Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History (41 page)

Charleston’s cheering crowds were the last thing on the mind of the captain of the
Resistance
. With most of his guns out action, a third of his crew dead or wounded, and his hull filling with water from the ruptured waterline armor, Chamberlain knew he had three bad choices. He could continue to fight his few guns and go under, he could try to make it to Bermuda and go down in less than ten miles, or he could break off action and take his ship into Charleston and probably go under before he reached a pier. If he was lucky, he could run it aground or dock it where it could be saved. Seeing
Black Prince
strike instantly decided his mind. His engines were still game; the water had not reached them yet. There was a good chance he could make the five miles to the city. The
Housatonic
pursued but sheered off when she came under the fire of the Confederate harbor forts.

As he approached Fort Sumter, he could see the cheering garrison lining its rubbled walls, and a tug emerged from around the masked side of the island and chugged toward the
Resistance
, blowing frantically on its whistle. Thank God, Chamberlain thought. The
Resistance
would need all the help it could get. She was slowing down; the water filling the hull was a drag on the engines. The tug kept blowing its whistle, and Chamberlain could see figures on the deck waving their arms frantically.

Resistance
was finally within hailing distance of the tug when she hit the mine. The ship shuddered. Chamberlain could hear the scream of twisting and snapping hull plates from within the depths of the ship. Still the engines thundered to keep
Resistance
moving. He shouted into the speaking tube to the chief engineer who reported that the engine compartment was secure but that the water was quickly rising to the level of the boilers. He could not guarantee how much longer he would
dare leave the black gang in the stokehold. “Give me everything you have got, then get the men out.” He turned to one of his officers. “Start getting the wounded up on deck. I don’t want them down there if we founder and sink.”

The tug carefully made its way alongside. Its master paled at the buckled and gouged armor plate and the shredded upper deck. He read the ship’s name and shouted up, “God bless you,
Resistance
! Can I be of assistance? You must beware of the mines. Let me guide you in.”

Chamberlain bit his lip at the warning that had come only minutes too late. He yelled over the side, “Yes, thank you, sir. I have severe damage below the water line and am taking water fast. We will throw you a line.” The little tug’s engine exceeded its safety limits as the line went taut, trying to help pull the six thousand–ton warship. Thick black smoke gushed from its funnel.

On South Ager Dock, Ingraham’s telescope had been to his eye for ten minutes. He said to Beauregard, “There’s something wrong, General. Very wrong. I think the ship is in great distress. It entered our minefield and then stopped and has now taken a line from our tug. I fear it has struck one of our mines.”

Beauregard felt his elation wilt under the implications of that statement. He could only watch over the next painful half hour as the great black ship slowly approached the dock, plainly getting lower and lower in the water. Its battle damage was easily apparent even to the crowds on the dock. A pained silence hung over them. As the ship inched closer, someone in authority had the presence of mind to order room for the dockhands to secure the lines that would be thrown down to them. Soldiers pushed through the press to form an honor guard. More came to line up behind Beauregard and Ingraham and to make a way for the dozen black dockhands.

At last she edged up to the dock, a great wounded beast, her naval ensign still whipping in the breeze. Everyone saw the marks of her struggle. Her magnificent figurehead, a neoclassical carving of a savage warrior with busy dark head and beard, was gouged and splintered. The silence of the crowd melted away in a rising mutter. Then the band struck up “God Save the Queen,” the honor guard came to attention and presented arms, and the people started to cheer their long-prayed-for and gallant ally. The lines were thrown from
Resistance
.

Chamberlain missed the honors. He was below, personally ensuring that no wounded man had been left behind and that the engine spaces
and stokehold had been emptied of his crew. The water was coming up around him as he stood on the ladder above the stokehold.

His engineer grabbed him by the collar and heaved him up. “There’s no one else, sir. She’s dying, and you don’t need to die with her.”

Chamberlain gave one last look as the water bubbled and swirled up the ladder around his feet before leaving. They had barely emerged on deck when the ship gave its death cry, a deep groan swallowed by the sucking noise of rushing water. The crowd went deathly silent again at the ship’s death rattle. Then, in the sight of God and Charleston, the
Resistance
went down.
⁴⁷

To be continued…

September 30, 1863

Commander: Maj. Gen. Sir Charles Ashe Windham

Headquarters and Staff: 75

1st Division (8,100)

1st Quebec Brigade

1/62nd Foot

50th Huntington Rangers

51st Hemmingford Rangers

52nd Bedford Battalion (Bn)

A Battery, 8th Brigade (Field)

2nd Sherbrooke Brigade

1/17th Foot

53rd Sherbrooke Bn

54th Richmond Bn

55th Megantic Bn

1st Battery, 10th Brigade

3rd Niagara Brigade

1/63rd Foot

56th Prescott Bn

57th Peterborough Bn

58th Compton Bn

6th Battery, 10th Brigade

Artillery Reserve (500)

4th and 5th, Batteries, 10th Brigade

2 batteries, Canadian artillery

Engineer Battalion (350)

18th Co., Royal Engineers

Co. Canadian Vol. Militia Engineers

Military Train (1,065)

3rd Battalion, Military Train (315)

Canadian Military Train (500)

Canadian Train Guards (250)

5 companies Canadian Militia Infantry

Royal Navy Landing Force

Royal Marine Light Infantry Bn (350)

1/16 Foot (850)

Commander: Brig. Gen. Neal Dow

Staff: 7

1st Brigade (Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain) (1,360)

Staff: 5

10th Maine

16th Maine

17th Maine

19th Maine

20th Maine

Maine Light 2nd Battery

2nd Brigade (Col. Ephraim Harper) (1,423)

Staff: 7

3rd Maine

4th Maine

5th Maine

6th Maine

7th Maine

Maine Light 5th Battery

1st Maine Cavalry (370)

Maine Light 6th Battery (81)

Division Train (350)
¹

Portland City Militia (2,500)

Harbor Fort Home Guard Garrisons (600)

Fort Gorges (400)

Fort Preble (200)

October 8, 1863

1. IF
Black Prince

2. SL
Sans Pareil

3. Fr
Phaeton

4. Fr
Mersey

5. Cv
Racoon

6. Cv
Challenger

7. Cv
Cadmus

8. Sl
Bulldog

9. Gb
Alacrity

10. IF
Resistance

11. SL
St. George

12. SL
Donegal

13. Fr
Shannon

14. Fr
Ariadne

15. Fr
Melpomene

16. Cv
Jason

17. Sl
Desperate

18. Sl
Barracouta

19. Gv
Algerine

a. IM
Lehigh

b. IM
Montauk

c. IF
New Ironsides

d. IM
Nahant

e. IM
Catskill

f. Fr
Powhatan

g. Sl
Canandaigua

h. Submersible tender

i. Fr
Wabash

j. IR
Atlanta

k. Sl
Pawnee

l. Sl
Housatonic

m. IM
Patapsco

n. IM
Weehawken

o. IM
Passaic

p. IM
Chippewa

q. IM
Nipsic

r. Gb
Seneca

s. Gb
Conemaugh

t. Gb
Mahaska

u. Gb
Sonoma

v. Gb
Ottawa

w. Gb
Cimarron

x. Gb
Paul Jones

y. Gb
Unadilla

Although this tale is an alternate history, it is its own complete reality. As such, it would have created its own literature and records reflected in the endnotes, which normally would be found in a history. Endnotes are the sources of additional information of interest that are not part of the narrative. The use of alternate history endnotes, of course, pose a risk to the unwary reader who may make strenuous efforts to acquire a new and fascinating source such as Alfred Thayer Mahan,
Crossing the T at Charleston: Dahlgren and the Revolution in Naval Tactics
(New York: The Neale Publishing Co., 1895), p. 163.

To avoid an epidemic of frustrating and futile searches, these “alternate” endnotes that reflect the path not taken are indicated by an asterisk after the number. The reader is asked to enjoy these embellishments of a time that exists only in this telling.

1
. Samuel Johnson, “Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland Islands” (1771),
Political Writings
, vol. 10, 365–66, cited in Geoffrey Parker,
The Grand Strategy of Phillip II
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 293.

2
. Dean B. Mahin,
One War at a Time: The International Dimensions of the American Civil War
(Washington, DC: Brassey’s, Inc., 1999), 150.

3
. Burton J. Hendrick,
Statesmen of the Lost Cause: Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
(New York, 1939), 278.

4
. Mahin,
One War at a Time
, ix.

5
. Ephraim Douglass Adams,
Great Britain and the American Civil War
, vol. 2 (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1925), 144. Adams’s most serious competitor in this regard is surely Adlai Stevenson and his remark at the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis, that he was waiting for a reply from the Soviet ambassador “until hell freezes over.”

6
. Mahin,
One War at a Time
, 181.

1
. Donald Dale Jackson,
Twenty Million Yankees: The Northern Home Front
(Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1985), 103–10.

2
. *”The Sacrifice of Willie Washington: A Hero of the New York Draft Riots,”
Leslie’s Illustrated
, July 25, 1863.

3
. Daniel Farber,
Lincoln’s Constitution
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 118.

4
. James D. Horan,
Confederate Agent: A Discovery in History
(New York: Fairfax Press, 1954), 26.

5
. Horan,
Confederate Agent
, 29.

6
. Rear Adm. M. Abramov and Capt. 2nd Rank M. Kozhevnikov, “To the Shores of North America,”
Morskoi Sbornik
3 (1989): 18–23.

7
. Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakoff,
My Musical Life
(New York: Tudor Publishing, 1936), 43.

8
. Michael Cavanaugh,
Memoirs of Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, Comprising the Leading Events of His Career Chronologically Arranged
(Worcester, MA: 1892), 369, 370–71.

9
. Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds.
Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln
(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996), 39.