men. The Royal army teetered on the edge of annihilation or a route, when dusk set in, and the Noble forces backed off, unwilling to press the fight into the night. Sokolof decided to withdraw as well, not just from the battlefield, but all the way back to Krakow. Afraid that he’d be pursued, Sokolof spiked his guns, since he had no more ammunition for them and they would slow his retreat. Thus the First Battle of Warsaw ended in a narrow tactical victory for Stanislaw and a strategic draw.
[-2,000 infantry, -800 cavalry, -15 artillery Polish Royal Army, -3,500 infantry, -3,000 cavalry Polish Noble Army]
Stanislaw was furious about his army’s failure to press the battle into the night, and ordered it to pursue Sokolof’s men to their full extent, since he wished to end the war before his allies arrived, so he might avoid becoming a puppet to their interests. Again his nobles begged him not to, fearing a trap from the remainder of the Royal army and the Saxons as well. And once again Stanislaw insisted anyways, avoiding disaster only by Augustus’ failure to conduct an intelligent campaign. The Noble army moved in full force to chase Sokolof, but they were unable to catch him before he returned to Krakow.
At Krakow in late April both armies found themselves at an impasse. The Royal Army had some 12,000 men and 15 artillery pieces, against 18,000 men of the Noble Army with 25 artillery pieces. Stanislaw’s advisors worried that they did not outnumber the Royals enough, and continued to warn of the dangers of the Saxon army, which reports say had never left Saxony, but surely Augustus couldn’t have been stupid enough to leave them there and have them do nothing. Stanislaw had a much lower, and accurate, estimation of his opponent though, and was confident that the Royal Army was all that Augustus had. He thus ordered the Noble army to siege the city.
For his part Augustus feared that Prussian reinforcements were not far away, and that their arrival would spell his doom. Together with General Sokolof, he planned to sally forth and break the Noble army before they could receive reinforcements. While they were outnumbered, Augustus was confident that the superior quality of his forces could carry the day.
Early morning on April 29th 2,000 Royal cavalry came storming out of the city’s western gate to assault the Noble army while they were unprepared. Or at least that was the plan. In reality, the Noble army was by no means unprepared, since the paranoid nobles were constantly in fear of attack by the Royals or Saxons. The Royal cavalry made very little progress before they were countered and repulsed with heavy casualties.
But they had achieved their primary goal, of distracting the Noble army from the real attack out the eastern gate. Royal cannons signaled the attack with a short barrage against the besieging forces, which was followed by 7,000 royal infantry under General Sokolof streaming from the gate to break the siege line. The Nobles had begun to move their forces to the western gate, and we ill-prepared to counter this. The infantry soon had breached the siege line and were driving back the Noble army ever more. However their advance was soon checked by an attack by 1,000 Noble cavalry coming out of the woods. While the cavalry would be virtually wiped out, they bought valuable time.
With that time Stanislaw devised a plan to turn the battle around. Krakow was lightly defended, so if it could be assaulted, then the sally force would be compelled to withdraw and the siege line restored. To accomplish this, all the Noble artillery was gathered on the north side of the city to put all they had into breaking down a weak-looking section of wall. Meanwhile the cavalry and much of the infantry would be pressing the sally force, preventing them from continue breaking the siege line.
While the Royal army was getting the better of the fight, Sokolof noticed the concentration of Noble artillery by midday, and withdrew into the city to gather the forces there to prepare a counter. Augustus was left in charge of the sally force, and everything began to fall apart.
Augustus insisted on splitting the force, half to march north to silence the Noble artillery, with the other half to continue breaking the siege line to the south. Perhaps this might have been a good idea, if the route south didn’t involve crossing the Vistula River. The Royals suffered heavy losses attempting to ford the river, while in the north they lacked the numbers to press the Nobles. All the progress of the day seemed to be slipping away before their eyes.
And it only got worse. At about 4 in the afternoon, a section of the north wall crumbled enough to allow 5 men to march through shoulder to shoulder. Seizing this opportunity, Stanislaw ordered an assault made on the city. Sokolof had been busy however, bringing the remaining Royal artillery around to have it ready to fire on an assaulting force. While it was all in position, enough were that the advance upon the wall saw heavy casualties. Even when they reached the breach, they found it defended by just about every infantryman left in Krakow. Fighting was fierce, brutal, and personal.
In the confusion, a number of Noble infantry managed to break through and were regrouping to attack the Royals from behind. Then they were struck by the remaining Royal cavalry, which managed to wipe them out after a short fight. While Sokolof was avoiding defeat, his numbers and morale were fading. Even worse, Augustus had lost practically all the progress made during the day, having lost his southern force to noble encirclement, and with his northern force driven back to the eastern gates. Bad though the situation was for the Royals, the Nobles were little better. They were tired from being kept up by paranoid nobles, fighting all day, and losing most of their army in brutal combat. By dusk, both armies had had enough, and withdrew, too weary to continue the fighting into the night. The commanders of both armies reluctantly accepted this.
The Battle of Krakow was a fierce and bloody draw. Most of both armies had been killed, wounded or captured, leaving few fit men to continue the fight. Ammunition was low for everyone, with the Noble artillery in particular rendered useless by lack of supplies.
[-6,500 infantry Royal Army, -2,000 cavalry Royal Army, -8,500 infantry Noble Army, -2,500 cavalry Noble Army]
Augustus’ incompetence was the primary reason for the failures of the Royal Army, leading to some to suggest that perhaps they should cease fighting, particularly after so many casualties. Sokolof and the remaining officers silenced such talk, since they feared that surrender at this point would cost them their heads. Despite this, Augustus had it clearly laid out to him that he would no longer be considered a military commander for the Polish Royal Army.
While the siege continued at Stanislaw’s insistence, it was ineffective due to his small number of men. Throughout May it continued, with both armies unwilling to engage and waiting for their allies, with each wondering who would arrive first.
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Treaty of Turin
x Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy
A Fool's War: Part II
Maurice de Saxe, General of France in Poland
Maurice de Saxe, General of France in Poland
It would be the Russians who arrived first. They had marched with all speed for Warsaw while the Prussians refused to act alone, the French were late, and both had been delayed by questions over Austria’s involvement in the war. The Russian vanguard consisted of 35,000 men under General Peter Lacy, and their entrance into Warsaw on May 27th saw no opposition, with the Poles reluctantly accepting their Russian occupiers once again. For their part the Russian were quite confused to find the city undefended, and once they learned of Stanislaw’s march on Krakow, they swiftly left Warsaw, hoping to crush Stanislaw and end the war in a single stroke.
Stanislaw learned of the approaching Russian army on June 4th, leaving him no choice but to withdraw. He hoped to make use of superior knowledge of the terrain to out-run the Russian army and reach his Franco-Prussian allies in Danzig. Of course he was rather confused as to how the Russian army had reached Warsaw and Krakow before the Prussian and French forces.
The reason for their delay was the Prussian refusal to advance unsupported, and the French army getting delayed in Denmark. Obviously the Danes were less than pleased about a French transport fleet with 20,000 men showing up to demand transport through the sound. While a deal had previously been discussed between King Louis XV and a Danish ambassador for buying passage, neither the French fleet nor the Danish king were aware of this. A tense two week long standoff had resulted, finally resolved by the French agreeing to pay 20 million francs, twice the amount King Louis XV and the Danish ambassador had worked out.
While Stanislaw had a head start on the Russian army, he refused to abandon his artillery, despite being virtually out of ammunition. This slowed his force significantly. Meanwhile, Sokolof had taken the remaining Royal army to meet the Russian army and inform them of Stanislaw’s movements. Not wanting to let him escape, the Russian cavalry were sent out to catch and destroy his army, with the Royal Polish cavalry acting as guides.
Near the town of Czestochowa on June 13th, roughly 10,000 Russo-Polish cavalry caught up with Stanislaw’s 7,500 men. Stanislaw’s army was exhausted, low on ammunition, and thoroughly out classed by the cavalry. Stanislaw and most of his cavalry fled the field, while the infantry gave some scattered resistance before surrendering, with the artillery seized by the Russians. While Sokolof wished to see the captured infantry return home, having seen enough bloodshed, and believing they were no threat, the Russians insisted on making sure that no more supported the pretender, and executed them all, leaving many bodies hanging in the woods around the town as a reminder of the price of defiance.
[Polish Noble Army all but destroyed, only 2,000 cavalry remain, +25 artillery Russia]
While the Polish Noble Army was being defeated in the south, The Franco-Prussian had finally gather their forces in Danzig and marched on Warsaw. On June 15th they reached the city, having never been informed by Stanislaw of his excursion to Krakow, since he hoped to have won and returned before his allies arrived. Once in the city they realized how bad the situation was, with the Russians having already moved through the city and Stanislaw almost certainly doomed in the south. After a brief debate on whether they should retreat, dig in, or act even with the very survival of their candidate, de Saxe decided to move south and engage the Russian army, hoping to deliver a decisive victory and secure Poland, claimant or not. Some whispered that he had personal designs on the throne, being a son of Augustus II, the last uncontested king of Poland.
Whatever the case may have been, de Saxe’s Franco-Prussian army began its march on Czestochowa, last reported position of the Russian army. However they would not need to go that far to meet their opponents, as the Russian army had been marching for Warsaw. Near the city of Lodz, both armies suddenly found themselves much closer to each other than either had expected on June 30th. The woods and foreign nature of Poland were making it hard for the armies to keep track of each other, which worked both for and against them.
While neither army had expected a battle so soon, both were confident in their chances of success. The Franco-Prussians had numbers and quality, while the Russians had native Pole who knew the terrain and had a more unified army.
The battle began rather haphazardly, with a contingent of 3,000 Russian cavalry engaging 2,000 French cavalry in a small field in the woods at 2 in the afternoon. Both armies used the skirmish here to buy time and draw up their battle lines, difficult though it was in the woods. While the Russian cavalry prevailed over the French cavalry, they were soon forced to withdraw by French infantry. The lines of French and Russian infantry had formed up by this time, and advanced upon each other in the forest. Artillery by both sides was set up, but proved ineffective, and would play little part in the battle.
During the infantry line engagement that rapidly broke down in the trees, the French had the upper hand to begin with, but soon found themselves in danger of being encircled and driven back. To de Saxe’s fury he found his Prussian allies to have formed up their army several hundred meters behind the French forces to his west. The Prussian general, Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, insisted he had done what de Saxe had ordered and that the formation being out of place was the fault of the French for being too far forward, and that the French should begin a slow retreat to lure a weakened Russian army to the well prepared Prussians.
Before de Saxe had time to give a foul rant to his Prussian counterpart, the entirety of the Russian cavalry suddenly burst in sight of the Prussian army. They had been planning to encircle the French infantry, and had not been expecting the entire Prussian army to be so out of place. Leopold immediately ordered the Prussian cavalry to counter the Russians, while demanding that de Saxe send the remaining French cavalry to insist. De Saxe demanded that the Prussian infantry advance to support the French infantry in kind. After several tense minutes of heated negotiations, a stray bullet hit one of Leopold’s attaché’s, and he reluctantly agreed to advance the Prussian infantry.
The cavalry engagement became a running battle through the woods, where the Russians used their numbers against the superior discipline of the Prussian cavalry, with the occasional Polish cavalryman making the most of their knowledge of the woods. While both sides suffered heavily, the Russians seemed to have the advantage until the French cavalry became committed to the fight, at which point the Russian Cavalry retreated, led by the Polish to escape the Franco-Prussians. All the cavalry was well distant from the main battle at this point, and with the exhausted forces taking time to return before nightfall, the cavalry had no more impact on the fight.
The infantry battle developed along similar lines, with the superior numbers of Russian infantry overwhelming the French infantry, until the Prussian infantry arrived. The Russian infantry withdrew slightly to compensate for the Prussian attack, which they proceeded to exploit to the hilt. The Russians were driven back by the relentless might of the Prussian infantry, and the few Polish forces barely even slowed them by launching ambushes. However the Prussian advance came to a stop when the realized the French infantry had no advanced with them, and instead retreated. Not wanting to be caught alone with no support, the Prussian infantry withdrew, and the Russian and Polish forces made no attempt to stop them.
As night fell on the first day of fighting, both sides were displeased at their high casualties for little gain. De Saxe was in a fury about the Prussian betrayal, letting the French take the brunt of the fighting to then take all the glory and withdraw when they were at risk. For his part, Leopold insisted he had done no wrong, and that de Saxe had caused the problems with his poor deployment of the French forces. By contrast Lacy and Sokolof were on much more amicable terms, in part because there was no doubt who was really in charge.
[-10,000 Russian infantry, -4,000 Russian Cavalry, -7,000 French infantry, -1,800 French cavalry, -2,000 Prussian infantry, -3,100 Prussian cavalry]
The falling out between the Prussian and French armies led to de Saxe deciding to withdraw his army to Warsaw to recover and wait for word regarding Stanislaw, while leaving Leopold to deal with the Russian army. The Prussian army was marginally outnumbered by the Russo-Polish forces, but Leopold was utterly confident his infantry could destroy their army. The second day of the battle of Lodz would be a day of glorious Prussian victory, he was sure of it.
The Russo-Polish army had debated retreat during the night, but when they discovered the withdrawal of the French forces, they were confident they could defeat the Prussians alone. They prepared to have their infantry hold a position on a small rise in the forest, where the Prussians would have to advance up, while their more numerous cavalry would overwhelm their Prussian counterparts and then encircle the infantry.
Soon after dawn broke the Prussians advanced, with their artillery once again proving ineffective. The battle commenced at around 11 in the morning as the Prussian line met the Russians. Even with the prepared positioning, the Russians were soon driven back by the Prussians- right into their cannons which had been prepared for this purpose. However disciplined the Prussians were, they were not prepared to be met by dozens of Russian cannons waiting for them once they crested the small rise. The Russian cavalry used this opportunity to strike at their Prussian counterparts, hoping to completely annihilate the Prussians in short order.
Alas, it was not to be. The Prussian infantry recovered from it surprise and press harder than ever against the Russian infantry and artillery. The Prussian cavalry met the Russian horsemen with greater fervor and drove them back despite being outnumbered. However, Russian and Polish resistance was equal, and the fierce fighting at the Russian cannons failed to achieve anything other than rivers of blood. Leopold saw a bloodbath emerging as the Russians refused to break, and rather than risk the destruction of the Prussian army, ordered a withdrawal.
The second day of Lodz saw far more Russians die than Prussians, but Leopold had been under orders from Frederick Wiliam to minimize casualties, and he saw no way to make further progress in the battle without unacceptable levels of casualties. For their part, Lacy and Skolof were shocked at twice being let off the hook by a cautious Prussian army.
[-7,000 Russian Infantry, -3,000 Russian cavalry, -1,000 Polish infantry, -5,000 Prussian infantry, -1,700 Prussian cavalry]
As Leopold withdrew to Polish Prussia, considering himself done for the year, de Saxe was advancing on Warsaw. As he drew near to the city, he met Stanislaw’s force of 2,000 cavalry, which had escaped the Russian cavalry assault. With this combined force, de Saxe hoped to secure Warsaw, raise new troops for Stanislaw, and await reinforcements from France and Prussia. Word of Leopold’s withdraw troubled him, but he was certain the Russian army had been incapacitated.
However as de Saxe returned to Warsaw on July 14th, he was shocked to discover a Russian army already within the city. Tsarina Anna I had sent a second army of 15,000 men under General von Munich to make sure that Poland had administrators and officials loyal to Russian interests. It had been slower, but much of eastern Poland-Lithuania was now under Russian stooges, and von Munich’s army occupied Warsaw.
De Saxe’s Franco-Polish forces were outnumbered, and tried to withdraw, but they were soon assaulted by the Russian army. Needing to buy time for his infantry and artillery to form up, de Saxe ordered Stanislaw’s cavalry to assault the Russians and buy some time. The Polish forces were greatly outclassed and effectively massacred, but they bought enough time for the French artillery to be set up, which was more than twice as much as the Russians had. Unlike the forests near Lodz, the plain near Warsaw allowed effective use of their cannons, and the French easily drove off Russian cavalry attacks with their cannons. The Russian infantry managed to advance with less resistance and with their own cannons support, inflicting heavy casualties on the French infantry.
Fearing the collapse of his line, de Saxe ordered the remaining French cavalry to flank around the Russians and attack their cannons. While the Russian cavalry succeeded in countering this attack, they were under heavy pressure, and von Munich feared for the safety of his cannons. He thus pulled back his infantry and had them drive off the French cavalry, who had already withdraw as soon as the Russian infantry disengaged their French counterparts.
The Second Battle of Warsaw was inconclusive and heavily damaged both sides as effective fighting forces, but it affirmed Russian control of Warsaw, and was thus the first real strategic victory for the Russians and Augustus.
[-4,000 French infantry, -2,000 French cavalry, -1,800 Polish Noble cavalry, -3,500 Russian infantry, -4,000 Russian cavalry]
Despite the year being only half over, all sides considered combat at an end. The Austrian deployment of a new army to the Rhineland, and repositioning of their main army to the Polish border left everyone wondering what they planned, and all armies were quite exhausted and low on numbers. Leopold and de Saxe held their armies in Danzig, nursing a growing rivalry between them, while Lacy and Sokolof kept their battered armies in Krakow, and von Munich’s force held Warsaw. Stanislaw and Augustus had been heavily sidelined and near none-entities in a war supposedly about them.
While it had been a bloody year, the major powers had far more men to call upon, and the Polish throne remained very much in dispute, with the question of Austria hanging over everyone’s mind.
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Mesopotamian Confrontation
Baghdad, Jewel of Mesopotamia
Baghdad, Jewel of Mesopotamia
The Persian Army under Nader Afshar made steady progress for Baghdad, while the Ottoman army there under Ahmet Pasha desperately rounded up whatever able bodied men they were able to, giving them a crash course in army training and discipline. Time simply wasn't on Pasha's side though, and by the time the Persians were in sight of the city scarcely 5,000 men had been raised and they remained clearly inferior to the average Ottoman soldier. Pasha's force of about 40,000 soldiers was outnumbered by the Persian army of roughly 50,000. 15,000 more Ottoman soldiers were en route from Anatolia, but they were too far away to reach the city in time. Despite being outnumbered, Pasha sought to destroy the Persian army, and left the city of Baghdad, aiming to face the Persians immediately rather than wait through a siege.
[+5,000 inferior quality infantry]
As the lines drew up for battle, each commander had their own plans for how the battle would go. Ahmet Pasha knew from defeating Tahmasp II that the Persian cavalry out-classed his, so he intended on using his cavalry to draw away the Persian cavalry, while his infantry pressed hard and broke the Persian infantry, with his artillery in support. In contrast Nader planned for the Ottoman cavalry to be easily driven off, allowing his cavalry to flank the Ottoman army and destroy their artillery, while his superior numbers of infantry and cannons destroyed the remaining Ottoman forces.
As the battle commenced, it quickly became clear that the superior numbers and quality of the Persian cavalry would nullify Pasha's plan. The Ottoman cavalry were driven off, and while a number of Persian cavalry pursued them to prevent their return to the battle, a substantial number of Persian horsemen remained to press on against the Ottoman artillery. At about this time, the infantry lines met and began to engage in combat. Pasha's new recruits had been concentrated on the Ottoman left flank and swiftly became an obvious weak point in his lines. Seeing this opportunity, the Persian cavalry on their right flank launched a charge against the green troops, hoping to route them and break open the Ottoman line.
It was only once they reached the line that they realized the recruits were a decoy. Immediately behind them were crack janissaries, waiting to ambush any forces that tried to take advantage of a seemingly weak point in the Ottoman army. The Persian cavalry were thus repulsed with heavy losses, and the janissaries moved up to stabilize the line. However the Persian left flank cavalry had no such distraction, and easily broke through to the Ottoman artillery, cutting off support for the Ottoman forces. Without enough forces to hold or move the artillery, they resorted to spiking the guns, and then retreating before any Ottoman forces could counter attack.
While the Ottoman infantry were man-to-man superior to the Persians, they were outnumbered, lacking artillery support that the Persians still had, and the inferior recruits still represented a weak point in their forces. Unable to hold, they began a slow fighting retreat to Baghdad. While Nader attempted to spurn his infantry into launching an all out assault to crush the Ottoman army, casualties for his forces had been heavy, so they were reluctant to push as hard as they could. As the day grew long, the Ottoman army was able to successfully retreat into Baghdad, with the remnants of their cavalry having arrived earlier. The battle of Baghdad had been costly for both sides, but it's most important effect was buying time for the Ottomans.
[-8,000 infantry, -3,000 inferior infantry, -4,000 cavalry, -40 artillery, comparable casualties for Persians]
As Nader settled in for a siege, he soon learned of the reinforcements sent by the Ottomans, 15,000 men from Anatolia. While these forces could have been crushed by Nader's army, doing so would allow the Ottomans in Baghdad to break out, and against both armies, the Persian stood quite capable of being defeated. Nader elected to prepare defenses and wait for the Ottomans to make the first moves. By the end of the year, the standoff at Baghdad was no closer to completion, though supplies were starting to run low with-in Baghdad.
While the Mesopotamia campaign unfolded, the Ottomans had sent a further 15,000 soldiers into the Caucasus mountains, to raise a force from Georgia and Armenia to strike the Persian heartland. While this was intended to be a secret, the region was not yet firmly controlled by the Ottomans, and it was likely that information on this force had been leaked to the Persians. Efforts to raise local troops went poorly, as the region had residual anti-Ottoman sentiment, and just a few thousand infantry were managed to be raised, though efforts at training them throughout the year saw them be of roughly equal quality to the regular forces.
[+3,000 infantry]
As the sun rose after the siege of Krakow, all that was seen was a massive field of bodies, both from Augustus' forces, aswell as Stanislaw's, littering what were farms outside the city walls. The ground was covered in blood and guts. Stanislaw's forces retreated from the battle after taking heavy losses, still, they managed to damage Augustus' force to the point where noone could claim victory in the siege. Still, Augustus did anyways, as admitting a defeat would lower morale of the men, and he didn't want what was left of his men to mutiny and defect to Stanislaw. Then men however, could see that there was damage done, as again, the bloody field showed.
Meanwhile, in Saxony, the army was organizing, Augustus had been sent word that Prussia might attack Leipzig, and that was troublesome to him. He decided to keep the Saxon army out of the war, as that would allow him to keep them neutral in this conflict, even if the Prussians didn't see it that way.
Escalation
Commodore Edward Vernon, also Member of Parliament
Commodore Edward Vernon, also Member of Parliament
Attacks by the Creek with allegedly Spanish weapons enflamed the British colonies, who demanded retribution. In Britain, these feelings were seized upon by the king and the Tories, who encouraged the press to play up the savagery of the attacks on innocent subjects of the crown. Combined with the Spanish threat of cutting the Asiento just the previous year, Walpole and his Whigs found themselves increasingly pressed to respond to the Spanish situation. While an outright declaration of war was avoided, a response of some kind was demanded by the opposition. Under heavy pressure from the king, the Tories, and even members of his own party, Walpole reluctantly agreed to launch a punitive expedition against St. Augustine. It would be a multi-pronged operation, using forces from the British army and navy, as well as colonials.
Commodore Edward Vernon was to take a flotilla of 6 ships of the line, including his flagship HMS Princess Caroline and 8 frigates to St. Augustine, carrying with them a few thousand men drawn from the Royal Scots Regiment and 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot. James Oglethorpe was to simultaneously put together a force of colonial rangers, native allies, and raise a force of regulars in the colonies. While Vernon's efforts were carried out without issue, Oglethorpe saw greater issues emerge. The Crown had asked him to raise hundreds of Rangers, but there simply were not that many rangers in the south, and friction between Georgia and the Carolinas over the Georgian ban on slavery led to a refusal of assistance. Thus Oglethorpe had to make down with just a few dozen rangers, making up the difference with militia, though still falling short. With his other efforts occurring, he didn't have time to raise real regulars, though he hopes to use the militiamen he's raised to form a basis of it once the expedition is over.
[+small colonial force to Britain}
Vernon arrived off the coast of Florida in late May, and the Spanish ships stationed at St. Augustine quickly realized they were outmatched. 2 frigates sailed out to meet the British and slow them, while the remainder withdrew to Spain's Caribbean colonies to seek assistance. One of the Spanish frigates tried to lure the British ships into shallow water and force them to run aground, hoping for a repeat of the previous year, but the British weren't falling for such a trick. The spanish frigate was unable to resist British fire, and ran itself aground to allow the crew to escape back to St. Augustine. The other frigate tried to confuse the British by sailing into their midst, hoping they resist firing when they might hit each other. While this was mildly successful, the frigate was soon hooked and boarded by the more numerous British ships. The frigate would have been captured if a fire didn't break out on the deck, and force the British ships to withdraw for fear of it spreading. The severely reduced Spanish crew was unable to contain the flames, and after it reached a powder magazine, the ship blew apart. The remaining Spanish ships, 2 ships of the line and 4 frigates, successfully escaped.
[-2 frigates Spain]
Vernon deployed his frigates in the Matanzas river to blockade St. Augustine, as well as offloading the infantry to surround it by land. Oglethorpe's much smaller force arrived soon after. Raids by native allies of the Spanish were unable to break the siege, but between them and the local climate, the British forces were beginning to suffer losses. Vernon also conducted the occasional bombardment of St. Augustine, but counter fire from the fort often cut the bombardments short. By the end of June and the first half of the year, the siege was well under way, and the fort had no hope of breaking out against the forces arrayed against it. But if reinforcements arrived, it might be saved.
[-400 infantry Britain]
((Since it seems I forgot to put this in thread, orders due January 3rd at midnight GMT.))
The Engagement of May the 27th
When, Commodore Vernon's task force arrived off the coast of St. Augustine on May 23rd the Spanish garrison around the fort was caught woefully unprepared. Word was sent to the Spanish fleet, in the region that a large British fleet had been sighted and on the 25th Governor Joseph de Justis commanded the fleet to make for the Caribbean where they were to gather reinforcements and spread word to the other Spanish colonies about the fleet. Despite this the fleet was kept at port for one day due to bad winds and finally set sail on the morning of the 27th.
Unluckily for them, at 8:00 AM that day Vernon was closing in on the port and at 8:15 one of the midshipmen aboard the HMS Cumberland (80 gun Ship of the Line) sighted 17 sails in the direction of the port. Immediately Vernon ordered his crews to beat to quarters and spent almost an hour forming his navy into a battle line. His flagship the HMS Caroline led the charge and all through the morning the two fleets drew closer to one another. The Spanish fleet suffered due to contrary winds and several frigates towards the rear of the fleet were especially affected. By around 1 in the afternoon the British frigates HMS Scarborough and HMS Assistance had closed in on the rearmost frigates and with permission from the Commodore opened fire with their bow chasers. The HMS Scarborough had some success scoring several hits on the Spanish frigate Princesa's main mast. Seeing the distress his frigate was in and the risk the greater fleet was at, the Spanish Admiral ordered the Princesa and her sister ship the Glorioso to peel off and engage the British in an attempt to slow down their squadron.
With the Princesa and the Glorioso turning to face them the HMS Scarborough and the HMS Assistance rounded on the Spanish as well putting several broadsides into them, as the lighter frigates turned away from the Spanish ships the rest of the British squadron brought their guns to bear on the Spanish and the two frigates were put under a devastating fire. Although the Spanish got off several volleys the overall damage to the British fleet was light and when the Spaniards saw the rest of their fleet abandoning them the Captain of the Princesa opted to beach his ship instead of risk its capture. He also hoped in vain to take a British frigate with him as his ship was wrecked on the rocks. Although none of the British captains opted to follow him, he did manage to wreck the Princesa and to successfully save much of the ships crew from an almost certain death as they trecked overland to St. Augustine.
Meanwhile back off the coast the HMS Suffolk charged at the Glorioso, and succeeded in putting several grappling hooks into the beleaguered Spanish ship. Several boarding parties were put aboard the ship and after a short but spirited fight the Spanish captain ordered the ships colors struck. His frigate would have been a prize for Vernon had a fire not broken out on the deck, the Captain of the HMS Suffolk opted to abandon his prize instead of fight the fire for fear of the blaze reaching his ship as well and so after the Spanish prisoners were evacuated the British watched from a safe distance as the Glorioso was ripped to pieces by the explosion of its powder magazine.
Despite the fact that the engagement of May 27th was a tactical success many in Britain blamed Vernon for what they saw as a strategic defeat and in the British Admiralty he was reprimanded for not pursuing the Spanish fleet further. However at the end of the day the British squadron did not suffer much damage and Vernon's primary goal of reaching St.Augustine and unloading the forces that were to besiege the city was accomplished.